100 sats \ 0 replies \ @KenyaCoin 22 Apr \ on: Africa is a true Bitcoin growth story! econ
Is it there and I'm just not seeing it?
Bitnob
(and maybe even Strike, whose "Send Globally" service is delivered through Bitnob, for the countries in Africa where Strike will send.)
Also, for the "Africa-Wide", where's LocalCoinSwap -- the most widely used self-custody exchange on the continent? Maybe their shitcoin-focus disqualifies them, I don't know. RoboSats and Bisq should be in there too, though I believe their volume in African countries to be at minimal levels.
But other than the Bitnob omission, this is a very comprehensive and accurate list.
If there was the demand, in the Great Rift Valley, which cuts through Kenya, there is over 10,000 GW of continuous geothermal electric generation potential that remains untapped.
All of Kenyan demand for power combined though has not yet exceeded 2,000 GW of consumption at any one point in time.
So building additional geothermal generation capacity is hampered by the demand for additional capacity in which the energy produced would be in demand, 24x7.
If an additional geothermal plant was constructed and came online today, the only time of day where there is unmet demand is in the evening, (e.g., 6pm - 9pm), when the sun goes down on the country's solar generation plants but the demand for power remains high thanks to televisions, lights, etc. So what happens is they hold off on constructing of that very expensive geothermal generation plant until they have demand for its power 24 x 7.
Bitcoin mining can subsidize the early days of a new plant, where bitcoin mining is a paying customer for the remaining 21 hours per day, albeit at a significantly lower cost per kWh than what the consumers pay.
The company’s bitcoin mine in Kenya, near an extinct volcano, has powered 5,000 households in the country.
All bitcoin mining operations, including this one in Kenya, consume power. How does something that consumes power then power households?
The problem is that while Ms. Sigalos produced a great video, some editor at CNBC totally misunderstood what was said in the video.
The company previously has said that they have a mining op that helped to subsidize a mini-hydro generation plant, and that generation plant serves 5,000 households.
So technically, that might be electricity delivered to a previously unserved area, thanks to Gridless's subsidy (thanks to bitcoin mining of the unused capacity), but that isn't a Gridless bitcoin mine itself "powering" any households.
Here's the video from the article OP shared, but in a standalone article:
Or the same video, sans advertisements, on Twitter:
Inside the dish is a circuit board, with among other components, a webserver (for configuration).
There is an external Starlink designed router that most people use with their starlink, however the router is not required (if you have a different source for the power), and would not be the device that is used to deem the location of the dish.
But opening the dish to remove the board probably is not something easily done without risking causing damage, etc. Sending the entire dish would be easier for the user, but much more expensive and prone to problems with customs at the border.
It was just an idea, not something well thought out at this point.
I believe the criteria is that the dish must check in from the home country, not just that it isn't active somewhere else.
But if you had two and can ship one back to the homeland to check in there, that would probably work. I don't know if there's problems bringing in the dish as freight. I suppose you could remove the board and just ship that -- customs would likely not figure out what that is a component of.
Starlink is THE solution for the tens of thousands of people who have no other option to communicate online, so I suppose having at least some approach like this to keep the signal is better than having no communications whatsoever.
The gov't in a number of African countries own partially or fully their mobile telecom network operators (e.g., Republic of Kenya owns 35% of Safaricom).
Starlink gives the opportunity to not be beholden to the mobile data network where broadband (e.g., cable network, fiber, etc.) isn't otherwise available.
Guess not.
Starlink To Users In Africa: Service Terminated In Unauthorized Locations Apr 30
#509705
https://www.starlinkhardware.com/starlink-to-users-in-africa-service-will-be-terminated-in-unauthorized-locations/
Now show me the percentage for a $20 payment, or a $2 payment.
It's bizarre to me how these legacy remittance players still are patronized by those getting milked the most.
Bitnob app has a custodial wallet for USD and for BTC.
The BTC wallet balance is not differentiated between on-chain or LN.
They provide conversion between local fiat (e.g., KES / Kenyan shilling) to USD or from USD to local fiat.
So a typical transaction might be to deposit using local fiat (sending from mobile money), and after conversion to USD that results in a USD balance. Then that USD balance can be used to buy bitcoin.
Deposits to the USD wallet can also be in USDT (TRC20), and withdrawals from the USD wallet balance to USDT (TRC20) are possible as well.
Deposits to BTC wallet can be on-chain, to an LN invoice, or via Lightning Address.
Withdrawals from BTC wallet can be on-chain, to pay an LN invoice, or to send to a Lightning address.
USD "transfers" to pay an LN invoice are possible as well.
Now Bitnob also is the provider of Send Globally branded transactions.
So a Strike user might send USD from their Strike app, to someone in Kenya, for example, and local fiat funds would be delivered through Bitnob. But the Strike user will never know who Bitnob is. Strike is, I believe, using LN rails as the method funds are transferred from them to Bitnob -- but again, the Strike user sending using Send Globally does not touch or even know that bitcoin is in the middle of the two fiat transactions occurring automatically at each of the two ends.
Countries / Currencies: Bitnob supports today
- Uganda (UGX)
- Kenya (KES)
- Ghana (GHS)
- Nigeria (NGN)
- Rwanda (RWF)
- Senegal (CFA)
- Benin (CFA)
- Togo (CFA)
- Cote d'Ivoire (CFA)
Strike supports Send Globally through other providers (i.e., other than Bitnob) as well ...
- Argentina (ARS)
- Mexico (MSN)
- Philippines (PHP)
- Vietnam (VND)
KYC-free P2P for the win!!!
Robosats
Bisq
HodlHodl
LocalCoinSwap
AgoraDesk
All need greater BTC/NGN trade volume to be a reliable and affordable alternative.
I didn't think either Coinbase nor Kraken even offered a fiat gateway in Nigeria.
Anyway, this is getting to be like China Ban Bitcoin fud, over and over.