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121 sats \ 0 replies \ @bernard_parah OP 30 Jun 2022 \ parent \ on: I am Bernard Parah, CEO of Bitnob, AMA! bitcoin
Haha, the only podcast I got close to sharing this is coming out this July!
It's packed with a lot of personal stories!
poultry farming, then I went to study computer science in Ghana (2013), back in Nigeria in 2018 and then Bitnob.
With the amount of resources and influence pushing it, I'd say adoption has been very bad. Terrible.
Even the forced adoption isn't working at the moment. DoA
We've done out best to comply where regulations are clear. In areas where nothing is clearly defined, we self-regulate.
It hasn't been easy growing since regulators are not exactly happy with banks serving crypto companies, this makes it difficult for on and offramps
Education is certainly the biggest challenge
Regulation comes at a close second, the banks are not allowed to serve crypto companies
Yes the auth part needs improvements. I think the folks at coincorner have a way out, though not publicly released.
For lightning to work with USSD, it's more of a regulatory than technical issue. It should be pretty easy hacking a USSD <> Lightning connector.
Mesh networks should definitely be a thing in the future, we need more hardware down here
People mostly use lightning for remittances to and from Europe, the US, and Australia.
It's still early days for lightning over here, so we don't exactly have any unique setups yet.
Custodial wallets are currently the easiest way, Bluewallet is the most common I've seen here outside of Bitnob.
Livestock - I did poultry farming for a couple of years.
I am now more focused on trading agricultural commodities and growing grains like corn, and soybean.
That people who don't believe in Bitcoin or play on other chains are not necessarily bad people. There's life outside of Bitcoin.
Phones are common place.
Yes, it can be difficult explaining it, the best way I've seen it work is getting them to try it without trying to explain too much too fast.
That a lot of people don't actually care about Bitcoin, they only care about what problems it solves for them.
That:
Everyone in the world also has access to cash app, PayPal, etc and therefore has no reason to use bitcoin beyond speculation.
The majority of the world population lives outside the West, and they're capable of figuring out ways to survive in their environments. Bitcoin fixes some problems for them, and use bitcoin they will.
Yes, that perception has largely changed and is changing every day. Regular folks now talk about Bitcoin, people use it for remittances as well. The EndSars protests which were funded using bitcoin donations were a watershed moment for this change in perception as well.
No, it's not, when people say crypto, they actually mean it. When you find someone who says Bitcoin, then they're really talking about Bitcoin
You just mentioned them! I love LNURL NFC payment cards. The Bolt card is pretty dope!
Those are the things we need, offline POS terminals, merchants will be key drivers if consumer adoption is to grow.
One other thing that needs to be developed to make lightning more usable in these areas is finding ways to connect it to USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data). This will enable millions of people using feature phones to use lightning. It's already the biggest way people use mobile money on the continent.
Nice. I'll say a few gotten from my friends who visited Africa for the first time.
Africa is diverse, life in one country is almost totally different from life in the neighboring country. So it's difficult to understand one African country and have the same image for all of Africa.
That there are beautiful houses and places etc, not the people living in huts and on trees western media portrays.
The energy is positive despite the difficult circumstances
There is so much hidden talent and opportunities the world doesn't know about
The sense of community is high
and the is food is the BEST in the world haha!