Humbling realization: friend who is in Tanzania has not encountered Bitcoin
275 sats \ 5 comments \ @sb 7 Dec 2022 bitcoin
I had a moment of humility when I discovered that a friend of mine who has lived in Tanzania for almost two whole years has never encountered anything to do with Bitcoin. Not a single Bitcoin ATM, no sellers, no conferences, no knowledge, no adoption.
Does anyone know if adoption is faster in other African countries like Nigeria/Kenya/Ghana?
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148 sats \ 0 replies \ @tomlaies 7 Dec 2022
I think adoption in poor African countries is greatly exaggerated. E.g. underground adoption in south-east Asian countries is greatly under estimated. Just imo.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @muteness11 7 Dec 2022
I'm not surprised .... Ive never seen a BTC ATM, never went any conference nearby and never met a BTC maxi in person ... Ive met people who hold BTC though :)
here is a bit of perspective, in Africa there are a lot of scams and ponzi's so people have a tendency to be even more skeptical about anything.... maybe that is one reason
As for Nigeria, they have their own CBDCs-like project (e-niera) and despite of all the efforts the adoption is 0.5%, even after banning BTC ... Nigeria is among the highest in the world in terms of crypto adoption (not sure what the BTC % is but i guess its decent)
Nigeria (population) is around 20% of Africa
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sb OP 7 Dec 2022
I agree. I'm very bullish on Nigeria. The country will likely be the second most populous country in the world by the year 2100 (only second to India). Patience is key I guess :)
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2 sats \ 1 reply \ @NorthKoreanHostage 7 Dec 2022
People in those countries definitely benefit the most by adopting Bitcoin sooner than later.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sb OP 7 Dec 2022
You're absolutely right. But my point is that a lot of bitcoiners around the world think that the adoption curve is going vertical in countries with collapsing currencies and capital controls. As far as I'm aware, Tanzanian citizens are forbidden from buying US dollars. Only those with foreign passports can buy US dollars.
Yet, there appears to be no material adoption of the Bitcoin network in the country. It is humbling, but a great opportunity to on-board an entire generation of people this beautiful technology was built to save :)
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