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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @KenyaCoin 12h \ on: Bitcoin Curiosity in Africa bitcoin_beginners
1.) Poverty (no savings, scarcity mindset)
2.) Access to required technology and/or internet access not being affordable
If you were to offer to pay youth in bitcoin, even for a something like collecting refuse, most would take you up on your offer. That might be their only income source for the week, month, or year.
But even once they receive the bitcoin, are they going to hodl? They might have debts. They may want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. So when whatever income arrives, it oftentimes gets spent immediately (i.e., "hand-to-mouth", or paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle). Thus the "selling point" for engaging with bitcoin can't be the (upside) benefits to holding bitcoin, because they know they won't be holding bitcoin for long -- just like they aren't currently holding cash.
Then for the technical details. Sure, there's Machankura, for those who only have a candy bar/feature phone, but they aren't really able to experience the same, convenient UX like that of a smartphone user with a Blink wallet, for instance.
And even those who achieve smartphone ownership, ... unless they can rely on there being wi-fi where they spend, bitcoin no longer has the cost advantage as having to purchase mobile data just to be able to spend in bitcoin makes the bitcoin payment more expensive than using mobile money or cash.
So without easy access to earning bitcoin, without conviction in the need to save, and without easy ways to hodl ... or eventually to spend some bitcoin, there's little likelihood of actually applying what would be learned to their own lives.
You are right. Survival mode makes long term thinking almost impossible.
This is why practical ways to earn Bitcoin matter more than preaching hodl.
What small income-earning use case do you think could work best for youth right now?
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A selfie stick and a smartphone is all that's needed.
Now that there are 50+ million people in the U.S. who can pay a LN invoice with two button presses (thanks CashApp for adding pay an LN invoice from your USD balance), some youth could find a cause, and then do a live stream to raise funds for that cause.
The person doing the livestream would, like most any charity, earn a small cut from the funds raised. That's assumed to occur by most rational western donors.
So let's say that during the livestream the donations total $120, then say $12 goes to person who raised the funds from the crowd. That's still $104 that went to the cause.
But for this to gain traction, there likely would be many livestreams, where donations total $0 or $10 --- before subscribers subscribe, and donors donate.
Donors donate in bitcoin (to an LN Address, or to a zero-amount invoice LN Invoice)
One cause, one show. The funds received (minus the fundraising fee) are used during the livestream, or with a followup video shortly after.
These could be projects like what Zidisha is used for: https://www.zidisha.org/projects
Or it could just be local needs within the community. Many hurdles exist where $70 would make all the difference in the world, and while initially there might be only a dozen or so people watching, even just a few of those viewers feeling compelled to donate might raise enough to make that difference.
This is ripe for fraud (raising funds and not paying out), so maybe the use of Geyser fund or something like that gets set up for each livestream -- and that way there are some controls. But do this week after week and there'll like be a growing subscriber base, and momentum to make an income from it while raising funds for many causes.
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