Russia behind Central African Republic Adoption of Bitcoin as a currency?
160 sats \ 8 comments \ @siggy47 26 May 2022 bitcoin
This post is speculative. However, there are compelling reasons to think Russia may have somehow been involved in this surprising development. Consider the following:
  1. Russia has expressed an interest in bitcoin mining recently. In January Putin stated that "Russia had some competitive advantages” to mining bitcoin, given its power surplus and well-trained manpower...” https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/putin-backs-bitcoin-mining-in-russia-report
  2. In March Russia announced that it would consider accepting bitcoin as payment for oil and natural gas to evade sanctions. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60870100
  3. The Central African Republic's announcement to adopt bitcoin appeared suddenly. There was no mention of the possibility at Bitcoin 2022 or any publicly expressed rumors.
  4. The Central African Republic under President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has been using Russia and the Wagner Group to consolidate power in the country and combat political rivals. The Wagner Group is considered Putin's "private army" by some people. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/02/08/russias-wagner-group-in-africa-influence-commercial-concessions-rights-violations-and-counterinsurgency-failure/
  5. The adoption of bitcoin in Africa would of course help to undermine western influence on the continent, and would improve Russia's access to the abundant natural resources such as gold and diamonds. https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/diamonds/reporter/caf
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32 sats \ 0 replies \ @KenyaCoin 26 May 2022
Might the adoption of bitcoin by CAR be beneficial to Russia? Sure. As it will be to China, to the UAE, to Turkey, and to nearly every country -- except France.
But is Russia behind CAR's adoption of bitcoin (i.e., persuaded and/or assisted them in this decision), I highly doubt it. But Russia was probably not bothered with CAR's decision to adopt Bitcoin, once they learned of it.
However, CAR is a country with a small population and an even smaller economy. It's simply not that big of a concern to most any country, outside of France.
CAR's adoption of Bitcoin is an asymmetric bet, just as is bitcoin an asymmetric bet. There is only a small downside if their efforts are either later overturned or simply the plans don't pan out. But there is a nice upside, relatively speaking, if adopting bitcoin were to result in increased foreign direct investment, increased cross-border trade, productivity gains (by reduction of financial and payment system friction), etc.
In other words, there are no losers in this, except France. And if there are winners, it will mostly be the current leadership of CAR and to a lesser extent, Central Africans (i.e., the people of CAR).
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheBTCManual 26 May 2022
I can see that happening, plenty of African countries, like my own have had ties with Russia in the past, if Russia opens up BTC/Ruble international exchange with African countries it would make a lot of sense for both parties
No one wants to deal with African nation currency risk when trading and if African countries and businesses start to put BTC on their balance sheets as a forcing function to trade, it benefits all parties involved
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @faithandcredit 26 May 2022
Not to mention that it was Russia that helped CAR end the Civil War. UN had been in the country for 8 years, and nothing was changing. Then the Russian military arrived and within 8 months the Civil War was over. That being said i dont trust Russia. I believe their goal is conquest of Europe and it will not be better off for it. But lets see.
sauce
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13 sats \ 1 reply \ @tomlaies 26 May 2022
Putin doesn't have to be "behind" it. The CAR (and other 3rd world countries) could have gotten the idea to put themselves in this strategic position by themselves.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 26 May 2022
Sure that's a possibility.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 26 May 2022
Great point about the BTC/Ruble exchange, especially since Russia has taken steps to back the ruble with natural resources.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @JustDavids 27 May 2022
Haven’t you learned by now that Russia says a lot of things. A lot.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @KingZing 26 May 2022
It's not out of question, I think them pushing a bitcoin narrative could be to challenge the USD as a currency.
A strong bitcoin narrative is most damaging to the US system because totalitarian regime can impose capital control, much harder to do in the US.
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