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22 sats \ 1 reply \ @KenyaCoin OP 21 Sep 2022 \ on: Can ‘Sango Coin’ Catch On in the Central African Republic 🎧 bitcoin
The part of the podcast about Sango Coin describes it fairly ... "marketed to foreigners", offered perks that currently are unconstitutional, and the token sales have been absolutely dismal.
The last five minutes (starting at ~0:13:55) is focused on bitcoin, and was about the only interesting part.
They covered the usual arguments aginst bitcoin in CAR (World Bank and IMF say 'bitcoin is harmful to stability', there's too little access to electricity, too few roads, etc.).
They did say that there's only 14% of the population (age 15+) that have a bank account. You'ld think they would connect the dots that bitcoin can work well for the unbanked -- especially for remittances, freelancers working remotely, cross-border trade, etc. But then again, this is Bloomberg, who has an anti-bitcoin narrative to push.
Nothing was said about how the value of the CFA (Central African CFA Franc) has been losing value against the dollar (because its value is tied to the Euro). They did say how 50% of CARs reserves must be held with the French central bank, and thus the state holding bitcoin introduces complications with that.
Anyway, in my opinion the Bitcoin as legal tender law will be successful simply by doing nothing more than saying hey... if you want to buy bitcoin for savings, use bitcoin in commerce, whatever.
This podcast obviously comes from a fiat perspective. As you point out, there was no skepticism as to real motives of the IMF. I was more annoyed by the assumption that remaining within the CFA franc system could be viewed as a good thing, considering the history
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