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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @KenyaCoin OP 7 Oct 2022 \ parent \ on: Namibian Central Bank: Merchants Can Accept Virtual Assets as Payment bitcoin
In Nigeria there were many youth who were not able to shit in their own bathrooms, because they were "caught" with bitcoin on their phones and were in jail. Of course, the bitcoin (and sometimes the phones as well) were confiscated (stolen) by the police by associating the bitcoin as proceeds of crime, such as using it to engage in the regulated foreign currency exchange business (without having any other evidence). The police were not being punished for this activity even if the victim could prove innocence because it is Nigeria, and police get away with crap like that. That's a contributing reason to the ENDSARS protests a couple years ago.
So if Nigeria's central bank were do what Namibia's central ban just did, yes -- it would be "awesome" news. Because now at least a victim could make an argument in court that bitcoin in possession is from engaging in commerce (as is then permitted), and not from illegal activities.
I get that it would seem ludicrous that we accept these infringements on our natural rights to engage in commerce using whatever we wish to use for payment, but today, in much of the world, that is not yet the case.
While Namibia has their own currency, the central bank supports a 1:1 peg with the South African rand. So they, like El Salvador and a couple dozen or other countries who don't control their own currencies, are going to be the first to formally accept and embrace bitcoin. Namibia's central bank explicitly stating that they will not regulate against bitcoin used in commerce is most definitely "awesome" news.