http://www.worldbitcoinnews.com/bitcoin-in-africa/#sthash.Es1wDu7B.dpbs
Development
of Bit-coin and Crypto-currency within Kenya and Africa
Currently,
more than 250 million people live outside their home countries where they send
money back to their family and friends. It is estimated than over a half
trillion dollars is sent annually to friends and families. This is called
remittance. This implies the fact that this money will be in circulation in
different routes and through different currencies. These routes have been
interlinked densely by networks of international and national governments,
human relationships, currencies, technologies, corporations, organizations and
laws. Due to this regard the nexus of actors and forces which are interrelated
will constantly reshape the channels that people use to send money home while working
abroad. In this column, I will draw our attention on the developments that have
been taking place in Kenya and Africa in the Crypto-currency space as well as
other technologies which are decentralized.
One
of the recent developments in the field of Crypto-currency in Africa and
specifically Kenya is through the establishment of BitPesa. BitPesa is a Kenyan
company that currently basks in the Bitcoin field. It’s currently on its
startup whereby it is seeking to facilitate remittances of Bitcoin to Kenya.
BitPesa opened for the services early this year whereby it is offering the
exchange of Bitcoins to Kenyan Shillings. The money is deposited into a
specified mobile account called M-Pesa.
Working
with its namesake, M-Pesa, BitPesa offers its services seamlessly. This is a
viral electronic network for cash that is owned by one of the leading cellular
provider in Kenya that is known as Safaricom. M-Pesa serves as a currency which
is electronic and privatized where the users are required to deposit the money
with Safaricom and in-turn their balance will be linked to their Phone-Number.
Users and customers will in turn be able to spend the cash by accessing them
from M-Pesa merchants- whose network is ever-expanding or buy goods with the
cash by the M-Pesa pay services or just send the cash to other people’s phones.
Recently, there has emerged very much advancement in M-Pesa such that users can
use the cash to hire cabs, pay bills as well as buy groceries. A rate of 3% is
charged by BitPesa to deposit the cash from Bitcoin to your M-Pesa account.
According to the resent financial estimate reports in Kenya it was estimated
that over 31% of the Kenya’s GDP goes passes via the M-Pesa networks.
Safaricom
serves as the leading and most profitable East-African Company whereby it has
expanded its markets to other parts of the world it has lead to generation of
other competitors like Econet’s EcoCash which are based in Zimbabwe. Currently,
BitPesa have the claims users will be able to make deposits of Bitcoin with the
help of their platform worldwide and later designate M-Pesa accounts in Kenya
to get the cash in Kenyan shillings. The conversion takes minutes as it is
automatically, thus the recipients will receive the cash within minutes in
their mobile phones. Senders are required to find their own ways on how to buy
the Bitcoins although BitPesa have the tutorials online on how to go about
this. While acquiring the Bitcoins via
BitPesa the 3% rate is not inclusive. In a similar note the recipients are not
required to have Bitcoin addresses or worry about any volatility in the market.
It
is although worthwhile to note the fact that there is no BitPesa currently in
United States, this is due to the rigid restrictions of international transfer
of money by the country. Otherwise, the services of BitPesa are available in
the UK. When you are finding options for sending money from the rich to poor
countries, BitPesa can serve as the best option.
On
the other hand, there is also a notable Bitcoin startup that has been established
in Ghana by the name Kitiwa. This one works the other way round. Kitiwa works
by allowing people who are based in Accra to buy Bitcoins with the help of
their local currencies so that they can be able to send money abroad and make
online payments. This service is highly needed in the country due to the fact
that networks like PayPal and Visa block people in Ghana routinely. Users of
Kitiwa initiate themselves in the service by first opening a Bitcoin address.
There is a tutorial in the Kitiwa website that users can access to learn how to
use Blockchain.info which will help them in the service. Users will then pay
for the Bitcoin using the MPower-payments services- this is a Ghanaian mobile
payment services that is just in its initial stage where it allows users to
fund purchase with the help of their mobile money accounts, credit cards as
well as bank accounts. These are just some of the recent but very important
developments in the field of Crypto-currency within Kenya and Africa.
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