Africa is leading the way for global Bitcoin adoption — pioneering the first truly peer-to-peer movement on the ground. While many parts of the developed world are fixated on the speculative activity of bitcoin, people in Africa are teaching us about its true use cases and the opportunity it presents for greater financial inclusion of the underbanked.
Much of history is rooted in the Western narrative that paints a negative picture of Africa, associating the continent solely with poverty, disease and corruption. But their role in this financial revolution tells a different story. We are seeing an unrivaled explosion of wealth, technological advancement and ingenuity that speaks volumes.
After all, Bitcoin is for the millions, not the millionaires. It’s often forgotten that the Bitcoin white paper[1] spoke about Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer financial system for the masses. For example, the first sentence of the Bitcoin white paper stated, “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” In order to carry out its true purpose, we need to focus less on minting quick millionaires through speculation and meme coins, and focus our efforts on Bitcoin as a means of exchange.
A Bursting Economy
Africa was cited as the third-fastest growing cryptocurrency economy[2] with Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania ranking in Chainalysis’ Top 20 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Its widespread adoption in Africa is clear as Bitcoin bridges the economic gap, fulfilling both personal finance needs and entrepreneurial ventures, including remittance, e-commerce, payments, wealth preservation and social good. With over half of the population of Africa without a traditional bank account[3], Bitcoin provides a solution for the unbanked by bringing financial services
