Bitcoin in Nigeria

Jeremy Kirshbaum

In Articles, Blockchain, Business, Emerging technology, High Delta Markets, Uncategorized Posted June 20, 2018

Silas Okwoche is a self-taught engineer in Lagos, Nigeria. He was the co-founder of a cell phone company called Nerve Mobile, which used Android smart phones from Shenzhen, China. Silas found a Chinese partner via the e-commerce platform Alibaba.

Nerve Mobile’s venture was profitable for a time, but ended for a reason that had nothing to do with Silas’s product. The Nigerian Naira fell against the Chinese yuan by over 15%, and the hardware became too expensive. Silas’s story is not exceptional: Nigerian business people struggle with currency volatility every day.

Lagos is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. You can find a skyscraper next to hand-constructed sheet metal shelters. Nearby will be a Kentucky Fried Chicken, a burning trash pile and a gleaming, hyper-modern bank. Hundreds of languages are spoken here. Lagos is shared by Christians and Muslims, Togolese and Lebanese, millionaire businessmen and hustlers chasing a bus to sell a 10-cent bag of plantain chips.

And all of these people must contend with the Naira, which can depreciate without warning. This adds another layer of uncertainty to businesses that purchase goods or components from abroad. That’s why Nigeria presents the perfect use case for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Bitcoin and Ether are electronic “tokens” that, thanks to distributed blockchain technology, are very difficult to counterfeit. Blockchain technology is what makes these tokens different from any other random strings of code floating around the internet. It is the core of what enables them to have value.

Check out the full article at: https://www.longhash.com/news/why-nigerian-entrepreneurs-prefer-bitcoin