Bitcoin and Africa

I’ve seen many innovations in Africa with Bitcoin over the past few months and years that I never would have thought about, such as sending Bitcoin via SMS. These are solutions to problems that I don’t face due to my resources. Because of these things, I’ve seen potential in Africa to be the next Bitcoin boom spot. If people are building like that, there’s literally no ceiling to where they can go.

What I didn’t quite understand was the benefits of mining in Africa. To be honest, whenever the discussion of mining in African nations came up, I didn’t really like it because of what I knew regarding several developing nations’ energy infrastructure (or lack thereof) and it felt almost predatory. However, I was very incorrect. I’ve learned that BECAUSE of how this infrastructure is set up (specifically speaking on hydro power), there is not enough consumption demand that makes economic sense to put generators down. When you introduce mining to the equation, it’s a zero counterparty buyer of the energy to provide demand enough to enact these structures. On top of all that, Bitcoin is getting introduced to the ecosystem in places that arguably need it the most.

I don’t know everything, obviously, but this is the year that I take on Bitcoin in Africa and learn from and build with African builders that have already made insane headway there.

“Fix the money, fix the world” becomes truer every day.