Inside Tech Village
With Charles Lotara
In the last two decades, cryptocurrency was very unpopular and was little known in the monetary realm. The imagination that an internet-based medium of exchange would be established almost did not exist.
So, what is a cryptocurrency? A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. It typically does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by the central authority.
Cryptocurrency started penetrating the financial landscape in 2009 when the first world’s decentralized cryptocurrency Bitcoin was created by a developer with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
Since the introduction of bitcoin, many other cryptocurrencies like Etherum, Bitcoin Cash, and Altcoins emerged. However, the emergence of these alternative cryptocurrencies did not curb the dominance of Bitcoin as major crypto with growing value. In December 2017, one Bitcoin was equivalent to $10511 and only a few imagined that the coin nicknamed BTC would surpass that value.
That value built up 20 years after American businessman and world-renowned author Robert Kiyosaki penned a book titled “Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach their Kids that the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not” in which he advises the reader to invest in network marketing. This, Kiyosaki says, would save the investor in the long run – including in a time of global pandemic and economic recession.
That was very philosophical of Kiyosaki. This year, scores of big business and investors turned to Bitcoin amid a global financial uncertainty posed by the novel coronavirus. For the first time in its history, the cryptocurrency hit over $12000 in value as other currencies stumble. Financial experts say if the coin keeps rising in value it could still another growth record.
In June this year, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the world’s fourth-richest man also rumoured to be the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, revealed that he is not a fan of bitcoin but he owns a fraction of the coin “sent to him by a friend”. This came five months after Musk rubbished anything to do with BTC.
Precisely, the coin is growing in value at a pace only a few have imagined and this is also attracting the attention of the financially powerful individuals around the world who never saw the coin as a saviour in uncertain times.
Recently, a popular African American Hip Hop chanter of a Senegalese origin Akon announced that he was erecting a world-class Akon City in Senegal based on funding from Akoin, a cryptocurrency project developed by him. Akon has secured $6billion to complete the state-of-the-art Akon City, which he says will empower Africans.
There are reasons why this is going to be a daunting task for Akon. Firstly, most African countries have poor network infrastructure and with that, access to the internet is a privilege many only admire. Secondly, the perception of many Africans toward internet-based investments is uniquely rigid. The “I can’t trade with a person I didn’t see” mentality has been rife.
But that perception is changing as many Africans, especially young adults embark on aggressive marketing, this includes trading forex.
Despite only a fraction of them got the courage to do trade online in Africa, many are waking up to the reality that the traditional way of hunting for employment no works, and governments’ loans are coated by opaque grant criteria which favours only the kin of those in authority.