The people of the Central African Republic (CAR) are on a mission to be the first country in Africa to enable widespread bitcoin adoption. They are the second country in the world (after El Salvador) to officially adopt bitcoin as legal tender for use in regular commerce and for paying taxes.
In April 2022, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra signed into law a bill (which passed unanimously) making bitcoin and the CFA franc the legal currency of the Central African Republic.
UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
President Touadéra invited a group of Bitcoiners with expertise in different areas to the country’s capital of Bangui in order to advise the country on issues like setting up internet access, connecting to the Lightning Network and developing mining facilities.
Seven Bitcoin experts spent a week in the country, “to understand the Central African Republic context better and identify the main factors that will encourage or inhibit the adoption of Bitcoin in the country,” according to their report.
Bitcoin delegation to the Central African Republic. From left to right: Nicolas Burtey, Sébastien Gouspillou, Jean Marie Cambacérès, Jean Christophe Busnel, President Touadéra, Alfred Poloko, Noor El Bawab, David Oren, Richard Détente, Daniel Kokouendo. (Credit/Gouspillou)
In their recommendations, the group addressed what they saw as CAR’s challenges:
- Low access to electricity
- Low access to internet
- Low rates of mobile phone users
- Lack of educational organizations dedicated to Bitcoin
- ID card needed to buy a SIM card
The areas where CAR has strengths for adopting bitcoin successfully include:
- Favorable regulations
- Usage of mobile money
- Only 5% of the population is banked
BUYING AND SELLING BITCOIN
The report states, “Mobile credit is one of the country’s most used means of payment, so it is essential to use a known model and not disrupt users’ habits. This method of buying and selling bitcoin through mobile credit retailers is a model already established in Goma (DRC) and other African countries.”
The authors recommend leveraging the country’s 12,000 mobile credit retailers and installing bitcoin ATMs in cities in secure locations.
The report’s authors believe that bitcoin can best be deployed through peoples’ smartphones using the Lightning Network installed in the telephone system.
In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, co-founder of BigBlock Group bitcoin mining company, Sébastien Gouspillou said:
“We see that the rate of smartphone ownership is rising very fast in the subregion, much faster than internet or banking, for example. It is on this ongoing deployment that the diffusion of Bitcoin in the country can be based, so we are working on the idea of Lightning transactions via the telephone network … We have Samson Mow and other geniuses to work on an adoption with the conditions we have, right now, in the country.”
Source: Bitcoinmagazine.com
Featured image from: Bitcoinmagazine.com