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336 sats \ 0 replies \ @KenyaCoin 10 Jun \ parent \ on: Africa’s largest slum now takes Bitcoin bitcoin
Machankura is a custodial LN wallet that uses USSD, meaning it can be used by any phone, including "candy bar" phones (feature phones) -- which can be obtained brand new for $12 (at the low end).
Also, phone plans are not like in the West. Airtime is generally purchased with "bundles", or plans where you can choose the plan based on how closely it matches your usage.
For instance for $0.15 you can buy 20Mins (outgoing voice) +20Mbs (data), for use for one day. Incoming calls and texts are free, so it isn't even required to buy the plan each day.
Most people with smartphones though are paying $20 to $40 / month, mostly due to social media addiction (only half joking there).
And there's the buy now, pay later model for smartphones, where payment is required daily. Fail to pay, and your phone becomes locked until payment is made.
Overindebted? There's what's essentially an overdraft facility, with steep payday loan rates.
Incidentally, the government of Kenya owns more than a third of the near-monopoly mobile network provider which also owns and operates the mPesa mobile payments network. It's a very profitable business. Mobile subscribers are paying fees coming, and going, while awake and asleep.
Got me excited there for a moment ....
That's for their treasury operations, and not for consumer payments. Still interesting, but not something I wasn't already assuming they were doing.
This publication has a proper title for their article:
Killed by police
"Police gave a laughable explanation in a fruitless cover-up after a youthful Kenya died in their hands hours after arresting him"
This is the correct answer.
Am using bitcoin more frequently than I did the previous month, which was more than the month before that, and so on. Because these involve custodial exchanges and wallets, probably not a single on-chain transaction was the result, at least not for my spending alone.
Additional Infographic based on this report, here:
These Are The World's Biggest Shadow Economies
#995258
Less commonly used, but significantly less expensive:
Non-custodial, KYC-Free, LN-based gateways that use LN:
Kenya: Tando.me
Tanzania: Chapsmart.com
Ghana: Bitspenda.app
Thailand: Plebqr.com
Brazil: Nostrpix #894453
Mexico: https://www.swapido.com/en
Users can access Machankura by dialing a USSD code which varies per country. When you dial the number for the first time, a bitcoin wallet that is tied to your phone number is instantly created for you. You are required to create a PIN that will encrypt your wallet and will also be used to confirm all future transactions on Machankura.Once your wallet has been created, a lightning address is generated for you using your phone number. For example: 256234567890@8333.mobi. You can also change this to a username of your choice e.g machankura@8333.mobi. Anyone can send you bitcoin on this lightning address. You can also send bitcoin to any user’s address.
https://8333.mobi/faqs <-- Under How does Machankura Work section
The absence of almost any regulation previously cause many exchanges to stay completely out of Nigeria, and many of those that took the risks have suffered due to selective enforcement of money laundering regulations (e.g. Binance).
At least now there's a path to follow:
Heritage put it best when asked about the outlook for Nigerian Bitcoin builders, “these are necessary growing pains if we're truly committed to transforming how Africans send and receive value globally.”