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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @KenyaCoin 14 Sep \ on: Inside Bitcoin revolution in Africa's biggest slum bitcoin
Joe said Dollars are accepted in addition to the Kenyan Shilling. Maybe hotels that see many foreign guests do take dollars, and certainly some taxi operators do. But essentially no supermarkets (except maybe by where the embassies and diplomat residences are) take dollars, and definitely almost nobody in Kibera would be willing to accept USD for payment.
Who said that Africa is a country?
Well, it was in the title.
But looks like I passed over the "Designed for the African fintech ecosystem" before having typed that.
While the only service supported, today, is Safaricom M-Pesa (which works only in one country), other similar mobile money services with API access could be added -- whether that be in Africa, or wherever else those Mobile Money operators are.
The main competitor, with a relatively tiny market share of the mobile money market, does not charge for in-network transfers (from one Airtel Money customer to another). And they are otherwise mostly less expensive.
Transfers:
Withdrawals:
Most everyone whines about the m-Pesa fees, and LN is just sitting there.
LOL, Africa is not a country.
M-Pesa is a franchise, available to mobile network operators in many countries, but from a quick glance, Rada is (today), only available with Safaricom M-Pesa (and in Kenya, for KSh conversions only).
I think the only friction in using Rada will be in applying for the API key where they scrutinize the application, where if you are honest and say it is a form of a bitcoin or "crypto" exchange, they will decline granting of the credentials. Will be interesting!
Birr means "silver" in the traditional language (Amheric).
From Wikipedia:
A new Ethiopian coinage appeared about 1903. The new silver birr maintained the same weight and fineness as the talari,
That would be about a third of an ounce of pure silver.
You need nearly 2,000 (paper) birr today to obtain as much silver as 1 birr, produced in 1903, had.
I don't know much about The Bitcoin District, but I suspect that Honduras is not the best place for a bitcoiner -- whether at Prospera, or anywhere else in the country.
That being said, if I was in Honduras already, and had the means, I'ld look into Prospera, and The Bitcoin District.
Every country has their own restrictions.
Which one(s) are you looking at?
For example, in Kenya, you would need a Class G investor/business VISA, (and correspondingly, you'll need G-Wagon wealth to get that VISA). Yet every day, there are thousands upon thousands of foreigners doing their hustle within Kenya.
First Bitshoka, built and tested: #1015347
https://xcancel.com/GridlessCompute/status/1937812135813497219
When living hand-to-mouth, even for the merchants, when any funds come in, they go straight to where they are needed most. So for a merchant that accepts bitcoin, having the ability to also spend in bitcoin themselves saves having to convert to fiat. Though not all their vendors and staff are accepting bitcoin yet -- so the merchant will sometimes need to convert to fiat. But, in Kenya at least, there are ways that is done effortlessly and inexpensively (e.g., with Tando -- which converts sats to mobile money, instantly).
With this ecosystem, there's no risk to the merchant in accepting bitcoin, and they have the growing bitcoin community within their area as patrons. The flywheel spins, needing less and less "grease" over time.
There's something else driving this. In the informal economy, merchant revenue transactions don't always get (i.e., almost never are) reported, many don't even have a KRA PIN (Tax ID number) for their business. That means that there is no "value added tax" (VAT) paid to the government either, nonetheless income tax.
There is a renewed push by the government to force this "informal economy" to buy and use the government mandated terminals that track revenue, to ensure that VAT (Value Added Tax) is getting paid and tax compliance can be monitored.
When the tax collectors visit (literally, quite often, resulting sometimes in violent pushback) cash in the register is at risk of being taken. So bitcoin provides another benefit -- revenues, with little to no physical evidence, even when the taxman makes a surprise visit.
Prices are going to be in KSh -- the local currency (Kenyan shillings). Usually, at checkout the final total from the register/terminal is entered into whatever bitcoin merchant payments/wallet is used (e.g., Blink wallet), which converts to sats and an LN invoice is produced.
https://www.blink.sv/en/merchant-tools
If this is done with just a bitcoin wallet (e.g., Wallet of Satoshi, or Machankura), then the merchant converts, using an exchange rate app, first to USD and then to sats. The buyer then sends to the merchants Lightning Address, or scans a QR code (e.g., zero-value LN Invoice, or scans the QR generated for the transaction from the merchant's wallet).