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If you’re in Africa, buying Bitcoin is no longer an issue with 100+ platforms available. But, most platforms lack Lightning Network support, making transactions slow and costly on-chain.
I found four exchanges that support lightning:
  1. Binance
  2. Bitnob
  3. Paxful
  4. CashWyre
Do you know any other? will love to add to this article.
Paxful is not just P2P, but Full KYC. Ray (former CEO) doesn't recommend using Paxful anymore, and I concur.
Things with Bitnob have not gone smooth. Onboarding once the KYC requirement occurs (after doing $50 worth of trxs, or maybe that is a requirement now for any trx) is hit or miss (as is KYC / onboarding with most exchanges, but still it's significantly problematic with Bitnob). The latest problem, beginning a couple months ago, is the requirement to have 2FA (Google Auth) to withdraw. Imagine making people who hardly have experience with a smartphone have to figure out how to use Google Auth 2FA, in the 30 seconds or whatever before the TOTP code expires (and hoping the app doesn't make you re-login after switching to Google Auth app).
Since Bitnob's beginning they have had a poor track record of either their LN node being down (offline) or refusing Lightning Address payments. Then even when the sender sees the trx go through, the Bitnob app will not show that the LN payment was received. Sure, contacting customer support will eventually figure things out and get the incoming pmt credited, but their hours are limited and oftentimes this can take a day (or days). Before that is was that the "Max" button (e.g., max withdrawal) would fail because it calculated wrong and then the transaction would fail for lack of funds. Even if everything works great to that point, then having the fiat withdrawal delivered is another are where Bitnob has a poor track record. An attempt to withdraw will sit "pending", and maybe ten minutes later it may show "failed". Or maybe it will show "Success" but the fiat payment (e.g., mPesa) is not received.
If bitnob's problem is they have poor fiat and BTC liquidity, ... that would not surprise me. If I had to bet I would guess they cannot service the transaction volume they have, and thus do things like putting "Success" on a withdrawal, knowing that by Monday when support is around, they will have the funds to then deliver that which they didn't have over the weekend. Crap like that.
What isn't in your list above is Strike.
Strike's Send Globally is an awesome resource.
Send to:
  • Nigeria (NGN)
  • Ghana (GHS)
  • Kenya (KES)
  • Rwanda (RWF)
  • Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Togo (West Africa CFA)
Strike is now available for users in like 100+ countries. You can deposit BTC (via Lightning), and then sell it to have USD for use in doing a Send Globally trx. So Strike requiring the data harvesting monster called Plaid (for U.S. customers) in order to deposit fiat, does not have to be the hurdle preventing Americans from using Strike.
The sender (using Strike) must provide KYC but the only thing needed to send to a recipient is their mobile number and name, (and bank acct number if sending to their bank). Funds are ultimately delivered through bitNob, and then with a local partner for the final transfer (e.g., into m-Pesa).
The only issue has been if you are the recipient and you then do register with Bitnob, then not only must you KYC, but you must also have 2FA (Google Auth). So, ironically, it works best, with Strike, to ensure that the recipient is NOT a Bitnob customer. Though even there, a workaround exists -- the Bitnob account is based on phone number, so a person receiving can get a second "line" (mobile number) and the Strike sender just sends to that second line, and Bitnob will treat those payments from Strike to that second line as if it was not an existing user, and the payments fly through with fewer issues (versus where that user's number is registered with Bitnob, and issues occur as described above). I bet Strike gets priority for bitnob trxs / liquidity, as I've seen Bitnob users have issues yet payments sent from Strike at about the same point in time get delivered, same mobile payments method, without delays.
Anyway, ... RoboSats should be the right answer for LN exchange to/from fiat. I don't know why at this moment there are no offers (either buy or sell) in any country. LIkely this is because selling bitcoin for mobile payments is risky, since RoboSats has no trader reputation and it is not impossible to get an m-pesa payment, for example, reversed (not automatic, like PayPal, but not impossible).
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Yeah, your observations regarding Bitnob are mostly true as I have encountered some downtime in the past and failed withdrawals.
However, regarding Strike, it is impossible to purchase Bitcoin on Strike in Nigeria but only to send and receive. The last time I tried using Strike from Nigeria, I was unable to purchase Bitcoin.
Thanks for mentioning Robotsat.
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Right ... Strike only has fiat gateways in the U.S., and ... Argentina, or something like that.
But with strike you are able to send fiat not juts to Nigeria, but to Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and four West African CFA Franc countries (Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo), as well as Guatemala, Mexico, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Of course, if you already use Bitnob, Strike probably doesn't add much for you (since Strike itself is using Bitnob to deliver fiat in Africa), but Strike is invaluable for those outside of Africa needing to send to any of these eight countries.
But lets say you wanted to send to Vietnam. You could buy BTC on Bitnob, or any number of other exchange methods, send the BTC to Strike, sell it for USD, and then use that USD to send VND (dong) to anyone in Vietnam. That makes Strike even better than most global remittance organizations!!
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Don't KYC!! You can use lnp2pbot over Telegram robosats over Tor and check https://kycnot.me/ for other choices, but maybe with less liquidity.
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Thanks for your suggestions.
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I have been watching Ethiopia and the banks have put out statements that it is illegal to transact in crypto. I think Robosats is a great tool for the people there to keep value outside of the bank.
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How real are the big adoption stories from Africa? I want to believe but it somehow just feels like it's gimmick adoption and not a big grassroots movement
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It is not, although some hype, but data shows https://triple-a.io/crypto-ownership-data/
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I saw the news of binance intention to support lighting network. Are they fully operational on that?
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Yeah, they are! used it recently. And it is faster than alternatives.
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Kraken offer lightning. I already pay nostrplebs invoice with a payment request. When I withdraw with exchange in lightining I put the nostrplebs payment request, and so all the value and addres is fulfilled automatically.
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This is nice. But Kraken is not based in Africa.
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Yeah, And I don't think customers in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya are able to purchase Bitcoin on Kraken, or wrong?
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They sure can. It is Bitcoin we are talking about.