We think that writing about how big crypto is and how fast it is taking on new users and enthusiasts has become redundant and not necessary. Instead of bosting crypto further and explaining how good it is, when we all know it, we will tell you about new and emerging markets that will make this form of currency soar this year.
As you can read from the title we are discussing Africa and where it stands with cryptocurrencies. Why is Africa so important? Well, the sheer fact that for many Africans bitcoin or any other well-standing crypto is a lifeline for them and something of utmost importance. This is what set Africa apart from other countries that go “crypto is cool and new; it’s one of the investment assets I hold; I hope it goes up in the future.” Africa sets big expectations from crypto and that might be the trigger that will make this type of currency soar in that part of the world this year.
Most of you will probably try to fight this by saying, Africa is a place where all the biggest scams and scam centres come from, there is no way that they will be the ones that will make the prices soar in the future. Just because of that fact, we say, they will. The African continent had huge hopes when Bitcoin first appeared, and everyone rushed to get a hold of some in hopes that they will quickly become millionaires. It is the mindset of everyone else, besides Africans. This of course led to scams and a pretty bad PR when it comes t Bitcoin, but over the years it has cleared up.
What has become very apparent, especially with younger generations, is that they are seeing Bitcoin as more than just a speculative asset and they are noticing that there is a lot more to it specifically from the angle of the monetary network. One of the first, and currently the best benefits that are visible early on is the ability to Bitcoin on a day-to-day basis both in terms of remittance as well as local commerce. This is unheard of using local currency mainly because local currencies have a lot of inflation which makes even intra-country trades more difficult than they should be. What bitcoin allows Africans is to enter a global monetary network that is global, instant and more importantly – cheap.
This is where true progress can be seen and where you do see that a lot of those people abandon the scam side and speculative side of the cryptocurrencies and move toward something that they see as a life straw in the difficult and turmoil times. The banking service in Africa is so unreliable and so problematic that people need something to help them step away from traditional currencies and the methods of functioning toward something more reliable, and cheaper and that opens a global view and access to the rest of the world. Ironically all of this is allowed to them throughout something many have described as short-lived, unreliable and plain stupid several years ago. Now all of those “experts” have jumped aboard the crypto train and some of them are pretty big vales.
Based on all of this these are the trends that are currently there and they will most likely expand even more. There is another thing we need to touch upon to back our claims and that is the tech knowledge and penetration. We all know on which basis the cryptocurrencies work, you do need some sort of a device that is capable of communicating with the internet to make this whole thing work. Africa had issues with that where the technology in certain places was literally non-existent and where it still is in some places. From 2016 to now, that has changed a lot and now almost all of the younger generation is tech-savvy to some extent and have some sort of access to the global network. Africa is a huge continent and it always had issues with energy, technology and internet infrastructure but it is all changing for the better. As already mentioned, 2016 was sort of a turning point and a lot more developed energy infrastructure emerged in the north part of the country as well as some parts of the south and west Africa. With constant energy, they got internet capabilities as well and now the internet coverage is far less fragmented across the continent which is good when it comes to crypto.
Thanks to this and thanks to the ability of younger people to educate older on new technologies, the demographics of Bitcoin and other crypto users are not based on the younger generation only, it is also revolving around your typical mom-and-pop stores that now get access to internet and access to Bitcoin as well. This pulls these stores to allow you as a tourist or a resident to pay in this currency as well. If these trends continue, and we don’t see why they wouldn’t, in the future you can pretty much expect a huge explosion of crypto users with more use case scenarios that fit into the normal life.
Another very positive thing is that Africans are talking and finding ways to get to a more decentralized internet infrastructure or some sort of resilient internet infrastructure that will allow them to have less reliance on some of the substandard internet providers and infrastructure. All of this will lead to greater expansion, greater usage and use case scenarios and all of this is setting up Africa to be one of the places where crypto will soar in the second half of this year and next year as well.
Now that you have a bit more insight into this situation and since we explained why we believe that Africa will be a crypto point of interest this year you should probably consider increasing your crypto portfolio or simply get some to keep for later on. The prices aren’t coming down, the market is more than good so why not take a chance and score your first crypto or add more to the existing portfolio in a place like okx.com. Consider this article through, think it through, match data and info with each other and predict what might come in the future, just like we did.
