{"id":213381,"date":"2017-11-28T07:43:34","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T05:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=213381"},"modified":"2017-11-28T07:43:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T05:43:34","slug":"bitcoin-becoming-a-crisis-currency-in-worlds-hotspots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/213381\/bitcoin-becoming-a-crisis-currency-in-worlds-hotspots\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin becoming a crisis currency in world’s hotspots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About a third of the customers queuing at La Maison du Bitcoin\u2019s teller windows in Paris aren\u2019t speculating on the value of the cryptocurrency. They\u2019re sending digital money home to Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many countries in Africa, there are far more cellphones than bank accounts,\u201d said Manuel Valente, co-founder of La Maison. \u201cFor bitcoin, all you need is a phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe, where the price of bitcoin spiked to double the international rate after this week\u2019s military takeover, shows Jamie Dimon, Axel Weber and other cryptocurrency skeptics where the real-world use of bitcoin, and possibly its future, lies.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s becoming the preferred way for residents of failing economies to transfer money without dealing with banks, protecting their savings from political turmoil, and avoiding the local currency when its value declines due to inflation.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no data on how much digital money leaves industrialized nations for the developing world. Part of the allure of electronic cash is the ability to transfer it anonymously. But as events in Zimbabwe have confirmed, bitcoin, the world\u2019s most popular cryptocurrency, is most attractive when confidence in institutions falls.<\/p>\n

\u2018Safe Haven\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBitcoin is a safe haven for people around the world who don\u2019t trust their governments,\u201d said\u00a0Alistair Milne, chief investment officer and co-founder of Altana Digital Currency Fund, a $22 million hedge fund that invests in cryptocurrency assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many countries where people are looking for an asset that isn\u2019t vulnerable to banks blowing themselves up.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe gave up its own currency in 2009, the same year bitcoin was born, after hyperinflation led to the printing of a 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note. The country uses the U.S. dollar, the South African rand and digital money.<\/p>\n

People buy and sell bitcoins on a secure peer-to-peer network that doesn\u2019t rely on any government or central bank.<\/p>\n

Trying to control it is \u201clike trying to catch water,\u201d said Alex Tapscott, chief executive officer of NextBlock Global Ltd., a venture-capital firm that invests in startups involved in blockchain, the shared digital ledger that records transactions made with cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin Skepticism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leaders of three of the world\u2019s biggest banks have expressed skepticism about the stability and endurance of bitcoin. In September,\u00a0JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Dimon threatened to fire any JPMorgan trader foolish enough to bet on it.<\/p>\n

Weber, who leads UBS Group AG, said last month that bitcoin has no intrinsic value because nothing backs it.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Credit Suisse Group AG CEO Tidjane Thiam said that \u201cthe only reason today to buy or sell bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents, especially, of Zimbabwe and Venezuela, where the annual accumulated inflation rate is 825 percent, might disagree.<\/p>\n

In Africa, converting bitcoin to the local currency is often handled by local entrepreneurs, either with licensed change points similar to Paris\u2019s La Maison du Bitcoin, or, on a smaller scale, an individual with a mobile phone and a pocket of cash, Valente said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a walking exchange point,\u201d Valente said. \u201cIt\u2019s very decentralized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buying goods and services with cryptocurrency is still difficult to do, but Valente said he\u2019s heard of shops that accept bitcoin opening in many African countries.<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs have started companies intended to serve bigger markets.\u00a0BitPesa, a Kenya-based startup, provides international money transfers and other services in bitcoin in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and its own country. Unocoin does the same in India, as does Coins.PH in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Back in Paris, a few blocks from La Maison du Bitcoin is Passage du Grand Cerf, a covered street of shops. They all display a sticker on their windows declaring \u201cWe Accept Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stores sell everything from antiques to designer clothing. Most proprietors said they\u2019ve averaged a few transactions a month in bitcoin, frequently to Africans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made about 20 or more sales in bitcoin in the past year,\u201d said Yann Robert, who runs a designer clothing store. \u201cThe buyers are usually from Africa, a few from Asia – China, Japan. And they\u2019re very happy, because not that many stores accept bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Bitcoin closing in on $10,000<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a third of the customers queuing at La Maison du Bitcoin\u2019s teller windows in Paris aren\u2019t speculating on the value of the cryptocurrency. They\u2019re sending digital money home to Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":212409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[5537],"class_list":["post-213381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-bitcoin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213389,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213381\/revisions\/213389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}