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The world is moving at an ever increasing pace. What started out as just "the wheel" led to carts, then chariots, then trains and cars, and now if you can spare the ticket money, you don't even have to travel on land altogether.

Ever since the release of Satoshi's revolutionary whitepaper we've seen an exponential proliferation of cryptocurrencies and various adaptations and uses for the blockchain. This has boosted finances of a lot of early investors as well as allowed some innovative people to conduct tasks and offer new and fantastic services via blockchain.

Sadly, as usual Africa is being left behind.
There are many reasons for this. We can quickly point out financial limitations, lack of electricity, poor quality internet, lack of information channels, etc. But even if all these issues were to be rectified, another barrier still rears its ugly head. Distrust.
As a Nigerian I can tell you that we've seen it all. Confidence scams, Ponzi schemes, rich prince, magic money, money doubling, visual games, pretty much every money making scheme there is is common knowledge here. It is thus very hard to convince the general population(or any street-smart individual for that matter) of a "legitimate financial asset that grows organically". The common adage here is

a bird in hand is better than 10 in the bush

meaning "It's better to invest your money in your business/keep it in the bank than go into something that promises massive gains that may turn out to be imaginary".

This mentality has cost many people to miss out on life-changing opportunities.

I remember telling my friends about Bitcoin in 2011. The common reply was "Go and do it first, if it works then I will try it". At the time Bitcoin was less than $100. Bitcoin would later rise to a staggering $20,000 in December 2017 and my Facebook inbox and WhatsApp were flooded with "How do I start?" messages.
It's a good thing I ignored most of them. Imagine the blame I would've received this bear period 😂😂😂

But back to my point. Africa is in dire need of trusted platforms that will serve as intermediary and guides into the world of cryptocurrency.

So far I have only come across 3 impressive platforms that are aspiring to help Africa and other 3rd world regions.
Ice3x, Steempayco and Eastads.

ICE3X

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Ice3x is a South African based trading platform with branches in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. It's unique service is that it allows traders to deposit, trade and withdraw in their local currencies (Nigerian Naira, South African Rand, British Pound).
Bitcoin and Litecoin withdrawals from accounts are processed manually in batch runs at least 3 times per day as they run a 100% cold storage policy. All coins are stored offline, in special vaults, away from online security threats. _wiki.
This makes Ice3x a solid option for a trader looking for a secure experience. Meet their team here.

Eastads

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Eastads (eastads.com.ng not to be confused with eastads.co.uk) is a Nigerian based marketplace that offers users the option to pay with fiat(Naira or USD) or cryptocurrency.
Eastads plans to cater to the massive 180 million plus population by providing convenient payment options and supporting Microtransactions.
Buyers and sellers on the platform will be rewarded with the custom eastads token which is itself also a form of payment.

The Utility Token

The Eastads Token (ECR) will be used to power activities on the platform.
It can be used as payment for goods or services(such as deliveries), to activate Merchant selling account, to trigger trade discounts(up to 30% off!) and to activate and receive monthly rewards depending on stake held.

Token launches soon! Join the airdrop now

Feel free to contact the team on their social media

Facebook | Twitter | Medium | LinkedIn | Telegram

SteemPayco

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Steempayco is a web application designed to serve as an interface for easy transactions using SBD as a form of payment.
The Steempayco project aims to assist third world regions by helping them utilise a very good source of income, Steemit.

Steempayco allow users to make purchases by simply scanning the cart barcode and paying automatically.

Scan To Pay

This encourages quality content on steemit as users know they can quickly utilise the rewards in real life applications.
Steempayco may have just seen the future cause right now SBD is higher than steem.

The best part?
They are on steemit! Check out @steempayco.

Signup is very easy.

Register and Link your Account

Reach them at GitHub

I really hope cryptocurrency gets the exposure and adoption it deserves as Africans become more enlightened. Crypto is already doing wonders for hard hit countries such as Venezuela and hopefully it can liberate Africa from corrupt governments and poverty.