Steemcoffeeshop. (The way forward for cryptocurrency and STEEMIT in Africa)

There have been a lot of speculations about Africa being the future frontier of crypto currency in recent years. The use of cryptocurrency in Africa is growing at an alarming rate. A US based blockchain research company Chainalysis and Reuter reported that only in the month of June 2020, transaction involving cryptocurrency was at its peak with a record transfer of $316 million. Most reporters, investors and entrepreneurs believe that Africa is the future home of cryptocurrency. Countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Tunisia, Senegal are amongst the front runners in the continent using cryptocurrency.

SOME REASONS FOR THE RAPID GROWTH OF CRYPTOCURRENCY IN AFRICA.

The following reasons have been advance as being the main push factors in the recent growth of crypto currency.

1.Government regulation/ administrative bottlenecks.
Africa and especially Cameroon is known for its high rate of corruption and government malpractices. These practices have hampered the growth of entrepreneurs in Africa, take for example, the high taxes in Cameroon that are targeting importation and exportation businesses, the lengthy and unnecessary process of creation of business and the limit to the amount of money that business men are able to transfer for business transactions. This has made the acceptance of cryptocurrency especially bitcoin very easy in Africa.

2.Inflation.
The frequent fluctuation in the value of money in Africa has been one of the greatest problems faced by the African economy. The fear that you can have money today and tomorrow it doesn’t have the same value as it did today has made investors accept cryptocurrency easily as a store of value. Take the example of Zimbabwe during the hyperinflation period, many Zimbabwe citizens turned to bitcoin which was more stable than the local currency at that time and hitherto this moment, bitcoin is still highly used by Zimbabwe citizens.

1. Mobile money.
   The usage of virtual money by most countries in Africa made it easy for cryptocurrency to penetrate the economy easily. Africans were already used to money online, though this particular usage met a lot of resistance from the population.
   Other reasons like cheap transfer cost, political instability and the accessibility of Bank accounts by Africans can also be cited to have influence the growth in the use of cryptocurrency.

However, this growth does not go without accompanying challenges. If truly we say and believe that Africa is the future cryptocurrency, we need to start looking for ways to advance the use of these currency to the local man, the lay man in Africa who knows relatively not much concerning cryptocurrency. For us to reach number one in the cryptocurrency ranks as written by @dobartim we need to look at ways to advance cryptocurrency especially STEEM to the common man.

One of the major setback of cryptocurrency is that it has not demonstrated its ability to serve as a medium of exchange which is one the main characteristics of money. The lay man on the streets of Cameroon or Africa doesn't understand how you can call something a currency and yet not able to use it in a physical market setting to do payments.

Another huge challenge crypto lcurrency have is the prevalence of Ponzi schemes like Bitworld and Bitclub. These were scams which came into Africa in recent years and many Africans invested their money. A lot of Africans did not really understand the concept behind crypto currency, they were mostly interested with huge ROI that was promised them by three schemes.
Unfortunately, this schemes made away with millions of money and ever since the common man who did not take time to under cryptocurrency doesn’t want anything to do with it. He associates cryptocurrency with bitworld and bitclub.

In order for us to drive Steem to the lay man on the streets, we need to keep looking for ways that steem can serve as a medium of exchange. In my opinion, I propose the following;

A CHAIN OF STEEMCOFFEESHOPS/STEEMSHOP ALL OVER THE WORLD.

This brings me to the reason I am so happy with the Steemcoffeeshop innovation by @arie.steem to use Steem as a medium of payment by its customers. I believe steemians should look at ways of opening not only coffee shops but also regular shops like restaurants, clothing shops, where steem/steem dollar will be accepted. In this way, while we continue the powerful sensitization of steemit to the population, they can actually see the advantage of not only generating money from the platform and trying to exchange online but also using it to purchase various items from nearby shops in their locality.
I think this will drive a positive message to the population that cryptocurrency is not meant only for online transactions but also offline transactions. That a “buyam sellam” in Cameroon can accept steem as a means of payment knowing fully well that he or she can trade with it in other steemit stores.

INCREASE CRYPTOCURRENCY SENSITIZATION BOTH ONLINE AND OFFLINE

In an effort to promote steemit and its currency, we can increase our sensitization campaign and efforts not only to educate people on steemit but on cryptocurrency. I do appreciate the work of @steemitcryptoacademy for the education that is being given on the platform. I believe this will go a long way to strengthen the resilience of steemians. But these efforts should not just be limited online. We should have a strong offline presence so much so that in two to three years, when anyone wants to talk about cryptocurrency, Steem should be mentioned. I believe with the help of my steemit mentors of @yeesja and @njiatanga, we will be organizing some amazing sensitization campaign in the days ahead.

Why not take the advantage of the rapid growth of cryptocurrency in Africa and push our steem currency with the innovative ideas like the steemcoffeeshop.

Meanwhile, in the days ahead I will be posting my contest on the Coffeeshop in my area, I will look at the advantage and disadvantage this shop will have both on the people and then the steem currency. I say kudos to @arie.steem for this brilliant idea.
Thanks @ebuahsang1.