Why is Steemit attracting a huge number of people from Africa?

A few months back I started a Facebook group by the name of Aspiring Steemit Whales & Dolphins with the intention of creating a community transition page, leading the masses from Facebook to Steemit, whist upvoting and educating as I go.

As the moderator of this group one of my jobs is to accept peoples’ requests to join it. As such I have the opportunity to read the details under their name and I even click on their page to check them out before hitting the accept button.

On Facebook, the details under their name usually includes their location.

What have I noticed?

Two things are clear:

• The number of people asking to join this group is growing exponentially.

• The vast majority of these people are from Africa. I would say around 80% of them come from various different African nations. Though Ghana is the clear front-runner by a fair old margin.

So, let’s examine this…

One of the main advantages of cryptocurrency is that it can be used in place of a bank account, and ANYONE can join.

Banks all over the world have been tightening up their application process ensuring that only those who have a permanent address, verifiable telephone number & proof of steady income can become a part of their system.

This makes it extremely hard for a large proportion of the world to get a bank account at all. And even harder for those who manage to sneak their way in by the skin of their teeth, to avoid the inevitable fines and charges they are going to experience without a consistently steady income.

Bear in mind that the 8 richest people have as much wealth as the entire bottom half of the population of this planet! The Guardian estimated four days ago that one in nine people will go to bed hungry tonight. Meaning that there are rather a lot of poor people out there.

And do you think those people have bank accounts? I think not.

But now, for the first time in history there is a light at the end of the tunnel for them.

And that light comes in the form of Bitcoin and Steemit.

That's me sitting on the bank of the Lower Zambezi river in Zambia, 2011

The thing about Africans

I have lived in Africa, in Kenya & Zambia and in South Africa too. And I can tell you that Africans are pretty amazing people. They have experienced some seriously tough times over the years through oppression, originating from both inside and outside of their country.

They are incredibly resilient, creative, hard-working and for the most part, fun loving community members.

And this is why Steemit lends itself so perfectly to them.

I cannot say for sure why Ghana is the lead nation for Steemit but I welcome them all with open arms to my group.

Mobile Devices

The only current problem as I see it, is that if you are poor, you are unlikely to have a computer. And as we all know, Steemit takes a fair bit of dedicated computer time. Especially as a newcomer.

And whilst other platforms are supported by mobile apps, Steemit is not yet at this point.

Thankfully the road map announcement a few days ago promised that we would have such apps before the year is out.

And this will increase the number of potential users for sure.

Just recently the percentage of people who use their phones to look at the internet became greater than the percentage of those who use computers. And it looks set to continue on this growth path.

So clearly, the Steemit apps will be a complete game-changer!

The temperamental 3G connection

Most poor people with a computer are currently running their internet off a wifi hotspot created by their phone because there is no cable option available for them. And they are lucky if they have a 3G connection, let alone a 4G! And of course there is the additional expense of using this system.

My experience with this platform whilst running the internet off my iphone has not been good at all. I don't know why but more often than not, the Steemit 'wheel of doom' just turns and turns without correctly refreshing the page, permitting me to continue doing what I want to do. Or I get a red error message saying 'INVALID_STATE_ERR : Pausing to reconnect websocket' preventing me from posting my comment or article.

I have spent hours staring at that wheel, trying everything to get the process moving again. Restarting computer, restarting phone, restarting browser. I've even tried buying different sim cards here in central Bali to resolve the problem, but to no avail. That's just how it is. The less busy times of day tend to be better, so I do the majority of my internet work at night now. Which doesn't always go down too well with my other half and baby, as I need a siesta in the afternoon.

So please Steemit, pretty please will you take this information on board and have a look at fixing the problem? The particularly frustrating thing is that all the other social media sites seem to work just fine.

Why would this be I wonder?

Perhaps someone can help me with this?

Snapped this beauty in Zambia on my 2011 trip.

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As always, thank you for taking the time to read my words. I am most grateful to those of you who digested this entire piece and if you leave a comment I promise to follow & upvote you whenever the 'wheel of doom' permits!