12 ms·

Central African Republic Adopts Bitcoin as Legal Tender

105 points by frankbreetz 4y ago

jrochkind1 4y ago
Wikipedia tells me: > Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Not sure if I understand the actual implications of this in the CAR.
- andi999 4y ago
  Not sure if CAR understands the implications. With 11% of the people having access to the internet, what could go wrong with crypto as a legal tender.
  - sremani 4y ago
    and only 14% of the people have electricity even though things may rapidly improve in near future, this society is far from ready to accept digital currency.
    - eldaisfish 4y ago
      things may improve but in a country that is not just poor, but piss poor and with a declining GDP, things are unlikely to improve. Besides, there is one hydro power station in the country. Other than the hydro, there is one diesel plant. That's it. This article is nothing but clickbait.
    - nkuttler 4y ago
      > and only 14% of the people have electricity That number is probably for electricity at home, considering that 33% of the people have mobile phone subscriptions. Mobile payment solutions are very successful in Africa, in part because the infrastructure is lacking. One house/shop with electricity can easily power many phones.
      - mdaniel 4y ago
        I recall One Laptop Per Child didn't shake out, but I'd *gladly* move my Kiva dollars over to buying solar panels and OLPC-ish setups, if(?) it wouldn't get eaten by the corruption quagmire OT1H, it's entirely possible the Kiva dollars are doing more material good, what with the "you spend on what you need" mental model. OTOH, investing in infrastructure sure does feel more productive
    - robonerd 4y ago
      Less than 1% of the people there even have a bank account.
  - jrochkind1 4y ago
    But like the very specifics... is there any creditor in CAR who is going to be forced to take bitcoin as payment, who wouldn't have done it voluntarily before? Or is there something about this other than the most basic definition of what "legal tender" means? Or is this just 100% PR? Like does this actually change a single thing for anyone, even rich people, in CAR?
    - andi999 4y ago
      Since it is at number 154 of the corruption index: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index What most likely will happen: enforcers will take stuff, tell you they pay with crypto, since you cannot receive it you have to pay a fine on top.
TimPC 4y ago
Is this actually legal tender as in every merchant in the country is legally required to transact in bitcoin? Or is this a marketing play where most merchants continue to not transact in bitcoin and the country calls bitcoin legal tender?
- rsynnott 4y ago
  That's not what legal tender means. Legal tender is something which must be accepted for settlement of _debts_. For instance, in the UK, any coin with a face value of one pound or more is legal tender in unlimited amount, but no-one is going to allow you to buy a car with a big bag of pound coins.
  - _3u10 4y ago
    But you can pay off your taxes with a big bag of coins. Pay off the car loan with a big bag of coins etc.
    - smnrchrds 4y ago
      It depends on the country. In Canada, there is a limit on the quantity of coins, above which they are not legal tender. (2) A tender of payment in coins referred to in subsection (1) is a legal tender for no more than the following amounts for the following denominations of coins: (a) forty dollars if the denomination is two dollars or greater but does not exceed ten dollars; (b) twenty-five dollars if the denomination is one dollar; (c) ten dollars if the denomination is ten cents or greater but less than one dollar; (d) five dollars if the denomination is five cents; and (e) twenty-five cents if the denomination is one cent.* https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-52/page-1.html#h-142377 https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-52/page-1.html#h-...
      - tastyfreeze 4y ago
        Hah, that is really interesting. I suspect this is to stop people from paying with a large quantity of coins to be an ass. Any idea how that plays out when trying to change bags of coins at a bank? coin-op vendor: I would like to deposit all of my bags of coins. bank: Sorry sir, your money is no good here unless you break it into smaller quantities. I knew a contract security guard that worked for a laundromat. They paid him in bags of quarters.
VHRanger 4y ago
See how well that went for El Salvador: https://www.nber.org/papers/w29968 https://www.nber.org/papers/w29968 (not well)
- 2pEXgD0fZ5cF 4y ago
  But it made a chosen few people richer, what more could you possibly want?
  - VHRanger 4y ago
    IDK maybe paying government workers, but I guess that's really just icing on the cake
- imapeopleperson 4y ago
  Obv way too early to make any conclusions. Reminds me of people saying Bitcoin failed as an inflation hedge over the past 1-2 years while ignoring the success of the hedge over a 10 year period.
  - VHRanger 4y ago
    You have no idea what the word "hedge" means do you
- bannedbybros 4y ago
  Went? It's a 6 month old project. It hasn't even started. Does ycomb actually think these nations would be better off with colonial currencies that have maintained poverty and exploitation for centuries? Probably yes.
- Fidelix 4y ago
  Not true. I read the report and it is going well - extremely well for a period this short. Unless your definition of "well" is that everyone would just up and stop using fiat overnight.
cseleborg 4y ago
I'm not following crypto too closely, but I'm interested. Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC, in turn raising its price. El Salvador adopted BTC as legal tender in September 2021, which is also the start of a big rise in BTC price from around 40k to almost 60k, but this then dropped back again to pre-September 2021 levels. Does anyone know whether this rise was related to El Salvador adopted BTC, and can we expect to see the same thing happening here?
- danielfoster 4y ago
  No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions, so there was not increased use of the currency that caused the spike in prices. Most likely the spike to 60k was just speculation.
  - kayamon 4y ago
    > No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions lolwut. Of the entire population of El Salvador, not one person is trading bitcoin?
- otoburb 4y ago
  >>Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC [...] Very unlikely, given that CAR's population is less than 5M, and only a small (read: negligible) portion of the population will even attempt to use bitcoin more than they were already were due to this legislation. The more interesting question is how the other independent African states that use the CFA franc[1] and the Bank of Central African States[2] will respond over time, especially with regards to the development and adoption of the Eco[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency)
- oblio 4y ago
  The Central African Republic is 5th from the bottom on GDP lists. Out of ~210 countries and territories. Its GDP per day is about $1.3. Its citizens care more about not starving, than Bitcoin. And they can barely afford 0.0001% of a Bitcoin, if they would even have easy access to tech allowing them to use it.
Barrera 4y ago
On one hand this move makes no sense. Poor countries have every motivation to print fiat currencies to fund operations. Heck, even "stable" currencies like the US dollar and euro are currently inflating to prop up spending in the issuer economies. Bitcoin can't be controlled in this way by the countries that adopt it as legal tender. On the other, it could make sense. If a country is interested in accumulating bitcoin as a reserve asset, accepting bitcoin tax payments would be a way to do that. This hasn't been discussed much in the articles on this topic, though. Also, both El Salvador and CAR effectively don't use their own currencies anyway. El Salvador uses the US dollar after a disastrous bout of inflation. CAR's currency is pegged to the euro. So adding another currency not controlled by the country doesn't exactly change the ability of the government to inflate its debts away.
- eldaisfish 4y ago
  if any entity - private or government - was interested in accumulating an asset, which sane and rational person would accumulate something as volatile as a cryptocurrency? As a store of value, it is pathetically bad and its vulnerabilities are very easy to exploit.
  - svenpor 4y ago
    I agree. It'd be necessary to assign prices and balances as probability distributions.
  - alfl 4y ago
    Volatile by what measure over what time period? If a country, for example, is looking at price-versus-USD on a rolling average over five years and measuring volatility in terms of (positive and negative) variance of price, then the trend line is up-right* and volatility is very low. [Edit: * was up-left, mistakenly.]
    - nicbou 4y ago
      Volatility of bitcoin is low relative to USD?
schmookeeg 4y ago
This makes perfect sense to me, in a world where oligarchs are having their assets seized without due process. This de-risks any largesse the elites may accumulate through legitimate means or otherwise. I doubt that the health of the country's economy was top of mind for this decision.
- vmception 4y ago
  People really need to learn and use the best practices of the crypto asset economy, or none of that will matter!
  - djbusby 4y ago
    What are those practices? Offline wallet? Buy&Hold? Diversify?
    - vmception 4y ago
      Primarily on how to gain privacy benefits. When and where to use a temporarily trusted environment. When a sanction can still result in your asset being seized (or become illiquid) without due process, or with due process, and when you can circumvent it entirely. This stuff was detailed 10 years ago before it was tested by governments. But the user experience improvements simple have neglected those directions.
  - schmookeeg 4y ago
    Yeah I'll be more impressed (concerned?) when one of these nations declares Monero or some other explicitly privacy-oriented coin as their new currency.
    - vmception 4y ago
      It would be more interesting for sure but dedicated privacy tokens have too low of a marketcap, for now. Bitcoin is decent with Taproot+Schnorr and Lightning and bridges but you really need your own nodes and Tor. Ethereum with Tornado Cash is okay, you still need Tor OR your own locally hosted node there, as unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum nodes don't know which node saw a transaction first which means privacy. But if you send your transaction to a datacenter then lots of people in between know you did. The bridges let you access the Ethereum and EVM ecosystem.
twirlock 4y ago
reedjosh 4y ago
I'm really excited about these moves. Countries moving from a currency that can be printed by another to a currency with a cap is a major move for independence in those nations. If your currency can be printed by another, you're a tributary nation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_CFA_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_CFA_franc > The currency was pegged to the French franc at 1 XOF = 2 French francs from 1948, becoming 1 XOF = 0.02 FRF after introduction of the new franc at 1 FRF = 100 old francs. In 1994 the currency was devalued by half to 1 XOF = 0.01 FRF. From 1999 it has since been pegged to the euro at €1 = 6.55957 FRF = 655.957 XOF. Also, I miss when monetary inflation literally meant removing precious or even more expensive commodity metals from coinage. Was a bit more obvious when money printer go brrrr then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc > Following the war, rapid inflation caused denominations below 1 franc to be withdrawn from circulation while 10 francs in copper nickel were introduced, followed by reduced size 10-franc coins in aluminium-bronze in 1950, along with 20 and 50-franc coins of the same composition. In 1954, copper-nickel 100 francs were introduced.[citation needed] > In the 1960s, 1 and 2 (old) franc aluminium coins were still circulating, used as "centimes".[citation needed] New franc > In 1960, the new franc (nouveau franc) was introduced,[29] worth 100 old francs. Stainless steel 1 and 5 centimes, aluminium-bronze 10, 20, and 50 centimes, nickel 1 franc and silver 5 francs were introduced. Silver 10-franc coins were introduced in 1965, followed by a new, smaller aluminium-bronze 5-centime and a smaller nickel 1⁄2-franc coin in 1966.[citation needed]
- psychlops 4y ago
  In this case they are pegged to the Euro. Since the Euro is almost certainly stronger than the CAR economy, we see it relegated to a cheap export country and making imports expensive for them. Also, making modernization more difficult. The CAR seems to have far more challenges, but at least their 11% of citizens with internet access will have more freedom of choice of currencies.
323 4y ago
Central African Republic factoids from Wiki: > Civil war since 2012. The civil war perpetuated the country's poor human rights record. > Among the ten poorest countries in the world, with the lowest GDP per capita at purchasing power parity in the world as of 2017. > The second-lowest level of human development (only ahead of Niger), ranking 188 out of 189 countries. > The lowest inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), ranking 150th out of 150 countries. > The unhealthiest country as well as the worst country in which to be young.
- divs1210 4y ago
  - hiq 4y ago
    You'd have a point if these were cumulative, but e.g. there are several examples of companies which started using cryptocurrencies but gave up on them eventually.
    - generalizations 4y ago
      Even with several such examples, it can still be cumulative.
      - hiq 4y ago
        Usage can still be increasing indeed, or not. Just saying that OP's comment makes little effort in demonstrating that.
- notch656a 4y ago
  An entire country and you have not one good thing to say?
  - kurthr 4y ago
    The political and economic elite are highly effective and stripping the people and land of their value and dignity?
endisneigh 4y ago
Sad that Africa is going to effectively get exploited again by westerners. Let’s be honest those who got in early, that is, westerners, are those who win the most, not Africa. They will learn, like the USA, why you don’t back your currency on things like gold, and coming soon, Bitcoin. This is a completely unnecessary move. If the concerns are inflation they simply could write into their constitution that they cannot print additional money.
- MathYouF 4y ago
  I'm personally convinced (by no evidence other than game theory, which is what trust in block validators to be honest as a group is based on as well) in cases like these, that there must be people with a huge stake in btc who are essentially bribing legislators to adopt crypto. Why else would they accept as legal tender a currency their government and people don't hold except if the people who do hold it convinced them in some way? Looking forward to the documovies in 15 years of these crypto "investors" flying to CAF and El Salvador and bribing their government officials.
  - bally0241 4y ago
    Convinced eh? Sounds like baseless supposition to me.
  - ypeterholmes 4y ago
    I highly doubt they were bribed by Bitcoin miners. What's more likely is that BTC is emerging as a global store of value asset, and with the additional advantage that the supply of BTC is not entirely controlled by exploitative global central banking apparatus. Do some googling on what the IMF has done to small countries with their loans, and what happens to small countries when their currency is manipulated.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - MathYouF 4y ago
      You can't deny though that there is an incentive for some, especially hedge funds with massive crypto positions (who are known for not being above doing nefarious things with foreign government officials), to bribe legislators of countries open to the idea to adopt it, to improve their financial asset. Whether or not that is indeed something they're doing, as I mentioned, is pure speculation.
some_random 4y ago
Whole lot of people here who don't seem to realize that CAR is one of the poorest countries in the world locked in a perpetual civil war that is currently being used as a weapons showroom for Russia. I have absolutely no idea what this change will possibly do, but I guess it'll make it a bit easier for Wagner mercenaries to move the money they receive from their kidnapping and extortion schemes.
- psychlops 4y ago
  You believe the government is making bitcoin legal tender because russian mercenaries use bitcoin somehow?
  - Barrin92 4y ago
    Crypto is attractive to repressive governments that want to avoid international scrutiny or procure arms or what have you with less oversight. Russia itself is trying to pass regulation for similar reasons. North Korea and Iran both have used ransomware to steal crypto and fund military programs. Venezuela attempted to introduce its own cryptocurrency as well. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/business/russia-sanctions-cryptocurrency.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/business/russia-sanctions...
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    They’re saying it’s a side benefit to mercenaries who happen to be operating in-country, not the cause.
  - some_random 4y ago
    It's a country being ravaged by locals and foreigners alike at every single level, I'm saying that any decision made is more likely to be for looting the country than helping it.
ilaksh 4y ago
I hope this type of thing eventually reaches less desperate countries. And maybe also includes more practical cryptocurrencies like Algorand.
el-salvador 4y ago
Central African's Republic largest export (40%) [1] are diamonds. Perhaps there is a market for the exchange between crypto and diamonds? [1] https://tradingeconomics.com/central-african-republic/exports https://tradingeconomics.com/central-african-republic/export...
- kurthr 4y ago
  Certainly, there is room for corruption.

105 points by frankbreetz 4y ago

Wikipedia tells me: > Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Not sure if I understand the actual implications of this in the CAR.

andi999 4y ago
Not sure if CAR understands the implications. With 11% of the people having access to the internet, what could go wrong with crypto as a legal tender.
- sremani 4y ago
  and only 14% of the people have electricity even though things may rapidly improve in near future, this society is far from ready to accept digital currency.
  - eldaisfish 4y ago
    things may improve but in a country that is not just poor, but piss poor and with a declining GDP, things are unlikely to improve. Besides, there is one hydro power station in the country. Other than the hydro, there is one diesel plant. That's it. This article is nothing but clickbait.
  - nkuttler 4y ago
    > and only 14% of the people have electricity That number is probably for electricity at home, considering that 33% of the people have mobile phone subscriptions. Mobile payment solutions are very successful in Africa, in part because the infrastructure is lacking. One house/shop with electricity can easily power many phones.
    - mdaniel 4y ago
      I recall One Laptop Per Child didn't shake out, but I'd *gladly* move my Kiva dollars over to buying solar panels and OLPC-ish setups, if(?) it wouldn't get eaten by the corruption quagmire OT1H, it's entirely possible the Kiva dollars are doing more material good, what with the "you spend on what you need" mental model. OTOH, investing in infrastructure sure does feel more productive
  - robonerd 4y ago
    Less than 1% of the people there even have a bank account.
- jrochkind1 4y ago
  But like the very specifics... is there any creditor in CAR who is going to be forced to take bitcoin as payment, who wouldn't have done it voluntarily before? Or is there something about this other than the most basic definition of what "legal tender" means? Or is this just 100% PR? Like does this actually change a single thing for anyone, even rich people, in CAR?
  - andi999 4y ago
    Since it is at number 154 of the corruption index: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index What most likely will happen: enforcers will take stuff, tell you they pay with crypto, since you cannot receive it you have to pay a fine on top.

TimPC 4y ago

Is this actually legal tender as in every merchant in the country is legally required to transact in bitcoin? Or is this a marketing play where most merchants continue to not transact in bitcoin and the country calls bitcoin legal tender?

rsynnott 4y ago
That's not what legal tender means. Legal tender is something which must be accepted for settlement of _debts_. For instance, in the UK, any coin with a face value of one pound or more is legal tender in unlimited amount, but no-one is going to allow you to buy a car with a big bag of pound coins.
- _3u10 4y ago
  But you can pay off your taxes with a big bag of coins. Pay off the car loan with a big bag of coins etc.
  - smnrchrds 4y ago
    It depends on the country. In Canada, there is a limit on the quantity of coins, above which they are not legal tender. (2) A tender of payment in coins referred to in subsection (1) is a legal tender for no more than the following amounts for the following denominations of coins: (a) forty dollars if the denomination is two dollars or greater but does not exceed ten dollars; (b) twenty-five dollars if the denomination is one dollar; (c) ten dollars if the denomination is ten cents or greater but less than one dollar; (d) five dollars if the denomination is five cents; and (e) twenty-five cents if the denomination is one cent.* https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-52/page-1.html#h-142377 https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-52/page-1.html#h-...
    - tastyfreeze 4y ago
      Hah, that is really interesting. I suspect this is to stop people from paying with a large quantity of coins to be an ass. Any idea how that plays out when trying to change bags of coins at a bank? coin-op vendor: I would like to deposit all of my bags of coins. bank: Sorry sir, your money is no good here unless you break it into smaller quantities. I knew a contract security guard that worked for a laundromat. They paid him in bags of quarters.

VHRanger 4y ago

See how well that went for El Salvador: https://www.nber.org/papers/w29968 https://www.nber.org/papers/w29968 (not well)

2pEXgD0fZ5cF 4y ago
But it made a chosen few people richer, what more could you possibly want?
- VHRanger 4y ago
  IDK maybe paying government workers, but I guess that's really just icing on the cake
imapeopleperson 4y ago
Obv way too early to make any conclusions. Reminds me of people saying Bitcoin failed as an inflation hedge over the past 1-2 years while ignoring the success of the hedge over a 10 year period.
- VHRanger 4y ago
  You have no idea what the word "hedge" means do you
bannedbybros 4y ago
Went? It's a 6 month old project. It hasn't even started. Does ycomb actually think these nations would be better off with colonial currencies that have maintained poverty and exploitation for centuries? Probably yes.
Fidelix 4y ago
Not true. I read the report and it is going well - extremely well for a period this short. Unless your definition of "well" is that everyone would just up and stop using fiat overnight.

cseleborg 4y ago

I'm not following crypto too closely, but I'm interested. Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC, in turn raising its price. El Salvador adopted BTC as legal tender in September 2021, which is also the start of a big rise in BTC price from around 40k to almost 60k, but this then dropped back again to pre-September 2021 levels. Does anyone know whether this rise was related to El Salvador adopted BTC, and can we expect to see the same thing happening here?

danielfoster 4y ago
No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions, so there was not increased use of the currency that caused the spike in prices. Most likely the spike to 60k was just speculation.
- kayamon 4y ago
  > No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions lolwut. Of the entire population of El Salvador, not one person is trading bitcoin?
otoburb 4y ago
>>Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC [...] Very unlikely, given that CAR's population is less than 5M, and only a small (read: negligible) portion of the population will even attempt to use bitcoin more than they were already were due to this legislation. The more interesting question is how the other independent African states that use the CFA franc[1] and the Bank of Central African States[2] will respond over time, especially with regards to the development and adoption of the Eco[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency)
oblio 4y ago
The Central African Republic is 5th from the bottom on GDP lists. Out of ~210 countries and territories. Its GDP per day is about $1.3. Its citizens care more about not starving, than Bitcoin. And they can barely afford 0.0001% of a Bitcoin, if they would even have easy access to tech allowing them to use it.

Barrera 4y ago

On one hand this move makes no sense. Poor countries have every motivation to print fiat currencies to fund operations. Heck, even "stable" currencies like the US dollar and euro are currently inflating to prop up spending in the issuer economies. Bitcoin can't be controlled in this way by the countries that adopt it as legal tender. On the other, it could make sense. If a country is interested in accumulating bitcoin as a reserve asset, accepting bitcoin tax payments would be a way to do that. This hasn't been discussed much in the articles on this topic, though. Also, both El Salvador and CAR effectively don't use their own currencies anyway. El Salvador uses the US dollar after a disastrous bout of inflation. CAR's currency is pegged to the euro. So adding another currency not controlled by the country doesn't exactly change the ability of the government to inflate its debts away.

eldaisfish 4y ago
if any entity - private or government - was interested in accumulating an asset, which sane and rational person would accumulate something as volatile as a cryptocurrency? As a store of value, it is pathetically bad and its vulnerabilities are very easy to exploit.
- svenpor 4y ago
  I agree. It'd be necessary to assign prices and balances as probability distributions.
- alfl 4y ago
  Volatile by what measure over what time period? If a country, for example, is looking at price-versus-USD on a rolling average over five years and measuring volatility in terms of (positive and negative) variance of price, then the trend line is up-right* and volatility is very low. [Edit: * was up-left, mistakenly.]
  - nicbou 4y ago
    Volatility of bitcoin is low relative to USD?

schmookeeg 4y ago

This makes perfect sense to me, in a world where oligarchs are having their assets seized without due process. This de-risks any largesse the elites may accumulate through legitimate means or otherwise. I doubt that the health of the country's economy was top of mind for this decision.

vmception 4y ago
People really need to learn and use the best practices of the crypto asset economy, or none of that will matter!
- djbusby 4y ago
  What are those practices? Offline wallet? Buy&Hold? Diversify?
  - vmception 4y ago
    Primarily on how to gain privacy benefits. When and where to use a temporarily trusted environment. When a sanction can still result in your asset being seized (or become illiquid) without due process, or with due process, and when you can circumvent it entirely. This stuff was detailed 10 years ago before it was tested by governments. But the user experience improvements simple have neglected those directions.
- schmookeeg 4y ago
  Yeah I'll be more impressed (concerned?) when one of these nations declares Monero or some other explicitly privacy-oriented coin as their new currency.
  - vmception 4y ago
    It would be more interesting for sure but dedicated privacy tokens have too low of a marketcap, for now. Bitcoin is decent with Taproot+Schnorr and Lightning and bridges but you really need your own nodes and Tor. Ethereum with Tornado Cash is okay, you still need Tor OR your own locally hosted node there, as unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum nodes don't know which node saw a transaction first which means privacy. But if you send your transaction to a datacenter then lots of people in between know you did. The bridges let you access the Ethereum and EVM ecosystem.

twirlock 4y ago

reedjosh 4y ago

I'm really excited about these moves. Countries moving from a currency that can be printed by another to a currency with a cap is a major move for independence in those nations. If your currency can be printed by another, you're a tributary nation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_CFA_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_CFA_franc > The currency was pegged to the French franc at 1 XOF = 2 French francs from 1948, becoming 1 XOF = 0.02 FRF after introduction of the new franc at 1 FRF = 100 old francs. In 1994 the currency was devalued by half to 1 XOF = 0.01 FRF. From 1999 it has since been pegged to the euro at €1 = 6.55957 FRF = 655.957 XOF. Also, I miss when monetary inflation literally meant removing precious or even more expensive commodity metals from coinage. Was a bit more obvious when money printer go brrrr then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc > Following the war, rapid inflation caused denominations below 1 franc to be withdrawn from circulation while 10 francs in copper nickel were introduced, followed by reduced size 10-franc coins in aluminium-bronze in 1950, along with 20 and 50-franc coins of the same composition. In 1954, copper-nickel 100 francs were introduced.[citation needed] > In the 1960s, 1 and 2 (old) franc aluminium coins were still circulating, used as "centimes".[citation needed] New franc > In 1960, the new franc (nouveau franc) was introduced,[29] worth 100 old francs. Stainless steel 1 and 5 centimes, aluminium-bronze 10, 20, and 50 centimes, nickel 1 franc and silver 5 francs were introduced. Silver 10-franc coins were introduced in 1965, followed by a new, smaller aluminium-bronze 5-centime and a smaller nickel 1⁄2-franc coin in 1966.[citation needed]

psychlops 4y ago
In this case they are pegged to the Euro. Since the Euro is almost certainly stronger than the CAR economy, we see it relegated to a cheap export country and making imports expensive for them. Also, making modernization more difficult. The CAR seems to have far more challenges, but at least their 11% of citizens with internet access will have more freedom of choice of currencies.

323 4y ago

Central African Republic factoids from Wiki: > Civil war since 2012. The civil war perpetuated the country's poor human rights record. > Among the ten poorest countries in the world, with the lowest GDP per capita at purchasing power parity in the world as of 2017. > The second-lowest level of human development (only ahead of Niger), ranking 188 out of 189 countries. > The lowest inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), ranking 150th out of 150 countries. > The unhealthiest country as well as the worst country in which to be young.

divs1210 4y ago
- hiq 4y ago
  You'd have a point if these were cumulative, but e.g. there are several examples of companies which started using cryptocurrencies but gave up on them eventually.
  - generalizations 4y ago
    Even with several such examples, it can still be cumulative.
    - hiq 4y ago
      Usage can still be increasing indeed, or not. Just saying that OP's comment makes little effort in demonstrating that.
notch656a 4y ago
An entire country and you have not one good thing to say?
- kurthr 4y ago
  The political and economic elite are highly effective and stripping the people and land of their value and dignity?

endisneigh 4y ago

Sad that Africa is going to effectively get exploited again by westerners. Let’s be honest those who got in early, that is, westerners, are those who win the most, not Africa. They will learn, like the USA, why you don’t back your currency on things like gold, and coming soon, Bitcoin. This is a completely unnecessary move. If the concerns are inflation they simply could write into their constitution that they cannot print additional money.

MathYouF 4y ago
I'm personally convinced (by no evidence other than game theory, which is what trust in block validators to be honest as a group is based on as well) in cases like these, that there must be people with a huge stake in btc who are essentially bribing legislators to adopt crypto. Why else would they accept as legal tender a currency their government and people don't hold except if the people who do hold it convinced them in some way? Looking forward to the documovies in 15 years of these crypto "investors" flying to CAF and El Salvador and bribing their government officials.
- bally0241 4y ago
  Convinced eh? Sounds like baseless supposition to me.
- ypeterholmes 4y ago
  I highly doubt they were bribed by Bitcoin miners. What's more likely is that BTC is emerging as a global store of value asset, and with the additional advantage that the supply of BTC is not entirely controlled by exploitative global central banking apparatus. Do some googling on what the IMF has done to small countries with their loans, and what happens to small countries when their currency is manipulated.
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  - MathYouF 4y ago
    You can't deny though that there is an incentive for some, especially hedge funds with massive crypto positions (who are known for not being above doing nefarious things with foreign government officials), to bribe legislators of countries open to the idea to adopt it, to improve their financial asset. Whether or not that is indeed something they're doing, as I mentioned, is pure speculation.

some_random 4y ago

Whole lot of people here who don't seem to realize that CAR is one of the poorest countries in the world locked in a perpetual civil war that is currently being used as a weapons showroom for Russia. I have absolutely no idea what this change will possibly do, but I guess it'll make it a bit easier for Wagner mercenaries to move the money they receive from their kidnapping and extortion schemes.

psychlops 4y ago
You believe the government is making bitcoin legal tender because russian mercenaries use bitcoin somehow?
- Barrin92 4y ago
  Crypto is attractive to repressive governments that want to avoid international scrutiny or procure arms or what have you with less oversight. Russia itself is trying to pass regulation for similar reasons. North Korea and Iran both have used ransomware to steal crypto and fund military programs. Venezuela attempted to introduce its own cryptocurrency as well. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/business/russia-sanctions-cryptocurrency.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/business/russia-sanctions...
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  They’re saying it’s a side benefit to mercenaries who happen to be operating in-country, not the cause.
- some_random 4y ago
  It's a country being ravaged by locals and foreigners alike at every single level, I'm saying that any decision made is more likely to be for looting the country than helping it.

ilaksh 4y ago

I hope this type of thing eventually reaches less desperate countries. And maybe also includes more practical cryptocurrencies like Algorand.

el-salvador 4y ago

Central African's Republic largest export (40%) [1] are diamonds. Perhaps there is a market for the exchange between crypto and diamonds? [1] https://tradingeconomics.com/central-african-republic/exports https://tradingeconomics.com/central-african-republic/export...

kurthr 4y ago
Certainly, there is room for corruption.