Browsing: cryptocurrency

Africa's financial inclusion

Currently, financial inclusion is a target that all African countries must achieve. Boosting Africa's financial inclusion will have a positive impact on economic growth and the prosperity of society. Through financial inclusion, everyone has access to a variety of quality, effective, and efficient financial services. Increasing public accessibility to financial service products will further reduce the level of economic and social inequality which in turn will improve the welfare of the community.

One of the efforts to achieve this financial inclusion target is through technology in the form of digital finance. When financial products and services use internet technology, it makes it easier for people to directly access various kinds of payments, shopping, savings, and investments, including loan and credit facilities. Among these digital financial elements, the payment facility is the service that is experiencing the fastest development and contributes greatly to the achievement of Africa's financial inclusion targets.…

Blockchain in Africa's supply chains.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recently published the Economic Development for Africa 2023 Report. The document, titled "The Potential of Africa to Capture Technology-Intensive Global Supply Chains," looks at Africa's capacity to become a prominent player in global supply chains for "high-technology" industries, which include automobiles, mobile phones, green energy, and healthcare.…

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Zimbabwe's gold-backed digital currency

In May 2023, Zimbabwe released a gold-backed digital currency for peer-to-peer and business transactions. It acted as a store of value as the Zimbabwean dollar continued its steep depreciation. International gold prices controlled by the London Bullion Market Association will dictate the local pricing of Zimbabwe’s digital currency tokens.…

linking cryptocurrency to traditional finance

However, integrating cryptocurrencies with conventional financial systems becomes increasingly essential as they become more commonplace. This presents several obstacles to overcome before cryptocurrencies can realise their full potential. For instance, traditional institutions may be hesitant to work with cryptocurrencies due to concerns about money laundering and other illicit activities. Moreover, the technical difficulty of integrating cryptocurrencies with existing banking systems can prove intimidating.…

CBDCs in Africa

When CBDCs first came to the fore, many touted such a move as a game-changer in digital finance. Many had thought that the adoption of CBDCs in Africa would take the shape of the adoption of cryptocurrencies, where the region leads in many aspects. However, challenges remain. Lack of the requisite infrastructure, low levels of financial literacy, and operational and regulatory challenges have combined to contribute to low penetration and adoption rates for CBDCs.

The lack of adoption is a current failure point for many launched CBDCs. Nigeria’s eNaira had a million customers one year into its launch, a smattering of its 221 million population. The real challenge of CBDCs lies in developing a clear sense of purpose. African central banks must answer to the kind of role that CBDCs will play in the economy and financial systems.…

Financial Literacy in Africa

Enhancing financial literacy is only one of the numerous ways Africa’s youth may be prepared for the future. Stakeholders must simplify financial literacy education and make it practical. Without simplified and functional financial literacy, one could fall victim to the prevailing financial challenges in a highly changing world marked by technological advancements. Improving financial literacy in Africa’s youth will help improve financial inclusion.…

Crypsense Digital Group, First African Web 3 Startup to Qualify for Draper VeChain Accelerator Program www.theexchange.africa

Crypsense Digital Group is Africa’s first and fast-growing Digital Assets Capacity Building and Management Platform, providing an end-to-end solution for institutional blockchain and digital asset adoption.

Training, wealth management and custodial solutions, asset finance, and an accelerator launchpad to promote blockchain and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs in Africa are the primary tenets of the company.

Learn to Earn (L2E) and Play to Earn (P2E) are two learning management systems that the capacity development platform provides for blockchain and cryptocurrency. Education on cryptocurrency that can be interacted with can be grasped quickly and make the learning process both enjoyable and profitable simultaneously.…

Warning to African crypto traders: Fraudsters exploit over US$1.6 billion worth of crypto in 2022. www.theexchange.africa

CertiK, a blockchain security firm, reports that the amount exploited in the first four months of 2022 surpasses the total amount stolen in 2021 (US$1.3 billion) and 2020 (US$516 million) combined. The month of March alone beats 2020 by US$203.2 million.

The decentralized finance (DeFi) space has been stained with hackers, exploiters and scammers. Over US$1.6 billion worth of crypto has been stolen from users in the first quarter of 2022, the highest ever recorded.

CertiK revealed the statistics on May 2; the month of March recorded the highest stolen value of US$719.2 million.…

Crypto exchange platforms luring early-stage NFT traders. www.theexchange.africa
  • In 2021, the NFT market generated more than US$25 billion in trading volume, and 2022 appears to generate more figures than the previous year
  • NFTs are digital assets in the form of a digital file, an image, video or audio that a seller uploads to a cryptocurrency exchange platform for people to buy through cryptos
  • The KuCoin cryptocurrency trading platform announced on April 19 that it will launch a US$100 million Creators Fund to support early-stage NFT projects

Recently, Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the largest exchange platform, binance, argued that the NFT business is “bonkers”, expressing his disbelief about how successful the NFT market has become.

Changpeng quotes how almost a year ago, an NFT file sold at US$69 million, something the buyers will never even be able to touch physically!

“People may have lost their mind,” Mr Zhao told fortune.

Despite referring to the growing NFT obsession as

An African artist working on an NFT. NFTs are assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold just like any other piece of property. www.theexchange.africa

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are the new opportunity for anyone with anything they can monetise and an access to the internet to reap the benefits of minting money on the World Wide Web.

NFTs are “One of a kind” digital assets that can be traded like any other piece of property, but NFTs do not exist in any tangible form. It is possible to think of virtual or real assets as tokens that may be exchanged for tokens.

Therefore, an NFT is a digital title for a piece of content that may be sold on auction sites but is non-returnable because it is unique and irreplaceable. Because of this, its value fluctuates and it is useless as a means of exchange. Cryptocurrency and blockchain are the foundations of NFTs.…