EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The Silicon Savannah: exploring the promise of cryptocurrency in Africa

Scott Burns

Chapter 5 in The Economics of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, 2022, pp 69-94 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: One of the primary motivations behind Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies has been to disrupt the monetary status quo by providing individuals with faster, cheaper, and more secure forms of money. The potential benefits of providing superior private monies as an alternative to national currency monopolies are especially pronounced in the developing world, where citizens often suffer under poor monetary institutions and unreliable - and often inaccessible - financial services. No region has suffered more from poor quality monetary institutions than Africa. This chapter examines the potentially bright future of cryptocurrency in Africa. Over the past decade, Africa has been the epicenter of the "mobile money revolution." Although its cryptocurrency uptake has lagged behind other regions, I outline why Africa is perhaps the most promising frontier for the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency. I also discuss the opportunities and challenges that crypto startups face in the region.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Innovations and Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781800882348/9781800882348.00012.xml (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:20524_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-31
Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20524_5