Bitcoin users in parts of Africa have an almost non-existent mining practice yet the virtual currency’s level of adoption is driving more Africans to its trade. Aside from a Ghanaian firm, Ghana Dot Com (GDC), which claimed it has launched the first Bitcoin mining facility in Africa in March, most mining efforts in parts of Africa are usually done on an individual basis or crowd mining with little or no chance of profitability. This is due to several factors. Power problems
“I don’t think anyone’s doing any mining,” says Tim Akinbo, CEO of Nigeria-based TimbaObjects to CoinTelegraph. “Not with the power situation in the country. I can’t see how they intend to compete. Well, at least, if their objective is profitability.”
Yet, Akinbo, who helps new users acquire their first Bitcoins by directly selling to them or through online platforms for people he doesn’t know personally, was quick to indicate that Nigerians traded Bitcoin worth N7.4m (about US$37, 150) over a four-week period quoting localbitcoins.com.
Co-founder of Umati Blockchain Ltd in Kenya, Michael Kimani, mined some Litecoins in 2013 using his fast internet connection on a Dell CPU but realized it wasn’t profitable.
“Difficulty levels had gone up and I was using an old Dell CPU. By that time, the mining space was crowding out,” he stated in a mail to CoinTelegraph citing the coming of ASICs and GPUs. “What I have observed from a Facebook Bitcoin community of Kenyans and from inquiries via email is that people ask how they can get started with mining. Some have bought mining shares on cloud mining services, or giga hashpowers on CEX.io. That’s some of the feedback I’ve received. I can’t say who else is mining out there, but I know a lot of early adopters are asking.” Trading volumes up
However, he too […]
