Whether Bitcoin would be a better option for the southern African state of Zimbabwe to adopt as an alternative method of payment or not has triggered an online discussion this past week. It follows the news that Zimbabwe will soon print its own version of the U.S. dollar as its economy suffers a severe US dollar shortage.
On 4 May 2016, Governor John Mangudya of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced that the government will later – possibly this month – issue bonds with a total value backed by a US$200 million Africa Export Import Bank (AFREXIM) facility. Africa needs alternative payments and investment currencies Writing in a piece published on techzim.co.zw, L.S.M Kabweza writes: “Bitcoin is notoriously volatile, but nowhere close to the unpredictable nature of Zimbabwe’s current government, perceived or real. The more important thing however is that reliance on Bitcoin helps with Zimbabwe’s trust problem. No one needs to trust the government to use a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or to store their money in it. The crypto-currency takes most of the decision-making authority out of the hands of individuals leaving it to a good extent to the mathematics in machines.” In a forum, a member, Kakmakr, commented on bitcointalk.org that as one of the countries in Africa with the poorest population and the greatest need for micro transactions, the decision by the Zimbabwean government “will push more people to use alternative methods of payment and alternative investment currencies to protect their wealth.” They cited the inroads that the mobile money service M-Pesa has made into Kenya and other African countries as an alternative to their reserve currency.
Another writer, Mokimarket, suggested that Zimbabwe could print these new notes “with Bitcoin private keys embedded in each note to add some intrinsic value to the notes.” Can the Internet […]
