Cointelegraph goes to Senegal, West Africa. The mid-sized African nation recently hosted a Bitcoin (BTC) conference and more and more merchants and customers are joining the Lightning Network.
Armed with a camera, a lightning wallet, and a microphone, reporter Joe Hall took to the streets of Senegal to look beneath the surface of Bitcoin adoption in the capital city, Dakar.
As Cointelegraph’s Youtube video highlights, Senegal has a young, digitally native population, and in recent years it has become second nature for people to send money via mobile phones rather than banks.
(embed)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WL3dHoVX6Q(/embed)
A mobile money provider called Wave, for example, started in 2017 in Senegal and has since expanded to other West African countries. Now it has millions of users.
Like Bitcoin, the mobile money revolution attempts to bank the unbanked and improve the financial conditions of financially marginalized populations. Its user experience is quite similar to sending money over the Bitcoin Lightning Network, as you scan a QR code or send money to a number; however, mobile money charges 1-3% and may take a few minutes to confirm. Therefore, it is a useful tool, but too expensive for microtransactions.
In the video, Hall sends Bitcoin via the Lightning Network to a Wave manager, who expressed interest and surprise at the effectiveness of the Bitcoin Lightning Network. In fact, many Senegalese were interested in receiving, acquiring, or learning how to keep Bitcoin.
The Dakar Bitcoin Days conference highlighted the interest of Senegalese in learning about and using Bitcoin. Founded by Nourou, Dakar Bitcoin Days is part of Bitcoin Sen, another hotbed of fledgling Bitcoin activity in West Africa.
However, the main reason that could lead to more Bitcoin adoption in Senegal is to break the monetary chains of its colonial past.
Related: ‘We Don’t Like Our Money’: The Story of CFA and Bitcoin in Africa
In 1994, the value of the local currency, the CFA, was halved thanks to a combination of efforts by France, the IMF, and the World Bank. Senegalese trust savings were decimated.
The scars of this monetary collapse and its residual regime remain in West Africa and Senegal. CFA money is not sovereign and disempowers and disenfranchises people.
That is why people look for alternatives and some turn to Bitcoin.
