As African governments grapple to manage economies digitally, integrated digital payment and e-commerce company, Interswitch, has tipped blockchain technology to be the surest way. Blockchain technology is a digital ledger that stores transactions. The digital system essentially records transactions in multiple places at the same time, thereby making it impossible to falsify the data stored on…
On Wednesday, just before bitcoin surpassed the digital asset’s all-time high (ATH), the crypto analyst known as “Techdev” says the “2-week chart looks strong and ready for much higher highs.” Just 26 days ago, Techdev said that “$200-300K bitcoin looks almost too programmed” and this week, the analyst noted that we are “nowhere near a…
In what may seem like a pat on the shoulder to investors who are bullish on Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency has stunned critics to rake in profits for investors, climbing to a new ATH of $66,000 today. Bitcoin has maintained its bullish pace to surpass its previous ATH of $64,863, soaring to $66,950 today,…
Crypto adoption in Africa continues to grow at a rapid pace, with Luno today announcing that 45% of one million new customers added since June are based on the continent. Luno, the crypto company founded by two South Africans, now has 9 million customers in over 40 countries. The remarkable growth of the company is…
To solve problems African businesses have when settling payments within the continent, convince banks to transition from centralized systems to those based on a blockchain. That is the argument by Appzone, a 13 year-old Nigerian fintech company that has launched a payment processing system built on its own private blockchain network. Appzone’s blockchain-based payment processor,…
Crypto adoption in Africa continues to grow at a rapid pace, with Luno today announcing that 45% of one million new customers added since June are based on the continent. Luno, the crypto company founded by two South Africans, now has 9 million customers in over 40 countries. The remarkable growth of the company is…
The market capitalisation of all the cryptocurrencies put together has crossed a milestone of $2.5 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,87,42,625 crores) according to cryptocurrency tracker CoinMarketCap. The development comes at a time when Bitcoin, which is the most-valued cryptocurrency in the world, is trading at over $65,000 (roughly Rs. 49,000) on Indian exchanges CoinSwitch Kuber, and…
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) doesn’t only take power away from traditional governmental institutions and corporations, it also may provide an opportunity for underrepresented groups to break away from the restrictions placed on them by the world’s traditional trade and power systems. The term, DeFi, was coined in a Telegram group by a community of software developers…
The Canadian city of North Vancouver is considering Bitcoin mining as a way to generate and provide heat to its residents. The city’s energy provider Lonsdale Energy Corporation (LEC) is planning to move away from the use of conventional natural gas and “decarbonise” the production of heat. In 2022, the LEC in collaboration with a…
Sophos cybersecurity researchers identified a Bitcoin wallet filled with tokens worth $1.4 million (roughly Rs. 10 crores) that were collected through scams. The crypto scammers were targeting iPhone users on popular dating apps such as Bumble and Tinder. Along with ripping off people’s cryptocurrency, the hackers were also compromising the personal details of their victims…
Square Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said on Friday the fintech firm is looking to build a Bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals as well as businesses. This would add to Square’s existing Bitcoin-focused projects including a business to build an open developer platform, as well as a hardware wallet for the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin price…
According to data published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance in the United Kingdom, the United States has surpassed China as the world’s top bitcoin mining country. Bitcoin is created or “mined” by high-powered computers located in data centers all over the world competing to solve complicated mathematical riddles in a process that consumes…
African blockchain company Bitmama has closed a $350,000 pre-Seed round, led by Flori Ventures, with participation from Nigeria-based investment fund Emergence Capital, Fedha Capital, and a host of VCs and angel investors. The Bitmama pre-seed round will be used to grow its operational presence, expand its team, and penetrate new markets across the continent, while rapidly scaling crypto and payment…
Payments company Stripe announced it’s building out a new crypto team to help build out the “future of Web3 payments,” according to public statements posted to Twitter on Tuesday. Stripe, which had once been among the first to support Bitcoin payments before leaving the market a few years ago, has been watching for the right time to get back…
Bitcoin continues to one-up its previous days best and moves past $57,000 (roughly Rs. 42 lakhs) for the first time since May. At the time of writing, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency is trading at roughly $57,490 (roughly Rs. 43.3 lakhs) on Binance and CoinMarketCap, while on Indian exchange Coinswitch Kuber, BTC is already valued…
Cryptocurrency remittances are a lifeline for Afghans after the abrupt U.S. withdrawal led to Western Union temporarily ceasing operations and banks in the country severely limiting withdrawals. As regulators in remittance source countries like the U.S. and U.K. turn their sights on crypto, they should remember how indispensable those currencies are to some of the…
EMURGO – the official commercial arm and a founding entity of the Cardano blockchain – previously announced the launch of a new wholly-owned Cardano ecosystem investment vehicle to invest into early startup and growth stage companies focused on building socially impactful solutions powered by Cardano, through two separate entities with distinct visions, EMURGO Africa and EMURGO Ventures. EMURGO Africa announced today…
Peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency trading platforms are now the engine of growth as Africa pulls ahead of the rest of the world in grass-roots adoptions of virtual cash. Retail-sized transfers make up a larger share of the continent’s cryptocurrency activity on the continent with P2P enabling the practical use of digital money. In countries like Nigeria and…
“New Zealand’s central bank is exploring the possibility of issuing a digital currency, saying the benefits it would bring include its potential use as a monetary policy tool,” reports Bloomberg. The central bank cites “the declining use, acceptance and availability of cash in New Zealand, and emerging innovations in private money, namely stablecoins.”While developing a central…
Pan-African fintech startup KamPay has launched a blockchain-based financial platform that is at the same time a payment system, a wallet and a lottery. Launched this year, KamPay comprises a digital wallet and token, which combined with ZymPay, a fiat payment gateway that presently exists between South Africa and Zimbabwe, will facilitate easy crypto-to-fiat exchanges and encourage…
Bitcoin rose on Friday to its highest level since around mid-September, bolstered in part by seasonal factors as well as supportive comments overall from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday. In testimony to Congress, Powell said the Fed had no intention of banning cryptocurrencies, in response to a question from House Representative Ted Budd. Some…
Cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Luno has conducted a survey of over 1000 of its customers in South Africa in August 2021, along with customers in the UK, Malaysia and Indonesia. Luno found that 82% of South Africans who hold cryptocurrency on its platform expect the bitcoin price to rise significantly, some believe as high as…
Cairo based Pravica, a communication platform using Blockchain technology to empower user privacy and security through decentralised identity, has announced an investment (amount undisclosed) from CV VC (Crypto Valley Venture Capital). CV VC is a leading blockchain venture capitalist and incubator of global tech disruptors who are driving the fourth industrial revolution. Commenting on the investment and…
Cryptocurrency became a mainstream term when Bitcoin exploded in the early twenty-tens, a term that continues to gain relevance as more and more virtual currencies seem to be popping up in recent years, steadily racing towards a fever pitch. There were around 5800 different types of cryptocurrencies recorded around the world in August of this…
Twitter’s slate of new product announcements is not slowing down. The company today introduced a number of new initiatives aimed at better serving the conversations and community using its platform, including support for tipping with crypto, NFT authentication and plans for other experiments designed to provide more context about a conversation to those just joining…
Bitcoin mining produces electronic waste (e-waste) annually comparable to the small IT equipment waste of a place like the Netherlands, research shows. Miners of the cryptocurrency each year produce 30,700 tonnes of e-waste, Alex de Vries and Christian Stoll estimate. That averages 272g (9.5oz) per transaction, they say. By comparison, an iPhone 13 weighs 173g…
Africa’s cryptocurrency market grew by over 1200% between July 2020 and June 2021. This is according to Chainalysis 2021 Geography of Cryptocurrency report. The growth is based on the value of cryptocurrencies received on the continent in that period. While noting that the African market is one of the most dynamic and exciting in the…
Yearly, the amount of e-waste produced by the entire bitcoin network is comparable to that produced by a country like the Netherlands. Written by Jody Serrano There’s no doubt that cryptocurrency in its current form is bad news for our planet. But while much attention has been paid to crypto’s carbon footprint and electrical use, its impact on…
Written by TOM JACKSON South African startup 6DOT50 is enabling crypto-holders to pay for goods and services at over 40,000 merchants across the country, including at Shoprite Holdings stores and all Zapper merchants. Until now cryptocurrencies have mostly failed to fulfil the primary purpose of money, namely its ability to be exchanged for goods and…
Written by Shubham Pandey Africa has witnessed an immense amount of cryptocurrency adoption over the recent years. This doesn’t come as an unexpected move. Consider this, the fees paid to remittance service providers, to send money to Africa, average to nearly 9 percent. This marks the highest rate in the world and three times the Sustainable Development…