Remittances Are Powering Crypto Markets In Sub-Saharan Africa

Remittances Are Powering Crypto Markets In Sub-Saharan Africa

Not many people have seen the power of Bitcoin impact an entire portion of a continent as closely as Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful.

In this episode, Ian Andrews (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) has a mind blowing and heartstring pulling conversation with the man who is trying to provide basic human rights to over 1 Billion citizens and unite the global south using the magic of Bitcoin. 

Ray discusses why peer-to-peer marketplaces are providing alternative payment options and explains the difficulty in moving money around countries in Africa and why he believes Bitcoin is still the best technology to bank the underbanked. 

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown

• (3:05) – Ray’s journey from launching successful startups to MMA and then eventually finding his way into crypto 
• (7:39) – The early understanding that banking the unbank was a great use case for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency 
• (10:07) Why the difficulty in movement of funds in countries like Nigeria made it ripe for crypto adoption 
• (17:05) – Why education is so crucial to the success of Bitcoin in Africa which has a history of falling victim to scams connected to cryptocurrency 
• (26:25) –Lightning Network and the technology pushing Bitcoin into more mainstream adoption and fixing broken civilizations
• (29:55) - The state of crypto regulation in Nigeria and Africa compared to the Western Countries

Related resources

Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key.

• Blog: Post FTX Market Updates
• Press Release: Paxful Becomes Africa Bitcoin Conference Major Sponsor
• Article: Bitcoin Ekasi Launches Financial Education Center In South Africa
• Video: Bitcoin Amsterdam: Emerging Markets & Bitcoin Panel
• Articles: Ray Youssef’s Bitcoin Magazine Articles
• Article: Bringing Clean Water To Communities That Need It With Bitcoin
• Twitter: Chainalysis Company Twitter Page

Speakers on today’s episode

• Ian Andrews * Host * (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianhandrews
• Ray Youssef  (Chief Executive Officer, Paxful) https://twitter.com/raypaxful

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