NIGERIA INTEREST IN BITCOINS REMAINS STRONG

Excerpt from www.news.bitcoin.com

NIGERIA INTEREST IN BITCOINS REMAINS STRONG

Bitcoin’s interest has been growing in Nigeria, as shown in the increase in the number of online bitcoin-related searches, rising from almost non-existent to the country with the most searches for the word bitcoin in the entire world. The U.S. in comparison ranks 21st with only 13 percent search volume compared to Nigeria within a 12-month period, according to Google Trends.

From January 12th, when the CBN and the SEC made their announcements, Bitcoin’s interest in terms of online searches trended down. Nigeria still remains the number one country for bitcoin-related searches. While some search terms are related to the MMM bitcoin scheme, most search terms are bitcoin-specific interest such as ‘create bitcoin wallet’, ‘bitcoin to naira’ and ‘bitcoin to dollar,’ as well as various bitcoin exchanges and Localbitcoins.

Even if the government eventually bans bitcoin, there is evidence from other countries that interest could end up spiking after such a ban, as shown in the case of Bangladesh and Bolivia. Both countries banned bitcoin in 2014. By 2016, bitcoin interest had skyrocketed, according to Google Trends.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s inflation rate has been increasing sharply to over 18 percent and forecasted to rise higher according to Tradingeconomics. The trend could also have contributed to rising bitcoin’s interest in the country.

Adoption Still Small, but Should Rise

Marcus Swanepoel, Luno CEO

While there is certainly interest, “Adoption is still small compared to some other markets, but it’s definitely growing fast,” Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of the largest bitcoin exchange in Nigeria, Luno, told Bitcoin.com. According to Coinhills, daily trading volume on Luno, formerly BitX, was 224 bitcoin and 117 on Localbitcoins at press time, placing Naira the 16th most traded currencies for bitcoin.

“People appear to be using it for the same things they use it in other countries, including simply buying it as an alternative store of wealth or to hedge against local currency fluctuations, which is something that we’ve seen happen a lot in emerging markets,” Swanepoel noted.

In the near future, Swanepoel does not believe that bitcoin will become the dominant mobile money in Nigeria.

“It’s way too volatile and there is still a lot of regulatory uncertainty around it, people still need to be able to access and learn about it easier. We are working on solving all of those problems but it will take some time,” he said.

Interpol Hosts Latest Digital Currency Conference in Middle East

Excerpt from www.coindesk.com

International law enforcement groups and government agencies are hosting a conference on money laundering and digital currencies this week.

Backers of the event, running between 16th and 18th January, include Interpol, Europol (the European Union’s top police agency) and the Qatar National Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Committee, a unit of the emirate’s central bank. The event is being held in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Local news sources report that during the event, deputy central bank governor Sheikh Fahad Faisal Al-Thani (who also chairs the AML committee) called for more collaboration among law enforcement agencies worldwide during investigations involving the tech.

He was quoted by The Peninsula as saying:

“We expect from this conference to contribute in enhancing the capacity of the relevant competent authorities in conducting investigations in any crimes related to virtual currencies; and in establishing a network of practitioners and experts of this field.”

Interpol has held similar events in the past, and the organization has even created its own digital currency to assist in training exercises.

Last March, Interpol held a four-day war game involving law enforcement officials from more than sixty countries during which a fictional blackmailer demanded payment in bitcoin.

THE PRICE OF BITCOINS REACHES $900

Excerpt from www.coindest.com

The price of bitcoin surged today, rising more than 9% and exceeding $900 for the first time in nearly a week.

Average prices across exchanges breached this level at 17:45 UTC, rallying to as much as $906.38 by 20:00 UTC, the highest total observed since 11th January on CoinDesk's USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) reveals.

Overall, bitcoin prices climbed into the low $900s after gaining more than $50 earlier in the session, rising to $896.75 by 08:15 UTC after opening at roughly $830.

By climbing more than 9% during the session, bitcoin prices broke out of the relative calm they had enjoyed for several sessions, when the digital currency’s price repeatedly fluctuated between $800 and $840.

New optimism

Yet, under the surface, there have been changes in sentiment.

Following the decisions by China's central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBoC), to meet with major exchanges last week, nobody knows for sure whether China’s central bank will take further action.

Such uncertainty, it seems, has given way to positivity.

"It seems the PBOC is not going to do anything further damaging than limiting leverage," Kong Gao, marketing manager at China-based trading firm Richfund, told CoinDesk.

Other China-based traders, when surveyed, acknowledged that there is a perception the central bank will take no further action.

BUY RECHARGE UNITS WITH BITCOINS

by Dominic Christian Nwabenu

Bitcoins is becoming increasingly acceptable as a means of payment for goods and services around the world. One of such services is the use of bitcoins to buy mobile units or top-up, for your phone.

One of the companies that offers such service is bitrefill, and it offers mobile top-up to sin cards for over 400 operators in 100 countries. This means that you can travel to any country and still buy units from your mobile operators in Nigeria, such as MTN, GLO, ETISALAT and AIRTEL.

More so, you can use this service to send mobile units of other countries to your friends around the world. This is done by simply selecting the country of your friend or family you intend to send the units to and write out the prepaid mobile number. Thereafter, you select the amount you want to recharge and then copy the wallet address provided by bitrefill and pay with your bitcoins. 

Generally, you could as well scan the QR code provided by bitrefill to make payments. Once the payment is made, a short message will be sent to your phone stating that your cell phone number has been reloaded.

Bitcoins will change the way transactions are made around the world. 

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COMPANIES THAT ACCEPTS BITCOINS AS PAYMENT

Excerpt from www.99bitcoins.com

Who Accepts Bitcoins?

Who accept bitcoins as payment? Bitcoins are taking over the crypto-currency marketplace. They’re the largest and most well-known digital currency. Many large companies are accepting bitcoins as a legitimate source of funds. They allow their online products to be bought with bitcoins. With the extreme facilitation of transfer and earning of bitcoins, it would be a mistake not to accept these new-found online coins as cash. With a fluctuating value, the funds can either help or hurt the company. This fluctuation of inflation can be a boon to business, unless the market is valuing the coins insanely high, sometimes reaching 1000$! So really who accepts bitcoins?

List of Companies Who Accepts Bitcoins as Payment!

Many companies are accepting bitcoins, many are not. Here is a list of the biggest (and smaller) names who accepts bitcoins as a currency.

• WordPress.com – An online company that allows user to create free blogs
• Overstock.com – A company that sells big ticket items at lower prices due to overstocking
• Subway – Eat fresh
• Microsoft – Users can buy content with Bitcoin on Xbox and Windows store
• Reddit – You can buy premium features there with bitcoins
• Virgin Galactic – Richard Branson company that includes Virgin Mobile and Virgin Airline
• OkCupid – Online dating site
• Tigerdirect – Major electronic online retailer
• Namecheap – Domain name registrar
• CheapAir.com – Travel booking site for airline tickets, car rentals, hotels
• Expedia.com – Online travel booking agency
• Gyft – Buy giftcards using Bitcoin
• Newegg.com – Online electronics retailer now uses bitpay to accept bitcoin as payment
• 1-800-FLOWERS.COM – United States based online floral and gift retailer and distributor
• Fiverr.com – Get almost anything done for $5
• Dell – American privately owned multinational computer technology company
•  Wikipedia –  The Free Encyclopedia with 4 570 000+ article
• Steam – Desktop gaming platform
• The Internet Archive – web documatation company
• Bitcoin.Travel – a travel site that provides accommodation, apartments, attractions, bars, and beauty salons around the world
• Pembury Tavern – A pub in London, England
•  Old Fitzroy – A pub in Sydney, Australia
• The Pink Cow – A diner in Tokyo, Japan
• The Pirate Bay – BitTorrent directories
• Zynga – Mobile gaming
• Tesla – The car company
• 4Chan.org – For premium services
• EZTV – Torrents TV shows provider
• Mega.co.nz – The new venture started by the former owner of MegaUpload Kim Dotcom
• Lumfile – Free cloud base file server – pay for premium services
• Etsy Vendors – 93 of them
• PizzaForCoins.com – Domino’s Pizza signed up – pay for their pizza with bitcons
• Whole Foods – Organic food store (by purchasing gift card from Gyft)
• Bitcoincoffee.com – Buy your favorite coffee online
• Grass Hill Alpacas – A local farm in Haydenville, MA
• Jeffersons Store – A street wear clothing store in Bergenfield, N.J
• Helen’s Pizza – Jersey City, N.J., you can get a slice  of pizza for 0.00339 bitcoin by pointing your phone at a sign next to the cash register
• A Class Limousine – Pick you up and drop you off at Newark (N.J.) Airport
• Seoclerks.com – Get SEO work done on your site cheap
• Mint.com – Mint pulls all your financial accounts into one place. Set a budget, track your goals and do more
• Fancy.com – Discover amazing stuff, collect the things you love, buy it all in one place (Source: Fancy)
• Bloomberg.com – Online newspaper
• Humblebundle.com – Indie game site
• BigFishGames.com – Games for PC, Mac and Smartphones (iPhone, Android, Windows)
• Suntimes.com – Chicago based online newspaper
• San Jose Earthquakes – San Jose California Professional Soccer Team (MLS)
• Square – Payment processor that help small businesses accept credit cards using iPhone, Android or iPad
• Crowdtilt.com – The fastest and easiest way to pool funds with family and friends (Source: crowdtilt)
• Lumfile – Server company that offers free cloud-based servers
• Museum of the Coastal Bend – 2200 East Red River Street, Victoria, Texas 77901, USA
• Home Depot – Office supplies store
• Kmart – Retail products store
• Sears – Clothing and household products, electronic store
• Gap, GameStop and JC Penney – have to use eGifter.com
• Etsy Vendors – Original art and Jewelry creations
• Fight for the Future – Leading organization finding for Internet freedom
• i-Pmart (ipmart.com.my) – A Malaysian online mobile phone and electronic parts retailer
• curryupnow.com – A total of 12 restaurants on the list of restaurants accept bitcoins in San Francisco Bay Area
• Dish Network – An American direct-broadcast satellite service provider
• The Libertarian Party – United States political party
• Yacht-base.com – Croatian yacht charter company
• Euro Pacific – A major precious metal dealer
• CEX – The trade-in chain has a shop in Glasgow, Scotland that accepts bitcoin
• Straub Auto Repairs – 477 Warburton Ave, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706 – (914) 478-1177
• PSP Mollie – Dutch Payment Service
• Intuit – an American software company that develops financial and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants and individuals.
• ShopJoy – An Australian online retailer that sells novelty and unique gifts
• Lv.net – Las Vegas high speed internet services
• ExpressVPN.com – High speed, ultra secure VPN network
• Grooveshark – Online music streaming service based in the United States
• Braintree – Well known payments processor
• MIT Coop Store – Massachusetts Institute of Technology student bookstore
• SimplePay – Nigeria’s most popular web and mobile-based wallet service
• SFU bookstore – Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada
• State Republican Party – First State Republican Party to accept bitcoin donations (http://www.lagop.com/bitcoin-donate)
• mspinc.com – Respiratory medical equipment supplies store
• Shopify.com – An online store that allows anyone to sell their products
• Famsa – Mexico’s biggest retailer
• Naughty America – Adult entertainment provider
• Mexico’s Universidad de las Américas Puebla – A major university in Mexico
• LOT Polish Airlines – A worldwide airline based in Poland
• MovieTickets.com – Online movie ticket exchange/retailer
• Dream Lover – Online relationship service
• Lionsgate Films – The production studio behind titles such as The Hunger Games and The Day After Tomorrow
• Rakutan – A Japanese e-commerce giant
• Badoo – Online dating network
• RE/MAX London – UK-based franchisee of the global real estate network
• T-Mobile Poland – T-Mobile’s Poland-based mobile phone top-up company
• Stripe – San Francisco-based payments company
• WebJet – Online travel agency
• Green Man Gaming – Popular digital game reseller
• Save the Children  – Global charity organization
• NCR Silver – Point of sales systems
• One Shot Hotels – Spanish hotel chain
• Coupa Café in Palo Alto
• PureVPN – VPN provider
• That’s my face – create action figures
• Foodler – North American restaurant delivery company
• Amagi Metals – Precious metal furnisher

NIGERIA TO LEAD BITCOIN ADAPTION IN AFRICA

Excerpt from www.newsbtc.com

Bitcoin adoption in Africa was being spearheaded by South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana, until recently. In fact, the year 2016 witnessed the upward improvement of Bitcoin penetration in the Federal Republic of Nigeria in an encouraging dimension.

In October 2016, a Nigerian based Exchange BitX announced that their wallet on Google Play Store recorded 100,000 downloads. Besides the increase in volume, the exchange also stated among other things that the price rate was also lucrative. For instance, when Bitcoin price was around $800, Nigerians were buying it at $1000.

Many analysts are confident the drift will keep growing to the extent where Nigeria may overtake countries like Kenya and Ghana. News BTC decided to find out what is driving this positive move in the West African Nation.

E. A. Afolabi, CEO of Exact Group, an Information Technology outfit in Lagos Nigeria is convinced Nigeria will lead in adoption sooner than later. “We are going to be in the lead. We are not good at starting, but we will benefit in anything until it is not existing,” Afolabi stated.

The IT expert explained that Nigerians are making use of Bitcoin to make life easier in so many spheres of life. According to him, Satoshis facilitates activities like MMM, Zarfund, Online Shopping, Forex and cross-border trading for his compatriots.

On the perception of the government on Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, Afolabi is of the view that the government should overcome its inexperience. “The recent Security and Exchange Commission’s warning to Nigerians to beware of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies are uncalled for, and ignorance at best.” He further stated that “The government will do all Nigeria’s an invaluable service by finding out the immense benefits of Bitcoin.”

From Afolabi’s scope, the biggest challenge facing Bitcoin in the Africa’s most populous country is the distrust of online-based activities. “Bitcoin is already in Nigeria, but the fear of online is the challenge most of the illiterates and few scholars are afraid of. Most believe that anything online is fraudulent,” he related. Meanwhile, 59.6% of the total population of the dwellers of the River Niger are Literates.

It is also worth noting that only 32.5 percent of the adult population in Nigeria have access to Bank Accounts. The situation makes Cryptocurrency extremely ideal for adoption.

To have your bank account on your smartphone is exciting for many Nigerians. And Nigeria is awash with Smartphones. Needless to say, this Sub-Sahara African country is one of the most bureaucratic countries in the world.

Refreshingly, all factors indicate that Bitcoin will thrive astonishingly well in Nigeria and the future is radiant. “In the next five years, even in the village, they will be using Bitcoin to buy from China,” Afolabi, concluded excitedly.

BITCOIN POSES NOT THREAT, WON'T BE BANNED

Excerpt from cryptocoinsnews.com

Russia’s deputy finance minister has now stated that the country’s Central Bank and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service do not see any threats in the use of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

More notably, the much-publicized and long-deliberated bitcoin ban by the Bank of Russia will not be pursued any longer, the bank’s deputy chairwoman Olga Skorobogatov revealed.

According to a report by Russia’s largest news agency, TASS, the Russian Federation’s Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev – who notably spearheaded the effort to ban bitcoin from 2014 – is now adopting a wait-and-see approach with the cryptocurrency.

“We will discuss this law [to ban bitcoin] in the current session of Parliament, and possibly even pass it then, or at the very latest by spring next year,” said Moiseev in September 2014. “We are currently dealing with comments from the law enforcement agencies, about the specifics of legal measures, and we will take their remarks into account. But the overall concept of the law is set in stone.”

Having consulted with those experts over the past two years, amid considerable opposition by other Russian governmental authorities against the Finance Ministry’s proposed bitcoin ban bill, Moiseev has now told reporters that bitcoin poses no threat. This, despite comments by Russia’s Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin who claimed that bitcoin posed “ a real threat to the financial stability of Russia”, in 2016.

In statements reported by TASS, the deputy finance minister stated:

So far, we decided just to watch carefully how it is developing. We decided that teh Central Bank and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service should monitor cryptocurrency for Russia’s economic security. So far, these agencies believe that there is nothing critical [as a threat] in it. That means that they [the threats] may appear in the future, but now they do not exist.

The comments represent a remarkable turnaround for an official who vehemently pushed for the approval of the bitcoin ban bill through the Russian house of Parliament. One draft of the ban infamously proposed a 7-year prison term for bitcoin use in Russia, less than a year ago.

Ban No More

In statements echoing those made by the Minister of Finance, deputy chairwoman of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova has separately stated that the central bank will not be taking prohibitive measures with the use of bitcoin.

In statements reported by regional publication CryptoRussia, the central bank official stated:

With Bitcoin – a private currency, it became clear that [regulation] was not simple. Regulators and authorities agree that they would not like to specifically prohibit [Bitcoin]. [We] would instead like to understand it and on this basis build a regulatory framework.

The telling statements come within months of Moiseev stating that the ban proposal was on hold. While bitcoin could possibly see regulation in Russia, the adoption, mining or use of the cryptocurrency will no longer be considered a criminal offence.