Some days, being a crypto and web 3 enthusiast feels like whispering in a noisy African market. When you see prices rising and all your positions in green, you feel like the genius that holds the key to magic internet money. On the other hand, when prices fall and all positions are in the red, you feel like a fish that has been taken out of water. You sit down, pray and hope to wake up in the green, or you wait patiently for the bullrun to come and change your fortunes. Being a crypto and web 3 enthusiast is a lonely world in a place where very few care about crypto and fewer even know about the web 3 revolution.

While, I promise that this will be a funny read, I promise I have know intention to degrade anyone but to talk about reals issues affecting crypto adoption in some African regions.

Where I come from crypto is foreign and money conversations are practical

I grew up in a unique part of Africa. Like everything, people are slow to take in new trends and technology. Sometimes, many only become enlightened when everyone else has eaten from the feeding trough and only bread crumbs are left. This makes being an early adopter of crypto a lonely journey in which you may meet skepticism, ridicule and evil eyes.

Where I come from, to most people the world of web 3 is a foreign concept. Here, money conversations are very practical. When people talk about money, the conservation revolve around school fees, airtime, the price of food, paying bills and getting loans. If you try to talk about internet money and blockchains during family lunch, you may just get an evil eye or even a broom will break on your head instead of proof of work!

This makes it difficult to have a meaningful conversation on web 3 with anyone, especially people over 35. The moment you try to enlighten people you may become a potential internet scammer or a gambler. Its so lonely to live among people who see anything that involves cryptocurrencies as a potential scammer.

Structural loneliness

Part of the loneliness that you may face may be structural. You can imagine the fact that if you talk about a digital wallet many people will put reference to mobile money not a crypto wallet. These kinds of wallets use USSD codes and need no internet to work. This wallet works, it allows people to receive money and withdraw, and it works. For many this kind of wallet is enough for their everyday needs. However, the truth is that even with these developments it's not enough. 

You will find out that even though network coverage has improved  in many parts of Africa, it's still a far cry from their Asian or European counterparts. Where coverage is available the costs of capable devices and internet may be very high for the general public.
This makes it difficult to even think about onboarding the general public into cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Recently, I even tried to mentor a few people who had shown interest, and we started having attendance problems for online sessions. It came down to their inability to keep up with data costs which are pretty high as compared to the income of the average person. The training is free but few people come because the rest have challenges accessing adequate data.

Since there are fewer people who can afford adequate internet in average communities, this becomes a barrier for most to enter the crypto world.

Yes, you now have internet but what about power

While internet challenges are a bigger barrier, they come much later. One of the biggest challenges in many African countries is unreliable electricity supplies. You cannot jump to learn about crypto wallets when you do not even have reliable power to charge your phone. Imagine placing a trade when your phone battery is at 1%, then it switches off before you place stoploss and take profit orders, then waiting three days with no power. The situation is much worse if it's the rainy season.

While the situation has been made better by reduced costs for smaller domestic solar panels, still not everyone can afford even these low cost solar panels. Sometimes, your network base station can go for days with no power so this means no network or internet. Vandalism and theft of electrical cables and infrastructure can make communities stay in the dark for days. While this does not affect every country, remote communities are hit the hardest. 

With these challenges, you find very few people adopting advanced forms of technology like blockchain and web 3. The rest are busy worrying about the most immediate challenges such as working for food, dealing with network and internet challenges.

Crypto adoption is there and its very real but

After listening to all this you may imagine a savage country side which still uses barter trade to transact. You are very wrong, because even though there are challenges, the crypto revolution is creeping in but rather slowly even in remote communities. It's not uncommon to go to the country and see a random 18 year old holding a smartphone with cracked screen, checking their crypto portfolio but the numbers are low.

Crypto and web 3 adoption is real in many communities but it's very uneven. Chainanalysis  shows that Africa remains the smallest crypto economy by volume. This is what makes being a crypto enthusiast a lonesome journey. However, Nigeria is the leading adopter of crypto currencies in Africa, followed by Kenya and South Africa.

Adoption is strongly influenced by the policies by each government. South Africa now licences crypto providers under financial products and rules while Kenya introduced  a tax on digital asset transfers. These are welcome developments that at least show that governments at least acknowledge the existence of crypto.  In Zimbabwe, the central bank maintains an aggressive stance against cryptocurrencies and urges the public to approach them with caution. This has resulted in many people maintaining negative stances against crypto.

Lack of knowledge on crypto and web 3 benefits prevents adoption

We would think that people in the diaspora would lead in crypto adoption in sub Saharan Africa but that has not been the case. It is estimated that remittances to the region still cost around 7.9% per $200 dollar transfer according to the world bank. With the government encouraging crypto adoption, this would cut them by 3 to 5% if not less. However, for this to be practical, crypto  on and offramps have to be strongly regulated, safe, regulated and convenient or no family will trust them. The thing is only enthusiasts are able to manage seed phrases and price swings.

If this process of seed phrases and on/offramping cannot be simplified for the general public, then they will keep preferring to walk to their mobile wallet and remittance agents to get their money.

Scammers killed the plot for us and crypto now faces strong ridicule and negativity 

It's not cultural that many people in sub Saharan Africa tend to ridicule crypto and see it in a negative perspective. The problem is that a lot of bad actors ruined the field for us by burning through the trust of the people with scams and lies.

It's possible that anyone you meet has either been scammed or knows someone who has been scammed, if not they have heard a story. Scammers target people on social media platforms like X and Facebook. They will promise them the world  and massive returns then disappear with the bags soon after.

Now, by the time Mr Lonely Enthusiast came with the correct education, knowledge and advice, the damage has already been done and they will only meet closed doors.

What would make the lonely crypto road less lonely in Africa

• Establishment of clear and consistent rules by authorities. The Nigerian government approach allowed banks to service licensed virtual asset firms while setting boundaries to reduce gray areas. People tend to adopt what looks legitimate.
• Improving the fundamentals that allow easier access to crypto first before bringing crypto could help. Governments should help improve internet coverage, reduce data costs and improve access to technology like smartphones at affordable prices.
• Fair and predictable taxes help in shaping the behaviour of crypto users. Sensible tax rules will make adoption appealing.
• Educating people about scams before anything else. People should be taught in simple language so that they are able to spot offers that are too good to be true. 
• Utilising the power of social platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook to disseminate the correct information.

Conclusion

So, yes in such a scenario, it can be very lonely to be a crypto enthusiast. This is especially true in areas where electricity and network are a luxury, data is precious and trust is so hard to win. However, loneliness is not the same as being alone. From the streets of Nairobi, to Lagos, via Harare to Capetown, more people are choosing crypto convenience, education and technology for their daily lives. If we keep that progress and bring more people to the web 3 and crypto space; then maybe I will not receive a hard broom on my head when I talk about crypto during family lunch in the future.

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