[Cryptography] What has Bitcoin achieved?

[William Muriithi]

>
> Cash issued by anyone except the government is beyond most people's
> minds, but it works and exists, it has existed for a long time, and you
> don't have to go far to find it.
>
> The point I think that you're missing here is that people accept that
> which works.  In Kenya they have a thing called mPesa which is mobile
> money on the phone.  It works.  It is issued by a telco.  Nobody there
> really questions it (except the banks) ... because it works.
>

I wouldn't say that mPesa is issued by telco (Safaricom). Its based on
Kenya shillings.  One just open an account and put the Kenya currency on
the account. Its this currency that Kenya use for trading.

I like to look at it more like moneygram - a mean of transferring cash -
unlike bitcon which is a currency by its own right in my opinion. I doubt
it would be that widely used if its more like bitcoin.

> If there is any mystification, it surrounds why Kenya has it and few
> other countries seem to.  But that doesn't matter, not to them.
>
I think its due to the banks not being available to most people.  They used
to have so many requirements that below average Kenya's wouldn't meet. For
example, a minimum balance.

Then there is safaricom near monopoly. This and duo sim phones mean nearly
every Kenya has safaricom sim card even when they use other telco for daily
communication.  Its very hard for mPesa model to take hold if none if the
telco has more than 2/3 of the market.
>
> >
William
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