The price collapse of “black gold” locked Nigerians into their economy.Now, “digital gold” is providing some Nigerians with a way out.Only three years ago, crude oil cost over $100 a barrel.But that peak came tumbling down.Throughout 2014 and 2015, oil prices took an almost unprecedented plunge to the $30 range, and is currently trading around $50 a barrel.As the lifeblood of Africa’s largest economy, Nigerian income from exports plunged with it.Faced with dwindling foreign currency reserves, Nigeria’s central bank was quick to impose capital controls.Whole industries were banned from importing goods; the Nigerian president wanted businesses to buy their products from domestic suppliers.Instead, this policy led to widespread shortages of raw materials, machine parts and supermarket products.Additionally, foreign currency–denominated Nigerian bank cards had strict spending limits imposed, preventing Nigerians from shopping abroad or paying overseas school fees.Nigeria initially refused to devalue its currency, the naira (NGN), which was pegged to the U.S.

However, that led to black market rates for U.S.dollars, increasing to levels almost double that of the official figures.As of June 2016, the naira exchange rate was finally allowed to float.As a result, the national currency fell by about 40 over the last year, according to official figures.Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bitcoin is gaining ground.Tim Akinbo is a 35-year-old software developer and Bitcoin enthusiast from Nigeria, and the only person in West Africa running a full node.“There’s been quite some interest in bitcoin use in Nigeria recently,” he told Bitcoin Magazine.The devaluation of the national currency is an obvious reason, as bitcoin serves as a hedge in that respect.But companies have also started to use bitcoin for imports.Either through companies like BitPesa, or individually.This has regularly topped 400 million NGN ($1.2 million) per week, more than the entire eurozone combined.Moreover, the bitcoin exchange rate even reached some 500,000 NGN ($1,600) on Nigerian exchanges recently; similar premiums were previously seen in other countries faced with capital controls or monetary woes, like China and India.Other figures show similar trends.

Of all countries, Nigeria tops the Google trend charts for most “Bitcoin” searches.bitcoin billionaire ads — reported significant relative growth in downloads from the African country: new installs in some cases increased around 2000% since October.fbi steals bitcoin, and speaking to Bitcoin Magazine he confirmed this sentiment.“Wallet downloads from Nigeria were only topped by the United States and India.china bitcoin mining farmFor a developing country that’s not known to be very tech savvy, with relative high illiteracy, and that has less inhabitants than countries like China, Indonesia or Brazil, that had us very surprised,” De La Torre told Bitcoin Magazine.bitcoin next reward half

“We’re now in the process of setting up a meetup in Lagos, which already has 130 members signed up in three weeks.bitcoin exchange latviaI think Bitcoin interest in Nigeria is growing exponentially.”Though, it seems there’s also a significantly more depressing explanation for the Bitcoin surge.Unfortunately, a largely illiterate populace hit with an economic downturn proved a fertile breeding ground for large-scale Ponzi schemes.bitcoin dash moneroThe most famous of these, MMM, swept through several African countries over the past couple of years, including South Africa, Zimbabwe and — indeed — Nigeria.ethereum rewardSimilar, perhaps even bigger schemes, have been “successful” in Nigeria, too.“People were promised incredible returns on their investment if they’d put their money in these pyramid schemes,” Akinbo said.choi bitcoin nhu the nao

“And a couple months ago, some of these schemes introduced the option to fund and receive payments with bitcoin.kill alien bitcoinUnfortunately — or fortunately depending on how you see it — a number of these schemes went bust toward the end of the year.A lot of people lost money in these schemes, and the few Ponzis that survived aren’t doing so well.”Perhaps unsurprisingly, financial regulators in Nigeria have started to take note as well.In a letter from the Nigerian central bank, addressed at financial institutions and virtual currency operations, bitcoin is listed in one breath with MLM scheme OneCoin.The central bank warned it may “address the Money Laundering / Terrorism Financing (ML/TF) risks associated with [digital currency] exchanges,” in order to “protect the integrity of the Nigerian financial system.”“While these Ponzi schemes were bad news, they did expose many Nigerians to bitcoin for the first time.

Bitcoin took a slight dip in trading volume and price but surprisingly continued to trade even after the demise of a number of the major schemes.I think we will see these Ponzi schemes disappear over time, while bitcoin might just stick around …”The demand for Bitcoin has surged skywards in the African nation of Nigeria.The country’s weekly Bitcoin exchange volumes since mid-December 2016 have increased to more than NGN 400 million, which is close to $1.3 million.The increasing demand for cryptocurrency in Nigeria was reported by a leading African tech magazine.The magazine makes use of the available data from LocalBitcoins — a peer to peer Bitcoin marketplace to present its case.The Nigerian cryptocurrency community has access to multiple Bitcoin platforms, and LocalBitcoins is just one among them.The Bitcoin demand among Eurozone nations on the platform is found to be on par with that of Nigeria’s volumes.The increase in demand also coincides with the increasing traffic from the region.

Website data indicate that over 16% of visitors on LocalBitcoins are from Nigeria.Even the internet search trends in the country show a significant increase in Bitcoin-related searches.The publication speculates multiple reasons for such an increase.The increasing use of internet and technology in the region is one of the reasons leading to a progressive increase in cryptocurrency usage among Nigerians.The first reason seems quite harmless, but the one that follows is a bit of a concern.The most infamous Ponzi scheme, MMM is gathering steam in the region.Many investors continue to ignore multiple warnings issued by various national and international bodies and invest in MMM.With the Ponzi scheme supporting Bitcoin investments, there is a probability of some people buying Bitcoin from LocalBitcoins and other platforms to invest in it.Also, acceptance of Bitcoin as a mode of payment is increasing in the country.Platforms like Bitpesa are already promoting the use of digital currency for not just domestic but also international transactions.