Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town 2025

Can bitcoin fix one of the poorest countries in Africa where 72% of people live on less than $2.15 per day and about 85% live without any access to electricity?

When I moved to Malawi ten years ago the local Kwacha currency was about 450 to the dollar and is now trading above 3,000 (1,751 if you ask the central bank). There are frequent and sudden devaluations (the last one in November 2023 was 44% overnight) and we’re all bracing for another one soon. Meanwhile interest rates on savings are capped at 4% but inflation is officially 40%. Unsurprisingly, few save in Kwacha, and dollars are scarce and highly regulated.

The country now has <0.5 months of dollars for import cover, leading to chronic fuel shortages, industry grinding to a halt, and rampant inflation. Even the staple food, maize, becomes monetised, a better store of value than the Kwacha. In town, people store value in land, bricks and mortar, pushing prices ever higher. In rural areas, livestock is preferred, with goats outnumbering adults. But this ‘store of value’ eats everything and so new trees never grow to replace those felled for making bricks and charcoal, leaving poor soils and no defence against storms, a disaster in a country where 85% of people depend on agriculture for survival.

It’s hard to imagine a place where the destructive power of fiat money is more evident, or where bitcoin is needed more. But this novel solution is ignored by the donors and NGOs who have created their own lucrative industry of programme built upon programme that just happen to leave the vast majority trapped in endless poverty while productivity declines and disasters hit harder.

In this talk I will set out how bitcoin offers a brighter future for Malawi and the work Bitcoin Boma is doing to make this a reality.