For the longest time I have been pretty skeptical about
Bitcoins and the Blockchain. I heard about it and felt it was a machination for
advanced economies! In much the same way, Zimbabweans skeptically view any new
policies introduced by our Reserve Bank, ever since the defunct monetary
policies that led to the extinction of the Zimbabwean Dollar back in 2009.
When Bond coins were introduced to try and alleviate change
shortages, the majority of the population got infuriated. At the time, you
could hardly get change in shops, in cents, after a purchase as the Rand coins
we used were not easy to come by and US$ coins were so rare, a lot of people
did not even know what they looked like. I remember a time when you would end
up receiving your cents change’s worth in sweets, matches, pens or even razors,
where you would have preferred the money itself. Despite all this, the nation
was against the bond coins! It was so bad initially that commuter bus operators
and vendors at first would neither accept, nor acknowledge them yet merely 6
months down the line, the bond coin had settled comfortably as if we had been
using it for generations.
The recent news of the introduction of Bond notes sparked
some outrage as expected, but for open minded people, it was an opportunity to
analyze how Zimbabweans are always untrusting at first, yet eventually adopt
that which they were initially unsure of. It is no secret that the use of
Bitcoin in Zimbabwe could prove to be the vice that creates a stable trading
environment. One only needs to read up on Bitcoin and its advantages to realize
this is what Zimbabwe needs.
Bitcoins are to Zimbabwe what Penicillin was to the world in
1942, the medicine for its economic infection. I mean if you critically analyze
it, it is a no brainer really. The most widely recognized currency is the
United States Dollar and Zimbabwe officially adopted it for use a little more
than half a decade ago. The US$ has only one source and that is the United
States of America, a country which, as I quite recently heard, had more sanctions against Zimbabwe than it
did against North Korea up until March this year! How then can we expect
this country’s currency to help solve all our problems for I’m pretty sure if
currency were edible, America would have poisoned it for us, which ironically
they did and I will explain that:
Zimbabwe is currently a net importer, whatever exports we
have are so negligible they are not worth the trouble of mentioning. In
essence, Zimbabwe is on a daily basis bleeding out the currency we are so
desperately trying to cling on to. Imagine a dam that is receiving 10litres of
water from its tributaries per day yet is syphoning out 1000litres a day. In
time, there will be no water left at all, and that is how our economy is
currently short of the US currency. We urgently need influx of this currency
through Foreign Direct Investments but because of the sanctions, even willing
Americans are not able to invest in Zimbabwe, their banks will not enable it.
This is exactly where Bitcoins come in. The technology
behind Bitcoin is decentralized meaning it is not controlled by any one person
or government or even one financial body. In fact, the main engine that drives
this spectacular virtual currently is available on the internet for anyone who
opts to learn how it works. If you learn its intricacies, even YOU can be able
to check out its cylinders, pistons, plugs and all other components as they
turn the world toward a revolutionary Techno age. I have heard people say that
the Bitcoin is the best technological innovation that has happened to the world
since the Internet! However, the Bitcoin technology itself as a driving force
cannot steer the world to the bespoke revolution. That, is accomplished by
functional entities which give it purpose, direction and one such for Zimbabwe
is BitMari. BitMari initially will be offering a way for people in the diaspora
community to directly send money to Zimbabwe and all other African countries as
Bitcoin, which eliminates the dependence we have on the US$. This essentially
means that the American investor who initially could not directly invest in
Zimbabwe because of restrictions by financial institutions now can. Some would
argue he could have gone to Western Union but I will ask you this, when was the
last time you tried US$250 million through Western Union?
Through revolutionary remittance companies leveraging the
Blockchain, like BitMari, such international transactions not only become
possible, but they are also faster, cheaper and overall more transparent. This
is just one use of Bitcoin but there are many other use cases for Zimbabwe if
Bitcoin is officially recognized, as one would merely store the Bitcoins in
their phone wallet instead of this elusive cash and simply use their phone to
make purchases. One could quite literally survive without ever handling cash if
this technology is widely adopted by Zimbabweans as much as they have embraced
the bond coins they were initially against. You could wake up and get in a
kombi to town, transfer the XBT 0.0011 (equivalent to US$0.50) from your wallet
to the Hwindi’s wallet (conductor in commuter omnibus) and when you get off,
decide you wish to buy a fruit, approach a vendor and transfer Bitcoin to their
wallet in like manner. The vendor would also use the same concept to procure
their wares from distributors who in turn acquire their stock from farmers
through Bitcoin. When farmers have access to Bitcoin, it becomes simpler and
more economical for them not only to procure inputs, but to also export their
surplus.
With the little experience I have gained working in the
Bitcoin space, through BitMari, I have come to observe that Zimbabweans are
skeptical of this technology for one reason, that is, they do not understand
it, how it works or how it stands to collectively benefit them. Upon learning
of Bitcoin, each one starts to ask how this will put money into their pocket,
individually and that is how many got mislaid by pyramid schemes and other
unscrupulous Bitcoin leveraging crooks. The question in this case should be;
how will this technology revamp Zimbabwe’s Trading space, the economy
collectively and, by extension yourself? Make no mistake, the performance of
your economy is directly proportional to your very own standard of living. The
better your economy performs, the better off YOU are.
If you know absolutely nothing about Bitcoin, I suggest you
visit Google immediately, search “What is Bitcoin” and get with the program. Bitcoin
isn’t coming, its already here!
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