17 Oct Online Payments And Decentralized 2019 - Bringing Together The Worlds Of African Mobile Money with Digital Currencies, Blockchain and Smart Contracts

Posted at 11:15h

We’re off to Decentralized 2019 to explore the new world of online payments as it relates to blockchain and digital currencies across Africa.  Decentralized Athens 2019 is hosted by the University of Nicosia who have a number of firsts in the world of digital currencies, smart contracts and blockchain.   University of Nicosia is the first university in the world to present an MSc in Digital Currency, the first university to accept Bitcoin as payment for their degree, and the first to publish diplomas on the blockchain for instant verification and authentication.

There is a great lineup of guest speakers including some bleeding edge online payments related founders and experts like Bill Barhydt of Abra and Adam Back of  Blockstream, both of which are transforming the world of online payments, digital assets, money, eWallets and transacting.  

Decentralized is Europe’s premier conference on blockchain and digital currencies. Decentralized 2019 brings together the leading global business executives and academic experts to debate and shape our digital future.

There are a number of parallels between Africa’s mobile money story, and crypto.  In the absence of financial services that meet the needs of the populous, and the leapfrogging of Africans to mobile, created the opportunity for the widespread and competitive mobile money ecosystem that pervades the Africa continent.

In a similar way the fact that the current world financial system is leaning out of alignment with the needs of the people, has created the gap and opportunity to build more relevant decentralised systems of blockchain, smart contracts and digital currencies that better serve the businesses and people of today.  

Both of these developments have far reaching consequences for financial inclusion in developed markets which have to date largely been left out of the global economic system.

This impetus may facilitate a bringing together of these two worlds of mobile monies like M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Tigo Cash, Vodafone Cash and MTN Mobile Money as some of the main participants, with new developments in digital currencies, distributed ledgers and smart contracts into a system of interoperable eWallets that are common to both.  These two worlds live together quite comfortably.

If you want to be relevant and up to date with your payment collection across the African continent, please contact us now at African Payment Solutions.  We can accept card and mobile money for you and are exploring the most appropriate digital currency systems which will be available to you as and when they reach a level of critical mass.