Blockchain: Beyond the use of cryptocurrency in Africa?
Current data shows that the interest and adoption of blockchain geared towards cryptocurrency to be increasing in countries around the world.
According to the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, at the end of Q2 2020, following a period of little growth, total global adoption stood at 2.5 based on summed up country index scores. At the end of Q2 2021, that total score stands at 24, suggesting that global adoption has grown by over 2300% since Q3 2019 and over 881% in the last year.
However, these cryptocurrency adoptions especially in Africa are predominantly tied to adopters preserving their savings in the face of currency devaluation, sending, and receiving remittances, and in carrying out business transactions.
The adoption of blockchain in other real-world use cases can also have as much impact as cryptocurrencies for the continent of Africa. Africa is ripe and is, a region perfectly suited for real-world use cases.
Most especially around use cases where there is a demand for trust, transparency and traceability, such use cases can include, but not limited to, secure information exchange, digitization of records, asset tracking and management, digital identification, and anti-counterfeiting.
The saying about blockchain being disruptive truly applies to Africa.
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Let’s look at some specific use cases:
Asset Management – Blockchain offers not only security, but an immutable record of all transactions. By distributing records across multiple peers, the odds of a data breach on a central database are eliminated. Data tampering is impossible due to blockchain’s immutability.
Trading and Settlement – Intermediaries involved in the settlement of trades also add to the cost of doing business. Blockchain technology’s potential can be examined in trade execution and settlement. Distributed ledgers will reduce the need of intermediaries in trade execution, transfer of ownership and settlement.
Governance – Blockchain’s characteristics include transparency, immutability, and decentralization, which makes the case for its potential use in implementing governance especially when it comes to voting.
In conclusion, use cases for blockchain deployment have no limits in Africa and other developing countries. The barriers towards adoption revolve predominantly around its acceptance, understanding its true potential and the courage to take the lead.
Blockchain will change many industries, but Africa will need to embrace it and tap into its potential. It’s simply a matter of time.
