Author: Staff

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Business

South African Retail Chain To Start Accepting Crypto Payments

Pick n Pay, which is one of South Africa’s largest supermarket chains, has revealed that it is now allowing customers to pay with bitcoin (BTC) using any Lightning Network-enabled app.

The Lightning Network is a layer 2 scaling tool for the Bitcoin blockchain that reduces the time it takes to send a transaction and that is also much cheaper than the main Bitcoin network, making it more appealing to merchants.

According to The South African Sunday Times, the payment option was experimented with for five months in 10 locations before becoming available in 39 retailers nationwide.

Pick n Pay stated that the transactions will be as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Additionally, customers scan a QR code from the app and accept the rand conversion rate on their smartphone at the time of the transaction. The service fee for each transaction is minimal, costing the customer on average 70c, and taking less than 30 seconds.

Furthermore, Pick n Pay has now extended the pilot to a further 29 stores for testing with customers, with the intention to roll it out to all stores in the coming months.

Some of the Pick n Pay store locations piloting the service include Langeberg Mall, Mosselbay, Sedgefield, Stellenbosch Central, Stellenbosch Square, Paarl Mall, Willowbridge, Local Big Bay, Table Bay Mall, Cavendish, Kenilworth, Kenilworth Campus, Kenilworth Pam Golding, Seapoint, Waterfront, Mall of Africa, Mall of the North, Mall of the South, Menlyn Mall, Nelspruit (Mbombela), PnP on Nicol, Liberty Midlands Mall, The Pavilion, Tshwane Mall, Beacon Bay, Uitenhage (Kariega), Bedfordview, Centurion, Fourways Mall, PnP Qualisave Carlton Centre, PnP Qualisave Diepsloot, PnP, Qualisave Midrand, PnP Qualisave Rustenburg, and PnP Qualisave Commercial Road among others.

According to Pick n pay, while for many years crypto was something for specialists on their computers, or used by early adopters trying it out, things are changing. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s recent announcement has paved the way for cryptocurrency to be used as a mainstream method of payment.

Pick n Pay group IT Executive Chris Shortt also commented, “This new technology means we can provide an affordable service for high volume, low-value transactions that will promote financial inclusion in South Africa.” 

The grocery chain has also partnered with Electrum and CryptoConvert for its latest pilot. Electrum’s payment platform connects Cryptoconvert and Pick n Pay, letting customers pay with the bitcoin lightning technology at the till point.

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Business

Binusu exchange launches its P2P platform

Peer-to-peer (P2P) trading is a great way to invest in cryptocurrency markets. According to experts, it has revolutionalized how crypto traders interact with each other. With this growing trend, local exchange platform, Binusu exchange has launched its Binusu P2P platform to present its users with a new experience as the new month begins.

The official announcement was made on October 31st, 2022, live on a Twitter spaces chat that hosted different industry experts including Ronald Arinde, Business momentum manager at Binusu exchange, Derrick Ochago, an avid crypto trader, and Brindon Bamwiine, founder of Skill Haven. The crypto experts discussed how P2P trading works and how crypto traders and enthusiasts can benefit from it.

Enlightening us about his P2P journey, Derrick Ochago emphasized that P2P is about seizing the opportunity. He said, “When it comes to crypto P2P, it’s really about opportunity. You see an opportunity and then you decide. “I’ve been fortunate that by virtue of the nature of my work, I have been exposed to getting to see various cryptocurrencies and also getting to understand the limitations and opportunities that are available.”

Speaking about how one can earn money from P2P trading, Derrick emphasizes that it is about understanding the basic principles of trading such as being able to know when and at how much you can buy and when to sell.  

“Let’s say you realize that Bitcoin is selling for a certain price, you buy it really quickly and then you notice that in a place like Uganda, people are looking to buy that Bitcoin. You then come back and create an account and then you attempt to sell that Bitcoin at a slightly higher price.” 

He further stated that one has to maximize the demand, however, one has to make sure that one’s price is competitive so as to get buyers more often and the more orders you get, the more profit you earn.

According to Ronald, the Binusu P2P product is not exclusively designed for crypto traders and investors, it is also for novice crypto enthusiasts.

Brindon Bamwiine also pointed out that the P2P platform will simplify how trading works especially for beginners.

He said, “Not only does it allow you to buy or sell cryptocurrency directly with another person, but it also lets you avoid some of the transaction fees that come with traditional exchanges. Additionally, Binusu will avail mentors that can guide you through the process making it easy for learners to participate in P2P trading.”

The Binusu P2P platform comes with an advantage of 0% commission on all trades for the whole month of November.

Since its inception, Binusu exchange has been on a mission to offer the best user experience for crypto traders in Uganda. The exchange platform introduced new product features at the beginning of August including Binusu v1.5 (OTC) platform, trading platform v2.0, DeFi services, and a USSD platform among others. 

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Business

Binance launches the oracle network to power Web3 and BNB Chain Ecosystem

Binance has launched Binance Oracle, a decentralized Web3 Oracle, a data feed network that connects real-world data to blockchain smart contracts. The Binance Oracle will enable smart contracts to run on real-world inputs and outputs, starting with the BNB Chain ecosystem.  

The Binance Oracle will be a valuable addition to the scalable BNB Chain infrastructure, providing a way for 1,400 decentralized applications and Web3 ecosystem partners to access existing data sources and advanced computations.

According to Binance, the BNB Chain will be the first blockchain to use Binance Oracle to connect smart contracts with off-chain data to retrieve or send out information for better usability.

Furthermore, the early bird program has begun, and over ten BNB Chain projects have already integrated with the Binance Oracle network. Binance Oracle is chain-agnostic and will eventually support more blockchains as well.

Commenting on Binance oracle and the opportunities therein, Investment Director at BNB Chain, Gwendolyn Regina said,

“The new internet is in the process of evolving into well-connected smart contracts. Using oracles to dramatically increase the smart contract’s knowledge of what’s going on outside of the blockchain, allowing it to respond to external events with specified actions will be crucial. Binance Oracle will emerge as a significant contributor to Web3 by offering a stable, reliable, and efficient Oracle network with comprehensive accuracy and accessibility features.”

Binance also emphasizes that the Binance Oracle index prices are checked for correctness and consistency using smart algorithms and all components operate in either a hot-warm or a hot-hot design and Recovery Time Objective is nearly zero.

Because each regional area has its own infrastructure, the system as a whole is impervious to regional disasters. A robust data monitoring architecture is implemented to deliver real-time alerts and reactions.

Binance Oracle achieves the highest level of reliability via the use of five resilient components: sourcing price data from many CEXs and aggregate prices using an intelligent algorithm and using internal TSS (Threshold Signature Scheme) to sign individual data feeds. It feeds the most recent index price to the on-chain oracle, allowing for a customizable time frame or price variation and providing a variety of simple interfaces to on-chain DApps, as well as 24*7 data monitoring and quick response.

For each data feed, the network uses the Threshold Signature Scheme. This distributed signature technique ensures that there isn’t a single point of failure in data security, leading to higher safety. Additionally, during the data feeding process, the legitimacy of the data will be confirmed numerous times using the Binance public key, providing assurance that the data has not been altered.

An oracle bridges the blockchain and the real world. These oracles facilitate the entry of real-world data into the blockchain. This information might range from pricing information to weather forecasts. Oracles can also be bidirectional, allowing them to “send” data to the outside world.

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Business

Orbit Community In Uganda Hosts NFT meetup

It has become impossible to ignore the excitement around NFTs these days. They have profoundly impacted a wide range of industries including the arts, sports, fashion, music, and others. Furthermore, NFTs are making a significant impact in the business world by allowing them to create a digital proof of ownership, and better yet have transference to different experiences that they can offer their customers.

Because of this growing adoption and enthusiasm for NFTs, the Orbit Community Uganda, which is part of the Filecoin Africa ecosystem, in partnership with Adafrolabs labs and Yellow Card Financial Limited hosted the “NFT Mania 2022” on October 30th at MOTIV Uganda.

The exciting info session and meetup which hosted over 70 participants was aimed at enlightening creators and artists about the world of NFTs, digital art, and its benefits and more so introduce them to free decentralized storage and bandwidth of NFTs on IPFS and Filecoin.

Speaking about how such open events can unlock the potential of NFTs in Uganda, Eng. David Lumala, a Blockchains Software Architect said, 

“I feel that with this event, we have blown the whistle for artists to start looking at the international market and understand the overall merits of having digital art sales. Additionally, I believe realtors and creative agents have now realized that NFTs can swiftly speed up their business.

He added, ” Ugandans aren’t so informed about NFTs as yet but are curious about them. However, more efforts are required to create awareness, incentives need to be put in place to encourage more people as many don’t yet fully appreciate the emerging technologies. Also, we need to involve higher institutions of learning to adopt this technology and better yet include it in their core college syllabus.

While Uganda’s stance on digital assets is clear, David believes that the NFT regulatory framework in particular is still lacking.

He said, “As a country, we should come up with a clear regulatory framework on digital assets and NFTs just like other countries such as Kenya and South Africa, have done.  As it stands, nothing definitive in the NFTs class is available in Uganda, possibly because the technology is still new and ever-evolving.”

Conclusively, while non-fungible tokens continue to explode to the forefront of modern pop culture and continue to take on an ever-increasing number of forms, we continue to keep an eye on any upcoming regulatory developments.

The NFT Mania was concluded with art exhibitions and networking.

Categories
Social Good

Emsany launches an NFT initiative to revive the Dahomey warriors’ heritage

NFT marketplace, Emsany recently unveiled the launch of its Dahomey Initiative as part of its efforts to highlight African heritage through NFTs. It comprises an art competition, a metaverse exhibition, and a series that highlights the female soldiers of the Dahomey kingdom found in Benin, West Africa.

Since the inception of its NFT Marketplace, Emsany is the first of its kind that addresses the needs of afro creators. The NFT marketplace identified the need to commemorate African heritage and therefore leveraged the use of NFTs to solve that issue.

Anas El Arras, Founder and CEO of Emsany said, “With this initiative, Emsany strives to increase recognition of African culture and history and the role of women in shaping the past, the present, and the future of African societies.”

Mikael Naciri, Co-Founder and Senior Advisor of Emsany added, “We are delighted to announce that we will dedicate a percentage of proceeds from sales of any Emsany’s Dahomey Initiative-related artwork and NFTs to social initiatives promoting women’s inclusion in Benin, the land that, once upon a time, The Warriors of Dahomey conquered.”

Emsany’s Dahomey Initiative began with the organization of an NFT Art Contest, which encourages the community of African artists to create authentic artwork inspired by the legendary tales of Dahomey Warriors so that everyone continues remembering them as a symbol of femininity and bravery.

The contest is open to the general public and aims to examine the creativity of the artists in relation to the suggested theme. The submissions for Emsany’s Dahomey NFT Art Contest will be judged by a panel of professionals in many artistic disciplines, including crypto-art and fine arts.

Following the competition, the top fifty NFTs created during the art competition will be displayed in Emsany’s Dahomey Metaverse Gallery. The showcase which is set to happen in December, will also highlight how the Metaverse enables organizing art galleries in a distinctive setting with a wide range of possibilities.

In parallel to the contest, Emsany will be holding a series of talks about the impact of female warriors on the development and empowerment of African women, featuring notable guests who will share their success stories with the community.

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Business

Mara launches crypto wallet service in Nigeria and Kenya

Over 2 million users in Nigeria and Kenya are set to be onboarded to the Mara cryptocurrency wallet. The digital wallet was recently backed by Coinbase Ventures and FTX-affiliated Alameda Research through a seed round investment of $23 million.

The crypto wallet has a few signed-up users in Nigeria, however, a portion of the waitlist will be onboarded through an invite-only process that started on October 27th. The onboarding of users in Kenya will follow. 

Through its app, the Mara wallet will provide cryptocurrency brokerage services, enabling users to buy, send, sell, and withdraw both fiat money and cryptocurrency. Additionally, the app will give users access to learning materials on managing personal finances and cryptocurrencies.

Launching alongside the wallet is the Mara Foundation, a nonprofit intended to drive blockchain and sustainable development in Africa. The foundation is also partnered with USD Coin and Euro Coin (EUROC) to drive the uptake of the stablecoins.

Web3 and blockchain development are also a focus of the project, with Mara aiming to train 1 million developers on the continent. The first effort to drive this goal was a hackathon dubbed “Hack the Mara,” whose aim was to build payment solutions to support Kenya’s Maasai communities and improve the financial sustainability of conservation projects. The conservation projects include the Maasai Mara, a large ecological and wildlife conservation area in Kenya. 

The three winning teams out of 24 local developers from the Hack the Mara competition were awarded a share of $100,000 in prizes as well as entry into a startup accelerator program to continue their product development.

The organization also intends to launch a learning community with free educational materials on financial literacy, cryptocurrencies, Web3, and blockchain education in a variety of languages. With their certificates, Mara Academy graduates will be able to instruct and guide other program participants.

The project also hopes to introduce Mara Chain, a proprietary layer-1 blockchain system designed to support decentralized apps. Before the end of 2022, the blockchain platform is expected to launch.

Categories
Social Good

Gluwa set to improve Lagos agricultural sector through blockchain technology

Blockchain infrastructure platform Gluwa is partnering with the Lagos State government to transform the agricultural sector. The move will enable the digitization of agricultural assets, making it easier for farmers in the region to obtain finance.

The Lagos State Ministries of Agriculture, Finance, Science, and Technology as well as the Lands Bureau will be involved in the project. These organizations will facilitate the conversion of actual farms into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in an effort to give all farmers in Lagos state access to loans secured by digital assets.

Gluwa CEO, Tae Oh said, “Agriculture is one of the backbones of the Nigerian economy, with 35% of the population in its employ. It must be modernized for the government and the private sector to realize its full potential and attendant benefits.”

He added, “According to the five-year Lagos State Agricultural and Food Systems roadmap, where the sector is projected to generate upwards of $10B by 2025, it will be of immense value for agricultural assets to be identified, recorded, and traded using innovative blockchain technology.”

Speaking at the launch, the Lagos Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, noted that the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu aims to make Lagos State fully self-sufficient in the areas of wealth generation, value creation, food security, and industrialization of the agricultural sector.

Olusanya further stated that the administration’s strategies for sustainable agricultural development focus on three pillars of growing the upstream sector. This will be achieved through leveraging technologies that can lower the cost of production of value chains, focus on growing the midstream and downstream sectors that are of value, and improve on private sector participation by developing and initiating policies that will encourage more private investments in agriculture.

Gluwa is an open finance platform that connects capital from developed markets to emerging market lending opportunities using blockchain technology. By providing the decentralized infrastructure rails to raise and disburse capital anywhere in the world, investors can use the Gluwa Invest platform to partake in debt-financing deals with emerging market fintech lenders, earning up to 15% APY.

Categories
Social Good

Polygon launches blockchain for social impact through Impact Plus and Adanian Labs

Polygon in partnership with Impact Plus and Adanian Labs held a blockchain for social impact event that focused on bridging the gap between blockchain and social impact to foster innovation and economic development.

Jofre Rocabert, a team member at Impact Plus stated, “The key to success in our world today is a partnership and we believe social impact is one of the major driving forces of a sustainable and thriving economy.” 

He added, “It aims to impact the Nigerian economy by providing the necessary support and access to resources by partnering with innovation hubs, startups, and social impact organizations all aimed at solving Africa’s most pressing needs.”

The event’s highlight was a panel discussion anchored by Adanian Labs Country Head, Killian Mayua with speakers from various verticals in the industry such as Ajo Afolabi-Balogun, Chief People Officer, JobRed, Lola Kogbodoku, Health Boxes, Bukola Gbemi, Co-Founder CodeLab and more.

Polygon is a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform that enables developers to build scalable user-friendly Apps with low transaction fees without ever sacrificing security. It is committed to fostering the growth of Web3 applications by providing the infrastructure needed for Web3.

The network recently partnered with Seychelles-based Crypto exchange, KuCoin, to provide users with the best experience.

The Head of KuCoin Wallet, Jeff Haul, commented on the partnership saying, “We are excited to work with Polygon, which has been dedicated to building a thriving ecosystem and continuously expanding its technical capabilities. With its scalability, speed, and low network fees, we attempt to provide the best experience for our users.”

Categories
Opinions

Less than 0.5% of Nigerians are using the digital currency a year after the launch

As Nigeria commemorated the e-naira’s first anniversary on October 25, critics have claimed that the average Nigerians have still not embraced Africa’s first central bank digital currency (CBDC). 

They highlight the relatively small number of downloads for the e-naira wallet in addition to the still-expanding use of cryptocurrencies for money transfers and international payments.

Between January and June this year, peer-to-peer bitcoin traded volumes on Paxful alone amounted to nearly $400 million. The figure is more than half the $760 million that was recorded in the whole of 2021. According to Paxful, Nigerians were resorting to cryptocurrencies and peer-to-peer trading platforms because they provide an opportunity for financial inclusion.

Yet, despite the apparent snub of the CBDC by Nigerians so far, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is still projecting an eightfold increase in the number of e-naira wallet downloads. The central bank hopes to achieve this via the use of various initiatives that include enabling the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) functionality to the wallet app.

The CBN has also engaged payment service providers like fintech giant Flutterwave, which has since added the e-naira to its list of payment options for merchants. In one of its latest moves aimed at boosting the use of the CBDC, the central bank is offering a 5% discount to drivers and passengers of motorized rickshaws that pay with the e-naira.

The onboarding of banking consumers and merchants is consistent with phase two activities of the central bank’s delayed implementation of the CBDC, according to a statement made by Bitt, the CBN’s technology partner.

In the third stage, the CBN said it will seek to onboard the Nigerian Trade and Exchange platform. This phase will also include sector-specific tokens for grants and subsidies as well as programmable payments for e-naira payment scenarios.

Remarking on the occasion to mark the CBDC’s anniversary, Brian Popelka, the CEO of Bitt stated,

“This year has been full of firsts for Africa. Being the first provides the opportunity to become the first to find solutions and chart the course for others to follow. Today’s one-year milestone is an exceptional achievement for both the Central Bank of Nigeria and Bitt teams.”

He added, “We look forward to continued partnership on this CBDC deployment journey and to provide additional features to expand eNaira’s value to all Nigerians and everyone, everywhere.”

However, Popelka and the CBN’s optimism is not shared by everyone. With Nigeria facing ongoing foreign exchange shortages, Adesoji Solanke, one of the critics, just like his fellow Nigerians, hoped the e-naira would turn out to be a stable alternative to the depreciating naira.

According to Bloomberg, Solanke insisted the CBN’s digital currency does not address any of these basic use cases, so there should be no surprise at its low adoption rates so far.

Meanwhile, Kingsley Obiora, the Deputy Governor at the CBN, is quoted in the report suggesting that a little push from the Government is needed if the CBDC is to take off. 

Additionally, Josh Lipsky, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Geoeconomics Center, reportedly said both the central bank and Government must be involved in efforts aimed at helping more Nigerians become acquainted with the CBDC.

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Business

Central Bank of Turkey Plans To Launch A CBDC In 2023

Turkey’s Presidential Annual Program for 2023, was presented on Monday by the Presidential Strategy and Budget Directorate and it included a discussion about the country adopting a central bank digital currency.

According to the program, Turkey is poised to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year. 

The announcement came after Turkey’s central bank announced in September 2021 that it was considering issuing a CBDC to complement its existing payments infrastructure, in a project entitled “Central Bank Digital Turkish Lira Research and Development.”

The Balance of Payments section of the project, under the sub-heading of Policies and Measures, stated that a blockchain-based central bank digital currency will be put into practice.

According to the report, Turkey’s Central bank in collaboration with the local Ministry of Finance and Scientific and Technological Research Institution are backing the establishment of the CBDC. 

The Central bank will be at the helm of research and development for the CBDC project, coordinating its testing in partnership with other financial institutions. Additionally, the Digital Turkish Lira Research and Development Project will diversify into areas like blockchain technology, which uses distributed ledgers for payment systems.

According to the report, the Digital Turkish Lira system will be integrated with digital identity and FAST. FAST is a payment system operated by the Turkish central bank.