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Business

Safaricom Ethiopia Gets License To Setup M-Pesa

Ethiopia, the second-most populated country in Africa, now has Safaricom Ethiopia’s network and services operational. The telecom network had a launch ceremony that was graced by Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, and Kenyan President, William Ruto, who flew in for the occasion. Also attended were senior Safaricom and Vodacom executives, including Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa, and Vodacom Group CEO, Shameel Josuub.

The highlight of the celebration was the announcement that Ethiopia was also granting the telecommunications provider a license to introduce its successful mobile money service, M-PESA, to the 115 million populace.

M-PESA is anticipated to present Telebirr, the only mobile money provider in Ethiopia that just began operations in May 2021, with fierce competition. Similar to Safaricom, Telebirr is controlled by state-owned telco Ethio Telcom, which served as the only operator prior to the entry of Safaricom in July 2021.

After investing $850 million through a consortium made up of Safaricom PLC, Vodafone Group, Vodacom Group, Sumitomo Corporation, and British International Investment, Safaricom claimed to have completed successful customer network pilots in 10 locations around Ethiopia.

Anwar Soussa, CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia stated, 

“Building on the phased city-by-city customer pilots, we continue to invest in providing network and services to further cities and parts of the country in accordance with the obligations of our Unified Telecommunications Services License.”

The Safaricom network in Ethiopia is currently available in Dire Dawa, Harar, Haramaya, Adama, Bahir Dar, Bishoftu, Mojo, Debre Birhan, Awoday, Gondar, and Addis Ababa.

Safaricom announced that it is providing 4G data, voice, and SMS services for individuals in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as cheap phones for purchase and international calls between Safaricom Ethiopia and Ethio Telecom users.

Safaricom added that the rollout of the national network will proceed and is anticipated to cover 14 more cities by April 2023.

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Business

Dapper Labs Suspends NFT Operations For Russian Users After New EU Sanctions

Dapper Labs, the creators of the Flow blockchain network and projects like Cryptokitties and NBA Top Shot, has complied with the new restrictive measures imposed by the European Union in response to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.

Following the most recent escalation of the war, in which Russia announced a partial mobilization and began taking steps to annex four regions of Ukraine through what the EU views as fraudulent referendums, Brussels adopted the eighth package of EU sanctions on Thursday, October 6.

The penalties, targeting the Russian economy, Government, and foreign trade, also feature financial measures affecting the business activities of crypto companies. The latter have been prohibited from providing any wallet, account, or custody services to Russian nationals.

The limits are more stringent than the fifth series of penalties, which were implemented earlier this year, and only applied to “high-value” crypto-asset services or those for crypto holdings above €10,000 ($11,000 at the time).

Dapper Labs explained, “Our payment processing and stored value service partner is subject to EU regulations and has directed us to take action on all accounts held by those impacted by the Oct. 6 restrictions, consistent with EU law.” 

The company further stated that as a result, it has had to suspend accounts with connections to Russia from the purchase, sale, or gifting of any Moment across all Dapper Sports, any withdrawals from Dapper accounts, and Dapper balance purchases.

However, the NFT platform also made clear that the accounts had not been shut down. Users that are affected can get to them and see their tokens. They will also keep any NFTs they have already bought.

Dapper apologized and guaranteed, “Any Moments you own and any Dapper Balance continue to be your own.”

Other crypto companies with a presence in Europe are likely to adopt similar measures but the restrictions may not affect all global platforms. For example, Binance has reportedly informed users in Russia it did not introduce new restrictions, according to Russian crypto media. That’s despite the world’s largest crypto exchange complying with the previous round of European crypto sanctions.

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Business

India’s Reserve Bank to soon commence pilot project of digital rupee

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced recently that it will soon commence phased pilot launches of a central bank-backed digital rupee for specific use cases. The bank stated this in its released concept paper.

The concept note stated, “RBI has also been exploring the pros and cons of the introduction of CBDCs for some time and is currently engaged in working towards a phased implementation strategy, going step by step through various stages of pilots followed by the final launch, and simultaneously examining use cases for the issuance of its own CBDC (Digital Rupee (e₹)), with minimal or no disruption to the financial system.”

In February, the Indian government stated that a digital rupee will be launched during the course of this financial year. Additionally, the discussion around a central bank-led digital currency has gained traction across a number of countries as cryptocurrencies became popular.

“It is the responsibility of the central bank to provide its citizens with a risk-free central bank digital money which will provide the users the same experience of dealing in currency in digital form, without any risks associated with private cryptocurrencies,” the RBI said.

The bank has also stated that it may take into account both wholesale and retail digital money, claiming that each has advantages.

According to the RBI, a digital currency in its wholesale form might increase the efficiency and security of settlement processes, while a retail e-rupee would provide citizens with a more secure method of making digital payments.

The RBI further noted, “The digital rupee seeks to replicate the features of cash and hence would not pay out interest, unlike bank deposits. It would also provide reasonable anonymity for small value transactions akin to anonymity associated with physical cash.”

The RBI is considering a “token-based” retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) since they are comparable to cash, and a wholesale CBDC  that is “account-based.”

In addition, the e-rupee could be issued via banks as intermediaries. The central bank added that it remains open to different technology options.

The results of the pilot projects will be incorporated into the final design, according to the concept paper.

“A CBDC is aimed to complement, rather than replace, current forms of money and is envisaged to provide an additional payment avenue to users, not to replace the existing payment systems,” the bank said.

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Business

Web3bridge marks 3 years

As we welcome a new week, Web3bridge is also welcoming a new beginning and a new year.

Web3bridge, a program that was established in 2019 to train Web3 developers in Africa, is celebrating its third birthday today. 

Founded by Awosika Israel Ayodeji, a business developer and blockchain educator, the company is working towards building a sustainable web3 economy in Africa through remote and onsite Web3 development training, supporting web3 developers and startups, and lowering barriers to entry into the web3 ecosystem. Most importantly, it is bridging the gap between the web2 and web3 worlds.

Ayodeji was inspired to start Web3bridge after seeing a tweet by Joseph Lubin the co-founder of Consensys about the need to get 1Million Developers into the Ethereum ecosystem. Additionally, prior to the tweet, he had always seen a gap between the blockchain users, the product, and the developers, and an overall low number of blockchain and smart contract  developers in Africa.

Web3bridge has so far hosted over 6 cohorts consisting of 16 weeks of web3 training and has successfully introduced over 880 students to web3 and trained over 1808 in web2 technologies. Most participants have come from Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and India.

Commenting on the company’s achievements Ayodeji stated, “Our proudest moment and biggest achievement are learning that our graduates get to work with amazing teams, or they are a part of the team that built a very great product. Our major achievement will be the number of developers we have been able to add to the ecosystem, and the number of individuals we have been able to directly or indirectly impact on their blockchain journey.”

A few graduates have successfully built sustainable decentralized applications (DApps) and others have successfully joined employment working with global brands such as Aavegotchi, Nahmii, Consensys, Polygon, and Netherminds among others.

Ayodeji noted that Web3bridge is working towards expanding the developers’ ecosystem and better yet, becoming a bigger training institute in the coming years.

He said, “As we clock three, my expectation is for a more robust community of developers. I look forward to having more successful developers trained by Web3bridge. In addition, our goal is to become a technical college for IT where we train all things tech.”

“We are focusing on maintaining the Web3bridge standard, and we will be working toward securing the Web3bridge facility. We believe the Web3bridge facility will allow us to increase the number of developers we are able to train, and we will also improve our support for remote learners across different countries in Africa,” he added.

The training firm recently hosted a three-day web3 conference in Lagos that hosted over 1000 participants in attendance. The conference convened stakeholders, industry experts, and software developers to network and discuss the web3 ecosystem.

According to Web3bridge, beyond celebrating three years of contributions to the Blockchain and Web3 space in Africa and international scenes, one of their core beliefs is that repeated interactions will contribute resourcefully to career growth.

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Business

Brave web browser cuts South Africa off from withdrawing cryptocurrency rewards

Brave, an open-source Chromium-based web browser, has blocked South Africans from withdrawing cryptocurrency rewards obtained by viewing in-app adverts.

Brave offers additional functionality centered on privacy and blockchain technology despite being based on Google’s well-liked Chromium platform. A built-in bitcoin wallet, Brave Shields, a firewall and VPN provided by Brave, and privacy-preserving search are some of them.

Brave announced earlier this year that to withdraw, sell or exchange the Basic Attention Token (BAT) for a different cryptocurrency while using its platform, you must link the browser to one of Brave’s partner providers, Gemini, Uphold, or BitFlyer.

However, BitFlyer is only available to users in Japan, and Gemini restricted new Brave users to the United States at the start of October. This was after Gemini dropped support for several countries in May, including South Africa.

South African withdrawals remained available through Uphold. However, in July, Brave announced that it was restricting the countries that it supports through Uphold to 18 regions.

Brave further announced that those whose Uphold wallets were already linked to Brave could continue to accrue rewards to the platform until they were naturally logged out over time.

By the start of October, when the last few South Africans who might’ve still been logged into Uphold had to reauthenticate, Brave had not yet resolved the issue preventing it from supporting the country.

Brave has been tight-lipped about why it has dropped support for so many countries, however last Friday, Brave Rewards product manager Christopher Nguyen noted on Reddit that one of the main reasons is fraud.

He said, “One reason would be unsustainable patterns of fraud. For instance, it may be very easy to acquire or forge government IDs from certain countries, making them more difficult to support in a sustainable way. Fraudsters are also becoming bolder, broadening their attacks to include a wider set of countries, including ones with strong ID document integrity. Sometimes, business decisions need to be made to ensure the partnership remains sustainable for both Brave and the custodial partner.”

“The particulars of these decisions, i.e., the exact combination of factors, their weights, etc, can only be determined on a case-by-case basis, and is different for each partner,” he added. 

As part of bringing countries back online, Nguyen said Brave Rewards would soon require users to declare their country.

He noted, “This is major in helping us combat the abuse of Brave Rewards that are harming the experience for everyone else, and represents a major step toward allowing us to re-enable a wide set of regions.”

Nguyen advised users whose Brave Rewards were still connected to their Gemini or Uphold accounts not to disconnect even though it says they are logged out.

“Even if it says ‘Logged out’, you’re still considered connected to Gemini (or Uphold) to us, and should still be receiving ad payouts,” he said.

He also pointed out that Brave was working on adding new custodial options.

On Sunday, 9 October 2022, BAT was available at R5.45 per token on the South African cryptocurrency exchange VALR, though one had to buy a minimum of R250 per transaction.

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Business

Meta Hosts 6 Winners Of Future Africa Grant To XR exhibition In Lagos

Meta recently unveiled an exclusive XR exhibition featuring the six finalists and winners from the ‘Future Africa: Telling Stories, Building Worlds’ program, focused on supporting the next generation of Extended Reality (XR) creators in Africa.

Developed in partnership with Africa No Filter, Electric South, and Imisi 3D, this forms a part of Meta’s XR Programs and Research investment into XR talents across Africa.

The finalists have created a variety of immersive digital experiences rooted in African culture across various media formats, including 360 video, AR/VR, and Mixed Reality, with a focus on owning and shifting the African narrative while telling compelling African stories that are contemporary and immersive.

The experiences showcased include the following creators:

1. Malik Afegbua, from Nigeria. Malik presented ‘Moving Between’ a 360 documentary that shows a virtual heritage experience of the Kofar-Mata dye pit, a cultural and historical site in Kano, Nigeria, by showcasing it in a three-dimensional virtual reality model.

In a 5-minutes immersive experience, a deaf dancer takes the audience on tour through the historic Kofar-Mata dye pits, using sign language instructions and dance.

2. Xabiso Vili, from South Africa. Xabiso is a writer, performer, and new media artist. His 360° visual album, “Black Boi meet Boogeyman,” features many endings and a “choose your adventure” style.

A work of science fiction in which the main character, Black Boi, is on a hero’s journey through South Africa in need of a reminder of its light in order to face the Boogeyman This 360-degree video album aims to serve as a starting point for communities and artists to consider how they could purposefully and artistically use virtual reality (XR) for group healing.

3. Dylan Valley, from South Africa. Dylan’s Cissie Gool House is a 360 documentary about a precarious housing occupation in a new Cape Town hospital. This 360 documentary will immerse the viewer in the occupation as if they were partaking in reclaiming the building.

The film showcases the voices of the activists and occupiers who call Cissie Gool House home and speak to those who would rather have them gone. The medium of VR will allow for greater empathy for these characters (often demonized in the press).

It will impart a deeper understanding of what it means to occupy, especially when it is the only viable option you have.

4. Nirma Madhoo, from Mauritius. A fashion filmmaker, XR creator, and Ph.D. candidate. Nirma’s ‘XWE,’ 360 fashion film using volumetric capture and photogrammetry is a tribute to the original stargazers of Southern Africa. It will celebrate the constellations of dispersed diasporic African identities through a Noirwave fashion performance set in a VR landscape of astrophysics.

5. Cameroonian Pierre-Christophe Gam. Pierre is a multidisciplinary artist who worked on the hybrid (live and online) art installation “TOGUNA,” which combines AR/VR, cinema, photography, mixed-media sculpture, future-thinking, and storytelling to provide a space for fresh dialogue on the continent of Africa.

This offers an AR-based WebVR experience.

6. Michelle Angawa, Kenya: A film editor and XR creator, Michelle’s ‘1000 Shillings in Nairobi,’ a 360 fiction film is a short tragicomedy depicting a day in a Nairobian Boda rider’s life.

He drifts through a series of absurd encounters in an attempt to pay a motorbike loan of KSH 1000 ($10).

Sherry Dzinoreva, Meta’s Public Policy Programs Director, Africa, Middle East, and Turkey, said:

“As the next phase of this program, we’re delighted to be unveiling this specially curated exhibition featuring the work of six talented creators from across the continent, all of whom have created beautiful, thought-provoking African stories and experiences using immersive technology. We know that Africa holds immense talent, which we see reflected in the experiences curated, and as we set our sights on the metaverse, we believe creators, especially those on the continent, will play a key role in unlocking its potential.”

Commenting on the ‘Future Africa: Telling Stories, Building Worlds’ program, Moky Makura, Executive Director, Africa No Filter added”

“We know the power stories have when it comes to influencing and shaping perceptions about Africa. That power is amplified when those stories are immersive and that is what today’s technologies offer storytellers. It’s exciting to be part of an initiative that has allowed us to tap into the future of storytelling in Africa.”

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Business

Visa collaborates with FTX to provide crypto-backed debit cards in 40 countries.

The world’s largest payments network is partnering with a global crypto exchange FTX to launch debit card services in 40 countries, with major focus on Latin America, Asia, and Europe.

The cards, which are already available in the United States, will enable users with rapid access to their FTX cryptocurrency investing account. The move, according to Visa’s CFO, allows clients to spend digital currencies without having to transfer them off an exchange “as you would with any bank account.”

“Even though values have come down there’s still steady interest in crypto. We don’t have a position as a company on what the value of cryptocurrency should be, or whether it’s a good thing in the long run — as long as people have things they want to buy, we want to facilitate it,” said Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu.

Visa continues to make advances into the cryptocurrency market.

Visa’s latest entrance into the industry brings the company’s overall number of crypto partnerships to more than 70. 

The company, which is headquartered in San Francisco, has already collaborated with a number of FTX competitors like Coinbase and Binance.

Edmond is a content writer. Loves to cover stories on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency and write in a way that is captivating and understandable.

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Opinions

Are cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin really a hedge against inflation?

Despite arguments to the contrary, Bitcoin is widely regarded as an inflation-resistant asset, and proponents frequently tout it as an asset class uncorrelated with real-world assets. However, things rapidly grow more difficult when you understand that each cryptocurrency is distinct and some are designed to be inflationary.

To some extent, Bitcoin’s fixed supply has given many enthusiasts hope in comparing it to “digital gold” – in reference to the golden metal or another popular inflation-resistant asset.

These stores of value assets withstand the test of time because they are uncorrelated with other assets and are resistant to market interference.

According to the theory, central bank money production will lead to inflation or a decline in the value of money over time. In comparison, Bitcoin has a set limit of 21 million coins that can ever be minted. Because of the limited supply, bitcoin is resistant to inflation. People may buy bitcoin as a hedge against future inflation and are not crazy to do so.

So, predictably, investors are betting against inflation, transforming bitcoin into the breakout star of inflation hedging. If you look at the performance of Bitcoin throughout the years, you’ll notice that the rate of return on Bitcoin is far higher than that of other currencies or stocks. Bitcoin has an average yearly return of 230%, and in a country like Nigeria, where the inflation rate is over 20.5%, it just makes more sense to invest in it as an asset because it will combat the inflation rate.

Bitcoin is an excellent tool for financial security. It is a deflationary asset with a limited supply, unlike currencies like the shilling or the dollar, which may be easily created and hence subject to devaluation. Regardless of how much the price of Bitcoin falls, it remains the best-performing asset of the decade, with more returns than any stock or investment.

Edmond is a content writer and a digital marketer. He loves to cover stories on blockchain and cryptocurrency and write in a way that is captivating and understandable.

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Business

COTI partners with Empowa to explore using Djed as a means of transferring funds to African Building Partners

Millions of local Africans are set to become homeowners of eco-friendly residents through a Cardano (ADA) initiative. To facilitate this project, a DAG-based layer built for Enterprises, COTI has partnered with Empowa, a RealFi project built on the Cardano blockchain.

In a blog statement, COTI stated, “We are pleased to announce another Djed partnership, this time with Empowa. Empowa enables local African developers to offer an affordable lease-to-own option for eco-homes to their customers. This system gives tenants the opportunity to own a home at the end of the lease period, thereby providing quality housing for them.”

It further stated, “A core mission of Empowa is to increase the mainstream adoption of blockchain across the African continent with special attention being paid to Cardano’s offering. The inclusion of the Djed stablecoin as a means of transferring funds to local building partners brings Empowa a step closer towards its goal to speed up blockchain adoption in Africa.”

Glen Jordan, Empowa CEO and Co-Founder commented:

“As a proud Cardano project, we are excited to see the ecosystem reach this significant milestone, the launch of a native stablecoin. We are eager to play our role in supporting broader adoption of the Djed stablecoin, especially across the African continent.”

According to COTI, this partnership, along with some of the previous ones they have announced, will ensure the proper utilization of Djed across the entire Cardano ecosystem and create an increased use-case for it across multiple platforms. 

Notably, the inclusion of Djed, a stablecoin in the innovation, will also facilitate the popularity of Blockchain in Africa.

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Business

Binance-Backed BnB Smart Chain Paused Over Potential Multi-Million Dollar Exploit

The crypto token BnB is down 4% lower against the U.S. dollar during the last 24 hours following an alleged cross-chain bridge attack that saw around 200 million BnB worth $600 million siphoned. Reports further noted that Tether blacklisted the account and it pushed Binance to pause the entire chain.

Through the official BnB Smart Chain Twitter account, the team announced the chain pause saying, “Due to irregular activity, we’re temporarily pausing BSC. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates here. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

The BnB Smart Chain team added,

“To confirm, we have suspended BSC after having determined a potential exploit. All systems are now contained, and we are immediately investigating the potential vulnerability. We know the Community will assist and help freeze any transfers. All funds are safe. We want to thank all node service providers for their quick and attentive response.”

BnB Smart Chain’s team later explained on Reddit that the estimate for the exploit loss is around $100 to $110 million. 

Reddit post explained, “Initial estimates for funds taken off BSC are between $100M – $110M. However, thanks to the community and our internal and external security partners, an estimated $7M has already been frozen.”

However, some Redditors questioned the veracity of the numbers stemming from the BnB Smart Chain exploit. In addition, Reddit’s announcements, and others criticized the BnB chain’s decentralization.