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Bitcoin\u2019s latest fans are about as far as you can get from Silicon Valley crypto bros. War-torn Central African Republic (CAR) on Wednesday adopted the digital currency as legal tender read more . It\u2019s even odder than when El Salvador did the same thing last year. The surprise expressed by the region\u2019s central bank and President Faustin-Archange Touad\u00e9ra\u2019s military reliance on Russian mercenaries are red flags. Bitcoin\u2019s path to the currency mainstream just became thornier.<\/p>\n
El Salvador\u2019s crypto conversion in September generated lots of headlines and much huffing and puffing from the International Monetary Fund. Within months, nearly 4 million people, or two-thirds of the population, had piled into the Central American country\u2019s new Chivo e-wallet system. However, all but a handful stuck to exchanging digital U.S. dollars, rather than bitcoin. Six months on, only 14% of Salvadoran merchants had processed a crypto transaction, according to the El Salvador Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
The case for crypto in CAR looks even more tenuous. Most of the former French colony\u2019s 5 million citizens, who enjoy just $525 of GDP per capita, lack access to broadband or 4G phone reception, a prerequisite for bitcoin-based transactions. And unlike El Salvador, which has a third of its people working in the United States, there are few overseas Central African migrants wanting to send money home.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, residents of Bangui, its riverside capital, already have access to digital currency via mobile money networks run by operators like France\u2019s Orange (ORAN.PA). And \u2013 unlike many deeply impoverished countries \u2013 they also have a stable currency thanks to the six-country CFA franc, which is pegged to the euro, underpinned by the Bank of France and overseen by the regional Bank of Central African States (BEAC) in neighbouring Cameroon. Swapping that for the wild gyrations of bitcoin sits uneasily with Touad\u00e9ra\u2019s vision of a new era of crypto-fuelled peace and prosperity.<\/p>\n
The BEAC\u2019s surprise at Bangui\u2019s bitcoin gambit raises serious eyebrows. So too does the presence since 2018 of large numbers of Russian mercenaries, who have been accused by the United Nations of atrocities including torture, rape and summary executions. Paying their employer, Wagner Group, will have been complicated by U.S. and European sanctions imposed after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. Bitcoin \u2013 as well as CAR\u2019s reserves of gold and diamonds \u2013 may be an alternative medium of remuneration. If so, the cryptocurrency will be tarred by association.<\/p>\n
Source: REUTERS<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Featured Video\n<\/p>\n\n
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