Greetings
Currently, the battle between the government of my country, Nigeria, and cryptocurrency has been intensifying. The issue keeps gaining momentum on a daily basis.
I remember some years back when the federal government boldly banned anything crypto-related in the nation. At that moment, we thought they primarily did that to prevent large money transfers for political purposes, especially just before a general election. As we know, buying votes was and still is a common practice, and because they could easily trace transactions through local banks, they believed that since they couldn't trace crypto transactions, they decided to shut it down. Well, that was when the peer-to-peer (P2P) method of transaction became popular, and we all diverted to it.
It has been like that until last year when the naira plummeted badly against the US dollar, and to stabilize the naira, the federal government banned P2P trading, especially on Binance, which was one of the main exchanges used. When it was shut down, I remember a friend asking me a question which I laughed at, but when I recently thought of it, I realized it's a significant issue to deal with. The question was:
"How are we going to change our HBD to fiat if the federal government succeeds in shutting down all methods?"
As much as the question may seem laughable to genuine crypto enthusiasts reading this, it's a serious issue to contend with because if the federal government succeeds and there's no way to completely change our crypto earnings into naira, then people will be vulnerable to scams because it will be more of personal P2P transactions, off the app, and people could easily run away with the money.
*Is it ever going to get to that stage?
No doubt, there's always a way out with crypto transactions no matter how smart the counterparts are. When Binance was shut down, immediately other exchanges introduced the P2P platform for us, and we quickly moved there. Exchanges like Kucoin, Bybit, OKX, and many others were doing that, and it was easy to make transactions. But as soon as the federal government noticed that people were still making crypto transactions via the P2P platform, they went on to target some of these, and currently, OKX has been shut down for us, with Bybit and others waiting for the federal government to come for them as well.
You see, it's gradually reaching the stage where it will be very difficult to convert crypto into fiat. When it gets to that stage, I know options will still emerge, and some of them will be:
- Selling to known (low-risk) vendors that buy these crypto in bulk, usually with high charges. If a dollar is to be sold for 1,000 naira, they will buy it for 750-800 naira.
- Dealing with unknown vendors, which carries high risk. These are people around who would be ready to buy the crypto at an agreed payment and possibly run off with the money and the crypto once they receive it.
I hope it doesn't get to this point.
Thanks for reading.
| All images are mine |
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It is never cool when governments impose regulations making it more difficult to get in and out of crypto. I suppose decentralised services will rule; Though for on/off-ramping some form of centralisation is needed. But depends on what exactly is needed. Do you know Vetme? They try to tackle several issue and as far as I know, their target markets are India and Nigeria. https://vetmeblock.com/
I am just very tired of this govt the more they impose their rules, the more things become worse and mind you they are benefiting from this cryptocurrency of a thing but they just want it to be them alone, enjoying the goods of the country while they tackle the youths. But I know they can not block every access, when they block one, another one will surely come.
That's just it.
Somehow they're hitting it big on this crypto stuff but pretending to be saint openly.
Thank you for stopping by bro.
!BBH
Yeah, I just know they can't have their way totally, leaving we youths in the dark.
It is well with them.
It is well with us
😂😂
Lol, that's just what it is.