Tech-savvy Ugandans boosting earnings by embracing Bitcoin
In a sleek new high-rise in Uganda’s capital, an enthusiastic lecturer described his financial success with the cryptocurrency bitcoin while his earnings were projected on a screen.
“What I have earned in oneand-a-half years from bitcoin is more than I earned in ten years as a teacher,” Richard M. Bagorogo told his audience. “I am living on bitcoin because getting a job in this country is not easy.”
Some tech-savvy Africans are embracing bitcoin, the most popular virtual currency, despite the warnings of a few governments, seeing the volatility in its value a better risk than the usual hustle amid the continent’s high unemployment.
Many bitcoin adoptees are professionals aiming to supplement their salaries, but others are jobless millennials hoping to make a living by trading the cryptocurrency, which isn’t tied to any bank or government and, like cash, allows users to spend and receive money anonymously or mostly so.
In Kampala, Uganda’s capital, and elsewhere a small community turns up at events where stars like Bagorogo preach what they call “the gospel of bitcoin.”
On a recent morning Bagorogo explained how he once could not afford to enroll his children in the international school where he taught. Now, he said, his lifestyle has changed: a recent holiday in Dubai and more than enough money to help out his father.
It didn’t always go smoothly, as many in Africa have little idea what bitcoin is.
“When I tried to bring my cousins on board, they called my father in the village and said, `Your son has gone mad,”’ Bagorogo recalled. “For me, I was fascinated by the mathematics behind blockchain technology. But the local man is interested in money, not the mathematics, so I normally sit with them and show them how I get and withdraw my money. Once they see how easy it is, they also want bitcoin.”
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rely on blockchain, or the public, distributed ledgers that track the coins’ ownership. The bitcoin ledger is powered by “miners,” socalled because they throw computational power into the system to discover and verify cryptocurrency units, occasionally receiving – or “mining” – new bitcoins in return.
Bagorogo encourages people to invest in one of over two dozen global mining pools.
For many who can’t afford to buy and hoard large amounts, the potential returns, including dividends, can seem promising. Such facilities, however, have faced doubts about whether they are genuine and some countries have warned of money laundering and the threat to government-backed currencies.