Bitcoin
How To Travel Around Africa Using Bitcoin
Travelling within Africa using bitcoin has become easier as more businesses are adopting the cryptocurrency. In this guide, you will find all the most important travel service providers and merchants that allow you to pay in bitcoin during your travels around Africa.
Booking flights
Presently, a number of international travel sites have enabled bitcoin payment systems on their platforms. One such platform is the California-based CheapAir.com. The company has witnessed an upsurge in customers paying through bitcoin for travel bookings since integrating bitcoin payments on its platform in 2013. With over $15 million worth of bitcoin processed to date, the travel site hopes to extend the option to customers using the CheapAir iOS app for flight and hotel bookings.
Another flight booking option you can use is the Spanish travel service Destinia.com. The travel agent, which was the first to accept bitcoin payments, allows customers to purchase discounted tickets using the digital currency. The online booking process using bitcoin remains the same to any other payment method, with some customised features to make it user-friendly. You can book low-cost flights to South Africa on the travel site for example.
Alternatively, you can use BTCTtrip, a bitcoin-only travel site to purchase flight tickets to select African locations. The travel site offers special discounts for customers booking business class with bitcoins. ABitSky is another bitcoin only travel site where you can find cheap airline tickets to several African airports.
Booking Accommodation
Similar to online travel agents, several individual establishments and online platforms accept bitcoin as payment for accommodation. HOTELGO24 allows one to book hotel rooms using bitcoin. The platform is a favourite for cryptocurrency enthusiasts due to its 5 percent bitcoin cash-back of a reservation amount on a select number of hotels. You can search for a hotel in Africa among the 130,000 partner institutions listed on the platform.
An alternative is AccomoDirect, a South African online accommodation portal that accepts bitcoin payments. You can view its 20,000 listings as well as reviews across 2,000 unique African destinations. Accommodation listings on the platform are pre-verified to ensure their suitability. Booking payments are scrutinised and confirmations sent to guests.
Also offering online accommodation booking services is SafariWithUs, a South African tour company that organises accommodation for people on dream vacations or those seeking an African adventure. Customers can pay in bitcoin via the PayFast payment feature on their website and enjoy quality accommodation in South Africa, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
You can also use Travel sites such as CheapAir and Destinia, to book hotels or vacation homes across multiple locations in Africa, and pay for the reservations using bitcoin.
Transportation
Once you have found a place to stay, the next thing you may need is a way to move around. Luckily, popular travel sites CheapAir and Destinia, allow you to hire car rental services and pay for them in bitcoin. If you are visiting South Africa, you can hire a vehicle from cabscarhire.com, a bitcoin-friendly car rental service that has depots at all major airports and cities in the country. SafariWithUs, another bitcoin-enabled travel site also provides wildlife and ethical safari tours for guests.
Ashworth Africa is another South African tour company that specialises in setting up tailor-made tours for those planning Safari’s or enjoying a honeymoon. You can pay in bitcoins and start making travel plans with the help of their itineraries’ specialists to dream locations in Southern and Eastern Africa.
Food, Drinks, and Entertainment
Purchasing foods and drinks, not to mention enjoying relaxing night-outs, is highly dependent on which African country you are visiting. As a rule, countries with higher bitcoin adoption rates such as South Africa offer more in terms of online retailers and merchants who accept the digital currency.
For coffee lovers visiting South Africa, Cape Coffee beans is a good place to start. The online store caters to coffee enthusiasts in the country and accepts bitcoin payments. You can order freshly ground coffee beans from any artisanal roaster at affordable prices and have it delivered to you at any location within the country.
If you are looking for a wider selection of food and drink, South African retailer Checkout may be a perfect choice. The second place recipient of the ‘Good Practice Award 2015-2016’ has a network of 45 corporate stores across the country. Shoppers can pay for its affordable products using bitcoin. By using the store locator feature on the website, you can locate a store close to you.
Alexander Bar, Cafe & Theater, is a popular entertainment joint in the Cape Town area. Located on 76 Strand Street, the joint offers a unique entertainment experience with a cozy bar and intimate live performances. You can purchase drinks and snacks using bitcoin as you enjoy soothing jazz performances.
Alternatively, if there are no bitcoin-friendly food and hangout spots, you can always pay using a bitcoin debit card.
Buying Travel Gear
If you are looking to do some outdoor activities such as hiking or rock climbing, you can purchase gear beforehand using bitcoins on Amazon, through Purse.io. Purse.io enables customers to buy items at a discounted rate, such as backpacks, diving gear and more, by selecting them on Amazon and uploading them to the Purse.io platform. The platform then connects the user to someone who wants bitcoins and is willing to purchase the items on behalf of the user. The user will then receive the delivery and release the bitcoin to the other party in the transaction.
There are also some local bitcoin-friendly options one can consider such as ActionGear in South Africa. The former allows you to pay in bitcoin for a wide range of outdoor electronic equipment such as activity trackers, drones, cameras just to name a few.
Purchasing Gift Cards
You can use bitcoin to buy gift cards from Gyft.com and use them at several merchants in Africa. You can obtain gift cards for well-known establishments such as Domino’s, Burger King, Pizza, Starbucks as well as retailers like Nike and Addidas.
While travelling using bitcoin seems like a cheaper and hassle free experience, you have to remember bitcoin adoption in Africa is still marginally low. Therefore, it would be wise to have a bitcoin debit card on you if bitcoin is your preferred spending currency when you are on the road.
You can also check for more African merchants who accept bitcoin here.
Statistics, examples, and ways to legally use cryptocurrency
October 1, 2013, was a turbulent day for San Francisco Public Library. A dozen FBI agents pretending to be usual visitors surrounded a man sitting at one of the tables, took his laptop and put a pair of handcuffs on his hands. That man was Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road – the largest darknet marketplace for drug dealers, killers, and other criminals. The seizure of Ulbricht was supposed to tackle the illegal online trade, but, as the news site DeepDotWeb wrote, the bust was “the best advertising the darknet markets could have hoped for”. The reputation of cryptocurrency also suffers from associations with terrorists, who sometimes use it for their needs. How big is the real scale of the problem? And how many legal ways to use crypto exist? ChangeNOW has dived into the topic – and suggests you an overview of the current state of the problem.
Highlights:
- The drugs trade volume using cryptocurrency is relatively large
- Crypto was a significant reason why a part of drug sales migrated to the web, though stays yet not viable and anonymous enough for dealers (same as for terrorists)
- As efficient use of blockchain technology requires good infrastructure, crypto remains not suitable enough for many terrorist groups
- However, some terrorists are trying to adjust to anonymity threats and hold fundraising in crypto
- Legal ways to use cryptocurrency include dozens and vary from IT services to car rentals
Crypto & Drugs & Rock’n’Roll
The total volume of the online drug market using cryptocurrency is around $1 billion. It is located in the darknet, which provides an attractive, profitable, and mostly secure environment for drug dealers. Cryptocurrency, in turn, allows making payments that are hard to be tracked by authorities. This is how blockchain technology has helped to bring a big part of drug sales online from the streets. And it’s not only about drugs themselves – many legal opioid drugs are illegally sold here, too.
However, cryptocurrency is not always as secure and anonymous as it is thought to be. The information about any transaction ever made stays forever in the blockchain, which makes the system way more transparent than cash payments. This is a significant limitation for using crypto in illegal purposes.
According to the University of Technology Sydney, about 46% of criminal activity of each year is connected to Bitcoin. As for the drug sale itself, trade volumes in crypto keep rising, but the percent of Bitcoin drug transactions out of all transactions goes down. This means Bitcoin is more frequently used for legitimate purposes.
What cryptocurrency is used for drug sales most often? Surprisingly, privacy coins such as Monero are used only for 4% of transactions. Due to its pioneer position, Bitcoin is used in 76% of all deals despite all its anonymity risks.
The main problem for drug dealers using crypto is to turn their income into cash. This move remains complicated and insecure. Most cryptocurrency exchanges have instruments to define whether a transaction is coming from a suspicious source like the darknet. The rise of Monero use in the online drug market will hinder such tracking. However, for the reasons listed above, crypto is unlikely to completely replace regular cash in drug sales in the foreseeable future.
Cryptoterrorism
The views on how much cryptocurrency is used and will be used by terrorists vary widely. While some claim that terrorists have no infrastructure to use it and the methods are not secure enough, others argue that they are learning fast and adjust to crypto rapidly. Let’s see what both sides say.
Not actively using, unclear future
Lack of appropriate infrastructure, inability to use crypto. Most terrorist groups settle in the Middle East region, especially on its remote and war-torn territories. The vast majority of roads and technological infrastructure have been destroyed. In such circumstances, cash remains the most common and convenient way to pay and fundraise. Imagine a gun seller in a Syrian village – does it look like he has a tool to accept Monero?
Anonymity threats. Given the relative transparency of blockchain mentioned above, crypto might remain too unsafe for terrorists. Miners can see any potential terrorist money exchange while checking transactions, and it’s not too hard to see who sends them money. It can change with the rising use rate of privacy coins, but the ability to spend such money remains questionable.
Increased attention to crypto by the authorities. As the number of transactions keeps rising, more regulatory bodies’ attention gets focused on cryptocurrency, which apparently makes terrorists nervous and cautious.
Problems of specific currencies. While top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin receive much regulatory attention, others remain marginal and unreliable because of a lack of support. Conflicts and uncertainty lower the trust to such cryptocurrencies – yes, even terrorists’ trust.
Using actively now, increasingly in the future
Terrorists seem to be rapidly learning to escape from tracking in blockchain. Several years ago it was easy to find any address or transaction made for a terrorists’ fundraiser. Today they use well organized and finely designed websites, where detailed video tutorials show how to donate money anonymously. Unique Bitcoin addresses and other crypto tricks are used to preserve security. Analysts from intelligence services claim there’s only going to be more such cases. And, of course, privacy coins are a “great opportunity” for terrorists too.
Shift to cryptocurrency is a reaction to economic sanctions. ISIS has lost most of its territory and resources, Hamas has been sanctioned by the West. Having been cut off from all main financial institutes, terrorist groups had to find other pathways for their financial activities – and cryptocurrency appeared to be the best substitute.
There might be difficulties and inconveniences, and the number of terrorists using crypto is yet unknown – but as we can see, digital money in terrorism is reality. Same as in drugs. And this is what cryptocurrency is notorious for, lacking trust among millions of people. The reputation of some of the exchange services only adds to this mistrust – ChangeNOW has carried out a special investigation on how such platforms may cheat their clients. But can you buy anything besides heroin and firearms with your crypto? What about pizza or a concert ticket?
Only Antarctica left
Cryptwerk, a platform monitoring actual use cases of different cryptocurrencies, says there are about 3500 ways to spend Bitcoin and more than 800 for Monero today. They range from music services to car rentals, from buying clothes to hotel booking services, and from sports bets to virtual tours.
Organizations accepting cryptocurrency are located on all continents besides Antarctica (what could be a better place for crypto than a continent without governments and countries though?). Mostly, in the USA and Central Europe. Bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency is relatively widespread in India and Southeast Asia.
As this is a whole another topic, ChangeNOW will issue a post dedicated to use cases of cryptocurrencies. As it will be more detailed, who knows – maybe you’ll find a pizza right by that you could pay for from your crypto wallet!
This article was contributed by Jeremy from ChangeNow.
Buroka is a new breed of cryptocurrency exchange for Africa! Currently operating in Nigeria, Buroka was designed to fulfill the needs of modern Africans. Buroka allows customers to buy and sell Bitcoin with Naira via Local Transfers and cash deposits at the bank. In this Buroka review, you will learn more about the exchange and how you can use it to buy bitcoin in Nigeria.
How to Buy Bitcoin on Buroka
Step 1: Account Creation
To create an account, visit Buroka.com and hit the “Register” button. This will lead you to a page where you will be asked to fill in your personal information, including your name, email address, and password. Like any other serious exchange, Boruka will ask you for your ID, Proof of Address, and to take a selfie with your ID to eliminate fraud.
Step 2: Fund Your Account
Funding your account on the platform is straightforward. You can deposit either via bank transfer or at any bank branch. Make sure to use a unique reference code given to you by Buroka deposit system.
Step 3: Buying and Selling BTC
Once your deposit has been credited to your account you can immediately buy your Bitcoin. The buying and selling tab is located on the top right corner of the dashboard. There you can input the amount of bitcoin you want to buy. Once you do that, you then click on the “BUY BTC” button.
Step 4: Storing Your BTC
After buying BTC, Buroka provides users with the option of either storing bitcoin on the platform in a BitGo wallet or any other wallet of their choice.
Currently, Buroka only supports bitcoin (BTC). However, the exchange plans to include other cryptocurrencies going forward.
Security
Buroka exchange makes use of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). 2FA provides an extra layer of protection for users. With the 2FA in place, an extra piece of information is needed before login into the platform or making any withdrawals.
In addition, Buroka’s platform is also protected using the latest security technology, including web-socket and API protocols that allow for a fast and secure order processing. Buroka also makes use of a well-updated SSL certificate, which makes it easy to detect a phishing attempt.
To further ensure that clients’ funds are secure, Buroka operates segregated accounts. These accounts are held with trusted banks so that clients can enjoy an extra layer of security provided by the banking system.
Conclusion
Buroka is a relatively new Bitcoin exchange with a well-designed, user-friendly interface. The Bitcoin trading platform provides several deposit options, which is attractive for Nigerian Bitcoin traders, as well as competitive market rates for both buyers and sellers.
If you are looking to buy or sell bitcoin in Nigeria, you can give Buroka a try.
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