🇿🇲 ₿itcoin in Zambia

Smartphone adoption is growing rapidly in the capital city of Lusaka where 4G cell signal is strong. (I'd be happy to connect you with friends down in the capital who can better speak to that growth and their ₿itcoin efforts.) However, in the rural village 13 hours north where I've lived since 2018, smartphones are still few and far between in 2023. Heck, running water and electricity are absent here. Solar panels, if at all, are typically small, 10-20 watts, yet still rare, but suitable for charging simple phones. Cell signal is improving, but still most often displays as "E" (the Edge network, like 2G), or I can go stand on a particular hill for spotty "H" (3G). Some larger towns are beginning to see 4G more often. No 5G or StarLink out here as of yet.

Mobile money use on old-school feature phones is not uncommon, though cash remains dominant, hands-down. Still, people are familiar with the mobile money concept as these are the very people among the 2 billion unbanked and unserved by high bank fees, thus the Lightning Network has tremendous potential throughout sub-saharan Africa. And though it is custodial, still Machankura's SMS text-messaging ₿itcoin wallet, working without Internet, is an absolute game-changer for its practicality in introducing rural Zambians to ₿itcoin and the Lightning Network! ⚡

Appallingly, in just these 5 short years, Zambians have lost 50% of their purchasing power (measured in $USD) as the exchange rate has inflated 100% from ~10 -> ~20 kwacha/dollar. Cooking oil and transport fuel are the two hardest hit and most noticed expenses for the typical rural Zambian. Notably, many women at my local market no longer accept 5 ngwee coins ($0.0025) even where a common transaction might be 1 kwacha ($0.05), so might we say this is proportional to not accepting nickels for a one dollar sale? Interesting...Well, hold on a second. Proportional, yes, but equal, maybe not. In the US, it wouldn't be far off to hear, "you can't buy much for $1 these days," whereas here, I don't know that, "te kuti ukushita saana na umo kwacha" ("you can't buy much for 1 kwacha") is as common a refrain...in fact, my experience says otherwise. So maybe the denial of the 5 ngwee coin makes less sense still than not accepting nickels in the US would. Is it an unfair comparison?

Anyway, that reminds me, may I rant about Cost of Living for a moment? I'm assuming you've seen those longer-than-normal TV commericals with sad violin music for charities that show "oh those poor black children" with flies on their faces, guilefully attempting to guilt you for a generous monthly contribution, talking about the tremendous number of people around the world who survive on just one dollar a day. Can you believe it?! I agree, $1 a day sounds terrible and people absolutely should have more to live well on. Same page. However, I would remind viewers not to forget that they're not talking about living on $1 a day in the United States, so perhaps we might first consider just how far a dollar a day actually goes in such places. What these poverty-porn non-profits want you to forget about, in exchange for your branded t-shirt or hat, is that Cost of Living is relative, particularly in the most rural places like where I am with, yes, grass-thatched roofs, no running water, and no electrical grid. However, I do concede that even in relatively closed circular economies like this rural Zambian village where people grow their food, the increasing price of goods produced externally does hurt, mainly fuel. And so, the response should not be that they ought to continue to just live isolated from global trade. Thus, a dollar a day is still absurd and people deserve better. Yes, and I just have to say, out here, I can live on a dollar a day too. I have, I do. I can buy a lot of fresh vegetables and more at the local market for a day's dollar. $4 can make rather healthy meals for a week.

The problem isn't the nominal value of $1; the problem is the money itself.

And white saviorism with its cotton tote bag of overhead isn't helping. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

In short, as it seems to be for most of us worldwide, perhaps ₿itcoin's strongest value proposition for rural Zambians too is as a long-term savings account that can't be debased.