Dakar Bitcoin Days: Final preparations before the start of the forum

Here we go, the first Bitcoin (BTC) forum started this morning with already many conferences that allowed us to get to the heart of the matter. The topics discussed today have provided an extensive overview of issues related to Bitcoin. This has been very beneficial given the information needs that cryptocurrencies require. We offer here a small selection of what was said in some conferences of the day.

As a reminder, the entire program of the event is available here.

Conference Money, its history, its excesses and the birth of Bitcoin

Abdoulaye Ndiaye, assistant professor at New York University, explains that facing the CFA Franc, a colonial relic and whose intrinsic value does not represent the reality of Senegal and other countries, we have Bitcoin, which is a global currency. universal that is not exposed to inflation.

For Dominique Yamb Ntimba, philosopher and economist, Bitcoin preserves the fundamental freedoms of individuals, which the classic Fiat system does not guarantee. He then explains that the percentage of fees for money transfers are on average between 6% and 8%. Sometimes with peaks of up to 22%. And to reveal that these fees have dropped in El Salvador since the introduction of Bitcoin and the competition in this sector that this has induced.

Some of the Dakar Bitcoin Days speakers

The question of the trusted third party was also addressed. The collection and surveillance of personal data by companies and states poses a problem of personal freedom. Generally speaking, direct relations between individuals are resisted by states, which always push to go through intermediaries in order to maintain control. Faced with this, decentralization is necessary.

Dominique Yamb Ntimba then delivered a plea against the functioning of the CFA Franc and its famous operating account, which drains a significant part of the export resources of the countries of the CFA zone. Ironically, part of these funds are used by Agence France Développement (AFD) to finance so-called development operations at consistent rates. While these initiatives should have come under the national sovereignty of these same states. We are therefore faced with a double confiscation of sovereignty. The recent example of Mali, which decided to ban the activities of the AFD and the NGOs that revolve around it, is eloquent.

Bitcoin would therefore make it possible to free ourselves from the CFA Franc and no longer leave reserves at the Banque de France. Also, embezzlement of public funds would no longer be possible. According to him, “Bitcoin should no longer be sold but earned”. One needs to get out of trading so that bitcoins can be paid out in the form of income and salary payments. And to conclude: “Through its resistance to censorship, Bitcoin is a tool for world peace”.

Mutations in Finance Conference: TradFi, DeFi, Stablecoin, CBDC, Bitcoin

Toffene Kama, investor, drew an interesting parallel between Bitcoin and the salt trade in Africa, where there were economic exchanges between the south (grains) and the north (salt), which allowed the emergence of the empires of Mali and Ethiopia. Salt was exchanged for gold. Salt therefore had both transactional and utilitarian value, an idea that runs through Bitcoin debates.

Conference The economic and geopolitical impact of Bitcoin in the world

According to Abdoulaye Ndiaye, it is unlikely that developed states will spontaneously dispense with FIATs. The adoption will be done gradually on the ground with a progressive acceptance by the professional and private actors.

On the other hand, instead of a formal adoption, a state may be tempted to accumulate substantial reserves of bitcoins in order to protect itself against possible international sanctions, which would allow it to continue to trade at the outside.

According to him, the CDBCs represent a drift towards autocracy. Moreover, in traditional systems, the details of transactions are confidential while the actors have the obligation to be identified. Whereas for reasons of transparency and respect for privacy, it should be the other way around. What exactly Bitcoin offers. Thus, the CDBC e-Naira in Nigeria remains very little used while the rate of use of Bitcoin is very developed there.

Because according to Abdoulaye, although an academic, it is not the academicians who will make things happen but the activists on the ground.

Mohamed Diagne, Sebastien Ramos and Babacar Lo

Conference Bitcoin, Blockchain, CBDCs, antagonisms and/or complementarity?

Lively debate, where we saw Seydou Bocoum (PhD candidate), zealously defending the virtues of CDBCs and expressing his skepticism about Bitcoin. A courageous task in front of the other panelists already committed to the cause. A contradictory debate that will have allowed the public to form their own opinions.

The next day will offer other equally enriching debates, while being more technically oriented.

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