Ray Youssef, the founder of Paxful, Inc., a platform that makes it easier to buy and sell bitcoin (BTC) “instantly”, recently shared what he has learned while working in third-world countries with CryptoGlobe.
Youssef, whose company, Paxful has helped to build an “entirely bitcoin funded school” in Rwanda, informed us about how underdeveloped nations that are experiencing very high inflation (or even hyperinflation) can potentially benefit from cryptocurrencies. He noted:
There are a lot of things they can do with cryptocurrency. We’ve seen seven use cases of bitcoin and peer-to-peer finance over the years as we observe our users. For people from third-world countries, they set up their Paxful account and sell their unclaimed or unused gift cards for bitcoins. They get either bitcoins to preserve their wealth, which is one use case, or they sell the bitcoins they have for fiat or anything more useful to them.
During our conversation with Youssef, we discussed bitcoin’s high levels of volatility and how it’s vital for the cryptocurrency’s price to remain stable. We also arrived at the conclusion that it may be more important that bitcoin’s price, whether that’s $4,000 or $20,000, remain within a reasonable price range. That’s because only then iwill it have a chance at achieving mainstream adoption in terms of being both an effective medium-of-exchange and a reliable store-of-value.
According to Youssef, people need to be educated about how cryptocurrencies work and how to trade them – as he revealed that cryptocurrency traders “can [potentially make sizable] profits if they actively trade on a completely peer-to-peer platform” (decentralized exchange).
Bitcoin Increasingly Used By Business Owners In Underdeveloped Countries
In addition to using a platform to acquire bitcoin in exchange for their personal valuables, third-world country citizens are increasingly using cryptocurrency wallets for transactions on their e-commerce platforms – as more traditional payment methods such as Paypal may not be as easily accessible when conducting cross-border or remittance payments.
When questioned about the benefits of accepting bitcoin as payment (or for making payments), Youssef remarked:
Everyone planning to have a business should consider the option of having their products and services be payable using bitcoin. The peer-to-peer aspect is great! This allows people to find the right customers from all over the world, no boundaries. As a business providing a payment option that is both easy to use and accessible to anyone, anywhere, you can open your business to the world. Imagine doing that with just a bank account with its limits and additional fees. That’s right, you can’t.
In response to a question about what we can do as responsible members of the crypto and blockchain community to help prevent the large number of scams, particularly related to ICOs, Youssef said: “Be vigilant and transparent. As a community, we have a responsibility to educate and help each other.”
“Education Is Essential In The Sustenance Of A Community”
Commenting on how he has been giving back to the community, particularly through charitable efforts that help the underprivileged, Youssef stated:
I’ve always dreamt of building schools, especially for communities that need them the most. This is why our project in Africa means a lot to me. Education is essential in the sustenance of a community, but that’s not where we wanted to start. We wanted to start by giving these people access to clean water. With the help of Zam Zam Water, we were able to do just that. We added water filters and even installed solar panels.
He continued:
Combined with the education they can attain from the schools, the community now has everything it needs to sustain itself. We see our #BuiltWithBitcoin campaign as a way of giving back to the communities that need it the most. We want to build 100 schools in Africa fully funded by cryptocurrency. With 2 down, I’m more than excited to get to work on the next 98.
