1 / 11

Crypto-currencies in Africa

Financial Consumer Protection Issues: Crypto-currencies Sixth Annual African Dialogue Conference Lilongwe, Malawi September 2014 Charles Harwood U.S . Federal Trade Commission. Crypto-currencies in Africa. Topics of Discussion. Crypto-currencies What? How? Why?

isra
Télécharger la présentation

Crypto-currencies in Africa

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Financial Consumer Protection Issues: Crypto-currenciesSixth Annual African Dialogue ConferenceLilongwe, MalawiSeptember 2014Charles Harwood U.S. Federal Trade Commission

  2. Crypto-currencies in Africa

  3. Topics of Discussion • Crypto-currencies • What? How? Why? • Bitcoin and Competing Currencies • Strengths/Weaknesses • Regulation • Consumer Protection Issues

  4. What is Crypto-currency? • Virtual currency • Decentralized • Peer-to-peer

  5. How Does it Work? “Mining” for coins Crypto Exchanges The digital wallet

  6. Why Would People Use It? Anonymity Non-government issued currency Investment potential

  7. Bitcoin – The First and Most Famous

  8. Bitcoin – What’s it worth?

  9. Strengths and Weaknesses • Microtransactions • Low transaction costs • Potential Reduction in Loss of SI/PII • Ease of transactions • Unbanked/Underbanked Means of money laundering/illegal activity Volatility No existing consumer protection Security of stored coins Liquidity trap/Hoarding

  10. Future potential? • Unbanked and underbanked • Inner cities • Rural • Developing world • Cell phones • Small transactions

  11. Consumer Protection Implications • Exchange rates volatile and costs unclear • Rapid value fluctuation • Undisclosed costs and fees • Hackers and scammers pose serious security threats • Potential targets for highly sophisticated hackers • Fraudsters take advantage of hype around this new currency • May be hard to obtain help or refunds for lost or stolen funds

More Related