With GraceKennedy making remittances accessible online (Collinder, 2018, March 21), the possibility that they’ll launch their own cryptocurrency as part of GK Mpay (Deer, 2018, March 11) or use another up and rising crytocurrency, such as Ripple (Supoto, 2018, March 23), seems increasing possible.
Already, Jamaicans can set up and purchase cryptocurrencies suce as Dogecoin, Etherium, Ripple and the sky-high Bitcoin, once you have a Credit Card, Debit Card or Paypal Account (Deer, 2017, March 26).
There are even apps such as the Electroneum App (Deer, 2018, March 11) that use your smartphones spare processing power to mine cryptocurrency.
So what are cryptocurrencies? What are the benefiters of having them aside from buying things online? And how do ordinary Jamaicans buy Cryptocurrencies?
Jamaicans and Bitcoin – What is Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that exists only in a database online and does not have a physical form. It’s basically peer-to-peer digital money designed to work as a medium of exchange for real money, much in the same way Paypal uses your email address as a means of doing transactions.
Essentially, cryptocurrencies are become limited entries in a database that no one can change unless specific conditions are fulfilled as explained further in this video.
Cryptocurrencies are the creation of an anonymous programmer or a group of programmers under an alias Satoshi Nakamoto (Cointelegraph, 2018), who in 2009, created the bitcoin. Satoshi described it as a ‘peer-to-peer electronic cash system” that is completely decentralized.
There are no central servers involved and no central controlling authority; cryptocurrency Networks are more akin to peer-to-peer networks for file sharing. Like the peer-to-peer networks that saw the downfall of the traditional Music Industry, crytocurrencies use cryptography to secure transactions that may eventually bring about the downfall of fiat currencies in the future.
Each transaction is verified by using a consensus based public ledger distributed across several servers and computers called a blockchain.
This prevents currency duplication and also controls the creation of new units of a particular cryptocurrency, preventing runaway inflation by greed individuals creating cryptocurrency by fiat. This is the main advantage of cryptocurrencies over traditional fiat currencies; cryptography makes them impossible to duplicate and blockchain makes transaction and currencies had to steal.
Blockchain Explained – A public ledger of all transaction within the Network
A blockchain is a public ledger of all transaction that ever happened within the network, available to everyone.
Therefore, everyone in the network can see every account’s balance being as a cryptocurrency network is effectively a decentralized network, with each member’s computer or node in the network keeping a copy of the public ledger on their computing device.
Every transaction is a file that consists of the following pieces of information:
- Sender’s wallet addresses
- Recipient’s wallet addresses
- Amount of coins transferred
The transaction also needs to be signed off by the sender with their private key. Eventually, the transaction is broadcasted in the network, but it needs to be confirmed first by cryptocurrency miners (Deer, 2018, March 11).
Within a cryptocurrency network, only miners can confirm transactions by solving the math involved in cryptography. These miners then mark transactions as legitimate and update every node of the cryptocurrency network; this is called a block and because it’s part of a network, it form a chain, hence the name blockchain.
Once the transaction is confirmed it becomes unforgettable and irreversible and a miner receives a reward, plus the transaction fees. In summary, any cryptocurrency network is based on the absolute consensus of all the participants regarding the legitimacy of balances and transactions.
With rules designed to ensure consensus, blockchain is essentially a very strong form of cryptography, as to change any transaction, you’d have to hack every node in existence simultaneously. This is impossible, as the act of changing a node would cause a ripple effect that would spread to the other nodes, as they’d track all of these changes as they happen in real time.
So now you know a bit more about bitcoins, where can you buy some? And how to you make money from bitcoins and other crytocurrencies?
Jamaicans and cryptocurrency wallets – How to buy and invest in cryptocurrency
First, you need to create a cryptocurrency wallet. Being an experienced bitcoin collector and trader, I’d recommend you start with the best wallet with great security features (Drake, 2018, 12 June) such as one of the following:
They have user-friendly interfaces, with Exodus being my favourite, as it shows you in real time the value of the cryptocurency that you’ve purchased. Here is my Exodus wallet number as an example:
1KMEoFMkbE3UN7ZKPLFDwhnFcDLZCLJK4m
You can also buy other cryptocurrencies instead of just bitcoin, effectively making you into a Bitcoin investor, as cryptocurrency are essentially a form of money-market security. Once you has a Credit Card, Prepaid Debit Card or a Paypal account, you can buy them at one of the following Cryptocurrency exchanges online:
The best one I’ve used thus far is Spectrocoin, as you can buy and sell bitcoins directly and exchange them within their web-based wallet.
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have the potential to increase in value as they are actively traded on these cryptocurrency exchanges for fiat currency. This present the possibility of you becoming wealth from speculative currency trading, making you a millionaire, once you buy a set of them when their value is low and sell when their value increases, as this bitcoin millionaire explains.
You can have as many cryptocurrency wallets as you want and they are all free.
Jamaicans and cryptocurrency wallets – How to buy items on Amazon and other websites
Many websites accept bitcoins, save for the major companies such as Amazon, Macy’s and Best Buy.
Still, there is a workaround for them; the bitcoin wallet called egifter (Conner, 2014, February 14) and Purse that allow you to buy items on these websites.
Alternately, you can also use you bitcoin wallet to purchase gift cards and coupons for the websites you wish to purchase on Gyft, as explained in the video below.
As of writing this blog article, no one in Jamaica accepts bitcoins. Our local banks do not trade in them publicly and the Bank of Jamaica is advising caution in their use (Williams, 2018, February 7), making conversion into cash very difficult. You can buy Prepaid Cards loaded with bitcoins, but these are mainly for Americans and not Jamaicans!!
For now, it’s really an alternative to Paypal that’s faster and more transparent and secure. With Gracekennedy and Western Union planning to use them for sending and receiving Remittances, we may soon be Ripple-ing along, with other mobile money companies such as Quisk in hot pursuit!!!
Sharing is caring, so share this with all your friends!!
References
- (2018). What is Cryptocurrency. Guide for Beginners. Retrieved from https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-for-beginners/what-are-cryptocurrencies
- Conner, C.O. (2014, February 14). How To Use Bitcoin To Shop At Amazon, Home Depot, CVS And More. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/02/17/how-to-use-bitcoin-to-shop-at-amazon-home-depot-cvs-and-more/
- Deer, L. (2017, March 26). How Jamaicans can make money online – Paypal Prepaid Card and other Payoneer Alternatives. Retrieved from https://lindsworthdeer.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/paypal-prepaid-card-payoneer-alternatives/
- Williams, D. (2018, February 7). Money backed by the internet, not the government. BOJ advises public against Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Retrieved from http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-observer/boj-advises-public-against-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrencies-money-backed-by-the-internet-not-the-government_124590
- Deer, L. (2018, March 11). GraceKennedy’s Innovation Lab planning to launch a GK MPay cryptocurrency. Retrieved from http://geezam.com/gk-mpay-cryptocurrency/
- Deer, L. (2018, March 11). How Jamaicans can mine cryptocurrency via the Electroneum App. Retrieved from http://geezam.com/electroneum-app-cryptocurrency/
- Collinder, A. (2018, March 21). Jamaica Launches Outbound Online Remittances. Retrieved from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20180321/jamaica-launches-outbound-online-remittances
- Supoto, Y.O. (2018, March 23). Ripple’s (XRP) xRapid To Gain More Ground As Western Union Partners GraceKennedy On Online Remittance. Retrieved from https://theindependentrepublic.com/2018/03/23/ripples-xrp-xrapid-to-gain-more-ground-as-western-union-partners-gracekennedy-on-online-remittance/
- Drake, N. (2018, 12 June). Best Bitcoin wallet. Retrieved from https://www.techradar.com/news/best-cryptocurrency-wallets-2018
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