The potential of cryptocurrency in a crisis – The #EndSARS story

From feeding and logistics to medical and legal costs, the campaign was sustained through donations that came in millions of Naira from Nigerians across the globe. However, this would come with its own challenges.

FINANCING A REVOLUTION

Before long, the Feminist Coalition, one of the key organisations raising funds to support the campaigns nationwide complained that its bank transactions were slowing down, with online payment links malfunctioning.

If this was a ploy of financial institutions to stifle the demonstration, it wasn’t going to work. Quickly, Feminist Coalition followed by other fundraisers announced that donations would now be made in Bitcoin, bypassing what could have been a censorship from the financial institutions in the country.

Bitcoin became the primary means of cash exchange for the rest of the protest, accounting for 40% of donations made to the Feminist Coalition who announced that they had raised about 8 BTC by the end of its fundraising on October 22nd, the same day physical protests nationwide were put on hold.

The #EndSars protest, driven and executed solely by a generation of Nigerian millennials has been one of its kind and could set the pace for a coming revolution, not only politically, but also financially.

SURVIVING ECONOMIC CRISIS

Already 2020’s leading country in peer-to-peer lending within Africa, the possibilities of cryptocurrency in Nigeria is enormous. Bitcoin’s decentralised and transparent nature gives everyday Nigerians a way to access their money without worry of the economic instability that characterizes many of the civil disturbances and political crises in the country.

This is very simply demonstrated in the violent outcome which followed, after thugs hijacked the #EndSars protest – looting Cash ATMs, burning banks and forcing financial institutions to lock up. For many, these events left them stranded, unable to access money or make critical financial transactions.

With Bitcoin, situations such as these can easily be avoided as the stability of cryptocurrency is independent of centralised third-party banks and entirely carried out via the internet, keeping your digital transactions undisturbed.

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