Governments all around the world are facing a daunting task managing the surging appeal for cryptocurrencies on the African continent.
From Nigeria to Kenya and down the South Africa, there us a surge in trading activities involving cryptocurrencies.
This has necessitated many Central Banks on the continent directing commercial banks to avoid processing transactions that involving crypto.
That decision hit many hard in Nigeria.
For young Nigerians who had taken to trading in crypto, it felt like a death sentence as many had taken solace in crypto trading due to the high unemployment rate.
Ken is a producer in one of the broadcast stations in Lagos. He also trades in cryptocurrencies.
“As a young Nigerian who somewhat pays attention to the rapid drop in the value of the Naira, the cryptocurrency trading ban by the Central Bank of Nigeria felt like crossing the Lagos Lagoon without the popular Third Mainland Bridge,” Ken tells us.
“Do I still cross the lagoon of crypto trading? Yes!
“But by relying on the Peer-to-Peer model which requires me to trust someone online that I do not know to facilitate a crypto transaction, it puts me in a risky position daily of getting scammed,” he adds.
But the founder of one of the major crypto coins in the market today believes governments have no business regulating the industry in the first place.
Brian Summer is the founder of a crypto coin – Galaxy Heroes Coin. He says he doesn’t “think any government should control cryptocurrency.”
The 34 year old believes the only reason governments see cryptocurrencies as relevant now is because “it’s being mass adapted and they’re worried they won’t be able to tax it.”
But Thomas Lobban, legal manager of crypto-asset taxation at Tax Consulting SA disagrees.
He told businesstech.co.za that “while anonymity and freedom still inform the appeal of cryptocurrencies, it has been proven that these volatile assets require regulation.”
According to Lobban, “this is not just for the overall good of the economy and the fiscus, but to protect people from the dangers associated with crypto investment.”
However, Sumner argues that the ultimate goal in the restrictive measures across the globe is the fight to control taxes.
“The government wants their taxes, they need their portion of the pie.
“They’re worried they won’t be able to tax it. They could care less if you lose your money investing, however they care about your profits and won’t hesitate to collect their tax,” the Galaxy Heroes Coin co-founder insists.
But many are still worried that trading in crypto has similarities with Ponzi schemes that has wrecked a lot of Nigerians.
Sumner believes the comparisons to Ponzi is not fair but insists “All investments can be considered that.”
“If you’re worried that crypto is a Ponzi scheme, you need to take a look around you,” he adds.
“When you invest, you’re looking for profit at the end. The only way for that to happen is someone else buying after you and so on.
Speaking about his on coin, Galaxy Heroes Coin, Sumner says the vision “is to bring an exciting way to the crypto space.
“We are a superhero themed crypto platform with use cases like coinpayment, NFTs, gamefi and Metaverse. We are bringing many utilities to our investors like passive income.
He adds that that the Galaxy Heroes “tokenomics has a unique setup.”
According to the American, “we tax a total of 9% which allows us to use 4% for marketing, 2% further development and 3% to our liquidity. This formula had been a proven success which has allowed us to continually funnel in money to further our project.”
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