Despite warnings from Kenya's central bank about the volatility of crypto-currencies, some businesses in Nairobi are now accepting Bitcoin payments. The total number of Bitcoin transactions in Kenya are estimated to be worth over $1.5m, according to the Blockchain Association of Kenya. At the moment, the crypto-currencies Bitcoin, Dash and Lisk are used in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

However, if you look at the total number of people in Kenya using virtual currencies today, it is still relatively small - only about 40,000 people have ever made a transaction using Bitcoin. Part of the reason crypto-currency penetration isn't growing that much is because Kenya's central bank has forbidden banks from dealing in virtual currencies. Image caption People in Kenya can turn money into Bitcoin using these machines, but not easily convert digital currencies back into cash Banks are not allowed to open accounts for people who are known to dealing in any virtual currency, which means that the population cannot easily convert Bitcoin payments into cash or mobile money.

"Crypto-currencies can facilitate and ensure that you do an unlimited number of transactions, however the volatility, lack of control and the non-acceptability of crypto-currencies across different jurisdictions impairs what you'd expect a currency to do," economist and policy expert Vincent Kimosop told the BBC. The Blockchain Association of Kenya (BAK) disagrees with this way of thinking, and it is actively working to educate the country on the benefits of using crypto-currencies and blockchain. The non-profit body says that using virtual currencies can greatly reduce the cost of transactions, and enable people without bank accounts to quickly make and receive payments. Coin spectator is an automated news aggregation service. All copyrights belong to their respective owners. Images and text owned by copyright holders are used in reference to and promotion of those respective parties. Read in Full

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