Episode 32 of Public Key, the Chainalysis podcast, is here! In this episode, we talk with Ray Yousef, CEO of Paxful and he gives us his candid thoughts on how crypto is powering a new economy in Africa and providing an alternative payment system.

You can listen or subscribe now on Spotify, Applegold Audible. Keep reading for a full preview of episode 32.

Public Key Episode 32 preview: Bitcoin provides payment alternatives in Sub-Saharan Africa

Not many people have seen the power of Bitcoin impact an entire portion of a continent as closely as Ray YoussefCEO of Paxful.

In this episode, Ian Andrews (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) has a mind-blowing and heartstring-pulling conversation with the man who is trying to provide basic human rights to over 1 billion citizens using the magic of Bitcoin.

Ray discusses why peer-to-peer marketplaces are providing alternative payment options and explains the difficulty in moving money around countries in Africa and why he believes Bitcoin is still the best technology to bank the underbanked.

Quote of the episode

“Bitcoin can bridge economies and expand opportunities for the billions of unbanked”, which is I think actually almost a novel concept in Bitcoin today among the proponents. That it can actually be used for commerce. I think everyone is sort of fallen away from that belief and is maybe looking at stablecoins or some other technology layer. They’ve kind of moved on from Bitcoin as even being applicable in that space, but you seem to still be a believer there.” – Ian Andrews (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis)

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown

(3:05) – Ray’s journey from launching successful startups to MMA and then eventually finding his way into crypto
(7:39) – The early understanding that banking the unbank was a great use case for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency
(10:07) Why the difficulty in movement of funds in countries like Nigeria made it ripe for crypto adoption
(17:05) – Why education is so crucial to the success of Bitcoin in Africa which has a history of falling victim to scams connected to cryptocurrency
(26:25) – Lightning Network and the technology pushing Bitcoin into more mainstream adoption and fixing broken civilizations
(29:55) – The state of crypto regulation in Nigeria and Africa compared to the western countries

Related resources

Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key.

LinkedIn: Post FTX Market Updates
Press Release: Paxful Becomes Africa Bitcoin Conference Major Sponsor
Twitter: Chainalysis Company Twitter Page

Speakers on today’s episode

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