These are the countries where cryptocurrency use is most common:

Cryptocurrency is a frontier in Africa. Transparency and opportunity are brought to Africa by this revolutionary technology.

Major changes have already taken place there. The term “cryptocurrency” is regularly searched for by African countries on Google Trends.

The 2020 Global Crypto Adoption Index from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis shows that South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria are among the top countries for peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading. According to the index, Nigeria recorded weekly peer-to-peer volumes between $5 million and $10 million. South Africa and Kenya followed with an average of $1 million to $2 million per week.

According to the UN, crypto projects in Africa include the Luno Exchange, which was established in 2013 and claims 1.5 million customers in over 40 countries.

On the continent, cryptocurrency-based remittance services are also popular, including Abra in Malawi and Morocco, GeoPay in South Africa, BitMari in Zimbabwe, and Kobocoin throughout Africa.

Africans have the youngest population of any continent, with 226 million people between 15 and 24 years old. By 2045, the number of young people in Africa is expected to double. By then, the African workforce will be the largest in the world, too.

Many Africans lack access to the global financial system. That’s why it’s essential to give Africans a voice in their financial future.

(I currently supervise the construction of Akon City, a futuristic city in Senegal that incorporates emerging technologies, including cryptocurrency and blockchains. I founded the cryptocurrency Akoin, so I have a financial interest in writing this article.)

By creating a transparent environment, crypto puts the power back in the hands of the people.

In its G20 paper on digital identity, the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) wrote:

As a result of its decentralized and transparent nature, this technology is being tested in a wide range of financial sector applications, including funds transfers, payment settlements, and regulatory oversight, as well as identity management. Due to the immutability of ledgers, dispute resolution is embedded and enforced by computer protocols. The shared ledger’s transparency, resilience, and replication at each node make it a useful tool for tracking and maintaining the integrity of the information.”

The continent of Africa is one of the few places in the world that can implement every new technological development and invention coming to fruition today without having to destroy existing infrastructure. From the U.S. to Europe to China, major countries and regions cannot deploy the latest technologies without first tearing down and rebuilding everything that’s already been built. That’s why Africa can lead the crypto and blockchain revolution.

The young in Africa are what’s called a leapfrog generation. They have abandoned landlines and computers in favour of mobile phones and mobile payments like M-Pesa, a mobile banking service that allows users to store and transfer money via their phones. Phones are sometimes used to run entire businesses.

Africans are incredibly creative, and the young generation is full of potential entrepreneurs. The society in which they live, however, makes them rely on jobs that allow them to feed their families, so many do not know how to be entrepreneurs. Rather, they need the space to develop their dreams.

They have big plans. Crypto is the foundation for those amazing ideas to manifest. Decentralization and cryptocurrency will enable a new financial framework to develop on the continent, empowering entrepreneurs to build and execute their businesses digitally across borders.

We need to start thinking about what’s good for everyone in Africa, and how technology can actually benefit and connect everyone. Greed needs to be put aside for a moment.

If you don’t see this evolution, you will be seriously left behind. In the global financial system, Africa has a chance to be ahead of the curve.

What does a crypto-fueled Africa look like? It looks like a utopia to me. People come first, transparency is emphasized, and everyone can contribute their best ideas.

Considering Africa’s most valuable resource-its people-combined with its natural resources, it’s clear that this is a very exciting time for the continent.