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Kenyans Will Soon Be Able To Send Bitcoin By Phone

Posted by samzenpus on from the 1-800-money dept.

jfruh writes "M-Pesa is a wildly popular mobile payment system in Kenya, which allows citizens of a country with a poor banking infrastructure to easily transfer money to each other using ubiquitous dumbphones. Currently the system only works in the local currency, but there are plans afoot to allow users to transfer Bitcoin — which would help Kenyans working abroad send money back home without paying high international bank transfer fees."

3 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Great! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now it won't cost you so much to help them smuggle their vast fortune out of the country.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  2. Actually more advanced than what's in the West by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Having lived in Kenya for 5 years, actually MPESA, and the mobile networks in general, are much better than what's in the West. You can transfer money to anyone, anytime, with any phone. Transfer to and from your bank account. Signal strength is consistently 100% in any town of any significance. Fast Internet even in many places away from towns. PAYG calls 1c or 2c/minute, Internet 1c/Mb or less, tethering included on PAYG. Coming back to the West meant getting used to rather inferior service!

    David Anderson

  3. Third-party by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The summary made it sound like the M-Pesa system was going to add support for bitcoin somehow ("there are plans afoot to allow users to transfer Bitcoin"), but from TFA, it's just an unrelated third party offering a service that lets you buy bitcoin and pay via M-Pesa.

    Essentially some guy put up a website where you can buy bitcoin.