Background

I have been an international educator since 2011 teaching in universities throughout Saudi, Oman, UAE, Thailand, and China. The last 5 years I have worked with the Air Force pilots and mechanics in Saudi, Afghanistan, Qatar, and now in the United Arab Emirates.

Having traveled all over the world and worked in 7 different countries, Afghanistan really stood out to me as the perfect place for Bitcoin adoption due to the lack of security and the potential of bodily harm or death when traveling great distances.

Afghani culture is such that younger children often help support the elders financially. Getting money to family members for food and medical bills shouldn't be a death sentence or a reason for harassment by terrorists.

Bitcoin is something that could immediately help save lives by sending it via text or over the internet.

The Country

Afghanistan is a very unique developing country with problems that are equally unique. Due to the present circumstances it is not only home to ~39 million locals, but also ~150,000 foreign troops. It even has a budding tourism industry that hosts ~90,000 tourists.

The country rich in in culture, and it has $1 Trillion in proven untapped mineral deposits. Substantial financial growth is still lacking though. Factors such as insecurity, poverty, endemic corruption and weak governance are the main reasons for hampering development. Bitcoin could be the spark to ignite financial growth for the people that are more than deserving of it.

The country is divided into a host of ethnolinguistic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aymāq, Turkmen, Baloch, Pashai, Nuristani, Gujjar, Arab, Brahui, Pamiri, Kyrgyz and few others. As a result, there is bound to be mistrust amongst them. Coupled with the overarching distrust for the banking systems, Afghanistan and its citizens are ripe for Bitcoin adoption.

With the average Afghanistan citizen earning about $410 annually, this makes regular personal internet usage nearly impossible. To add to this, the unemployment rate in Afghanistan is at approximately 11 percent. Locals are facing some stiff challenges in using Bitcoin over the internet, but there is another solution that could greatly benefit them. This better solution comes in form of their mobile phones.

Many developing countries, including Afghanistan, have put lots of resources towards building telecommunication lines.

Although a computer may be too expensive for many, a $40 USD phone is more than enough to bring Afghanistan’s citizens into the Bitcoin ecosphere and economic system. Understanding this opportunity can then be coupled with services such as Crypterium, DropBit or the Text My Bits project which enable sending Bitcoin through text messages.

Working in developing countries it may be easier to take smaller incremental steps in understanding the real world use cases with Bitcoin through a medium such as text messages. This, in turn may lead more people to dive further into the benefits of the circular Bitcoin economy, and not get hung up on the technical side of sending and receiving Bitcoin.

Corruption and Distrust

Afghanistan faces some big challenges in further developing their economy. The country has been built on multiple levels of corruption and distrust amongst tribes. Often, the highest ranking officers in the military didn’t have to work their way up the ranks through experience, but rather through their “wasta”, or connections. Many positions in businesses are filled based on family name, tribal affiliation, or recommendations from others. Advancing in the business world is not as easy as being hired because you are the best applicant.

Bitcoin provides a level playing field for commerce amongst all members of society, and is trustless. Simply by eliminating the need for trust, Bitcoin enables commerce between different groups of individuals whether it be social classes, religious sects, small street merchants, or larger brick and mortar businesses.

This is precisely why Bitcoin has an incredible amount of potential in Afghanistan. Identity here is found through your affiliations by family name, religion, ideologies, tribes, and a multitude of other differences. Bitcoin unites all of these together under a verifiable trustless currency. Stripping away the risk that comes with using the local Afghani fiat currency and the local banking system could lead to greater economic growth.

Afghani Banking and FIAT

Productivity in the workforce would likely increase. Specifically; on “payday”, locals wouldn’t have to leave work and rush to the bank to withdraw all their fiat currency. In my direct experience, working side-by-side with many citizens of Afghanistan, they would often rush to the banks on payday for two main reasons:

The first reason being that they didn’t trust the banks to hold their money or keep a proper record of deposits. They feared the bank would literally run out of fiat money, and they didn’t trust the record keeping on their accounts.

The second reason many of my peers would rush to the bank was that they were not always paid on schedule. Often times salaries were late and the money had already been spent on feeding family members or paying medical bills, well before they had actually received it.

Joining a circular Bitcoin economy would allow both of these issues to be bypassed. The individual would have a record of Bitcoin payments received and they would not need to physically take the time to go to the banks themselves.

The Dangers of Travel

Trusting the banks comes with a certain level of risk, but there are also risks outside of the banking sector. Bitcoin could literally minimize life or death situations caused by lack of security while traveling. Covering long distances between villages and cities to deliver fiat money to extended families living beyond the city borders often result in disastrous consequences. Foreign soldiers and locals know all to well about the potential for road side bombs, illegal asset forfeiture or confiscation from the Taliban, and general lawlessness outside of the main cities with a myriad of police/military checkpoints.

With the bulk of the population living in larger cities, this draws in the military and local police to secure the larger cities and maintain the overall safety for the people. In turn, this means that much of the Taliban operates in smaller towns and villages that have a far lower level of security. With many citizens often traveling out to these far reaching towns and villages to take care of the family members that remain unbanked, they take on the risk involved with this journey.

Sending a text message containing Bitcoin to family members hundreds of kilometers away would fulfill the need to support your family members financially while alleviating the associated physical risk. By minimizing these risks, the population can then begin to invest more in education and building a safe and secure future for generations to come.

Building With Bitcoin

In countries such as the US there is no lack of access to information. But in Afghanistan there are citizens that still believe the Soviets are occupying them, although they left in 1989.

Bitcoin has the capability of bridging the education gap while allowing economic growth and greater safety for its citizens. The individual selling bread on the streets, the taxis that line the streets, the merchants hawking tea and carpets, and even the businesses hidden behind the tall military-grade T-walls can all be united by Bitcoin.

For ease of use, citizens can use something as simple as a text message to send and receive Bitcoin. For some, a QR Code could be the key to success in accepting payments without the risks that comes with holding large amounts of fiat currency. Street vendors wouldn’t have to carry cash in their pockets as they move around town with their carts. Small businesses wouldn’t have to keep cumbersome amounts of fiat in a safe.

Larger businesses could accept international payments and ship their products globally with much more ease. Of all these benefits to using Bitcoin, the greatest attribute for the citizens of Afghanistan is that Bitcoin would provide them with a sense of security and hope for a better future as they continue to surmount the risks that come with building up a country.

During my time in Afghanistan, I met some of the kindest and most hard working people I have come across.

They are as deserving as any others of living in a safe country, free of terrorism, and Bitcoin could be one weapon in their arsenal towards reaching that goal.