The Bitcoin Blog

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has moved to clarify recent regulations released on January 1, 2017, that claimed “all virtual currencies are prohibited”. Now, the monetary authority has confirmed that new regulations will not outlaw virtual currencies like Bitcoin. On January 1, the Central Bank of the UAE released a new  regulatory framework  [PDF] for electronic payment systems. In a marked provision toward virtual currencies specifically, the regulation simply stated: “All virtual currencies (and any transactions thereof) are prohibited.” The sweeping statement that constitutes a ban on the use of digital currencies like bitcoin crept under the radar, relatively speaking, at a time when the UAE is pressing ahead with its  Fintech -friendly agenda. Recent efforts include setting to path a comprehensive switchover to  blockchain-based document storage  for all Government documents by the year 2020. However, the central bank’s Governor, ...

The demand for Bitcoin has surged skywards in the African nation of Nigeria. The country’s weekly Bitcoin exchange volumes since mid-December 2016 have increased to more than NGN 400 million, which is close to $1.3 million. The increasing demand for cryptocurrency in Nigeria was reported by a  leading African tech magazine . The magazine makes use of the available data from  LocalBitcoins  — a peer to peer Bitcoin marketplace to present its case. The Nigerian cryptocurrency community has access to multiple Bitcoin platforms, and LocalBitcoins is just one among them. The Bitcoin demand among Eurozone nations on the platform is found to be on par with that of Nigeria’s volumes. The increase in demand also coincides with the increasing traffic from the region. Website data indicate that over 16% of visitors on LocalBitcoins are from Nigeria. Even the internet search trends in the country show a significant increase in Bitcoin-related searches. The publication specul...