Crypto Story: Can Crypto Solve Afghanistan’s Extreme Hunger ?

Republished By Plato

Followers: 0

Fereshteh Forough believed that when the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan in August of last year, the organization would close her school in Herat, the country’s third-largest city. The Taliban rejected secondary education for women, and Forough’s NGO, Code to Inspire, taught computer programming to young Afghan women.

Afghanistan and its citizens are currently going through challenging circumstances. Several people are now looking out for ways in which they can help people dying from hunger.

The silver lining here remains that some of them have rightly achieved their goals by finding how to be paid in crypto.

The Unavoidable Occurred

In 2020, people gradually learned about cryptocurrency, which gave the Afghans a renewed optimism. They worked with a few bitcoin sites that paid them in cryptocurrency in 2021. After so many failed attempts to be paid online, cryptocurrency gave them new hope.

The Taliban took complete control of Afghanistan in August 2021, and most transaction services, including Western Union, Swift, and Hawala, ceased operations in the nation. Despite this, most Afghans still have no idea how to transfer or receive money from other nations, as 57% of the country’s 40 million people are illiterate.

Challenges to Crypto Adoption

The challenges with introducing cryptocurrency payments and transactions, on the other hand, are significant. Kevin Schumacher, deputy executive director of Women for Afghan Women, said,

“We studied this possibility, but it is not for us.” “How do you pay 1,100 people in 16 regions with crypto, many of whom can’t read or write?”

According to Kakar and Forough, the value changes may be minimized by utilizing stablecoins, fixed to the dollar, and not susceptible to the extreme price volatility of popular cryptocurrencies like Ethereum or Bitcoin. Binance, a worldwide trading platform that allows users to buy and sell stablecoins and more speculative coins, is used by many Afghans.

Time Stamp: February 7, 2022