Cointelegraph By Prashant Jha
The Central African Republic (CAR) has become the center of a hot buzz in the crypto world amid various reports of it adopting Bitcoin (BTC) quite similar to El Salvador. However, contrary to popular headlines, the African nation has not adopted BTC as a legal tender; instead, it has reportedly legalized the use of cryptocurrencies in the financial markets.
The cryptocurrency bill was introduced by Justin Gourna Zacko, the minister of Digital Economy, Post and Telecommunications on Thursday and was unanimously approved by the lawmakers in the parliament despite a protest from the opposition, reported RFI.
The crypto law aims to establish a favorable environment for the inclusive growth of the crypto sector in the region. Minister Zacko also highlighted the growing difficulties in sending money from the African nation and believed the adoption of crypto would help in resolving that issue.
The new law would reportedly allow traders and businesses to make crypto payments and also make way for tax payments in crypto through authorized entities.
The new crypto law has also made provisions for offenders who break the laws. According to one report, offenders could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined between 100,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 Financial Community of Africa (CFA) francs.
Related: Four years on, Telegram’s blockchain project gains ground in Africa
Gloire, the founder of Kiveclair, a Bitcoin Beach-inspired refugee project in the Congo explained the details of the new law and told Cointelegraph:
“The real implication for people is that they can now have access to currencies other than the FCFA (this is the local currency) while being protected by law, and transfer money at a lower cost. Above all, they can carry out financial transactions without banks (while being protected by law). “
A total of 14 countries use the CFA franc pegged to the euro, printed in France and its monetary policy is controlled by Western powers. While the official peg was set at 1 euro to 655.96 CFA francs, the fiat has been depleting in value for quite some time. Thus, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are growing in popularity among countries troubled by the national economic crisis.
