The Central African Republic (CAR) has approved Bitcoin as legal tender – just the second country to do so.
- CAR is following the lead of El Salvador, which in September 2021 became the first nation to introduce Bitcoin as legal tender.
- Central African Republic is one of the world’s poorest countries, but is rich in diamonds, gold and uranium.
- By legaliding the use of Bitcoin, CAR hopes to attract investors.
Concerns
- Economists have raised fears that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin could make it easier for criminals to launder money, and that they are environmentally damaging because they use so much electricity to generate.
What is cryptocurrency ?
- Cryptocurrency is any form of currency that exists digitally or virtually and uses cryptography to secure transactions.
- It runs on a distributed public ledger called blockchain, a record of all transactions updated and held by currency holders.
- Cryptocurrencies don’t have a central issuing or regulating authority, instead using a decentralized system to record transactions and issue new units.
- It’s a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to send and receive payments.
- The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was founded in 2009.
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