By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
A Zimbabwean — Vengai Nzvedere — has put Africa on the map through the creation of Africa’s first cryptocurrency coin, the Big Five Token.
The Nzvedaz Big Five Token or simply the BFT is a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority.
Speaking at a workshop Monday in Harare to educate Zimbabweans about the cryptocurrency, Israel Mutanhaurwa said the BFT was about creating generational wealth.
“Cryptocurrency is digital money backed by cryptography that is secured by Blockchain – a public ledger of transactions.
“Through this, people can see or query the transactions via the token. Our purpose is not to make money for ourselves and it is about creating a generational wealth, wealth that can sustain lives,” he said.
“In the past, in banking, there were no ATMs but now we have ATM cards. We are moving away from relying a lot on central banks that are often impacted by inflation leading to money losing its value.
“Electronic devices (mobile phones, laptops) make people control their own money. The value of currencies is being eroded worldwide. When you have your money electronically you have control over it. People can pay for goods and services through the Nzvedaz Big Five Token.”
Vengai Nzvendere, the creator of Nzvedaz Big Five Token said cryptocurrency can appreciate as well as it can depreciate.
“Unlike your pyramid schemes which were all scams the cryptocurrency is a way of protecting people from scammers.
“As the world embraces digital money, everybody come to cryptocurrency everybody go to cryptocurrency when you come to cryptocurrency there is no inflation look at Russia-Ukraine in one day US$500 million worth of bitcoin in donations was raised.
This is where the world is going and in El Salvador they are now using bitcoin as a currency the whole country. Australia now paying government in cryptocurrency and there are now several cryptocurrency on the play,” Nzvendere said.
Renowned ophthalmologist, Dr Solomon Guramatunhu who first traded in bitcoin said cryptocurrency has a great potential to address poverty in Zimbabwe.
“As I was coming down to this place, I saw many people vending in order to earn a living in this difficult economy. A number of people have also turned to begging but I believe poverty among black people starts from the mindset. The population of one city in Asian countries, like Shanghai, is over 20 million or more.
“Zimbabwe as a country has a smaller population but the country has vast resources with plenty of minerals but the majority are poor. I used the Guramatunhu family trust to be in running businesses like real estate and stock trading.
“Vengai introduced me to cryptocurrency. I started with US$6 000 and it grew to US$69 000 in 12 months. Our social sectors like health and education are not performing well at the moment. Blockchain can be a way out of poverty. Cryptocurrency isn’t affected by macroeconomic fundamentals like inflation and maybe the gateway out of poverty for many,” Dr. Guramatunhu said.
Nzvedaz Bitcoin Academy are running a workshop under the theme “The Roadmap of Big Five”, and the discussion was graced by great minds in blockchain and the non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystem as well as enthusiastic potential users.
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