The trade of cryptocurrencies is made online, and one should be very careful with the transactions they are making and to whom the funds are being transferred. In one such accidental wrong transfer, a Nigerian man received Bitcoins worth $80,000 in his account.
Keith Mali Chung is a resident of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria and recently he woke up with 7.8 Bitcoins in his accounts which were mistakenly transferred to him. The moment he realized this, he began to track down the owner of those Bitcoins. He mentioned that he trades in Bitcoins, but he’s never traded such huge amount, and he posted an announcement through some WhatsApp group to find some information about the owner.
After three-days and the search still going on, he took the matter to Twitter and found the owner that had the correct encryption code for the transaction. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force announced that cryptocurrency firms would have to prevent the misuse of digital coins for money laundering and other illegal activities.
FATF took this decision, and it brings together all the crypto accepting countries as well as commissions and reflects the growing concern among the global platforms.
Acceptance of Bitcoin
Nigeria has seen a sudden boom in the usage of cryptocurrencies since the Central Bank of Nigeria has increased a 2 percent charge on cash deposits over 500,000 Naira(€1250) in certain states, and 3 percent charge on withdrawals of the same amount.
Mali Chung travels around the country and gives free workshops on Bitcoin to spread awareness and explain its potential in the longer run. The Central Bank of Nigeria is yet to regulate cryptocurrency transactions. Mali Chung’s act has started a debate that discusses the potentially positive and negative effects of cryptocurrencies in a country that already has a bad name in the world of banking and for its political corruption.
