The cryptocurrencies or digital currencies are currencies which you can neither see, touch or feel but you can buy and sell using it. They are currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank. Unlike the common money we know, digital currencies are digital; e-monies, you can’t lay hold of it but it qualifies as money since it is a recognized means of buying and selling and a medium of exchange. They are decentralized and no government or organization could claim to have control of it and hence nobody can regulate it.

A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange, it uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.

It has been a controversial topic as to the initiator or founder(s) or starter(s) of cryptocurrencies, while some claim that is the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity is unknown, some link the invention to another individual but it is a known fact that digital currency finally gained success in the year 2009 when Bitcoin (represented as Btc) was released as open-source software after numerous futile attempt to create digital currencies.

Bitcoin is generally considered the first decentralized currency. It is not regulated by any government or organization neither is it under the control of any state or person.

Till date, bitcoin remain the most popular, most accepted and the most expensive among all other cryptocurrencies as there have been more than 3000 other cryptocurrencies released into the market since 2009, after the huge success of bitcoin.

Some out of the numerous cryptocurrencies released afterwards include Ethereum (represented as Eth), Litecion (Ltc), Stellar (Xlm), Ripples (xrp), Bitcoin cash (bch), Pivot (pvt), namecoin etc. All these other coins other than bitcoin are referred to as altcoins.

Bitcoin was valued for the first time in 2010 when someone decided to swap his 10,000 units of bitcoins for two pizzas on 22nd of May 2010 and this date is celebrated every year as bitcoin pizza day in remembrance of the day bitcoin gained value.

Since 2010, Bitcoin has gained more popularity, and is widely accepted and extended into more countries in America, Europe, Asia, Australia and even Africa. Bitcoin and other digital currencies have remained a unit of investment, business and means of livelihood for most individuals.

Although many people are yet to know what cryptocurrencies are, it is a way to make money at the comfort of your home without physical contact with the person you are buying from or selling to; all you need is a smartphone or a computing device. Since it is digital or an E-money, you can transact with any body in any part of the world; you can buy, sell, hold, mine or swap.

It’s high time individuals avert their attention to this digital way of making money as it is on the ‘soft work’ way of making money and creating exchange.

There are about four segments in this business and four distinct way a person involved in it can make his money as it doesn’t only revolve around buying and selling; there are the traders, the holders, the miners and those engaged in swapping.

The traders are those engaged in the buying and the selling of the coins on daily bases. They buy in order to sell, they sell with little or more profit margin. It takes a lot of experience to be a trader of cryptocurrencies. A trader should be conversant with the pull and the push factor that leads the rise and fall of the prices.

Then there are the holders, the holders are the investors, they invest in the cryptocurrencies, they can hold that for years and can only withdraw it when they feel it’s necessary. Holding in the real sense of it is the most lucrative part of cryptocurrencies. 

Earlier this year, a bitcoin was sold for $4000 USD but by June the same year, bitcoin hit $14000.There are other coins (referred to as altcoins) which is less than $1 now but have the prospect of hitting $11000 in the nearest future. Some of those altcoins include; Ripple (Xrp), Stellar (Xlm), Bitcoin cash (bch) etc. These coins are predicted to be worth more than a thousand dollar in the nearest future and due to the success of bitcoin the prediction will not be far from the truth despite the fact that each of those coins cost less than one dollar.

There are those that are into mining of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. Constant energy or electricity is required for mining. Most times the cost of power and the cost of machines to be used in mining makes cryptocurrency mining less lucrative. Some of the most popular machines used in mining are Antminer S9, Antminer R4, Avalon 6 etc (you can check the cost on Amazon if you are interested in getting one).

There are also those that are into swapping of coins. All they do is to swap one coin for the other, they make their income from the fees they charge for swapping.

The good news about cryptocurrency investment or trade is that there is no minimum or maximum amount of money that’s required to start up the trade, you can start with as low as 10 dollars while you can invest with as much as one million dollars. All it takes is to create an account on any of the online exchanges and buy any of the coins with any amount of money you wish and send the coins into your wallet and there you go.

Be it noted that since it’s a business and just like other trade, it is determined by the market forces of demand and supply; the price could fall and rise at any time. The $10 worth of bitcoins or any other coin you get today could experience 10% increment by the next day and it could also fall by 10% by the next day; you must always study the price chart of each coin for you to be able to decipher the fate of the coin. Reading a chart is not rocket science, basic knowledge of economics will help you.

Be smart when dealing with crypto – it can make or burn you financially depending on the market.

On Sunday July 7, when ACM Bashir Umar stumbled on 37, 000 euros ($41,000 or N14,820,000) at Kano airport, the Air Force personnel had two choices: 

1. Grab the cash and quietly walk away, resign from service and live a private life and his poverty will be in the past. 
2. Return the money to the owner, remain poor but honest. 

He chose the latter, a decision that would have sounded silly in a country where integrity is scarce, and survival is for the fittest.

He was not the first to do something like that, so what’s the big deal? In 2014, a cleaner, Josephine Agwu, who works at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, found 12 million naira and returned it to the owner. 

There have been little instances of honesty here and there in a country where corruption is paramount. But not enough to disregard sincere efforts of fidelity that has become so insignificant because of the contagiousness of corruption that has tainted the image of Nigeria, and enabled the askance look especially from the outside.

You could recall that it was in the same month of July that five Nigerian soldiers were declared wanted for absconding with millions of naira belonging to a VIP they were escorting. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in many cases of fraud and disloyalty growing with disheartening prevalence. Mockery and ridicule have been employed as recruitment tools by the majority who have accepted stealing as a way of life. The stories fill the news everyday.

There are excuses though, “Nigerian Leaders are thieves, they are only there looting public funds in large sums. And they do so with utmost impunity. So why should I not do the same when I have the chance”? This is the defense line of an average Nigerian whenever the question of honesty comes into play. The soldiers who scampered with the millions of naira they were escorting had been handling such transactions involving huge amount of money for so long. So they know the drill, most of these transactions are illicit, and their principals live off it to the penury and jealousy of their subordinates.

The Nigerian Army has not been able to explain what the millions being escorted from Sokoto to Abuja was meant for, and the VIP, Mr. Okiti, an Army commander, is yet to make any explanatory statement about the huge sum. It’s a constant display of impunity that has always put sensitive conscience on a state of dichotomy, and it’s only those who developed their conscience on the staunch of fidelity that can resist the urge to join them when obviously they can’t beat them. ACM Bashir Umar is one of those. There is always a question of what do you have to gain on the side of morality when there is impunity to be enjoyed on the other side?

Bashir Umar received a double promotion to corporal, Josephine Agwu also was promoted at her place of work, and appreciative Nigerians donated money to her to the tone of 1.4 million naira. But the objective in being honest is never to be promoted or to be praised financially by people. 

It’s more like being a good example to a fragile conscience, or a personal hygiene awareness campaign in a time of deadly virus. “But it’s just some drops of clean water from the dirty stream,” says the man who has not read the Bible’s story of the 12 Spies. The insignificant 2 numbers with positive claims won over the 10 who had negative reports. And God was pleased. 

In fact, their testimony resulted in victory for the rest of the Israel nation. But the two Spies were different because of their mental attitude, they had trained themselves to see through the good and bad, and to take sides with the good. So fidelity is like a personal hygienic attitude that protects a person from diseases, and it starts with little things like:

• Picking up a wallet with a stash of cash and fighting off the urge to keep it.
• Picking up a lost phone and returning it to the owner.
• Paying the bus conductor when he has forgotten to take money from you.
• Returning money to the owner when your account is mistakenly credited etc.

No doubt, these traits helped Bashir Umar and Josephine Agwu to develop a measure of honesty that has stood the test of our corruptible time. And it has also inspired so many others to do the same. The benefit of honesty goes beyond you being a reference point of trust and all the public applause. It comes with peculiar peace that its source is rooted in your heart.

Examples of rare virtues of honesty should be study cases at homes and schools. The younger generation needs to replace what is immorally common with what is morally scarce. A corruption free future cannot be attained by anti-graft laws only, but through a mindset that sees graft as an unwelcome guest in the mind.

These are the largest public traded companies in Nigeria (by market cap) in order – Dangote Cement, MTN, Airtel, and Unilever. Technically, they are also the largest companies in Nigeria by valuation (I am not sure there are private ones larger than these four). MTN and Airtel have found themselves ahead of Unilever. Meanwhile, Airtel Nigeria continues to anchor Airtel Africa business which posted $132.2 net profit last quarter. When Interswitch gets in the game, it will move some places in the ranking.

Bharti Airtel’s Africa arm posted net profit of $132.2 million in the June quarter, a fall of 12.2% from the corresponding quarter of the previous year, as higher finance costs and lower gains on exceptional items offset its growth in operating profit.

It posted revenue of $795.9 million, up 6.9% year-on-year from $744.5 million, largely driven by double-digit growth in Nigeria and East Africa, but partially offset by a decline in revenue in the rest of Africa, the company said.

The revenue increase is significant for the African arm of Bharti Airtel, which battles a bruising tariff war with rival Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at home.

Airtel Africa’s customer base stands at 99.7 million. Its average revenue per user (Arpu) was $2.7 in the June quarter.

The key data there is the ARPU which is now $2.7. Last year, it was $3 for Airtel Africa.

Yet, even though Airtel Africa made a full year profit, challenges lie ahead. Just as I have noted on MTN Nigeria which had seen its ARPU (average revenue per user) dropped from $22 (in 2005) to $4.14 in Q1 2018, Airtel Africa is even doing worse: $3 in 2017. Airtel does not break its African operation by countries; so we do not have Airtel specific Nigerian number. (9Mobile and Glo are private companies; you do not expect to know anything about their financials.)