We need to move much faster with Global South Bitcoin adoption: Paxful CEO

Cointelegraph hit the gym with Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of Paxful, to tackle Bitcoin adoption in the Global South. In between sets and taking a breather, Youssef told Cointelegraph, “The Global South is where we should be looking” for Bitcoin (BTC) adoption.

Youssef, a New Yorker born in Egypt, regularly visits Africa and the Global South to promote Bitcoin and peer-to-peer financing. He is determined to bring Bitcoin to those who live and work across Africa and to undermine the “economic apartheid” created by government-issued fiat money.

Youssef is convinced that state-backed fiat money is a blight on human progress. He claimed, “Creating money is the greatest creative opportunity of any government,” before launching a tirade against Western governments while pumping iron. Nevertheless, thanks to Bitcoin, people around the world and especially those in the Global South now have the means to fight back against economic oppression:

“The good news is that we have a few tools at our disposal. We have the Internet, we have cell phones, and now we have Bitcoin peer-to-peer, electronic cash.”

Youssef’s business, Paxful, currently has 10 million users worldwide. But the CEO explained that we need to move much faster to reach one billion users in the next five to ten years. He cited the explosive growth of telecommunications companies such as M-Pesa in Kenya as examples of how adoption can flourish quickly:

“The telephone companies have shown us the way, but we don’t listen. We’re still trying to replace banks with wallets, and that’s not the way to a billion citizens. We need something more.”

Ultimately, the key to unlocking growth in emerging markets is educating citizens about Bitcoin and the properties of hard money.

– The focus on education is great. But first of all, we need to move away from this mindset that we have right now about just replacing banks with wallets.”

It is true that Bitcoin wallets act as a substitute for banks. In El Salvador, for example, an unbanked country, Bitcoin adoption gained four million users within a year: 70% of the unbanked population gained international payment and money transfer services.

However, Youssef goes one step further, Youssef envisions a world where Bitcoin helps the unbanked trade and trade freely, creating an abundance of entrepreneurship.

Related: Bitcoin in Space Is Good for User Privacy, Says Adam Back

Finally, Youssef also joked that Ronnie Coleman, the bodybuilder and 8-time Mr. Olympia winner, would be a Bitcoiner. Cointelegraph reached out to Coleman for comment and will update when possible.