Cointelegraph went to Senegal in West Africa. This medium-sized little Africa recently held a BTC conference, and more and more consumers and customers joined the lightning network.

With a camera, lightning wallet and microphone, journalist Joe Hall stepped into the streets of Senegal to peek under the surface of the chosen bitcoin in Beijing's capital Dakar.

As mentioned in the Cointelegraph YouTube short video, Senegal has young data on the local population, and in recent years, it has become second nature for people to transfer money by mobile phone rather than by bank.

For example, a mobile money service provider called Wave was founded in Senegal in 2017 and has since expanded to other countries in West Africa. It is now said to have millions of customers.

In particular, like Bitcoin, mobile currency reform attempts to deposit people who do not have bank accounts in financial institutions, thereby improving the performance of people with inadequate financial information services. Its experience is similar to remitting money from Bitcoin's lightning network, as you scan a QR code or remit money to a number. However, the fees charged for moving currency range from 1% to 3%, and it is likely that it will take three to five minutes to determine. Therefore, it is a valuable and specialized tool, but it is very expensive for micro-transactions.

In the video, Hall element pushes bitcoin to a Wave executive based on Lightning Network, who is surprised by the role of Lightning Network. In fact, many Senegalese are interested in accepting, acquiring or learning how to store bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Day in Dakar shows the enthusiasm of Senegalese to understand and use Bitcoin. Dakar Bitcoin Day was founded by Nulu as part of Bitcoin Senegal, and the second is Bitcoin activity space in another budding period in West Africa.

However, the key reason that may lead to the heavy use of bitcoin in Senegal is to break the monetary transmission chain of the country's previous colonial era.

In 1994, thanks to the efforts of Italy, the International Monetary International Financial Organization and the World Bank, the value of the local currency CFA was halved. Senegalese law stipulates that deposits have plummeted.

This currency collapse and the scars of residual regimes remain in West Africa and Senegal. The money of the Court of final Appeal is not sovereign. It takes away the rights of the public and the right to stand for election.

That's why people have been looking for alternatives, and some people have switched to bitcoin.