you keep naming these third world places like Tanzanian,... but you forget that bitcoin is a new technology and like any other new technology it takes time for it to reach everywhere. specially third world countries. it is the same as electricity, cars, water in pipeline instead of taking it from the well each day
This is not an answer to my question though. What motivation is there for an M-pesa user to switch to Bitcoin? Please don't invent your own question and provide an answer to it - answer my question instead. Also, please note that M-pesa was introduced only two years before Bitcoin and currently has over 20 million registered users. I can assure you that people in these countries are aware of Bitcoin - so why aren't they making the switch?
mining has nothing to do with using bitcoin. we are all using bitcoin and none of us are mining it and some of us doesn't even know what mining is or how it works.
The process of 'mining' bitcoin has everything to do with using bitcoin, because without it there would be no bitcoin. Who is this "none of us" you refer to? Is no one 'mining' bitcoin?
a bank is holding your money, a bank can decide who they want to give services to and who they don't, a bank needs your identification to give those services to you.
I mean in terms of their function within their respective 'universes'. A central bank creates fiat and banks create 'bank credit money'. Bitcoin 'miners' perform the same function within the Bitcoin 'universe'. Assume for a moment that people were to abandon fiat in droves overnight. Bitcoin would need to offer the same kind of services the existing system offers. People would want to 'borrow' bitcoin - some people already are. They would want 'bitcoin mortgages'. How would that work? Who would they borrow from if not bitcoin miners who come together as a collective to offer a lending service? See above for a link to a court case involving a bitcoin loan, with the identities of those involved aired in public for all to see. Yes, that took place outside of Bitcoin so to speak, but it's a prime example of what I'm talking about and what the future holds for Bitcoin if it were ever to gain mass acceptance.
Imagine you have $500,000 in bitcoin and decide to lend out the equivalent of $250,000 as a mortgage. Would you lend that amount to an anonymous entity? Would you lend it without knowing if that anonymous entity is actually capable of paying back the loan? I think not, and this suggests to me that Bitcoin is not a real alternative to existing monetary systems but merely the existing monetary system in another guise.
HS