A Plan to Rescue A Nation’s Economy
Part of Project Mano Efforts
1BTC = 97kUSD
1USD=123ETB
GOLD -7.70%
BTC +329%
Intro
The global economy remains in the grip of inflation, and Ethiopia continues to feel its impact. While not out of control as before, the situation has undeniably worsened compared to March 2018. Back then, 1 USD traded for around 22 ETB officially, with the black market rate hovering near 25 ETB/USD. Fast forward to January 2024, and the official exchange rate has climbed to roughly 56 ETB per USD, with estimates suggesting the black market rate could be as high as 115 ETB/USD.
That's a huge margin. In recent years, there has been a worldwide rise wave of ethnic conflict, finger-pointing, and apparent inequality. It is visible in Ethiopia too. While this may seem unrelated on the surface, it is a growing hypothesis that these occurrences may all be linked to the inflationary nature of the global economy. USD for instance is no longer linked to a scarce resource, there is nothing stopping the Federal Reserve from printing it excessively leaving countries that rely on holding it vulnerable to other nations monetary policies.
Bitcoin, unlike fiat or other crypto, offers various avenues through which Ethiopia as a country can work around this; relying some of our energy and forex on an asset that is created to be at the mercy of the global free market, rather than at the mercy of few people’s hands. We will discuss three primary methods through which we believe Ethiopia as a country could benefit: Mining, Hodling, or seeing it as tender, and combined use.
Money
Until recently, the global economy was mostly reliant on a somewhat scarce form of money, namely gold. Scarcity made the money valuable and made it impossible for anybody to manipulate and multiply it at will. In the past, literal paper money was often used to represent a certain amount of gold, with the promise that the money given to you by the government actually represented gold that the government’s bank held for you.
1971 is the year that gold and money got officially separated. Before then, there was a period (unclear how long) when the US was pretending that you could exchange USD for gold when you could not. As long as you didn’t ask for too much gold, the US banks were happy to abide. But, because their supply did not match the number of papers they had secretly printed, President Nixon eventually had to formally announce that the US would no longer be giving Gold for USD. Officially backing the value of the currency by the promise of the government, allowing them to print as they pleased.
That situation is not so different from the situation Ethiopia is in right now. When the US prints money for itself, the USD that everyone, including Ethiopia, already has loses value. And to get enough USD for imports, Ethiopia then has to export more and sacrifice increasingly more value and seemingly increase its trade deficit.
Why Ethiopia?
There are countless reasons why Ethiopia and why now. Ethiopia seems to be the country best positioned to begin embracing Bitcoin for various reasons:
- There is clear interest in the crypto space from the government (e.g. Cardano Implementation).
- Country is experiencing high inflation margins because of internal conflict and covid.
- It has a significant trade deficit that can’t easily be solved through traditional investments, which requires innovative thinking.
- There is an unassigned and already built 6469MW that is politically & financially awkward to use.
- It still uses paper cash as a primary method of transaction, which doesn’t allow the central bank to sync all parameters of the economy to work together efficiently.
- Because most of the population (~55%) is unbanked, once money reaches the hands of some of the population, the government and banks do not see much of it again. This makes it difficult to recycle; the government is required to print new cash to establish new spending abilities, devaluing the currency even more.
- It will be a win-win case for Bitcoin & Ethiopia if the Bitcoin network gets 6k MW of clean renewable energy; simultaneously advancing Ethiopia's accelerating economy & attracting new investment.
How Ethiopia Could Monetize Bitcoin & Escape the Industrial Phase
01
Mining
If the GERD is successful and put into use as planned, the average Ethiopian’s life would improve - not just because they would have access to electric power 24/7, but also because their country would have more foreign currency reserves that it can use to improve the lives of its citizens.
02
Hodling
Holding some BTC in a reserve is likely going to guard the ETB from slumping, more effectively than the plans the National Bank has been implementing and considering to our knowledge.
03
Linking BTC to ETB or Other Legal Tenders
El Salvador became the first country to start treating Bitcoin as legal tender. It means that within the country people can use it to buy and sell things legally, including but not limited to paying taxes and employees with it.
Testimonials
Amidst the growing inflation rate and the constantly depleting value of its foreign reserves, due to the US Federal Reserve’s endless dollar printing, Ethiopia may be the next sovereign state to integrate bitcoin (BTC) into its economy, in order to beat impending hyperinflation.
SUPPRESSED BY WORLD SUPERPOWERS, ETHIOPIA SHOULD TURN TO BITCOIN
As the U.S. removes Ethiopia from a critical trade program, it’s clear that the African nation should focus on finding sovereign value.
Project Mano is just getting started! We will not stop! We are unstoppable! We are a crowd! Just like Bitcoin, Mano is an idea - we believe once it's out there, it's impossible to kill and will eventually be implemented. Please do your part and share and/or contribute to this project that's dear to our hearts!
