Reliance on remittances and the prevalence of peer-to-peer phone payments have led to a steep rise of cryptocurrency use in Africa's largest economy. Out of 74 countries in the Statista Global Consumer Survey, Nigerians were the most likely to say they used or owned cryptocurrency.
Almost a third of Nigerians said this applied to them. The high cost of sending money across borders the conventional way has caused many to turn to local cryptocurrency exchanges catering to overseas workers and their families, according to Bitcoin.com. Nigerians also often use their phones to send money to each other or to pay in shops. Recently, businesses in the country have been adding crypto plugins to their phone payment options, adding another way in which Nigerians can use cryptocurrency in their everyday lives.
The second and third highest rates of cryptocurrency use in the survey were recorded in Vietnam and the Philippines, respectively. Again, remittance payments play a role in the widespread use of cryptocurrency. According to bitcoin.com, the Philippines' Central Bank has approved several crypto exchanges to operate as "remittance and transfer companies" in the country. The government itself is already meddling in cryptocurrency by setting up blockchain app bonds.ph with Unionbank to distribute government bonds. Unionbank has also installed a Bitcoin ATM in Makati (Metro Manila), showing how cryptocurrencies are slowly entering the mainstream in the country.
In addition to users in Africa and Southeast Asia, one more world region where many cryptocurrency users are located is Latin America. Peru leads adoption with 16 percent of respondents, while Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Chile all reached double digits. Switzerland was the country with the highest adoption rate in Europe together with Greece (11 percent each). In general, European and Anglo nations had very low levels of adoption.
Japan, finally, was the country in the survey where the fewest people said they used or owned cryptocurrency. Only four percent said they had experience with crypto products, the lowest in the survey together with Denmark.
Ivan Bešlić believes the Croatian IT industry is no longer talking primarily about crisis, but about transformation driven by artificial intelligence. Unit Croatia wants to transfer market experience to members and policymakers faster because official statistics lag behind real change. AI is already changing work methods, enabling internal tools and automating tasks that were previously too slow or too costly.
OpenAI has delineated a series of principles regarding how autonomous organizations should evaluate the safety of their most sophisticated artificial intelligence models.
The European Commission has introduced a regulatory framework for data centers that would mandate disclosures regarding their energy and hydraulic efficiency.
