Is Blockchain A Disruptive Technology In Africa?

abstract: Blockchain technology is becoming the new platform for the future of money as a means of payment. It was originally developed to support the cryptocurrency (bitcoin) functionality and improve the way of doing business. However, with its versatility, it has evolved into a multifunctional innovation that can be being applied in different non-business sectors that have a great impact on the economy. I will review some aspects of the economy that are likely to be impacted like the role of a centralized monetary system, need for regulation in business and role of business innovation in the economy. Moreover, I will investigate its impact in emerging markets because unlike the developed economies, emerging markets have greater potential to expand as they still have increasing returns to scale and rapidly growing. Some of the ways that this occurs include cost reduction in financial market and cross-border payments, faster international remittances, and curbing problems like corruption. The paper concludes that there are no much prospects on the expectations of the technology in the African economy because of the challenges in adopting it like scalability, conservativeness of the society to incubate new technology, and lack of infrastructure to support the new technology