#blockchain application development companies in nairobi

[safracatz]

7 Mobile App Development Errors That You Must Absolutely Avoid

You may be ready to create a mobile presence for your business with a brand new mobile app that puts you on the App Store. But have you thought the type of competition coming up, with thousands of similar applications contending for users' attention? With such challenging circumstances, you will understand the importance of funding in exceptional application solutions. This leaves no room for errors because even the smallest error can result in application failure. Needless to say, you need to be aware of common mobile apps development errors to assure that your team eliminates them during the process and offers a solution that makes the experiences superlative. Let us help you with a list of errors that you should avoid in this context.

1. Not understanding your audience

The process should start with designing a user's character and not making it is the biggest mistake you can make. If you are uncertain of the expectations and needs of a normal user, you may find yourself choosing all the wrong features of your mobile apps development. Even if you can have them download the app, the possibilities of dropping out are high because they will not get what they want or risk having a clutter of unnecessary features to handle. The study of your target audience is the key to customer property and, more importantly, retention of users.

2. Feature overload

If your audience is confused with a lot of features, your application will do more harm than good, even if it's done with good intentions. They can disturb the user and harm speed and performance. On the whole, an overloaded application of comments may affect the quality of the user experience, to the point of making the user uninstall later. On the other hand, allowing fewer targeted features is a better option to keep them and improve their experiences. The choice of features also depends on the personality of the user and the vertical of the company. For example, an AR application may be an excellent choice for a fashion e-commerce store but may not be sufficient for a taxi business.

3. Not paying attention to the UI 

If you want to ensure a strong presence on the App Store, nothing works better than an outstanding user interface that differentiates you from competing applications. Do not concentrate on the unique construction can cost you because you will not be able to reach the goal of your investment? A good user interface, on the other hand, acts as the key to engaging and retaining users. Follow an appropriate design process cantered on creating rich and relevant elements, as well as an intuitive navigation flow. At the same time, make sure each item loads externally problems, as this determines the user experience.

4. Too many platforms to start with 

Another mistake you should avoid is advancing in applications for too many platforms at the initial stage. You might be invited to invest early in iPhone and Android app development to arrest users on all platforms. But this can be counterproductive because it raises fundamental costs and does not allow you to evaluate the possibility before investing too much. It would be best to send extensive market research, identify a lucrative platform for beginners, explore it and get feedback from customers. Therefore, you can work towards improvement when you create the equivalents of your application for other platforms.

5. Not testing the app before launching

As a user, a pipeless performance is something that makes or breaks the adventure and even a minor glitch can make them quit the application never to return. Testing is, therefore, an essential phase of the development process. Failure to do so would risk the termination of the application. In addition to simple tests, the application must be tested on a range of devices, browsers, and conducting systems to ensure that they deliver seamless experiences at all times. It is a mistake that you cannot afford to commit at all costs.

Conclusion 

When it comes to knowing and avoiding these errors, choosing a mobile app development partner is important. The biggest challenge is to recruit mobile application developers who can bring you through a seamless development process and produce a best-of-breed solution that fits your needs. In this case, it becomes vital to choose a team with the right skills, expertise, and experience. Also, it is important to ensure that their costs are within your resources and also meet the highest quality standards. You may get in touch with us at Best apps Development Companies in Nigeria for a free quote to develop a mobile app for your business. And helps Business owners to reach more customers who want to change their business towards app development, The Company has a very good working environment. To know more about my company, Visit Fusion Informatics. For more queries please send a mail to get a free quote sales@fusioninformatics.com.

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[newscheckz]

CMA Admits Two Additional Firms to the Regulatory Sandbox

New Post has been published on https://newscheckz.com/cma-admits-two-additional-firms-regulatory-sandbox/

CMA Admits Two Additional Firms to the Regulatory Sandbox

In line with its mandate to deepen and develop the capital markets industry, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has announced the admission of two firms namely; Pyypl Group Limited and Belrium Kenya Limited, to its Regulatory Sandbox test environment.

The two firms will test innovations in accordance with the requirements of the Capital Markets Regulatory Sandbox Policy Guidance Notes (PGN).

Pyypl Group Limited (pronounced as ‘people’) seeks to test its Pyypl for Entrepreneurs product, a blockchain-based platform for issuance of debentures (unsecured bonds) among entrepreneurs for 12 months.

It is licensed by the securities market regulator in United Arab Emirates, Financial Services Regulatory Authority in line with the Regulatory Sandbox PGN.

Its subsidiaries in Bahrain and Kazakhstan are also active and licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain and Astana Financial Services Regulatory Authority (Kazakhstan) respectively.

Belrium Kenya Limited has been admitted to the Regulatory Sandbox to test a blockchain-based and shareable know your customer (e-kyc) solution for capital markets intermediaries and investors.

https://newscheckz.com/nairobi-best-ecofriendly-tourism-destination-city/

The test will be executed in a period of nine months. Its parent company Belfrics Malaysia Sdn Bhd is a reporting institution with the Bank Negara Malaysia.

CMA Acting Chief Executive Wyckliffe Shamiah said, ‘we are encouraged to note the appetite for the Regulatory Sandbox among fintech firms and innovators within and beyond Kenya’s borders.

This underscores the need for stronger coordination with financial sector regulators and other government agencies to ensure that there are no gaps or overlaps. Additionally, such coordination will ensure that scalable solutions touching on multiple sectors can be put in place where necessary.’

The CEO added that the developments cement the Authority’s efforts to leverage technology to drive efficiency in the capital markets value chain.

Shamiah added that CMA has relied on cross-border cooperation with peer regulators for fit and proper assessment of the two entities whose parent companies and their directors are incorporated in other jurisdictions, as part of the application review process.

The Authority said it will closely monitor the two firms during the testing period, relying on feedback from investors, system logs and periodic reports.

Since the Regulatory Sandbox became operational in March 2019, six companies have been admitted to test their innovations and one company has successfully exited the Regulatory Sandbox and is preparing to roll out the innovation to the wider market.

[un-enfant-immature]

IBM brings its Quantum computer program to 16 African universities

IBM launched its Quantum computer program in Africa today, announcing a partnership with South Africa’s Wits University that will extend to 15 additional universities across 9 countries.

Quantum—or IBM Q, as the U.S. based company calls it—is a computer that uses quantum bits (or qubits) to top the capabilities of even the most advanced supercomputers.

When launched in early 2019, IBM said “Q systems are designed to one day tackle problems…seen as too complex and exponential in nature for classical systems to handle.”  It named future IBM Q applications in financial data, minimizing global financial risk, and optimizing logistics.

On how Q works, “It’s not your usual one and zeros. It’s about the superposition of ones and zeros, to have three zeros, a one, two ones to create a qubit,” IBM Research Africa VP Solomon Assefa told TechCrunch on a call.

“Because of that, and that it has so many difference states, the amount of computing you can do becomes exponential.”

IBM Q operates out of IBM’s Yorktown Heights research center in New York and will be accessed from African universities via the cloud.

IBM believes Q could yield research and development advances in areas such as drug discovery based on Africa’s genetic diversity that could lead to new treatments for diseases like HIV or TB.

This is one of the research areas IBM will focus on in its rollout of Q Africa to Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Assefa sees other potential research and use-case for Q Africa in financial sectors, mining, and natural resources management.

“What excites me here, is for once we are ahead in Africa for joining this movement. In 5 to 10 years, Q will have significant impact, but if we can start the wave now, you never know what kind of applications and research will come out of this technology,” said Assefa.

Wits University will manage access to Q from the 15 additional African education institutions, that include Addis Ababa University, the University of Nairobi, and University of Lagos.

IBM will also convene a camp for 200 computer scientists using Q this December in Cape Town. Researchers interested in working with IBM Q can apply online.

The program is part of IBM Research Africa’s extended build-out on the continent, since launching a  facility in Kenya in 2013 and expanding it to South Africa in 2016. In Africa, IBM Research has extended its capabilities to a number of partnerships, including blockchain enabled collaborations with agtech startups Twiga and Hello Tractor.

IBM Africa and Hello Tractor pilot AI/blockchain agtech platform

IBM also maintains an extensive commercial services and consulting business in Africa, for which its research activities could have application.

It could be a ways off before Q rolls up into that, according to Assefa. “We are developing commercial grade Q machines…in terms of that being applicable for Africa, it’s still early days,” he said.

[cryptswahili]

Next Generation Public Blockchain IOST to Launch Mainnet with 150+ Global Partner Network

Next generation public Blockchain IOST, will launch its highly anticipated mainnet with multiple decentralized applications (DApps), six months ahead of schedule, on March 10, 2019. With a global network of more than 150 partners, including Huobi, DDEX, iBank Digital Asset, and CoinGecko, the IOST mainnet will support a host of new DApps in the coming weeks.

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The team claims this is one of the most accessible, community-friendly platforms to come to market, with games, wallets, decentralized exchanges, stablecoins, and other applications launching in tandem.

Jimmy Zhong, Chief Executive Officer of IOST said:

“The real value of a network is dependent on the applications that come with it, not just the technology behind it. Ultimately, mainstream users do not choose operating systems – they choose the applications which bring the most efficiency and enjoyment into their daily lives. Launching our mainnet alongside a number of DApps that are ready to engage with is a meaningful step for the IOST ecosystem, and our hope is that it will play a positive role in the widespread acceptance and adoption of blockchain technology.”

They claim that the IOST network is distinctive in that its Proof-of-Believability Consensus Mechanism (PoB) challenges centralization of nodes while ensuring high transaction speeds and network performance.

“While traditional Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithms leave control and compensation in the hands of a few nodes, PoB constantly rotates nodes and block production. At the same time, PoB ensures scalability, where hundreds, if not thousands of nodes can participate in transaction processing and validating transactions in the network each day.”

In the lead up to the launch, IOST also announced its unique Global Partner Program, which aims to create a more accessible way for individuals, teams and organisations of both technical and non-technical backgrounds to contribute and decide on the future of the IOST network, while being rewarded for their contribution to the ecosystem. This marked the first time that retail users were able to participate in the growth and security of a blockchain network in its early stages.

Davis Gay, Co-founder of Rate3 commented:

“Building the iStablecoin service on IOST has accelerated our ability to reach a wider base of users and introduce them to a lively, fast-growing ecosystem. Significantly, IOST is the first to launch a mainnet that immediately represents what the broader blockchain ecosystem looks like, complete with native and non-native applications, and existing users.”

IOST’s mainnet launch follows a string of recent ecosystem developments, including the completion of the IOST public testnet, which achieved processing speeds of more than 8,000 transactions per second (TPS); the establishment of the USD$50 million IOST ecosystem fund to support DApp projects; and the launch of the Global Partner Program, characterized by a unique node election process that encourages contributors at all levels of technical expertise to partake in building the IOST ecosystem.

IOST is an application-friendly, next-generation public blockchain infrastructure, helping decentralized app developers overcome some of the most challenging problems with mass adoption. IOST says they solve the scalability trilemma or having to select between levels of security, scalability, and decentralization. Through a “Proof-of-Believability” consensus mechanism, IOST enables DApps to build and deploy more meaningful services on its platform, helping more everyday users experience the mass benefits of blockchain services. IOST has a global presence, with offices in Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin, San Francisco, New York and Singapore.

For more information, please visit: https://iost.io

About Richard Kastelein

Founder and publisher of industry publication Blockchain News (EST 2015), partner at ICO services collective CryptoAsset Design Group ($500m+ and 50+ ICOs), director of education company Blockchain Partners (Oracle Partner) – Vancouver native Richard Kastelein is an award-winning publisher, innovation executive and entrepreneur.

He sits on the advisory boards of some two dozen Blockchain startups and has written over 1500 articles on Blockchain technology and startups at Blockchain News and has also published pioneering articles on ICOs in Harvard Business Review and Venturebeat

Ad honorem – Honorary Ph.d – Chair Professor of Blockchain at China’s first Blockchain University in Nanchang at the Jiangxi Ahead Institute of Software and Technology. In 2018 he was invited to and attended University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School for Business Automation 4.0 programme. Chevalier (Knight) – Ordre des Arts et des Technologies at Crypto Chain University and on advisory board of Advisory Board Member of International Decentralized Association Of Cryptocurrency And Blockchain (IDABC) as well as Advisory Board Member at U.S. Blockchain Association.

Over a half a decade experience judging and rewarding some 1000+ innovation projects as an EU expert for the European Commission’s SME Instrument programme as a startup assessor and as a startup judge for the UK government’s Innovate UK division. Kastelein has spoken (keynotes & panels) on Blockchain technology in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Beijing, Brussels, Bucharest, Dubai, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Groningen, the Hague, Helsinki, London (5x), Manchester, Minsk, Nairobi, Nanchang, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Shanghai, Singapore (3x), Tel Aviv, Utrecht, Venice, Visakhapatnam, Zwolle and Zurich

His network is global and extensive. He is a Canadian (Dutch/Irish/English/Métis) whose writing career has ranged from the Canadian Native Press (Arctic) to the Caribbean & Europe

He’s written occasionally for Harvard Business Review, Wired, Venturebeat, The Guardian and Virgin.com and his work and ideas have been translated into Dutch, Greek, Polish, German and French.

A journalist by trade, an entrepreneur and adventurer at heart, Kastelein’s professional career has ranged from political publishing to TV technology, boatbuilding to judging startups, skippering yachts to marketing and more as he’s travelled for nearly 30 years as a Canadian expatriate living around the world

In his 20s, he sailed around the world on small yachts and wrote a series of travel articles called, ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Seas’ travelling by hitching rides on yachts (1989) in major travel and yachting publications. 

He currently lives in Groningen, Netherlands where he’s raising three teenage daughters with his wife and sailing partner, Wieke Beenen.

Visit Website

Fetch.AI raises $6m in Successful 22 Second Token Sale On Binance Launchpad – February 25, 2019

Next Generation Public Blockchain IOST to Launch Mainnet with 150+ Global Partner Network – February 25, 2019

Industry Experts Weigh in on Upcoming Ethereum Constantinople and St. Petersburg Forks – February 25, 2019

Singapore’s Tribe Accelerator Cuts deal with ConsenSys to Advance Blockchain Ecosystem – February 25, 2019

Report: The State of Stablecoins 2019 Hype vs. Reality in the Race for Stable, Global, Digital Money – February 21, 2019

Securitize and OTCXN Team Up to Deliver Non-Custodial End-to-End Digital Security Offering Service – February 20, 2019

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Nexo Lending to Offer Crypto-Backed Loans with Blockport Exchange – February 12, 2019

Chainalysis Secures $30M Investment Led by Accel to Pave Way for Next Wave of Cryptocurrency Growth – February 12, 2019

EUIPO Launches Forum on Using Blockchain for Counterfeiting – February 12, 2019

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New Release: Oracle Adds New Features to their Enterprise Blockchain – February 12, 2019

Fetch.AI joins the IoT Alliance With Bosch, Cisco and Others to Accelerate IoT – February 7, 2019

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Amnis Ventures backs CloseCross Raises $3 Million USD to Transform Financial Derivatives Market – January 30, 2019

View All Articles

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[jacobhinkley]

EOS and Tron Market Participation Spikes in the Last 24 Hours: Tron, EOS, Litecoin, IOTA and Stellar Price Analysis (May 23, 2018)

In a run up to price explosions, counter trend moves are usually rampant. That’s what we have been seeing in the last two days or so. Long coverings and reversal of gains have been the order of the day. At the moment though, prices seems to be snapping back to shape and that’s why we are seeing pockets of buy pressure in different coins under our focus.  IOTA, Tron and of course EOS are exhibiting signs of reversal. However, of all coins, Stellar Lumens is but a prime candidate which I recommend buying because of technical developments in the 4HR chart.

Let’s have a look at these charts:

EOS Analysis

EOS Daily Chart by Trading View

After dedicating $3 million to Virginia Tech, EOS is now assigning all EOS wallets with unique 12 character global identifiers prior to its mainnet launch. In a blog post clarifying these additions, EOS said that these short user names would pave way for extra user case applications and benefit the community in the long run. To demonstrate, the new user name would serve two functions. Act as a public address and applies during sending or receiving payments.

EOS updates – Hackathon, User names, Wallets… https://t.co/ZnsNZsYrsG via @YouTube

— james (@james212212) May 22, 2018

On the chart though, price changes are slow. However, we are still positive. Its a few days to mainnet launch and unless it’s a dismissal launch with lags and/or utter disappointments, from Block One prices might tank. All I’m seeing is long coverings with rejections of bears especially in the 4HR chart. Because of this, buying at current prices and trading per our previous trade plan can offer better risk reward opportunities. Stops are at May 18 lows at $12.

Litecoin (LTC) Analysis

Litecoin Daily Chart by Trading View

Believe it or not, cryptocurrencies and Litecoins adoption is catching up in Africa. After Harare, we have a couple of Litecoin, Bitcoin and Ethereum supporting ATMs at Djibouti, Nairobi and Johannesburg. All this is according to data aggregated by Business Insider Africa. While cryptocurrencies are illegal in most of these states, you can still buy LTC, BTC or ETH in a one way transaction using fiat.

If you want to see clear price action past this congestion in the daily chart, the 4HR chart provides a clear picture. There are pockets of buy pressure and rejection of the past two-three days bears if we consider that bull pin bar at $130 in the 4HR chart. Of course this is interesting but rather than jumping in right away, waiting for a confirmation past May 20 highs at $140 can be a good trading idea.

Stellar Lumens (XLM) Analysis

Stellar Lumens (XLM) Daily Chart by Trading View

Zoom in to the 4HR chart, check out that strong bullish engulfing pattern that is screaming buy and heed! Buy Stellar Lumens with stops at 28 cents. On upside, immediate or short term buy targets would be at 40 cents and 50 cents.

Tron (TRX) Analysis

Tron Daily Chart by Trading View

It’s about 34 days to go before the main super Representative election is held by Tron. By then, the network would have its own blockchain and hopefully, faithful members. Considering the laid down rules of Super Representatives, the main thing we should pick out is that they are the guardian of the network and chosen out of the good will of the people. Simply put, these 27 SRs shall maintain, validate and push transactions within Tron and that’s why they are important.

Want to keep up with the latest Super Representatives updates? Visit our new Explorer https://t.co/t8LzYz2QQx and click on Open team page

Already more than 20 #TRONSR candidates have listed!

— Tron Foundation (@Tronfoundation) May 21, 2018

Because of this, we need valid companies with good intentions to develop blockchain technologies as representatives of Tron and blockchain proponents they bid for.

Like the rest, buying Tron at current prices reduces downside risks because stops would be at 7.5 cents while increasing upside potential. It’s trading with the trend and following though May 20 surge and break above the consolidation whose upper limit were at 7.5 cents. So, in line with yesterday’s preview, continue buying on dips—it’s a clear buy in the 4HR chart—and aim for 10 cents or higher. After all, there is a positive event on May 25, TVM launch, that’s exciting market participants who view it as a long spring board.

IOTA (IOT) Analysis

IOTA Daily Chart by Trading View

What I like about IOTA is that their founders are not doing this for the money. They had a zero percent allocation during the crowd sale. Yes, they might have bought IOTA coins and that’s expected but then again, prices are reflective of their zeal and IOTA user case application. I’m eye balling the user case bit they are positioning themselves for the future. And yes, they are now working with the UN after collaborating with their Project Services, the UNOPS.

“Shared

problems require shared

 solutions.” We've partnered w/ @iotatoken to explore how innovative data management tech can enhance the efficiency of humanitarian & development operations. | #distributedledger https://t.co/GHbbB2Pm9d

— UNOPS (@UNOPS) May 22, 2018

Notice those rejections below $1.6? Those are the precise reasons why buying at current undervaluation is but a good idea. You can take risks today and ramp with tight close below $1.6 but waiting for close above May 20 is safer.

The post EOS and Tron Market Participation Spikes in the Last 24 Hours: Tron, EOS, Litecoin, IOTA and Stellar Price Analysis (May 23, 2018) appeared first on NewsBTC.

EOS and Tron Market Participation Spikes in the Last 24 Hours: Tron, EOS, Litecoin, IOTA and Stellar Price Analysis (May 23, 2018) published first on https://medium.com/@smartoptions

[coin-river-blog]

Over the last two years, the Kenyan government and central bank have been discussing how to regulate bitcoin and other digital currencies. In March 2018, the Central Bank of Kenya warned the general public about cryptocurrency investments. After those warnings, the region’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) cautioned the public again after investigating a project called kenicoin. Even though financial regulators are dressing down digital currencies, Kenyan merchants and traders in the region are still flocking toward the crypto asset economy.

Also read: SEC Chair Explains Key Upgrades Needed for Bitcoin ETF Approval

Kenyan Crypto Trade Volumes Show Increased Demand for Digital Assets

The government in Kenya and the financial regulators have been leery toward regulating bitcoin and other digital currencies. The central bank mulled over regulatory guidelines in the summer of 2018, while last month Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) warned the public about trading digital currencies because of an initial coin offering (ICO) called kenicoin. The project allegedly sold 10 million tokens and promised 10 percent monthly returns after the initial purchase. However, even though Kenya’s financial watchdogs are cautioning against investing and trading cryptocurrencies, they have been powerless to stop the steady trend of cryptocurrency acceptance and rising trade volumes within the country.

KES volumes on Paxful have increased a great deal.

Kenyans have a wide variety of exchange avenues to choose from if they want to purchase cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. This includes popular trading platforms like Remitano, Bitpesa, Coindirect, Paxful, Localbitcoins, and Belfrics. Localbitcoins volumes in Kenya have been consistently strong. At the time of writing, BTC trade volumes for Feb. 16, 2019 indicate 29,701,339 Kenya shillings ($297,000) traded on Localbitcoins in Kenya over the last two weeks. Paxful trade volumes in Kenya shillings (KES) are also significantly higher than usual with 4,679,664 KES ($48,000) traded over the last two weeks on the peer-to-peer exchange. According to Crypto Compare’s BTC pairs analysis, bitcoin core (BTC) purchases account for $3,418 (KES 341,876) in daily trades stemming from Stocksexchange.

Localbitcoins trade volumes have remained steady despite the financial authority’s warnings.

Merchant acceptance is still growing in Kenya as well according to a report from the BBC news outlet published on Feb. 22. The Blockchain Association of Kenya (BAK) explained in an interview that digital currency awareness has increased, despite regulators in the region warning about trading them. BAK details that Kenyans are using bitcoin and other digital assets to pay for education in Kenya and Nigeria and to purchase products in China and bitcoin is also empowering many Kenyan freelancers. The nonprofit organization believes blockchain-based currencies can reduce transaction costs and boost local remittances.

Last December, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the Healthland Spa in Nairobi which started accepting BTC for payments for goods and services. This year Tony Mwongera, Healthland Spa’s chief executive, explained he uses the virtual currency mainly to avoid theft but the business also enjoys the convenience.

”I decided to adopt the use of cryptocurrencies because there was so much theft in my business,” Mwongera told reporters on Friday. The spa owner continued:

So I said, let me use a way that can be safe, secure and I can also embrace technology.

The Blockchain Association of Kenya believes blockchain-based currencies can boost local remittances. The organization is hosting a summit this March in Nairobi.

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority Thinks Blockchain Firms Are Okay as Long as ‘They Don’t Deal With Cryptocurrencies’

Kenya’s BAK is also hosting a World Blockchain Summit in Nairobi on March 20 in order to bolster cryptocurrency solutions and blockchain technology in the country. However, Kenya’s CMA is also organizing a financial technology incubation platform set to launch this May, but cryptocurrency projects and developers are barred from attending the sandbox. The CMA chief executive officer Paul Muthaura stated last Thursday that the agency would evaluate distributed ledger projects under certain conditions.

“In the validation, we have 70 companies, some from outside Kenya. Blockchain firms will be considered so long as they are not dealing with cryptocurrencies since the CMA’s mandate does not extend to currency,” Muthaura said.

CMA chief executive officer Paul Muthaura.

Muthaura further reiterated what the CMA and Kenyan central bank underscored in the past: that cryptocurrencies have zero oversight and regulators could not help retail investors with financial losses. On Thursday the CME executive said he believes digital assets bring new risks to the world of finance that can destabilize traditional markets and possibly hurt retail investors a great deal. Despite the warnings, statistics and tales of merchant adoption indicate that Kenyan crypto traders and bitcoin volumes continue to thrive in 2019.

What do you think about cryptocurrency trade volumes in Kenya rising despite the warnings from the central bank and CMA? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Twitter, and Coin Dance.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

Tags in this story

Africa, BCH, bitcoin cash, Bitcoin Core, blockchain technology, blockchain-based currencies, BTC, Cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency Solutions, Digital Assets, Digital Currencies, Fintech, fintech sandbox, Kenya, Kenyan, N-Featured, Nairobi, Paul Muthaura

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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[toomanysinks]

Africa Roundup: Zimbabwe’s net blackout, Partech’s $143M fund, Andela’s $100M raise, Flutterwave’s pivot

Jake Bright Contributor

Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa.

More posts by this contributor

Partech is doubling the size of its African venture fund to $143 million

Zimbabwe’s government faces off against its tech community over internet restrictions

A high court in Zimbabwe ended the government’s restrictions on internet and social media last month.

After days of intermittent blackouts at the order of the country’s Minister of State for National Security, ISPs restored connectivity per a January 21 judicial order.

Similar to net shutdowns around the continent, politics and protests were the catalyst. Shortly after the government announced a dramatic increase in fuel prices on January 12, Zimbabwe’s Congress of Trade Unions called for a national strike.

Web and app blackouts in the southern African country followed demonstrations that broke out in several cities. A government crackdown ensued, with deaths reported.

On January 15, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile carrier, Econet Wireless, confirmed that it had complied with a directive from the Minister of State for National Security to shutdown internet.

Net access was restored, taken down again, then restored, but social media sites remained blocked through January 21.

Throughout the restrictions, many of Zimbabwe’s citizens and techies resorted to VPNs and workarounds to access net and social media, as reported in this TechCrunch feature.

Global internet rights group Access Now sprung to action, attaching its #KeepItOn hashtag to calls for the country’s government to reopen cyberspace soon after digital interference began.

The cyber-affair adds Zimbabwe to a growing list of African countries — including Cameroon, Congo and Ethiopia — whose governments have restricted internet expression in recent years.

It also provides another case study for techies and ISPs regaining their cyber rights. Internet and social media are back up in Zimbabwe — at least for now.

Further attempts to restrict net and app access in Zimbabwe will likely revive what’s become a somewhat ironic cycle for cyber shutdowns. When governments cut off internet and social media access, citizens still find ways to use internet and social media to stop them.

Partech doubled its Africa VC fund to $143 million and opened a Nairobi office to complement its Dakar practice.

The Partech Africa Fund plans to make 20 to 25 investments across roughly 10 countries over the next several years, according to general partner Tidjane Deme. The fund has added Ceasar Nyagha as investment officer for the Kenya office to expand its East Africa reach.

Partech Africa will primarily target Series A and B investments and some pre-series rounds at higher dollar amounts. “We will consider seed-funding — what we call seed-plus — tickets in the $500,000 range,” Deme told TechCrunch for this story on the new fund. Partech is open to all sectors “with a strong appetite for people who are tapping into Africa’s informal economies,” he said.

Partech Africa joined several Africa-focused funds over the last few years to mark a surge in VC for the continent’s startups. Partech announced its first raise of $70 million in early 2018 next to TLcom Capital’s $40 million, and TPG Growth’s $2 billion.

Africa-focused VC firms, including those locally run and managed, have grown to 51 globally, according to recent Crunchbase research.

Andela, the company that connects Africa’s top software developers with technology companies from the U.S. and around the world, raised $100 million in a new round of funding.

The new financing from Generation Investment Management (an investment fund co-founded by former VP Al Gore) puts the valuation of the company at somewhere between $600 million and $700 million—based on data available from PitchBook on the company’s valuation.

The company now has more than 200 customers paying for access to the roughly 1,100 developers Andela has trained and manages.

With the new cash in hand, Andela says it will double in size, hiring another thousand developers, and invest in new product development and its own engineering and data resources. More on Andela’s recent raise and focus here at TechCrunch.

Fintech startup Flutterwave announced a new consumer payment product for Africa called GetBarter, in partnership with Visa.

The app-based offering is aimed at facilitating personal and small merchant payments within and across African countries. Existing Visa  cardholders can send and receive funds at home or internationally on GetBarter.

The product also lets non-cardholders (those with accounts or mobile wallets on other platforms) create a virtual Visa card to link to the app.  A Visa spokesperson confirmed the product partnership.

GetBarter allows Flutterwave  — which has scaled as a payment gateway for big companies through its Rave product — to pivot to African consumers and traders.

The app also creates a network for clients on multiple financial platforms to make transfers across payment products and national borders, and to shop online.

“The target market is pretty much everyone who has a payment need in Africa. That includes the entire customer base of M-Pesa,  the entire bank customer base in Nigeria, mobile money and bank customers in Ghana — pretty much the entire continent,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola told TechCrunch in this exclusive.

Flutterwave and Visa will focus on building a GetBarter user base across mobile money and bank clients in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, with plans to grow across the continent and reach those off the financial grid.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has positioned itself as a global B2B payments solutions platform for companies in Africa to pay other companies on the continent and abroad. It allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payments applications. Existing customers include Uber,  Facebook,  Booking.com and African e-commerce unicorn Jumia.com.

Flutterwave added operations in Uganda in June and raised a $10 million Series A round in October The company also plugged into ledger activity in 2018, becoming a payment processing partner to the Ripple and Stellar blockchain networks.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with its largest operations center in Nigeria, the startup plans to add operations centers in South Africa and Cameroon, which will also become new markets for GetBarter.

And sadly, Africa’s tech community mourned losses in January. A terrorist attack on Nairobi’s 14 Riverside complex claimed the lives of six employees of fintech startup Cellulant and I-Dev CEO Jason Spindler. Both organizations had been engaged with TechCrunch’s Africa work over the last 24 months. Condolences to  family, friends, and colleagues of those lost.

More Africa Related Stories @TechCrunch

Facebook is launching political ad checks in Nigeria, Ukraine, EU and India in coming months

African Tech Around The Net    

Naspers targets Africa’s financial services industry

Microsoft South Africa gets new MD as Zoaib Hoosen calls it quits

Why Everyone Is Confused By “African Startups” Funding Figures

New $10m VC fund to invest in tech startups from Kenya, Nigeria, SA

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/07/africa-roundup-zimbabwes-net-blackout-partechs-143m-fund-andelas-100m-raise-flutterwaves-pivot/

[roseacisco]

Africa Roundup: Zimbabwe’s net blackout, Partech’s $143M fund, Andela’s $100M raise, Flutterwave’s pivot

Jake Bright Contributor

Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa.

More posts by this contributor

Partech is doubling the size of its African venture fund to $143 million

Zimbabwe’s government faces off against its tech community over internet restrictions

A high court in Zimbabwe ended the government’s restrictions on internet and social media last month.

After days of intermittent blackouts at the order of the country’s Minister of State for National Security, ISPs restored connectivity per a January 21 judicial order.

Similar to net shutdowns around the continent, politics and protests were the catalyst. Shortly after the government announced a dramatic increase in fuel prices on January 12, Zimbabwe’s Congress of Trade Unions called for a national strike.

Web and app blackouts in the southern African country followed demonstrations that broke out in several cities. A government crackdown ensued, with deaths reported.

On January 15, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile carrier, Econet Wireless, confirmed that it had complied with a directive from the Minister of State for National Security to shutdown internet.

Net access was restored, taken down again, then restored, but social media sites remained blocked through January 21.

Throughout the restrictions, many of Zimbabwe’s citizens and techies resorted to VPNs and workarounds to access net and social media, as reported in this TechCrunch feature.

Global internet rights group Access Now sprung to action, attaching its #KeepItOn hashtag to calls for the country’s government to reopen cyberspace soon after digital interference began.

The cyber-affair adds Zimbabwe to a growing list of African countries — including Cameroon, Congo and Ethiopia — whose governments have restricted internet expression in recent years.

It also provides another case study for techies and ISPs regaining their cyber rights. Internet and social media are back up in Zimbabwe — at least for now.

Further attempts to restrict net and app access in Zimbabwe will likely revive what’s become a somewhat ironic cycle for cyber shutdowns. When governments cut off internet and social media access, citizens still find ways to use internet and social media to stop them.

Partech doubled its Africa VC fund to $143 million and opened a Nairobi office to complement its Dakar practice.

The Partech Africa Fund plans to make 20 to 25 investments across roughly 10 countries over the next several years, according to general partner Tidjane Deme. The fund has added Ceasar Nyagha as investment officer for the Kenya office to expand its East Africa reach.

Partech Africa will primarily target Series A and B investments and some pre-series rounds at higher dollar amounts. “We will consider seed-funding — what we call seed-plus — tickets in the $500,000 range,” Deme told TechCrunch for this story on the new fund. Partech is open to all sectors “with a strong appetite for people who are tapping into Africa’s informal economies,” he said.

Partech Africa joined several Africa-focused funds over the last few years to mark a surge in VC for the continent’s startups. Partech announced its first raise of $70 million in early 2018 next to TLcom Capital’s $40 million, and TPG Growth’s $2 billion.

Africa-focused VC firms, including those locally run and managed, have grown to 51 globally, according to recent Crunchbase research.

Andela, the company that connects Africa’s top software developers with technology companies from the U.S. and around the world, raised $100 million in a new round of funding.

The new financing from Generation Investment Management (an investment fund co-founded by former VP Al Gore) puts the valuation of the company at somewhere between $600 million and $700 million—based on data available from PitchBook on the company’s valuation.

The company now has more than 200 customers paying for access to the roughly 1,100 developers Andela has trained and manages.

With the new cash in hand, Andela says it will double in size, hiring another thousand developers, and invest in new product development and its own engineering and data resources. More on Andela’s recent raise and focus here at TechCrunch.

Fintech startup Flutterwave announced a new consumer payment product for Africa called GetBarter, in partnership with Visa.

The app-based offering is aimed at facilitating personal and small merchant payments within and across African countries. Existing Visa  cardholders can send and receive funds at home or internationally on GetBarter.

The product also lets non-cardholders (those with accounts or mobile wallets on other platforms) create a virtual Visa card to link to the app.  A Visa spokesperson confirmed the product partnership.

GetBarter allows Flutterwave  — which has scaled as a payment gateway for big companies through its Rave product — to pivot to African consumers and traders.

The app also creates a network for clients on multiple financial platforms to make transfers across payment products and national borders, and to shop online.

“The target market is pretty much everyone who has a payment need in Africa. That includes the entire customer base of M-Pesa,  the entire bank customer base in Nigeria, mobile money and bank customers in Ghana — pretty much the entire continent,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola told TechCrunch in this exclusive.

Flutterwave and Visa will focus on building a GetBarter user base across mobile money and bank clients in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, with plans to grow across the continent and reach those off the financial grid.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has positioned itself as a global B2B payments solutions platform for companies in Africa to pay other companies on the continent and abroad. It allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payments applications. Existing customers include Uber,  Facebook,  Booking.com and African e-commerce unicorn Jumia.com.

Flutterwave added operations in Uganda in June and raised a $10 million Series A round in October The company also plugged into ledger activity in 2018, becoming a payment processing partner to the Ripple and Stellar blockchain networks.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with its largest operations center in Nigeria, the startup plans to add operations centers in South Africa and Cameroon, which will also become new markets for GetBarter.

And sadly, Africa’s tech community mourned losses in January. A terrorist attack on Nairobi’s 14 Riverside complex claimed the lives of six employees of fintech startup Cellulant and I-Dev CEO Jason Spindler. Both organizations had been engaged with TechCrunch’s Africa work over the last 24 months. Condolences to  family, friends, and colleagues of those lost.

More Africa Related Stories @TechCrunch

Facebook is launching political ad checks in Nigeria, Ukraine, EU and India in coming months

African Tech Around The Net    

Naspers targets Africa’s financial services industry

Microsoft South Africa gets new MD as Zoaib Hoosen calls it quits

Why Everyone Is Confused By “African Startups” Funding Figures

New $10m VC fund to invest in tech startups from Kenya, Nigeria, SA

[fmservers]

Africa Roundup: Zimbabwe’s net blackout, Partech’s $143M fund, Andela’s $100M raise, Flutterwave’s pivot

Jake Bright Contributor

Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa.

More posts by this contributor

Partech is doubling the size of its African venture fund to $143 million

Zimbabwe’s government faces off against its tech community over internet restrictions

A high court in Zimbabwe ended the government’s restrictions on internet and social media last month.

After days of intermittent blackouts at the order of the country’s Minister of State for National Security, ISPs restored connectivity per a January 21 judicial order.

Similar to net shutdowns around the continent, politics and protests were the catalyst. Shortly after the government announced a dramatic increase in fuel prices on January 12, Zimbabwe’s Congress of Trade Unions called for a national strike.

Web and app blackouts in the southern African country followed demonstrations that broke out in several cities. A government crackdown ensued, with deaths reported.

On January 15, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile carrier, Econet Wireless, confirmed that it had complied with a directive from the Minister of State for National Security to shutdown internet.

Net access was restored, taken down again, then restored, but social media sites remained blocked through January 21.

Throughout the restrictions, many of Zimbabwe’s citizens and techies resorted to VPNs and workarounds to access net and social media, as reported in this TechCrunch feature.

Global internet rights group Access Now sprung to action, attaching its #KeepItOn hashtag to calls for the country’s government to reopen cyberspace soon after digital interference began.

The cyber-affair adds Zimbabwe to a growing list of African countries — including Cameroon, Congo and Ethiopia — whose governments have restricted internet expression in recent years.

It also provides another case study for techies and ISPs regaining their cyber rights. Internet and social media are back up in Zimbabwe — at least for now.

Further attempts to restrict net and app access in Zimbabwe will likely revive what’s become a somewhat ironic cycle for cyber shutdowns. When governments cut off internet and social media access, citizens still find ways to use internet and social media to stop them.

Partech doubled its Africa VC fund to $143 million and opened a Nairobi office to complement its Dakar practice.

The Partech Africa Fund plans to make 20 to 25 investments across roughly 10 countries over the next several years, according to general partner Tidjane Deme. The fund has added Ceasar Nyagha as investment officer for the Kenya office to expand its East Africa reach.

Partech Africa will primarily target Series A and B investments and some pre-series rounds at higher dollar amounts. “We will consider seed-funding — what we call seed-plus — tickets in the $500,000 range,” Deme told TechCrunch for this story on the new fund. Partech is open to all sectors “with a strong appetite for people who are tapping into Africa’s informal economies,” he said.

Partech Africa joined several Africa-focused funds over the last few years to mark a surge in VC for the continent’s startups. Partech announced its first raise of $70 million in early 2018 next to TLcom Capital’s $40 million, and TPG Growth’s $2 billion.

Africa-focused VC firms, including those locally run and managed, have grown to 51 globally, according to recent Crunchbase research.

Andela, the company that connects Africa’s top software developers with technology companies from the U.S. and around the world, raised $100 million in a new round of funding.

The new financing from Generation Investment Management (an investment fund co-founded by former VP Al Gore) puts the valuation of the company at somewhere between $600 million and $700 million—based on data available from PitchBook on the company’s valuation.

The company now has more than 200 customers paying for access to the roughly 1,100 developers Andela has trained and manages.

With the new cash in hand, Andela says it will double in size, hiring another thousand developers, and invest in new product development and its own engineering and data resources. More on Andela’s recent raise and focus here at TechCrunch.

Fintech startup Flutterwave announced a new consumer payment product for Africa called GetBarter, in partnership with Visa.

The app-based offering is aimed at facilitating personal and small merchant payments within and across African countries. Existing Visa  cardholders can send and receive funds at home or internationally on GetBarter.

The product also lets non-cardholders (those with accounts or mobile wallets on other platforms) create a virtual Visa card to link to the app.  A Visa spokesperson confirmed the product partnership.

GetBarter allows Flutterwave  — which has scaled as a payment gateway for big companies through its Rave product — to pivot to African consumers and traders.

The app also creates a network for clients on multiple financial platforms to make transfers across payment products and national borders, and to shop online.

“The target market is pretty much everyone who has a payment need in Africa. That includes the entire customer base of M-Pesa,  the entire bank customer base in Nigeria, mobile money and bank customers in Ghana — pretty much the entire continent,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola told TechCrunch in this exclusive.

Flutterwave and Visa will focus on building a GetBarter user base across mobile money and bank clients in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, with plans to grow across the continent and reach those off the financial grid.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has positioned itself as a global B2B payments solutions platform for companies in Africa to pay other companies on the continent and abroad. It allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payments applications. Existing customers include Uber,  Facebook,  Booking.com and African e-commerce unicorn Jumia.com.

Flutterwave added operations in Uganda in June and raised a $10 million Series A round in October The company also plugged into ledger activity in 2018, becoming a payment processing partner to the Ripple and Stellar blockchain networks.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with its largest operations center in Nigeria, the startup plans to add operations centers in South Africa and Cameroon, which will also become new markets for GetBarter.

And sadly, Africa’s tech community mourned losses in January. A terrorist attack on Nairobi’s 14 Riverside complex claimed the lives of six employees of fintech startup Cellulant and I-Dev CEO Jason Spindler. Both organizations had been engaged with TechCrunch’s Africa work over the last 24 months. Condolences to  family, friends, and colleagues of those lost.

More Africa Related Stories @TechCrunch

Facebook is launching political ad checks in Nigeria, Ukraine, EU and India in coming months

African Tech Around The Net    

Naspers targets Africa’s financial services industry

Microsoft South Africa gets new MD as Zoaib Hoosen calls it quits

Why Everyone Is Confused By “African Startups” Funding Figures

New $10m VC fund to invest in tech startups from Kenya, Nigeria, SA

Via Jonathan Shieber https://techcrunch.com

[awesomeblockchain]

Janeffer Wacheke's fresh-vegetable stall in Nairobi uses technology that's helping crack a problem Kenyan banks have so far failed to solve -- measuring the creditworthiness of traders in the country's $20 billion informal economy.

The 40-year-old mother of two is among hundreds of small-scale retailers who can use her mobile phone to access loans to buy tomatoes, onions or bananas directly from producers and have them delivered by Kenyan startup Twiga Foods Ltd. That saves Wacheke a trip to the market, where she would have to haggle over prices and then transport the goods herself. It's cutting her costs and helping her build a credit track record.

-My prayers have been answered," Wacheke said as she packed tomatoes into a crate under a corrugated-iron roof at her stall. -In business, you need to be fast. The more you pay, the more you get bigger loans, and the more you can sell. It has really helped me."

The application offered by Twiga, which derives its income from buying wholesale fresh produce and selling it to retailers like Wacheke, uses the same technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to monitor how she orders stock and her repayment habits. The mobile blockchain platform -- developed by International Business Machines Corp. -- is one of a growing number of apps trying to address a major hindrance to Africa's growth: a lack of finance.

Neglected Data

-Access to credit in the informal sector is not well-known because the data is neglected," said Anzetse Were, a development economist based in Nairobi. -If you want to penetrate markets in Africa, you need to have a strategy for the informal sector."

Small businesses in Africa face a $331 billion lending gap, according to the International Finance Corp., the World Bank's private lending arm. In Kenya, demand from micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, or MSMEs, is estimated at $6.5 billion a year, according to 4G Capital, a Nairobi-based provider of loans to small companies in Kenya and Uganda.

-Sub-Saharan Africa has some way to go in building the financial infrastructure needed for MSMEs," said 4G Chief Executive Officer Wayne Hennessy-Barrett. The company expects to lend $40 million to so-called MSMEs in the next 12 months, double the amount it lent out last year, he said.

Playing Field

Number of licensed MSMEs = 1.56 million

Unlicensed entities = 5.85 million

Providing livelihoods for 14.9 million people

Contributing 29% of output in $70.5 billion economy

-- Source: Kenyan central bank website

-If a small-shop owner can take 10 $200 loans over the course of a year and there are 3.25 million small shop owners and 10 times that number of traders, you're talking about a lot of people who need to buy inventory and sell it and don't have access to a financial product designed around their needs," Hennessy-Barrett said.

Banks in East Africa's biggest economy have been averse to lending to small business because they've been unable to grade the risks of individual entities, relying instead on their judgment of the sector, said Habil Olaka, chief executive officer of the Kenya Bankers Association.

Better Access

-Currently, small businesses have trouble accessing credit, because they are assumed as a group, but if you have a good track record, you create your own score, therefore your performance in the credit market gives you access and better terms," he said.

As traders like Wacheke punch their daily orders and funding needs into their phones, the data gets analyzed to create patterns in spending, credit histories and demand for goods and other services.

Photographer: Luis Tato/Bloomberg

Twiga and IBM processed more than 220 loans for small-food kiosks like Wacheke's stall during an eight-week pilot program. During the trial phase, loans averaged about 3,000 shillings ($30) each and helped boost order sizes by 30 percent and the profits for each retailer by 6 percent, according to the companies. The loans ranged from four to eight days with interest rates of 1 percent to 2 percent in total and might be extended to other countries in the region in the next phase.

-If you put the whole transaction history on the blockchain, then you have something that doesn't change forever and you are forming the history," said Solomon Assefa, a vice president at IBM Research in Kenya. -This information allows the banks to expand their reach, the shopkeeper to access credit and the farmer to access the market."

Given the difficulties of analyzing the complexities of the informal economy, Olaka said the technology shouldn't be seen as a panacea.

-I wouldn't say that blockchain technology will solve the challenges that affect this group of transactors," he said. -I would say it has got the potential to."

- With assistance by Thomas Wilson

https://ift.tt/2LQuyR2

[safracatz]

Mobile App Development Trends That Are Predicted To Make It Big In 2019

After an exciting 2018, the New Year is relied upon to promote much more the changing scene. Mobile apps, especially, are ready to recognize some real changes are new improvements are not too far off and some existing one's areas of immediately commanding. On the off chance that you are needing to put resources into mobile apps development in the coming year or picture a few upgrades in your popular application, you should realize what is growing down to business later on. Give us a future to list the important patterns that are expected to grow big in the mobile apps development space in 2019.

1. Machine Learning and AI will be bigger than ever

Although these innovations have been about for quite a while, they are simply going to develop greater this year. The most generally recognized structure wherein they show in applications is as chatbots which are provided for understanding human language and communicating with them as human collaborators do. The following year will have a place with these quick bots and having them as a component of your business application will never repeat be a decision.

2. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will get more real

AR and VR advancements are maintaining to see across the board selection in 2019. Before being commended for sending specific gaming encounters, these innovations will turn into a piece of pretty much every retail application this New Year. A few ways of life and internet business makes are as of now using extended reality applications to lift the client encounters by providing application clients attempt before purchasing the office.

3. Instant apps will become more popular

At the point when moment applications were developed in 2016, they obtained a ton of buzz as a result of the support and space-sparing highlights that they brought. They have developed frequently well known in these couple of years and are probably working to get much more approval in the coming year. The key to their success lies in the way that clients can get to them in a split second without downloading them and estimate their gadget memory.

4. The demand for wearable apps will boom

Throughout the years, the wearable innovation has excellent and these gadgets have transformed into an excellent requirement have frill today. From wellness and wellbeing the executives to representative observing and remote activities, these gadgets are making every one of the distinctions for life at home and work. Therefore, there will be a development asked after for wearable versatile applications that power these gadgets.

5. Beacons-based apps will strengthen their presence

Another innovation that has been about for quite a while is Beacons change yet, fortunately, it will get more grounded in 2019. It will nevermore again be bound to giving area-based messages and notices to retail purchasers yet will stretch out to utilization at the air terminals, for compact installments, and notwithstanding for sharing customized data.

6. The IoT will witness rapid growth

While the Internet of Things is certifiably not different innovation, though, there will be a few different ways that it will be rediscovered in the following year. Organizations will put resources into IoT app development since they can't bear to remain following in the scene where interconnected gadgets are developing as a model. Robotization at work environments is conceivable just if there are the correct sorts of IoT applications to run the computerized gadgets.

7. On-demand will be in demand

The on-request pattern has developed in a past couple of years, multiplying areas, for example, taxi booking, nourishment conveyance, medicinal arrangements, and motion picture appointments. What's more, certain are only not many that have been referenced because this pattern is just going to develop at an uncommon pace. The interest will observer a flood later on and each application will try to serve an option that is better to the contenders.

8. There will be a transition from cash payment to mobile payment

As cashless turns into the industry famous expression, there is a need to search for reliable and consistent strategies for elective installments. After the change from money to cards, m-wallets have developed as a trusted in strategy for making and receiving installments. Versatile installments will be the blasting pattern in 2019 and it will be joined by the expansion in the number of mobile payments app also.

Conclusion

With such a great product available for mobile applications in 2019, organizations need to stop over these models and take them to be in front of their adversaries. This gives it basic to collaborate with a versatile application advancement organization that is fit for coordinating all these creative innovations directly into your business application. You may get in touch with us at Best mobile apps Development Companies in Ghana for a free quote to develop a mobile app for your business. And helps Business owners to reach more customers who want to change their business towards app development, The Company has a very good working environment. To know more about my company, Visit Fusion Informatics. For more queries please send a mail to get a free quote sales@fusioninformatics.com.

For more details visit:

App Development Companies in South Africa

Mobile Apps Development Companies in Uganda

Apps Development Companies in Tanzania

Apps Development Company in Nigeria

Mobile App Development Company in Zambia

Block chain development companies in Antananarivo

[safracatz]

AI and IoT Are Transforming Mobile App Development

Nowadays everyone knows about IoT. Almost all devices these days, are IoT allowed. Arranging from appliances to vehicles and smart offices, IoT made an irregular change in the technical space. One of the main advantages is that IoT makes a specific device that is activated IoT can be accessed and controlled from a part of the universe. In short, a person can control his IoT enabled TV sitting miles apart. 

In IoT, a collection of devices, to say things that have sensors and pre-installed microcontrollers, it is connected to a controller, we'll say a smartphone. The main purpose of these sensors and microcontrollers have to assemble data from these devices and to transmit to the control device.

Read More -  Mobile Apps Development Company in Nairobi   

A huge volume of data to be created and sent to serve the purpose of IoT. This measure of bulk data is then collected, separated and processed correctly. Conventional data acquiring means and its treatment are not to the height. That's why a new technology was introduced in the area of ​​IoT. Be processed using machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer intelligence is self-learning, which is generally used in IoT to analyze data and make decisions accordingly.

After artificial intelligence has been presented in different fields in which the IoT is applied, the results were unbelievable. Some of them were famous accuracy, increased efficiency of interaction between the human-machine, increased operational efficiency and a true digital transformation. Healthy competition between companies and AI IoT affecting the way, where it opens new doors of opportunities that could not be performed.

The need for artificial intelligence in IoT is to assure that only the relevant data are collected. When the sensors send data in a large volume, the time needed to process these data will also increase. To reduce this amount and to ensure that only the relevant data are collected; a process is carried out with the help of artificial intelligence. 

This process is called data mining. Data mining is carried out by different steps such as

Data integration is the stage where possible data are integrated. After that, all data is chosen which is called the data selection. The data selected will be a more or less important part which is a gathering based on the conditions of the storage device. Data cleaning is a method wherein the chosen data is cleaned and removed. Replicate and duplicate data will be removed during this method to ensure more storage. The cleaned data is then processed, which is known as the transformation of data. Data processing is made to ensure that it is available and standardized. The data is mined and is called data mining. It is used to estimate the models. As artificial intelligence is a prediction using accessible data and the algorithm, the more data the odds just to change the algorithm is high. As the algorithms will be increased performance and productivity of the system are also improved.

If you requested for examples where both live and artificial intelligence IoT mixed, the answer can be many. Some of them are self-driving cars, automatic vacuum cleaners, smart thermostats, etc. treat driverless cars the IoT data using artificial intelligence, which gives it more natural to understand the obstacles and jump the obstacles along the road and avoid the uncertainty of vehicles going into the accidents. This ensures not only the safety of passengers but also helps the vehicle to stay out of accidents. Where in automatic vacuum clean the house and can charge. Smart thermostats are Aiot devices that help one to check the temperature inside your home or workplace. Smart thermostats fall into the category of smart homes is another application of the IoT.

Read More -  Apps Development Companies in Cape Town   

Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things are commonly applied these days. There are even several use cases and implementation of the real-life of bird flu in the IoT. Let's take a brief look at major industries that focus on examining new vertical markets by providing AI IoT:

IoT in Industrial Security

Artificial intelligence-powered IoT devices are on the market for many reasons. One of its applications is to control the login and logout of workers using physical features such as face recognition, retina scanning, etc. It is also used in situations where access is limited to a large number. It improves cybersecurity by limiting fraudulent activities and embezzlement.

IoT in Health Care

Application of artificial intelligence in IoT in the field of health care has been the analysis of the symptoms and cure diseases easy. The data forwarded from the medical equipment improved the system of using preventive measures. 

An IoT in Agriculture

The implementation of artificial intelligence in IoT can abrupt agriculture. It can help to know and predict crop rotation, risk management, soil properties, climate change, yield forecasting, crop assessment, etc.

An IoT in Smart Homes

Further research in an iot covered the way for Smart Homes that are equipped with many smart features. Features such as the release system of the mobile application, enhanced security, control of household equipment such as refrigeration, telephone, television, computer systems, fans, and even a microwave. These are some of the very great features Smart Homes easier.

Conclusion

AI in IoT has much more to do than what has been presented in this blog. Since it is a vast field of study and a myriad of this application exists, a broad canvas is needed for a complete approach retailer. Yet one thing is certain, the implementation of avian influenza in the IoT is to make a successful transformation and requires more magic. You may get in touch with us at the mobile Apps Development Company in Lagos for a free quote to develop a mobile app for your business. And helps Business owners to reach more customers who want to change their business towards app development, Blockchain, and Machine Learning Development software. The Company has a very good working environment. To know more about my company, Visit Fusion Informatics. For more queries please send an mail to get a free quote sales@fusioninformatics.com.

For More details visit: 

Mobile App Development Companies in Kigali   

Mobile Apps Development Companies in Zambia   

Apps Development Companies in Tanzania   

Mobile Apps Development Company in Ghana   

App Development Companies in Uganda   

[safracatz]

How IOT May Impact Your Mobile App Development

All smartphones and Internet users are well informed that they are in a unique world and galloping has made huge technological developments in the last two decades. With data packets and practical means of communication, the trifle things are insolvent resolve effectively. For the chain reaction of ever-increasing technology, experts are still pioneering changes application to deliver excellent products to meet world trends. One of these complete works that will bring a ginormous ramp for the world is "Internet of things". You can hear this word several times in the last days. Ultimately, what is this IOT and why it becomes so much acclaim among techies?

IoT is the wireless network devices that are built utilizing fixed technologies that make interconnection devices and interact with each other. This communication between physical devices is possible everywhere with electronic devices. All these devices can be easily accessed and operated remotely by IoT. IoT is surely the next big thing in the future and it is to get a wide range of applications simply because of its comfort and convenience for users. It can broaden the traditional approach to technology.

The current process of app development

Searches on demand and mobile applications are growing every day and update the needs of daily life has become so addicted to mobile applications. The rapid increase in mobile spending time promoted innovations and led to the integration of new concepts in application development. With the mobile ordering system open source (Android), several applications have been produced in areas such as business, entertainment, and games, etc. Today, applications have a single validation process and are quickly able to integrate with different components. Android application developers have completely done with the view of the user and trends change daily due to various user's range of smartphones worldwide.

Current applications are involved with the AI ​​that offers users great comfort in all elements of the application and use of artificial insemination in the results of the application wrong and simplifies the tasks minimal time. This is the main reason why AI integrated applications widely in use select industries, financial calculations, and other technical aspects. With the help of cloud computing, mobile applications enhance easy access to store their data without technical problems.

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Integration with IoT

Integration IoT mobile applications can produce high efficiency and results. It is simply because of the especially easy to work and simplification in various complex processes. Mobile Connect with all other network devices will lead to complete control over the various features of the machines. Each periodic notification of all devices is received by the mobile phone itself. This last feature allows users to perform a device even when it stays away from it. It uses the sensor and analysis to link different components so it is very manageable to take control of several devices.

But another thing is also to be respected while making a connection network utilizing the Internet as a medium among all those devices. Connecting a device with the Internet is still a vulnerable thing and some steps must be taken to secure connectivity. Thus IoT made several related to privacy and security. The network's handling events is too high and a large amount of sensitive data will be suspended on risk.

Impacts in the mobile app development

A wide range of applications can be done by establishing strong connectivity between IoT and mobile applications. Here the huge benefits that can give certain effects on mobile apps development.

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Ease complex tasks

Simply, IoT makes interconnections among devices and these interconnections decrease complexity. Interactive solutions can be acquired to control all devices via one convenient application. Developers also need less effort to build new innovative solutions.

Change in vision

The application development method is always adjusted to provide better user interface solutions to users. But after the integration of the IoT, they must keep their focus more on methods and new strategies to interconnect devices using IoT, which can lead to the development of new innovative applications.

Transition in the app usage

The incorporation of IoT mobile app development needs changes in the common methods used in the development process so that new mobile applications should be developed to enhance the ability of applications to establish a secure connection with all

Need for effective specialization

As IoT is a state of the art technology to complete, the development of applications to support technical IoT requires a huge effort and thus application developers must have effective skills and ingenuity to handle the process of application Development.

Conclusion:

These are some of the results of IoT combination with mobile applications. As an interconnected, network security and privacy can usually change from the existing development process, so developers should give particular attention to the development process to assure user safety. You may get in touch with us at Best Mobile App Development Companies in Cape Town for a free quote to develop a mobile app for your business. And helps Business owners to reach more customers who want to change their business towards app development, BlockChain, and Machine Learning Development software. The Company has a very good working environment. To know more about my company, Visit Fusion Informatics. For more queries please send an mail to get a free quote sales@fusioninformatics.com.

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[safracatz]

It’s time to combine blockchain and mobile app development

As emerging technologies such as communication recognition, IoT, AR, virtual reality, robotics, AI, blockchain is the buzzword that begins as Industry 4.0 - the age of computing in the cloud and the Internet of Things, where we went behind everyday digital technologies. The blockchain is no longer in its opening; now, it looks more like a toddler. With better tools, communities, and standardization, it could develop and reach its potential, serve humanity in the service of edifying and transformative means. Some of the most common examples that need to be taken into account involve banking, insurance, foreign exchange, voting, contract management, and so on. Blockchain technology overcomes the number of intermediaries, maintains transparency and secures data. Its potential use makes this technology more attractive.

Using blockchain for mobile app development

Do you find yourself clueless to combine blockchain in your next mobile application? Below, I would like to discuss some suggestions that can present significant help on this subject.

Know the apps suitable for blockchain

Even if you are surrounded by many benefits, likely, technology does not fit in all types of mobile apps Development Company. Also, for an application that only publishes content without any active event interface, the blockchain may not be wanted at all. On the other hand, if you use an application with a sports transaction interface, payment gateways or something that is placed with a crucial database, it needs the active support of secure and decentralized database technology. In such cases, blockchain is the right choice. The situations vary depending on whether you use so-called financial and defense applications for mobile applications to create collaboration with applications for the supply chain management.

Based Mobile Apps include

Creating an application to interact cryptocurrency can make things more comfortable for traders and miners. Several stock market applications have developed with cryptocurrency applications. This type of application not only allows anyone to fully control your digital resources but also allows you to adjust with them. When powered by blockchain, these crypto-currencies can be used for all kinds of payments and transactions.

Electronic wallet applications tend to store your digital assets and money, enabling you to use on transactions including blockchain technology.

Digital asset tracking applications, on the other hand, strive to provide you with up-to-date information on rates, commerce, market dynamics and a portfolio of many cryptocurrencies.

Retail applications are another type of blockchain-based application that allows customers to pay via bitcoins or other encrypted currencies.

Have you ever met the term intelligent understanding or self-executing protocol? They are the ones who return automatically to certain predetermined triggers that act as another facet of blockchain technology. These can also be used in mobile applications development for driving automation.

Consider key technologies

Integration of the blockchain with mobile applications needs a deep understanding of technology and the variety of elements such as the network, blockchain platforms, programming languages, various processes such as back-end, front-end end and property support for various mobile platforms, etc.

Certain things to consider include:

When looking for network options, you can think of two great choices: "Unlimited chainless network", the one that supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc., and "forbidden network", which supports flatbed such as Multichain. The above can be used to stimulate wider and unlimited access, while the latter is subject to commands and accessibility constraints, which qualifies it as a closed network.

To go further with the two more general categories of applications based on blockchains, one is that of applications for cryptocurrency, the other, that of applications for smart contracts.

Mobile application developers must also choose between 25 blockchain platforms, including open spring and public platforms, as well as private platforms.

How to implement Blockchain

The implementation of blockchain in mobile application development has many advantages. And as soon as you finish with the key considerations mentioned above, it is advisable to move on to the practical steps of developing blockchain-based mobile applications.

Choose the suitable consensus-based method

The implementation of blockchain in mobile apps Development Companies has many advantages. And as soon as you complete with the key considerations discussed above, it is desirable to move on to the possible steps of happening blockchain-based mobile applications.

Design architecture

I imagine that so far you may have decided the relevant configuration for the configuration architecture. Which means it's time to host blockchain with the cloud-based, hybrid or internal model. Fortunately, you have a range of options for configuring the processor, working system, disk size, and memory. To make sure that the chosen design architecture is just based on the mobile user system platform for which you are developing the application, you just need to make sure that.

Conclusion:

In the coming years, from retail to support, supply chain and many other industries, the blockchain will be viewed as a critical part of countless mobile applications. Like it or not, it's a guess that a blockchain-based application store could even follow the Google Play Store and Apple's app store and convert one of the main ways to search, download and buy apps a few years later. Before you merge blockchain technology into a mobile apps development project, ask your experts to learn more about the blockchain and explore its benefits with valuable resources. You may get in touch with us at Best Apps Development Companies in South Africa for a free quote to develop a mobile app for your business. And helps Business owners to reach more customers who want to change their business towards app development, The Company has a very good working environment. To know more about my company, Visit Fusion Informatics. For more queries please send a mail to get a free quote sales@fusioninformatics.com.

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[cryptswahili]

Africa Roundup: Zimbabwe’s net blackout, Partech’s $143M fund, Andela’s $100M raise, Flutterwave’s pivot

Jake Bright Contributor

Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa.

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Partech is doubling the size of its African venture fund to $143 million

Zimbabwe’s government faces off against its tech community over internet restrictions

A high court in Zimbabwe ended the government’s restrictions on internet and social media last month.

After days of intermittent blackouts at the order of the country’s Minister of State for National Security, ISPs restored connectivity per a January 21 judicial order.

Similar to net shutdowns around the continent, politics and protests were the catalyst. Shortly after the government announced a dramatic increase in fuel prices on January 12, Zimbabwe’s Congress of Trade Unions called for a national strike.

Web and app blackouts in the southern African country followed demonstrations that broke out in several cities. A government crackdown ensued, with deaths reported.

On January 15, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile carrier, Econet Wireless, confirmed that it had complied with a directive from the Minister of State for National Security to shutdown internet.

Net access was restored, taken down again, then restored, but social media sites remained blocked through January 21.

Throughout the restrictions, many of Zimbabwe’s citizens and techies resorted to VPNs and workarounds to access net and social media, as reported in this TechCrunch feature.

Global internet rights group Access Now sprung to action, attaching its #KeepItOn hashtag to calls for the country’s government to reopen cyberspace soon after digital interference began.

The cyber-affair adds Zimbabwe to a growing list of African countries — including Cameroon, Congo and Ethiopia — whose governments have restricted internet expression in recent years.

It also provides another case study for techies and ISPs regaining their cyber rights. Internet and social media are back up in Zimbabwe — at least for now.

Further attempts to restrict net and app access in Zimbabwe will likely revive what’s become a somewhat ironic cycle for cyber shutdowns. When governments cut off internet and social media access, citizens still find ways to use internet and social media to stop them.

Partech doubled its Africa VC fund to $143 million and opened a Nairobi office to complement its Dakar practice.

The Partech Africa Fund plans to make 20 to 25 investments across roughly 10 countries over the next several years, according to general partner Tidjane Deme. The fund has added Ceasar Nyagha as investment officer for the Kenya office to expand its East Africa reach.

Partech Africa will primarily target Series A and B investments and some pre-series rounds at higher dollar amounts. “We will consider seed-funding — what we call seed-plus — tickets in the $500,000 range,” Deme told TechCrunch for this story on the new fund. Partech is open to all sectors “with a strong appetite for people who are tapping into Africa’s informal economies,” he said.

Partech Africa joined several Africa-focused funds over the last few years to mark a surge in VC for the continent’s startups. Partech announced its first raise of $70 million in early 2018 next to TLcom Capital’s $40 million, and TPG Growth’s $2 billion.

Africa-focused VC firms, including those locally run and managed, have grown to 51 globally, according to recent Crunchbase research.

Andela, the company that connects Africa’s top software developers with technology companies from the U.S. and around the world, raised $100 million in a new round of funding.

The new financing from Generation Investment Management (an investment fund co-founded by former VP Al Gore) puts the valuation of the company at somewhere between $600 million and $700 million—based on data available from PitchBook on the company’s valuation.

The company now has more than 200 customers paying for access to the roughly 1,100 developers Andela has trained and manages.

With the new cash in hand, Andela says it will double in size, hiring another thousand developers, and invest in new product development and its own engineering and data resources. More on Andela’s recent raise and focus here at TechCrunch.

Fintech startup Flutterwave announced a new consumer payment product for Africa called GetBarter, in partnership with Visa.

The app-based offering is aimed at facilitating personal and small merchant payments within and across African countries. Existing Visa  cardholders can send and receive funds at home or internationally on GetBarter.

The product also lets non-cardholders (those with accounts or mobile wallets on other platforms) create a virtual Visa card to link to the app.  A Visa spokesperson confirmed the product partnership.

GetBarter allows Flutterwave  — which has scaled as a payment gateway for big companies through its Rave product — to pivot to African consumers and traders.

The app also creates a network for clients on multiple financial platforms to make transfers across payment products and national borders, and to shop online.

“The target market is pretty much everyone who has a payment need in Africa. That includes the entire customer base of M-Pesa,  the entire bank customer base in Nigeria, mobile money and bank customers in Ghana — pretty much the entire continent,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola told TechCrunch in this exclusive.

Flutterwave and Visa will focus on building a GetBarter user base across mobile money and bank clients in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, with plans to grow across the continent and reach those off the financial grid.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has positioned itself as a global B2B payments solutions platform for companies in Africa to pay other companies on the continent and abroad. It allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payments applications. Existing customers include Uber,  Facebook,  Booking.com and African e-commerce unicorn Jumia.com.

Flutterwave added operations in Uganda in June and raised a $10 million Series A round in October The company also plugged into ledger activity in 2018, becoming a payment processing partner to the Ripple and Stellar blockchain networks.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with its largest operations center in Nigeria, the startup plans to add operations centers in South Africa and Cameroon, which will also become new markets for GetBarter.

And sadly, Africa’s tech community mourned losses in January. A terrorist attack on Nairobi’s 14 Riverside complex claimed the lives of six employees of fintech startup Cellulant and I-Dev CEO Jason Spindler. Both organizations had been engaged with TechCrunch’s Africa work over the last 24 months. Condolences to  family, friends, and colleagues of those lost.

More Africa Related Stories @TechCrunch

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African Tech Around The Net    

Naspers targets Africa’s financial services industry

Microsoft South Africa gets new MD as Zoaib Hoosen calls it quits

Why Everyone Is Confused By “African Startups” Funding Figures

New $10m VC fund to invest in tech startups from Kenya, Nigeria, SA

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]

[coin-river-blog]

Finance

Japanese insurance group Sompo Holdings has acquired a 10 percent stake in Bitpesa, a Kenyan digital currency exchange and payments company, for 570 million yen ($5.02 million). The deal is expected to further digitize the insurer’s international remittance service.

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Crypto-Backed Remittances

Sompo Holdings said in an online statement that it intends to use the digital currency-backed fiat remittance business of Nairobi-based BTC Africa, which trades as Bitpesa, to lower the cost and time it takes for global currency transfers.

“Using Bitpesa’s technology, developed through various experiments in remittances and settlements, we will extend our presence in the international remittance service market and consider the application of this technology to the insurance field,” Sompo Holdings said.

The Tokyo-listed insurer, which reported sales of 192.78 billion yen ($1.7 billion) for October, did not disclose the terms of the deal. However, Japanese-language media outlets have valued the transaction at roughly 570 million yen, without citing sources.

“We believe that the two companies will be able to solve the problem of expensive commissions and remittance times for international remittance by using the virtual currency … digitizing international remittance services,” Sompo Holdings explained, describing the arrangement as a “win-win” for both companies.

The Japanese insurer also claimed that the tie-up will raise Bitpesa’s global profile by having it as a shareholder. It said that it will help the Kenyan company to expand its customer base.

Bitpesa Sees Rapid Growth

When Bitpesa was founded by American political science graduate Elizabeth Rossiello in 2013, the company initially focused on facilitating bitcoin-supported cash transfers between citizens of the U.K. and Kenya. However, Bitpesa now has operations in eight African countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. It helps people to trade digital assets while making payments for goods and services at home and abroad.

The company boasts a range of clients, from African businesses to multinational companies that need to pay suppliers in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and China. It also caters to global remittance companies using API services for payments to mobile money operators, as well as bank networks in the African countries in which it has a presence.

In September, Bitpesa signed a deal with another Japanese company, SBI Remit, to allow people throughout Africa to make payments for cars, which is a multimillion-dollar industry on the continent. The two companies also aim to facilitate faster overseas payments for beauty products and electronic gadgets at lower costs than similar services.

Africans making overseas purchases can now deposit their local fiat currencies into Bitpesa’s bank account, after which the payments are sent on the Bitcoin blockchain to SBI Remit, which in turn makes the final payments in Japan. The entire process can be completed within a matter of hours, at about half of the usual transfer cost. They claim that conventional banking methods on the continent take about two weeks to handle similar transactions, with transfer fees of around 7 percent of the total purchase amount.

Elizabeth Rossiello

Although Rossiello has not commented on the latest deal with Sompo Holdings, she has spoken out about the SBI Remit partnership. “If it makes sense for us to settle using cryptocurrency or fiat currencies, then we do,” she said. “And in this case, we’re happy that SBI feels the same way, so we’re open to using digital or fiat currencies to settle between us.”

Shares of Sompo Holdings had fallen roughly 5 percent to 4,646 yen ($40.88) in Tokyo trading at press time.

What do you think about the partnership between Bitpesa and Sompo Holdings? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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