As the world just celebrated Monero’s 11th birthday, let’s move beyond market caps and technical specifications. Now, let’s look into Africa, a continent often forgotten in the crypto narrative. To do so, astonishingly, a banned cryptocurrency might have the biggest effect on its future among them all. You see headlines about delistings and regulatory crackdowns, and maybe you think, "Good riddance, it's just for criminals anyway." What if you're wrong? What if enforcing a Monero ban ends up harming the very patients we seek to protect?

Financial Freedom's Last Stand?

I want you to imagine this: You're a small business owner in Zimbabwe, constantly battling hyperinflation and government capital controls. Your savings are evaporating before your eyes. For diaspora, it’s almost impossible to send or receive money outside the US. Your government is authoritarian. The old banking system? Well, it’s either closed off or downright hostile. You already know that cash is the best way to transact in private, secure, and government-free ways. Would you be interested? Of course, you would.

That's where Monero comes in. I know, I know—all Monero is good for is facilitating money laundering. We've all heard it. But painting it only with that brush oversimplifies the issue. In largely stable, relatively regulated economies, we could perhaps allow ourselves this luxury—but such an approach carries dangers. In Africa, it's a different story. It’s about thriving, it’s about economic agency, it’s about avoiding subjugation.

I spoke with Kwame, a tech entrepreneur from Ghana, who explained it this way: "For us, Monero isn't about buying drugs on the dark web. It's about being able to pay a freelancer in Nigeria without losing half the payment to transaction fees and currency exchange rates. It's about receiving remittances from family abroad without the government knowing how much we have. It's about protecting our hard-earned money from corrupt officials."

He continued, "They ban Monero, saying it's for criminals. Who are the real criminals here? The people trying to feed their families, or the politicians stealing millions from public funds?" That statement hit me hard. It's easy to sit here in the West, with our comfortable banking systems and relatively stable economies, and condemn a technology we don't truly need in the same way.

Western Solutions, African Problems?

The issue is that the above Western-centric regulatory approaches lack the awareness and understanding of what is actually happening on the ground in Africa. We enact wide-reaching bans driven by an irrational fear of money laundering without taking the time to examine what that action would mean for everyday Americans. By banning Monero, aren’t we pushing people to more opaque and less regulated alternatives? Are we stifling innovation and economic growth? In the process, are we empowering the very actors we’re attempting to deter?

Think about it. If you outlaw Monero, what should a person who needs financial privacy do instead? Likely cash, or some as-yet-unknown, unregulated P2P system. These alternatives are far more dangerous and harder to monitor. Monero’s publicly audited codebase and active developer community make it a more robust and safer option.

  • Banning Monero doesn't eliminate the need for financial privacy. It just pushes it underground, making it harder to monitor and potentially increasing the risk for vulnerable users.

Privacy Isn't Just For Criminals

The story that privacy coins are only used by criminals is a harmful narrative. It dismisses the entire legitimate use cases, especially in countries where economic independence is an extravagance, not a privilege. Furthermore, it fails to consider the human impact of overly aggressive regulatory enforcement.

Monero’s market capitalization is down close to 60% from its all-time high in January 2018. This drastic drop is a sobering illustration of how powerful the effects of regulatory pressure can be. It’s been 11 years since its inception, yet despite all odds it continues to thrive. Fueled by an ardent community of believers and a cap of approximately $4 billion, this success expresses the resiliency of the concept and our need for privacy as we find ourselves in a more transparent world.

Monero's innovations, like ring signatures and stealth addresses, weren't developed to help criminals. They were developed to empower individuals, to protect their financial sovereignty, to give them a fighting chance in a world where powerful institutions are constantly watching.

So, as we celebrate Monero's 11th anniversary, let's ask ourselves a tough question: Are we willing to sacrifice the financial freedom of millions of Africans in the name of regulatory compliance? Is there a better, more subtle way to find out? One that promotes government accountability while respecting our inherent expectation of privacy? What’s the real cost of Monero banishment in Africa?