Bitcoin Cash saved our Condo.
I have always wanted to report this story but delayed till our security upgrades were completed.
Late 2020, I decided to buy a condo in Kenya. I found a nice place in a gated community with private water, backup power generators, patrolled by armed guards (who work for us and are always polite – unlike police). Despite choosing the penthouse on the top floor, the price was only $120K. In America, this would easily be over a $million.
I sold some crypto and had the money moved to my USA bank account. That is when the problems started. My USA bank wanted me to come in and sign paperwork to wire the money to my bank overseas despite no air flights out due to Covid at this time. This wasn't a problem with ID as the manager knew me well, but this bank was always very stringent about the rules. This never bothered me as they were very crypto friendly though and even now I still have a good relationship with them. They just weren't willing to send the money without me appearing in person to sign the paperwork.
So I came up with a new strategy. I had two other backup bank accounts and could easily transfer from this bank to them. I also had a PayPal card. I would just transfer money to each of them and then use my ATM cards to withdraw, then immediately deposit in my local bank. While a logistical pain to go to the mall every day, I figured I could transfer $2000 a day this way and have the money transferred in just two months.
Turns out this doesn't work. My bank had a $10K monthly limit on local transfers. This includes transfers to Paypal. So basically I was stuck with just removing $10K plus $10k per month via ATM cards. At this rate it would have taken over six months.
I tried making a large transfer using Western Union, but that just resulted in my account being frozen for three months till they just randomly removed the freeze. I also tried depositing a check at my Kenyan bank, but they refused it.
At this point, I decided to use bitcoin (BTC) via Bitpesa. I had an old account from 2014 with them and even had personal contact information with people that worked there. I knew they didn't do the Bitcoin->Mpesa thing anymore, but thought I could work something out. Turns out, despite being located in Kenya, they can't do any exchanges in Kenya anymore.
At this point, I tried “local dot bitcoin dot com” using Bitcoin Cash. I started out with small amounts using the top buyers. Each transfer went smoothly. Eventually working up to the $1500 per transfer limit. Mpesa has a limit of around $3000/day, but with two accounts that makes $6000/day. You can transfer from Mpesa to a Kenya bank account directly on your phone, so you don't even have to leave home. Anyway, we had the rest of the money to buy our condo in just a few weeks.
TLDR: Fiat completely failed, Bitcoin completely failed, Bitcoin Cash worked.
Update: The site URL was changed to “Localcryptos dot com” since I did my BCH->Fiat swaps.