In January 2018, I joined the Cryptocurrency community through the recommendation of a friend who had been in it for years now. I, like many others in Nigeria, was skeptical about the viability of the entire system. You know, with the fraud level surrounding the ecosystem especially in Nigeria, We were right to. Remember the collapse of MMM in 2016 which bankrupt many Nigerians, people still feared the word: BITCOIN. These and many other factors instilled fear in the minds of people. But I was a writer, I left an open mind, and decided to investigate these things myself. The truth is, for every new development in our quest to evolve, there would be stereotypes and failures, and people who would want to thwart the positive, to let the negative affect the change. But here is the bottom line, the real and the fake co-exist together, you just have to see through the lines before taking a decision.
When I received my first Bitcoin payment, I have no idea how to cash it out into fiat. I was given a week to figure it out and cash it out. My friend had said “I don’t want to spoon-feed you- figure it out”. It gave me a sleepless night. I watched my Blockchain wallet fluctuate, and the price was dropping. I needed to find a way very fast. I started a research of a way to cash out. From my findings, I discovered a lot of Nigerians had the same problem. A guy offered to give me cash, if I transferred the Bitcoin to him. But what he was offering was way below the actual worth. So I decided to find a way myself.
I visited many platforms and read many articles but finally, I found LUNO. It was the only straightforward site that had many recommendations. But because as you register, the site would ask for your BVN number. This halted my attempts because it sounded like fraud. So I went to my bank to ask of the nature of the BVN and I discovered it is also a way to verify, and protect you from fraud. So I completed the withdrawal process. And got my cash. The purpose of this is to tell you getting into this from Nigeria to try Luno, it is safe.
Here are 3 important things to know about LUNO.
They have a learning portal in their platform to educate beginners about Cryptocurrency. That’s not all, they also have a glossary of terms usually used around the Cryptocurrency ecosystem. Luno is very Beginner friendly. Cool right?
- Buying Cryptocurrency using your local currency
It is really frustrating to know that many Cryptocurrency exchanges do not include Nigeria in their list of countries for transactions, because of negative stereotypes. But Luno changed all that. With luno you can buy Bitcoin and Ethereum using your local currency, which for Nigeria is Naira. You can also transfer to fiat to your direct bank account. They are very fast in completing and verifying your bank transfer. Yea. You read rightly. That’s not all.
- Wide range coverage and consumer base
Luno offers their customers a Bitcoin wallet for transactions and storage. They have operational headquarters in London, Nigeria, and 38 other countries, as well as application programming interface for developers. Their customer base is 2.9 million. Yea.
The summary of it all is that if you are new to the system, especially from Africa, try Luno, you would never be disappointed. It is safe and secure. Thank me later.
