Podcast: Ray Youssef Bringing Bitcoin Into Africa With Gift Cards Is Solving Real Problems

On today’s episode I talk with Ray Youssef, Co-Founder and CEO of Paxful, a peer-to-peer marketplace for money transfers serving about 4 million people in every country of the world. He says that in the next five years Africa with its tremendous growth in trading volume is going to become the leading crypto continent.

“Africa is leading all of our volume right now, and it’s growing tremendously. And every time a new country comes online, we start to see exponential growth. So you know this, these next five years are going to see Africa become the crypto continent in a way.” - Ray Youssef

“If you’re from America or Europe and you want to go to Africa and start a business, great. Find your African co-founder, you’re not going to go in there and do this without the Africans. In fact, the Africans are going to lead it. You know, we from the West are kind of guests here, you have to have the right mindset about Africa. This is essential to success.” - Ray Youssef

“I think women can definitely lead the future in Africa. The truth is, women lead most financial revolutions, right? Like especially products. They find something that works. They introduce it to the family first. They’re the ones that have to circulate the flow of money.” - Ray Youssef

• His start-up failures and learnings
• Why he was an MMA fighter and actor
• His couchsurfing time in New York and what it taught him
• Making money with gift cards
• The founding idea for Paxful
• Payment networks in Africa
• Privacy
• Africas growing trading volume
• How Covid-19 impacted trading
• Social justice and #BuiltWithBitcoin
• Paxfuls vision for Africa
• How to prevent scams and rippers
• The Africans should lead your business
• Women controlling the majority of the worlds money
• The unbanked in the US

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