 In 1994, the International Monetary Fund pressured Senegal into a devastating decision, one you've probably never heard of. They cut the value of the West African Frank in half. Today, West Africans are looking for ways to escape the chokehold of European monetary colonialism. I am in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal. Here you can use Bitcoin to pay in some restaurants, bars and even tattoo shops. Or you can simply trade peer-to-peer with other Bitcoiners, like this guy I met on the beach. I'm Joe Hall, a reporter for Cointelegraph. I travel around the world to document the adoption of Bitcoin and crypto. Here's how Senegal is on its way to building a Bitcoin economy that could provide financial freedom from its European colonizers. You may have heard Senegal pop up on the crypto radar a couple of years ago when the American singer ACON announced his plan to build a crypto city there. Futureistic place called ACON City. ACON City. ACON City, tell me about this. While ACON City has remained a pipe dream, Bitcoin adoption in Dakar has been growing rapidly. Senegal is a fertile ground for Bitcoin adoption for a number of reasons. First, people here are very familiar with cashless transactions. Just look at this map. Senegal is no stranger to mobile money and it's a popular payment option. 71% of adults sent money via mobile phone in the last 30 days. Another reason is demographics. Senegal's population is incredibly young. That means people here are digitally native or open to technological innovation. The beautiful part of Africa is they have youth, man. Over 50, 60% of the population is youth. And the youth is on the internet watching. Oh, what is this? What is this? The Senegalese are turning to Bitcoin as a better alternative to their local currency. The West African Frank is used in 13 countries besides Senegal. It is printed in France, pegged to the euro, and its monetary policy is controlled by Western powers. Not exactly the definition of monetary sovereignty, right? In 1994, the World Bank devalued the West African Frank against the French Frank by 100%. That year, the Senegalese woke up one day to realise the value of their life savings had been slashed in half. Bitcoin adoption faces substantial challenges in Senegal. One of them is the lack of basic infrastructure. Basic infrastructure and some sort of public goods that need to be financed, that need to be built like reliable internet. You know, a farmer in Senegal might not have reliable internet. Another hurdle that Bitcoin adoption must overcome is the suave of crypto-related frauds that occur in the country and indeed across Africa. Many people here still associate Bitcoin with scams. So you have a lot of scammers here. You have a lot of people that have some foreign exchange scheme. They rob them. You talk about the money that is parallel, about the money that is not managed by a bank. They are too skeptical. They are always skeptical about this. But why are Bitcoin-related scams so widespread in Senegal? One answer could be the country's low literacy level. But why are Bitcoin-related scams so widespread in Senegal? One answer could be the country's low literacy level. Which restricts people's abilities to discern and safely use crypto. This is why education has become a top priority for the local Bitcoin community. So we just set up the Bitcoin-Senegal community. I was the first one. So we decided to raise our voice and to go and to talk to people. In our first emit on Clubhouse, we were maybe three or four. But I kept going. Two sessions per week. Then one session per week because we used to have 10, 20. Sometimes we would have hundreds of people. They would just come here and listen. After that, we decided to make some video on YouTube. So you can be at your home. If you look for Bitcoin in Senegal, you won't see anything like trading or how to get rich, et cetera. Just the philosophy. What is Bitcoin-related scams so widespread in Senegal? How to get rich, et cetera. Just the philosophy. What is Bitcoin? And we also did some technical videos on how to set up a Bitcoin node, how to set up a Lightning node. We did a lot of thinking about it. We did a lot of thinking about education here. Bitcoin conferences are the perfect place to spread the Bitcoin message. Here I am at Dakar Bitcoin Dates, one of the very first Pan-African Bitcoin events where activists are teaching people the basic principles of money, finance and Bitcoin. So the first of the day in Africa. So I think it's going to make the international community ticker to show them that the Francophone community is also present in Bitcoin. And we also try to make it adopt these crypto, Bitcoin and its technology behind it. And we also try to work on solutions. A broken monetary system and a young, digitally native population. These are the perfect conditions for Bitcoin adoption to thrive. Education and investments in infrastructure are among the final ticks or pieces of the puzzle which could transform Senegal into the main Bitcoin hub of West Africa. And who knows, if successful, Senegal could inspire more African countries to explore Bitcoin as a tool for financial empowerment and emancipation from the colonial past. This has been Joe Hall reporting for Cointelegraph.