Yet another professional athlete has come out publicly in support of Bitcoin, and has joined the “Pay Me In Bitcoin” movement. Toronto FC forward Ifunanyachi Achara had already been buying bitcoin via Binance himself, but in February he finally made the jump to converting about half his salary to bitcoin via Bitwage, according to CoinDesk.
“Learn #Bitcoin,” reads Achara’s Twitter bio, a sign that he really understands what Bitcoin has to offer. He knows that Bitcoin can help protect himself, but also his family back in Nigeria.
“The rate of inflation is killing us. The more the U.S. prints money during COVID to help people, the more it devalues our currency,” Archara told CoinDesk. “So my family, when I send them money home, I send them bitcoin.”
Achara's Twitter profile.
Bitcoin is the perfect tool for Achara and his family to use to protect their savings against the devastating aftermath of inflation/hyperinflation. Bitcoin’s hard capped supply of 21 million ensures this; and with Bitcoin operating on a peer-to-peer network, he can send money straight to his family quickly and with relatively small fees. In comparison to sending money out of the country via the legacy financial system, Bitcoin offers a platform with no middlemen, and will continue having enormous benefits for the people who use it.
“If I wanted to send money to my parents to move away from a state that I felt like was really violent, I couldn’t,” Archara said. “I couldn’t send them money to the bank. It was just through Bitcoin that I was able to send my family money more easily and efficiently and as fast as possible.”
Archara is a young gun, at only age 23, and has several years left in his career. One of the many bullish things about this story is that his family is going to benefit tremendously over this span from Bitcoin’s killer app: number go up. The more bitcoin he accumulates for his family and the higher bitcoin’s price reaches, the wealthier his family becomes. His family in Nigeria should have the financial freedom to leave the state if they’re not treated well, and move to one where they’re treated best.
This is yet another fantastic example of a real world use case for Bitcoin and it’s changing lives. It’s a beautiful thing to watch play out, and one can only assume that more athletes and their families are going to adopt a Bitcoin standard, just as the Archaras have.