In Jamaica, as, arguably, in every other country in the world, crypto-currencies are not legal tender. However, island's financial gate-keepers, unlike those of its Caribbean region's neighbors, have found it necessary to make an additional step back on the road leading to financial revolution.
In February 2018 the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ)'s representative made a pointed statement, where he explicitly warned citizens on the numerous dangers, which, from this representative's point of view, are closely connected with using digital money. As it's already became customary in all similar cases, involved numerous public servants making broad, unsubstantiated accusations, this particular mouthpiece of the mainstream finance didn't bother to provide any data or even a single fact to support his lavish rhetorics.
Particularly amusing was to hear as this official swore to protect the local financial system from risks associated with modern technologies. Certainly, with Jamaican dollar's inflation rate averaging 10% a year during the past two decades, this "system" is deserving not to be "protected" by over-zealous and tech-inept bureaucrats but fundamentally changed instead.
On a positive side, despite of all this colorful ceremonious oratory, there's not much what BOJ is set to do in practice to suppress the local crypto-community, besides refusing again to authorize any enterprise supporting virtual money trading platforms. That, of course, limits Jamaicans freedom to manage their own liquid assets but is incapable to stop slow and sure advance of new financial technologies.
Business Notes for Startups Founders:
political climate: indifferent;
economic climate: not friendly;
regions to focus: locally;
industries to focus: FinTech, e-services, tourism, entertainment and recreation;
major limitations: small economy (GDP at around $14 billion), negligible GDP growth rate (under 1%), small population (less than 3 million), high inflation, high energy costs, over-bureaucratization, multiple legal barriers to SME, absence of VC and seed investments, dependence on remittances, relatively low average wage (less than $15,000 / year), fixed Internet penetration rate stands under 50% and its growth is not exceeding 3% a year, shortage of qualified personnel, very high youth unemployment rate (above 25%), relatively high costs of commuting in \ from an island;
stimulus: English speaking population, constant influx of foreign tourist;
opportunities: To build a local e-services operator orientated on tourists and large diaspora community.
Cryptocurrencies and ICOs (outlook): legal (moderately negative).
The author: Svyatoslav (Svet) Sedov
Angel investor and founder of The First International Incubator for Silicon Valley Companies (FirstInternational.In) in the Bay Area, CA, USA.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SvjatoslavSedof