[ramabk]

In Africa, many homes do not have electricity but increasingly everyone has a cell phone. Prepaid cell phone minutes have become a defacto currency in many African countries. Africans are in many ways more acclimated with using privately issued digital currencies (such as M-PESA)...

[tome]

Where do they charge their phones? Are portable hand-powered generators common, like wind-up radios?

[ramabk]

http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kenyan-solution-for-chargin...

[pgeorgi]

video2text: They extend the light machine on bicycles with just enough circuitry to make it suitable as a charger.

[JonnieCache]

Hooking up a bicycle dynamo to charge your phone is a popular african hack: http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_win...

[slurgfest]

An unreliable grid, car batteries can also store off-grid power, fancy people have generators