After the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan in August last year, many international non-governmental organizations and services stopped operating in the country. Among them were payment services like Western Union (NYSE:WU) and Swift.
Many Afghans subsequently began to learn about cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology to — at the very least — receive remittances from abroad. As electronic payment services like PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Venmo have never been available in the 5,000-year-old country, Afghans have lost many opportunities in the online business world.