The currency technology that started up with the great benefit of preventing people from being disenfranchised from banking and money ends up being the perfect tool for doing just that.
“Then you have these tone-deaf millionaires going around imposing their preferences, like Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z investing 500 bitcoin toward bitcoin development in Africa which will supposedly empower its population. Vested interests anyone?” —https://www.cynicusrex.com/file/cryptocultscience.html
Altruism is a myth. Anyone does something for their personal interest. If a doctor gets satisfaction from helping patients, should we be pointing at a doctor that they have a vested interest?
What is the difference? Wouldn't it only matter if the patient was somewhat in disadvantage?
I think this practice is widespread and kind of why doctors despite not earning much seem to be happy with how things are. In my country they don't even have to declare any cash and hospitality benefits.
Correct, but isn't that a socially accepted thing? You don't see people protesting doctors being corrupt? Quite the opposite, people praise them. I can't even recall any party that would have tackling this in their program, not even making disclosure of such benefits mandatory...
> OxyContin, introduced in 1995, was Purdue Pharma's breakthrough palliative for chronic pain. Under a marketing strategy that Arthur Sackler had pioneered decades earlier, the company aggressively pressed doctors to prescribe the drug, wooing them with free trips to pain-management seminars and paid speaking engagements. Sales soared.[26] The drug was marketed as "smooth and sustained pain control all day and all night" when taken on a 12-hour schedule and as having lower abuse potential than immediate-release oxycodone because of its time-release properties, even though there was no scientific evidence backing that conclusion and the addictive nature of opiates had been known for thousands of years.
> In August 2019, Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family were in negotiations to settle the claims for a payment of $10-$12 billion. [55] The settlement would include a Chapter 11 filing by Purdue Pharma, which would be restructured as public beneficiary trust and the Sackler Family would give up any ownership in the company. Addiction treatment drugs currently developed by the company would be given to the public cost-free. All profits of Purdue would henceforth go to the plaintiffs in the case. On top of that, the Sackler family would contribute $3 billion in cash. The family would also sell Mundipharma and contribute another $1.5 billion from the sales proceeds to the settlement. However, the Sackler family would remain a billionaire family and would not be criminally charged for contributing to the opioid crisis.
This question is just a call to personal worldview, so happy to agree to disagree.
I hope people are keen to weed out all corruption even though sometimes it is not possible but I think we should try.
If you go to the doctor and their “remedy” might cost you $100,000 in lost time chasing the wrong cure so they can make an extra $50 that day I’d say something smells off.
But again pure worldview. Some people would say it’s up to the individual to gain the knowledge of the doctor (could be via a proxy eg a friend) and let the free market decide. And that’s fine that’s probably how we lived before large governments existed.
In Estonia, my home country, public opinion of doctors in general are pretty bad. They only want to subscribe you pills and never actually treat you and so those with money go towards private clinics to fix their issues. I have anxiety disorder and my publicly assigned doctor flat out refused to allow me a therapist (the general practitioners e.g family doctors are gate-keepers to all actual treatment) and instead insisted on more pills that don't cure anything, but symptoms.
This is a tautological definition of altruism that, if accepted, renders a useful concept meaningless. To be clear: I am not saying your attitude is wrong, I am saying it is useless.
The Worgl experiment was interesting, but as your link notes, it worked on the precise opposite principle to that claimed about crypto: people were paid in a [municipal] government issued currency which lost value at an unusually high rate at fixed intervals, and the result was that they paid their taxes on time...
From what i read now, this free money in the experiment had a built-in mechanism to prevent hoarding, therefore being quite the opposite to bitcoin in that aspect.
The "Flash Forward" podcast did a great episode on Akon's projected cities and similar celebrity projects here [0] (you can listen directly from the webpage without downloading anything). Really enjoy that podcast, well researched and presented.
It's precisely what cryptocurrencies were made for; economy based on math and pre-defined rules, not the whims of corrupt politicians.
Being under a country's jurisdiction also seems to give the project legal accountability.
I really wish this project success, and hope everything they do is audited properly to prevent corruption.
I know this goes agains the general sentiment of HN readers, who seem to dislike cryptocurrencies.
I think the HN sentiment is more that when a coin is managed by a single entity, it's no better than a coin managed by the government, might even be worse.
And when you see someone creating a new coin without creating new innovative technology around it, it makes you feel they just want to capitalize for their own profit.
So in cases like this I think the devil is in the details. It's possible Akoin is pushed as a fair decentralized, efficient currency that isn't designed to make Akon richer, but it might also turn into a hot mess used to make Akon richer and providing no real advantage to people using it.
> I think the HN sentiment is more that when a coin is managed by a single entity, it's no better than a coin managed by the government, might even be worse.
To me, at least, it's that blockchains are being shoehorned into use cases that are better suited by other technology. In many cases, the blockchain solution is a worse choice technologically and economically.
For example, Bitcoin is a poor substitute for electronic payment networks because the network can only handle a few dozen transactions per second.
It's also a poor choice economically, because the transaction fees are more than $25 right now. I've seen posts claiming that Bitcoin would be a great choice for people in 3rd world countries, but they don't acknowledge that the fees alone would cost many multiples of whatever goods they're using BTC to buy.
I wish people started thinking of other coins ehen thinking crypto.
Bitcoin is bulky and far from the most advanced and economically feasible.
XRP for example can easily handle all the transactions quickly and extremely cheaply.
> economy based on math and pre-defined rules, not the whims of corrupt politicians
how is a cryptocurrency made by an American singer after his name, to run (quoting) "a residential and commercial hub, complete with resorts, towering condos, recording studios, a stadium, and e-commerce franchises" better than a stable economy made on decades of political and social progress, that benefit every Senegalese citizen?
Wouldn't it be better to finance that progress directly instead of building the SoDoSoPa of Senegal?
> I dont see something wrong with startup cities. They are not for everyone nor advertised as such.
Well, if you are building one where
The economy of Senegal is driven by mining, construction, tourism, fishing and agriculture, which are the main sources of employment and 75% of the population lives in chronic poverty, maybe there is something more urgent that could be done.
Unless you think that UAE and Dubai are a good example of development.
Dubai is the opposite example of this as it does not allow migrants to settle in or (until recently) own land. Presumably startups cities want to jumpstart their economy, not to subsidize it with oil money. But still, UAE spends its money better than other oil-making countries in the region.
Plus, foreign aid did not exactly work well in africa; maybe it is better to teach people how to fish this time
Foreign aid worked and the stability of Senegal it's proof of that.
USA military intervention is what did not work if you ask me.
Also USA support to Riad regime is not exactly for the good of middle east.
Having said that, Senegal learned to fish a long ago, it's politically stable with a stable (growing) economy and a stable currency shared with other countries and tied to euro.
A startup city would still be inside Senegal territory and be subject to Senegal immigration's laws.
Instead of spending 6 billions to build a one man vanity project, use those 6 billions to open a fund that guarantees loans requests by those people that do not have enough bank guarantees to access credit.
I am assuming this new coin will be made with the technology and of another successful coin, be it ethereum, cardano, polkadot, stellar, or even XRP.
And I'm also hoping the code is fully audited before launching.
Smart contracts seem like a must in that upcoming city.
Usually the country is in trouble and then the currency is in trouble because of that. Cryptocurrency advocates seem to be under the mistaken impression that treating the symptom will magically fix the cause.
A government that has the power to destroy everything also has the power to create everything.
Cryptos is about separating governments and currencies, not about fixing what is wrong with governments (an impossibility if there ever was one).
Just like church and state haven been separated in most civilized places, there is absolutely no reason to allow governments to manage or control the means to exchange value between economic entities.
If you need proof of that last assertion, all it takes is looking at the history of currency in the last 2000 years, starting with the Romans.
Governments can never resist the appeal of the infinite money faucet.
Every single mistake they make, every single problem they face, can seemingly be fixed short term by opening the faucet a little wider.
Until it all goes to shit, of course.
The story of currency debasement leading to societal collapse is as old as money and has repeated itself countless times over the course of history.
Cryptos take the sharp tool out of the hand of the retarded child.
It's certainly not fixing the fact that the child is retarded, and he can and will certainly find other ways to cut himself, but at least not with that particular tool.
> Cryptos take the sharp tool out of the hand of the retarded child.
And give it to what? The magical hand-of-the-market? An effect that is more or less akin to turning on a firehose and letting it thrash around wildly. The fire doesn’t get put out, but hey, at least that “retarded child” as you so eloquently put it isn’t involved anymore.
> It's precisely what cryptocurrencies were made for; economy based on math and pre-defined rules, not the whims of corrupt politicians. Being under a country's jurisdiction
You realise that "a country's jurisdiction" is defined by the very same "corrupt politicians" that you rally against, do you?
Yes, you're right. However, cryptocurrencies have the potential to keep those politicians away from messing with it. What I didn't clarify is that I meant all the other gocernment officials that can scrutinize whats happening: judges, lawyers, economists, etc.
Ah yes. Because cryptocurrencies exist in a vacuum and are entirely independent of anything else in a country. Including people's ability to buy them (and no, I'm not talking about prohibitions on buying).
Besides, let me quote you to you. Emphasis mine:
"""
Being under a country's jurisdiction also seems to give the project legal accountability. I really wish this project success, and hope everything they do is audited properly to prevent corruption.
"""
Oh, look, cryptocurrencies are running into a real worl now. The project needs those "corrupt politicians, judges, lawyers, economists etc." to provide it with jurisdiction, legal accountability and auditing.
No my friend, if a crypto project is audited by the founders, an independent team, and a government team, all in initial agreement, there should be no way for corruption at a later time to change it. That's what I'm talking about.
Don't go mixing corrupt people with the non-corrupt.
Fine. At least someone is doing something for once. Better than screaming or screeching on the street for change. Just actually do it.
I cringe at the fact many people blame 'tHE SyStEm' when it will actually never change. A small investment in one of the established cryptocurrency coins, may even go a long way in the future.
It's all about what 'tHE SyStEm' doesn't tell you and cryptocurrencies is some how just one of them.
> I cringe at the fact many people blame 'tHE SyStEm' when it will actually never change.
There have been a number of “systems” throughout history, many of which no longer exist. What makes you so sure that whichever current one you’re referring to will be permanent?
The idea of creating a futuristic city in a developing country is noble. The cryptocurrency idea is weird. It is primarily motivated by personal wealth accumulation. In theory the money could be used to fight against corruption and it would be a net gain, but this can only work if you have deep trust in Akon.
If there are trustworthy and competent leaders in Africa, then why haven't they been voted into power? It will have the same effect.
The cynicism here is tiresome. Akon has done a lot of good for Africa, a place which is plagued by lack of access to financial systems. I hope his project works well.
And I don’t see anybody mentioning the pre-pay telecom minute.
Those are already a de facto currency in large part of Africa.
Meshing that with some crypto seems clever to me.
His foundation has been in Africa for years. I think his view of whether the plan is impractical or not is more informed than a cynical commenter that has zero experience.
>Akoin has chosen to only issue 10% of tokens in this public sale. To accomplish this, the remaining token supply will be used to drive adoption amongst merchants/vendors and to bring value to the platform. The total supply of Akoin will be released over the course of 4 years, with 39.41% released after 12 months, 70.12% released after 24 months, 87.25% after 36 months, and 100% at 48 months. This is subject to change with Escrow tokens being placed back into Escrow if they are not needed in the month they are released.Each token allocation is subject to vesting and lock-up periods except for Public Sale tokens which are available immediately.
Definitely sounds sketchy, though it still sounds more legitimate than MobileCoin. At the very least Akoin has a timeline of when all the coins will be released, something MobileCoin has so far refused to give.
At least with MobileCoin you kinda know what you are getting - it's to let you send anonymous payments over Signal, funds raised go to Signal and or it's founders - if you don't like that don't use it. This sounds more like a con where they appear to be charitable but the money all disappears somehow.
In the white paper they allocate 15% of coin supply to team and advisors so I guess that's a theoretical $24bn worth of tokens for their trouble, not that they could sell many at those trading volumes.
Usually what works in Africa and the like is a slightly cheaper and more rugged or simplified version of what works in the west. If they manage to run a Californian city on cryptocurrency and then launch a simplified version in Senegal that might work but it doesn't seem the plan here.
People already use telecom minute as money in Africa as a whole. The African diaspora does it abroad as well. ( I’m aware that Africa is a continent, I think it’s a broad practice. Idk, I can only speak for the Maghreb)
The use case here is :
You cousin pay you back some debt worth 50$ in telecom minute X.
You accept, spend some of it. Then realize you need to pay back someone else.
That person has no interest in telecom minute X and can only use the Y company.
You have to buy brand new Y minute. Few mécanism exists to convert one in another.
That particular crypto aims at providing that.
If that work and the fee are not outrageous. That would be massively useful.
THIS is peak cypto.
Akon faced outrage for dry humping a 14 year old girl, then released a song blaming everyone but himself for the incident.
He does not have a track record of good judgment.
I'm absolutely not an Akon fan in any way, but I think you'll need to provide some sort of evidence that he "went to jail for banging a 13 year old", because it seems to me that if that in fact happened, it would be relatively easy to find details via Google.
Found this on Wikipedia, but there are some very important differences.
> In April 2007, Akon drew criticism for an onstage act which included simulated sex with Danah Alleyne — a 15-year-old girl at the time who is the daughter of a pastor and sister of Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne — at the Zen Nightclub in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago as part of a fake contest, despite the club's claim to have a 21 years and over age requirement
Agreed, the original comment was corrected. This in no way absolves Akon of His errors in judgement. My initial assessment stands.
I would not trust somebody who hasn’t had their security vet people who come on stage for simulated sex acts by at least checking ID.
That’s poor judgement in an environment where underage people in the crowd is a near certainty.
Sounds like you don't have a track record of good judgement either if your comment was originally:
"went to jail for banging a 13 year old"
Then got edited to:
"Akon faced outrage for dry humping a 14 year old girl"
When in reality it is:
"Akon drew criticism for an onstage act which included simulated sex with ____ — a 15-year-old girl.... Nightclub in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago as part of a fake contest, despite the club's claim to have a 21 years and over age requirement"
Not saying he's a good guy, but don't spread stuff like that about people.
Criticism pales in comparison to the level of anger the public felt. Outrage is a better description.
The other parts of the quote, such as the location, or age of entry into the club (which as a former DJ, I know are meaningless, just about everywhere) are irresponsible and irrelevant.
You’re taking the responsibility off of Akon, and putting it on the victim, or the club in some random country.
Simply pointing out the fact that you yourself made serious false allegations against someone, then criticise someone else for getting their facts wrong.
Considering at that point, we had all taken a closer look at the facts, any incorrect fact is less understandable.
Apples to Oranges.
Why don’t you save your energy for more productive endeavors.
You know I was thinking the same thing.
You have no idea what you’re talking about, whereas I misspoke and corrected the record. You’re trying to tarnish my judgement when here you are, adding nothing to the discussion.
You literally compared me to a guy who dry humped a little girl.
It’s not me who needs to worry about looking good in this interaction.
Please stop perpetuating flamewars on HN. It's not what this site is for. We've had to warn you about this before, and you've been doing it repeatedly. That's not cool, and we ban that sort of account. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use HN as intended from now on. That means for curious conversation, not smiting enemies. If you're pissed off at someone because of how wrong they are or you feel they are—please don't post until that subsides.
Please stop perpetuating flamewars on HN. It's not what this site is for. We've had to warn you about this before, and you've been doing it repeatedly. That's not cool, and we ban that sort of account. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use HN as intended from now on. That means for curious conversation, not smiting enemies. If you're pissed off at someone because of how wrong they are or you feel they are—please don't post until that subsides.
There’s absolutely no way this could go wrong, eh?
My prediction: if it even becomes a successful community, China will eventually take ownership of it. Probably by leveraging Bitcoin, too. Isn’t Bitcoin effectively CCPCoin at this point?
I know this thread is mostly about Akoins but I have serious concerns about the viability of the community itself. Although I'm a big fan of new city development (perhaps even overly optimistic), charter cities, and the like, it really doesn't seem clear to me that the planned city idea is based on a sound premise fundamentally. The designs are absolutely beautiful... and look like a nightmare to implement (and also maybe not great for the local climate) and will be incredibly expensive. The main industry pitched to support the community so far seems to be tourism but Senegal only gets just a bit more than 1 million tourists each year (in comparison, Georgia got something like 111 million generating $37b in revenue). Granted, maybe this will be a huge attraction, but how many are needed to make it viable? Will locals really be able to benefit if they can't afford to buy properties (which seems unlikely for all but the wealthiest)? So, theoretically sounds really interesting and I hope he succeeds but color me skeptical.
This is so detached from reality I don't even know where to start... A Grammy-nominated singer comes out of nowhere, and decides he will go to an African country to make a futuristic revolutionary city out of nothing powered by... crypto? I seriously can't believe this story has actual traction on here, this is peak crypto, head-in-the-clouds futurism, utopia mentality, and of course complete absurdity. Do people have no sense anymore?
The only philanthropy stories I am interested in are the ones where dedicated people of character start from the ground, consider the needs of actual human beings, and work with their representative governments to bring change. Not this technology-will-fix-everything glitzy renders cryptocurrency-upgrades-society hubristic bullshit. People give that crap way too much airtime. Plus, the singer involved seems to have a sketchy history, which makes his intent here even more dubious (probably not doing this out of the kindness of his heart...)
Akon has been an active entrepreneur in Africa for a while now. He runs a solar company that provides electricity and jobs to Africans who would otherwise just be dependent on charitable giving. This project involving Akoin started in 2018 and he's been working closely with Senegal leadership to make it a success.
It seems building "smart cities" is a trend now... Saudi Arabia started one, Elon Musk wants to build something like that on Mars, and there's all these ideas of floating cities being passed around. I don't know much about Akon's entrepreneurial record but "smart futuristic city powered by a blockchain in Africa" seems like a huge and mostly imaginary leap from "local solar company". You'd be hard-pressed to come up with the cash to build this in America, so doing it in Africa feels like an unrealistic utopian dream disguising a ploy for money.
Smart cities have been a thing for a while, like in China or South Korea.
At least for Songdo in South Korea, it turns out that employers have no interest in rolling the dice on a brand new city with no proven track record, and residents don‘t really want to move to a place with no jobs. Plus cities designed from scratch in ivory towers tend to be very poor places to live nicely.
> The only philanthropy stories I am interested in are the ones where dedicated people of character start from the ground, consider the needs of actual human beings, and work with their representative governments to bring change.
And asses the impact! So many projects that meet even this excellent definition of philanthropy still fail to have a tangible positive and verifiable output.
The "out of nowhere" is a bit unfair, since Akon is Senegalese-American and has spent a significant amount of time as a child in Senegal - his father is from Senegal, not sure about his mother:
Hopefully he won't be assassinated when Senegal works to keep the value of their currency (West African CFA franc). Intelligence agencies don't mind murdering people as a means, to any end/goal they think is important. Those are the values of intelligence agencies.
116 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 300 ms ] threadnot where I come from!
> You don't see people protesting doctors being corrupt?
You don't? Really?
> Quite the opposite, people praise them
Because the vast majority of them help people in dire times.
And also because if they save people or don't, they get paid anyway, so what would the vested interest be, except it's their job?
> OxyContin, introduced in 1995, was Purdue Pharma's breakthrough palliative for chronic pain. Under a marketing strategy that Arthur Sackler had pioneered decades earlier, the company aggressively pressed doctors to prescribe the drug, wooing them with free trips to pain-management seminars and paid speaking engagements. Sales soared.[26] The drug was marketed as "smooth and sustained pain control all day and all night" when taken on a 12-hour schedule and as having lower abuse potential than immediate-release oxycodone because of its time-release properties, even though there was no scientific evidence backing that conclusion and the addictive nature of opiates had been known for thousands of years.
> In August 2019, Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family were in negotiations to settle the claims for a payment of $10-$12 billion. [55] The settlement would include a Chapter 11 filing by Purdue Pharma, which would be restructured as public beneficiary trust and the Sackler Family would give up any ownership in the company. Addiction treatment drugs currently developed by the company would be given to the public cost-free. All profits of Purdue would henceforth go to the plaintiffs in the case. On top of that, the Sackler family would contribute $3 billion in cash. The family would also sell Mundipharma and contribute another $1.5 billion from the sales proceeds to the settlement. However, the Sackler family would remain a billionaire family and would not be criminally charged for contributing to the opioid crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdue_Pharma#Controversy
I hope people are keen to weed out all corruption even though sometimes it is not possible but I think we should try.
If you go to the doctor and their “remedy” might cost you $100,000 in lost time chasing the wrong cure so they can make an extra $50 that day I’d say something smells off.
But again pure worldview. Some people would say it’s up to the individual to gain the knowledge of the doctor (could be via a proxy eg a friend) and let the free market decide. And that’s fine that’s probably how we lived before large governments existed.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://mises.org/library/free-money-miracle
If you don't like the Mises Institute there are many other descriptions. The Austrian National Bank forced the end of the experiment.
[0] https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2020/05/26/welcome-to-celebr...
I know this goes agains the general sentiment of HN readers, who seem to dislike cryptocurrencies.
And when you see someone creating a new coin without creating new innovative technology around it, it makes you feel they just want to capitalize for their own profit.
So in cases like this I think the devil is in the details. It's possible Akoin is pushed as a fair decentralized, efficient currency that isn't designed to make Akon richer, but it might also turn into a hot mess used to make Akon richer and providing no real advantage to people using it.
But then they do invest heavily in a company managed by a single person
I don’t know how this will play out, but his best, IMHO, song is aptly titled “Locked Up”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked_Up_(song)
To me, at least, it's that blockchains are being shoehorned into use cases that are better suited by other technology. In many cases, the blockchain solution is a worse choice technologically and economically.
For example, Bitcoin is a poor substitute for electronic payment networks because the network can only handle a few dozen transactions per second.
It's also a poor choice economically, because the transaction fees are more than $25 right now. I've seen posts claiming that Bitcoin would be a great choice for people in 3rd world countries, but they don't acknowledge that the fees alone would cost many multiples of whatever goods they're using BTC to buy.
how is a cryptocurrency made by an American singer after his name, to run (quoting) "a residential and commercial hub, complete with resorts, towering condos, recording studios, a stadium, and e-commerce franchises" better than a stable economy made on decades of political and social progress, that benefit every Senegalese citizen?
Wouldn't it be better to finance that progress directly instead of building the SoDoSoPa of Senegal?
genuinely curious.
for example I've read that Akon financed renewable energy plants in Senegal.
That's a great way to help!
Building an entire new residential city founded by a single person in his own name for rich people? not so much IMO.
Well, if you are building one where
The economy of Senegal is driven by mining, construction, tourism, fishing and agriculture, which are the main sources of employment and 75% of the population lives in chronic poverty, maybe there is something more urgent that could be done.
Unless you think that UAE and Dubai are a good example of development.
Plus, foreign aid did not exactly work well in africa; maybe it is better to teach people how to fish this time
USA military intervention is what did not work if you ask me.
Also USA support to Riad regime is not exactly for the good of middle east.
Having said that, Senegal learned to fish a long ago, it's politically stable with a stable (growing) economy and a stable currency shared with other countries and tied to euro.
A startup city would still be inside Senegal territory and be subject to Senegal immigration's laws.
Instead of spending 6 billions to build a one man vanity project, use those 6 billions to open a fund that guarantees loans requests by those people that do not have enough bank guarantees to access credit.
That's how you teach people to fish, IMO.
A government that has the power to destroy everything also has the power to create everything.
Just like church and state haven been separated in most civilized places, there is absolutely no reason to allow governments to manage or control the means to exchange value between economic entities.
If you need proof of that last assertion, all it takes is looking at the history of currency in the last 2000 years, starting with the Romans.
Governments can never resist the appeal of the infinite money faucet.
Every single mistake they make, every single problem they face, can seemingly be fixed short term by opening the faucet a little wider.
Until it all goes to shit, of course.
The story of currency debasement leading to societal collapse is as old as money and has repeated itself countless times over the course of history.
Cryptos take the sharp tool out of the hand of the retarded child.
It's certainly not fixing the fact that the child is retarded, and he can and will certainly find other ways to cut himself, but at least not with that particular tool.
And give it to what? The magical hand-of-the-market? An effect that is more or less akin to turning on a firehose and letting it thrash around wildly. The fire doesn’t get put out, but hey, at least that “retarded child” as you so eloquently put it isn’t involved anymore.
You realise that "a country's jurisdiction" is defined by the very same "corrupt politicians" that you rally against, do you?
Besides, let me quote you to you. Emphasis mine:
"""
Being under a country's jurisdiction also seems to give the project legal accountability. I really wish this project success, and hope everything they do is audited properly to prevent corruption.
"""
Oh, look, cryptocurrencies are running into a real worl now. The project needs those "corrupt politicians, judges, lawyers, economists etc." to provide it with jurisdiction, legal accountability and auditing.
Notice how you still need:
- jurisdiction (provided by "corrupt people")
- legal accountability (your words, not mine. Laws are provided by the very same "corrupt people")
- auditing (the laws and processes of an audit are also written by the very same "corrupt people")
I cringe at the fact many people blame 'tHE SyStEm' when it will actually never change. A small investment in one of the established cryptocurrency coins, may even go a long way in the future.
It's all about what 'tHE SyStEm' doesn't tell you and cryptocurrencies is some how just one of them.
There have been a number of “systems” throughout history, many of which no longer exist. What makes you so sure that whichever current one you’re referring to will be permanent?
If there are trustworthy and competent leaders in Africa, then why haven't they been voted into power? It will have the same effect.
>Akoin has chosen to only issue 10% of tokens in this public sale. To accomplish this, the remaining token supply will be used to drive adoption amongst merchants/vendors and to bring value to the platform. The total supply of Akoin will be released over the course of 4 years, with 39.41% released after 12 months, 70.12% released after 24 months, 87.25% after 36 months, and 100% at 48 months. This is subject to change with Escrow tokens being placed back into Escrow if they are not needed in the month they are released.Each token allocation is subject to vesting and lock-up periods except for Public Sale tokens which are available immediately.
This sounds sketchy as hell.
https://youtu.be/YAKOWcs8w54
Especially coming after https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9g2szHsoz0 IMHO.
Trading volume $55k Fully Diluted Market Cap $162bn
And have a pilot use going shown here https://youtu.be/sxBw2SQ5dCE?t=13
In the white paper they allocate 15% of coin supply to team and advisors so I guess that's a theoretical $24bn worth of tokens for their trouble, not that they could sell many at those trading volumes.
I agree it sounds pretty sketch.
Usually what works in Africa and the like is a slightly cheaper and more rugged or simplified version of what works in the west. If they manage to run a Californian city on cryptocurrency and then launch a simplified version in Senegal that might work but it doesn't seem the plan here.
you buy phone credit and that phone credit it's money
you don't need crypto for that
mobile payments have been a thing in Africa since the 2000s
a digital currency doesn't have to be crypto to work
I would say that it works better if it isn't
«Bitcoin: Fake Elon Musk giveaway scam 'cost man £400,000'»
People already use telecom minute as money in Africa as a whole. The African diaspora does it abroad as well. ( I’m aware that Africa is a continent, I think it’s a broad practice. Idk, I can only speak for the Maghreb)
The use case here is :
You cousin pay you back some debt worth 50$ in telecom minute X. You accept, spend some of it. Then realize you need to pay back someone else.
That person has no interest in telecom minute X and can only use the Y company.
You have to buy brand new Y minute. Few mécanism exists to convert one in another.
That particular crypto aims at providing that.
If that work and the fee are not outrageous. That would be massively useful.
Hope it’s help.
Edit: Edited incorrect facts.
> In April 2007, Akon drew criticism for an onstage act which included simulated sex with Danah Alleyne — a 15-year-old girl at the time who is the daughter of a pastor and sister of Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne — at the Zen Nightclub in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago as part of a fake contest, despite the club's claim to have a 21 years and over age requirement
"went to jail for banging a 13 year old"
Then got edited to:
"Akon faced outrage for dry humping a 14 year old girl"
When in reality it is:
"Akon drew criticism for an onstage act which included simulated sex with ____ — a 15-year-old girl.... Nightclub in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago as part of a fake contest, despite the club's claim to have a 21 years and over age requirement"
Not saying he's a good guy, but don't spread stuff like that about people.
Criticism pales in comparison to the level of anger the public felt. Outrage is a better description.
The other parts of the quote, such as the location, or age of entry into the club (which as a former DJ, I know are meaningless, just about everywhere) are irresponsible and irrelevant.
You’re taking the responsibility off of Akon, and putting it on the victim, or the club in some random country.
Added the music video: It has clips of the outrage on the news and the girls age. https://youtu.be/ynMk2EwRi4Q
Didn't you write "went to jail for banging a 13 year old"? Do you have proof of this?
Again, do as I say not as I do...
"Criticism pales in comparison to the level of anger the public felt. Outrage is a better description."
You literally didn't even know what actually happened until yesterday.
The other parts of the quote aren't meaningless. I'm not sure what you're trying to do here, but it doesn't look good for you at all.
It’s not me who needs to worry about looking good in this interaction.
It’s you.
Not my opinion. If she was actually 14, you should amend the Wikipedia article the correct facts and a source.
I am not arguing that Akon is a good guy or that he shouldn't be punished. I am just saying that you're spreading falsehoods.
Also if you keep referring to Wikipedia as some original source, your mental fact checking model is, broken to say the least.
It is not my duty to update Wikipedia when your facts are wrong.
My prediction: if it even becomes a successful community, China will eventually take ownership of it. Probably by leveraging Bitcoin, too. Isn’t Bitcoin effectively CCPCoin at this point?
I also recommend the recent WaPo article on his move in Uganda, I found it revealing. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/06/akon-city-ug...
Paywalled.
The only philanthropy stories I am interested in are the ones where dedicated people of character start from the ground, consider the needs of actual human beings, and work with their representative governments to bring change. Not this technology-will-fix-everything glitzy renders cryptocurrency-upgrades-society hubristic bullshit. People give that crap way too much airtime. Plus, the singer involved seems to have a sketchy history, which makes his intent here even more dubious (probably not doing this out of the kindness of his heart...)
On the other hand, have you seen Will.i.am's smart watch? It's... Horrible https://youtu.be/5BRbMatqN3c
At least for Songdo in South Korea, it turns out that employers have no interest in rolling the dice on a brand new city with no proven track record, and residents don‘t really want to move to a place with no jobs. Plus cities designed from scratch in ivory towers tend to be very poor places to live nicely.
And asses the impact! So many projects that meet even this excellent definition of philanthropy still fail to have a tangible positive and verifiable output.
The play pump comes to mind https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout_PlayPump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akon#Early_life
He (and his mother) have been doing philanthrophic work in Senegal for over 10+ years.
All the other things you say make sense of course, but he's not some random person coming to Senegal.