Crypto folks are really excited about Akon City, with Akon’s own cryptocurrency to power it. Not surprising considering the same folks are event excited about DeFi, the latest way to drain people’s bitcoins and fiat.
https://www.archpaper.com/2020/01/akon-finalizes-cryptocurrency-city-senegal/
But I think this is a disaster of a plan. Why?
- Just calling it sustainable is not going to make it sustainable in an environment that is not designed to handle such an artificially-planted stent
- They’re ignoring their local culture, people and asking for validation from stupid organizations like LEED
- Akon’s crypto seems to be as half-assed and is probably going to be more centralized than XRP
- The input in Netpositive calculation here is Akon’s wealth and goodwill, which can erode faster than USD’s purchasing power. The output seems to be tourism and some businesses that will relocate for the cheap labor. This is not organic, it will be hard to sustain.
- What Akon is doing is exactly the opposite of what Sridhar Vembu of Zoho is doing in India. This initiative has roots.
This prosthetic cannot cure Senegal or Africa of the disease where they’ve accepted their own backwardness in a game designed by someone else.
Without inherent pride in their own culture, they will always be subject to second class treatment.
In Hindi we say, jiska balla, uske rules. (Whoever get the cricket bat sets the rules of the game.)