Africa's Crypto Assets: Simple and Pure

A few months ago, I returned to the African continent. The pickup truck drove over the raised yellow earth, and the sunset outlined the strange yet familiar contours of this land. Being in a foreign land gave me more space to think about my identity, the Crypto Assets industry I am engaged in, and its relationship with this world.

Upon deeper understanding, I found that Crypto Assets can provide underdeveloped countries in Africa with the opportunity to synchronize with the world again. From these countries' faith and determination towards Crypto Assets, we can see that they are no longer satisfied with compromises with old systems and old frameworks. Rather than struggling in the mire, they are more willing to fully embrace Crypto Assets and move towards a bright future.

Recently, I had the opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with Athena, discussing the beliefs she has continued to uphold since entering Africa and engaging with Crypto Assets. She will continue her entrepreneurial journey, delving deeper into Africa, following her unpretentious faith in this complex society. Here is Athena's sharing:

As Token2049 comes to an end, after days of in-depth exchanges with peers and the prevailing negative sentiment, the discussion about whether the "Crypto Assets industry has come to an end" reminds me of a small incident from a few weeks ago:

I have been living in Paris for two years. One day, while working remotely from the café at my front door, I suddenly received a WeChat voice call from Uganda. After some small talk, I realized that it had already been 7 years since I left the traditional industry in Africa to dive into Crypto Assets.

The caller is a senior advisor to the Ugandan government, who is accompanying the president on a visit to China. During the years I worked in Africa, I served various roles for state-owned enterprises and the United Nations International Development System, dedicated to promoting the industrialization process in Africa and inclusive finance. With his assistance, I was involved in multiple projects such as China-Uganda cooperation in investment promotion and the promotion of women's handicrafts in Uganda, and we developed a friendship.

There are many stories to tell about my experiences in Africa during those years. There were high-end experiences, such as having a deep conversation with the President of Senegal at his home; and there were also dangerous encounters, like when my friend's boyfriend unfortunately lost his life in a terrorist attack in the capital of Kenya, while I managed to avoid the worst air disaster in Ethiopian Airlines' history by changing my travel plans at the last minute. However, several acquaintances, including my high school classmates and friends' colleagues, lost their lives in that air disaster. Despite this, my decision to leave Africa remained firm.

This story begins with my chance encounter with Crypto Assets. Interestingly, seven years have passed, and every time I chat with new and old friends from the Crypto Assets circle in a café, the stories from Africa remain a topic of interest for everyone. It seems as if Africa has become a utopia to escape the dilemmas of reality, a psychological solace that romanticizes exotic adventures.

However, I believe that the profound questions and answers about the application value of Crypto Assets are actually embedded in those seemingly romantic and ethereal stories.

Transfer of Value: Flow and Use of Funds

To consider whether the Crypto Assets industry has come to an end, we need to review several historical processes of global value chain shifts, examine the historical stage we are currently in, and understand why certain trading platforms have slogans like "increasing funding freedom".

From a historical perspective, the world has undergone three major industrial revolutions. The "Steam Revolution" originated from the invention of the steam engine in Britain, which greatly enhanced productivity and transformed small-scale handicraft textile workshops into large-scale industrial production; during the "Electric Revolution," countries like the UK, the US, Germany, and France made breakthroughs in electricity, chemical engineering, heavy industry, and other fields, leading to the comprehensive development of Europe's industrial system; the third revolution is the "Information Revolution" that we are familiar with. The rise of industries such as information technology, computers, electronics, and automation has propelled countries like the United States and Japan to become important forces in the world economy. Meanwhile, the "Four Asian Tigers" (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong) also achieved rapid industrialization in the latter half of the 20th century, developing advanced manufacturing and financial industries, and integrating into the global value chain.

It can be seen that each industrial revolution is a transformation of productivity that brings about changes in production relations, thereby promoting some countries to use their "comparative advantages" to participate in the global value distribution system. China benefited from the reform and opening-up that began in 1978, learning from the experiences of the rise of the Four Asian Tigers like Singapore, establishing special economic zones and industrial parks in developed coastal areas, utilizing the "comparative advantage" of low labor costs, a large base, and hardworking labor, along with an open market and foreign investment, to develop export-oriented manufacturing in coastal regions, becoming the "world's factory" and establishing an indispensable position in the global value chain distribution at that time.

The details of several grand industrial revolutions that span over a century can be discussed, but that is not the focus here. It is worth mentioning that each industrial revolution is also a process of wealth redistribution. Africa, due to its special historical background of being colonized for a long time, as well as complex industrial policies and international political factors, has not been able to participate in this "cake-cutting" process.

So, is Africa really poor? Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, is one of the airports with the highest density of private jets in the world. After the exchange launched local payment channels in Africa, the per capita trading volume in Africa far exceeds that of European and Asian countries. The wealth level of the rich in Africa surpasses our general understanding. Due to Africa's abundant resources, especially oil and agricultural resources, the upper class can live comfortably for generations relying on the direct export of raw materials in the primary industry; ordinary people can only barely make a living in the service industry. The manufacturing industry across the continent is almost blank, and the financial industry is monopolized. Due to a lack of infrastructure, the cost of financial services is extremely high, making it difficult for ordinary people to have bank accounts or pay transfer fees. The severe wealth gap is the most common social reality in Africa.

In a research conducted by an international organization, the Djibouti government arranged for us to stay at the Kempinski Hotel, the most luxurious hotel in the country, costing $300 per night, which is equivalent to half a year's income for many locals. I still remember a scene: on the Red Sea beach of the hotel, a white businessman reclined on a chair smoking a cigar and talking loudly, while a black waiter carried a tray, his back straight, and his white shirt and red vest contrasting sharply with his black skin. He gazed into the mist over the Red Sea in the distance, his eyes filled with numbness and confusion.

Our job at that time was to design how to allocate the aid funds that international organizations provide to Africa, and how to ensure that these funds have a real impact. Among us was a British girl who had just graduated from Oxford University. When she heard we would be staying in a luxury hotel costing $300 a night, she tearfully refused to check in, believing it was a mockery of the work she was doing. However, when she saw the living conditions of ordinary people - the iron shacks sizzling in the 50-degree heat - she silently retracted her insistence.

Around that time, I decided to quit that job. Although our work seemed full of compassion, we discussed industrial transfer, talked about how to help Africa develop its manufacturing sector, integrate into the value chain, and allow ordinary people to enter factories to learn from China's and Southeast Asia's experiences in garment and shoe production. I even spent a month in a Chinese-funded factory in Senegal, interviewing female workers and observing them producing low-end Adidas and Nike sweatpants for export to Europe and America. But all this progress was too slow, and within the entire traditional "aid" system, the ones who benefited the most were probably not the African female workers who were "taught to fish," but the senior clerks sitting in London offices writing reports and conducting project audits, as well as those of us who stayed in $300 hotels on business trips funded by international organizations. The data also shows that within the entire chain, as much as 70% of the funds are consumed in "proving how this money is used, where it is spent, generating audit reports and impact reports."

I started paying attention to blockchain, focusing on Crypto Assets, and the fourth revolution led by blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, which has become key to changing currency, transforming Africa, and altering the fate of the large impoverished population.

True Decentralization, in the Market of Kampala

A few years ago, the son of the Prime Minister of Uganda established a Crypto Assets organization, gathering several "second-generation officials" who studied in the UK and the US, along with tech enthusiasts, to develop a few small projects related to Crypto Assets. For example, they created a way to transfer Crypto Assets peer-to-peer using non-smartphones in areas without 3G networks. Africans better understand the needs of Africans; most locals are using basic phones that can only make calls and send texts. Since many Africans do not have bank accounts and are unwilling to travel far to find a remittance service point or the few banks available, the local remittance method is very simple and direct: mobile phones based on USSD technology can send remittances directly to friends via text messages, where everyone's phone number serves as their "wallet"/account, and their balance is the account balance.

I personally experienced a smooth "registration, identity verification, and transfer" process through a friend of this organization: I bought a $50 phone at a telecom operator next to the Kampala vegetable market. After queuing, the counter staff skillfully completed the identity verification process in just 3 minutes, and they even helped me recharge my "phone bill" with cash. There are many fixed and mobile official/unofficial little kiosks (service points) in the village, and when you want to "withdraw cash", you look for the "village representative" on duty at the kiosk, text him to transfer money, and he gives you cash. "Recharging" is the opposite process. The entire experience was very smooth, and it was completely peer-to-peer, with no third-party involvement, completely solving the trust issue. This product and process are widely used not only in the capital but also in vast rural areas.

Later, I joined a trading platform. In the first year, I responded to the platform founder's vision of "mass adoption" by establishing a truly blockchain and Crypto Assets-based network in Africa. We started implementing from the most basic charity projects and established the world's first fully "transparent" peer-to-peer donation platform. Due to the characteristics of blockchain, every internet user can monitor each Crypto Assets donation, which goes directly to the wallet address of Ugandan villagers without going through any third party. The villagers then used Crypto Assets to purchase potatoes and cabbage from local farmers who accept Crypto Assets, with no involvement of fiat currency throughout the process. When farmers need fiat currency, they regularly exchange Crypto Assets for local fiat currency through local exchanges or over-the-counter trading.

Later, we also issued the world's first (and possibly the only) "value-stable coin" on a public blockchain: Pink Coin. Unlike other stablecoins, Pink Coin is not pegged to the "price" of any fiat currency, but is linked to the value of items: each Pink Coin corresponds to the "value" of a girl using sanitary pads for a year in Uganda. The origin of this project came from conversations with locals when distributing food, where we discovered that "menstrual shame" still widely exists among local women. Due to a lack of sex education and the high cost of sanitary pads, many women use leaves and grass as substitutes for sanitary pads during their periods, leading to serious gynecological issues. Many girls get married and have children by the age of 14, and early pregnancies exacerbate this problem, directly causing many girls to die from infections during childbirth. Girls who receive Pink Coins can all...