[HN Gopher] Akon wants to run a Senegal city on cryptocurrency
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Akon wants to run a Senegal city on cryptocurrency
Author : prostoalex
Score : 49 points
Date : 2021-04-10 18:49 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (qz.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (qz.com)
| barbazoo wrote:
| Well, it sure will make him rich.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Not sure what crypto adds to this. Just make a local currency,
| then you can have physical cash as well as digital.
| tootie wrote:
| Senegal has a currency. It's a regional currency with several
| other West African countries and it's pegged to the Euro.
| didibus wrote:
| Anyone know what network it'll run on?
| m3kw9 wrote:
| Sure, he will be issuing the coins
| grenoire wrote:
| 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.
| tcbawo wrote:
| Empowering people in the same way that company towns did in the
| early 1900's USA
| beckman466 wrote:
| Company towns are slavery by another name
| CynicusRex wrote:
| "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
| varispeed wrote:
| 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?
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| If a doctor helps ease a patients pain using a drug whose rep
| takes them to the opera when a better treatment would route
| out the cause then yes.
| varispeed wrote:
| 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.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| You get the shitter remedy because the doctor got a
| kickback. Not sure if I can make it plainer than that.
| varispeed wrote:
| 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...
| africanboy wrote:
| difference being you can't buy or sell satisfaction.
| hereme888 wrote:
| 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.
| imtringued wrote:
| 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.
| ur-whale wrote:
| 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 he's retarded, and he
| can certainly find other ways to cut himself, but not with
| that particular tool.
| didibus wrote:
| 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.
| cblconfederate wrote:
| > when a coin is managed by a single entity
|
| But then they do invest heavily in a company managed by a
| single person
| koolba wrote:
| It's both better and worse. Better because there's no mandate
| to use it. Worse because the destitute has no representation
| to ever change anything.
|
| 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)
| dmitriid wrote:
| > 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?
| africanboy wrote:
| > 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?
|
| genuinely curious.
| cblconfederate wrote:
| Same reasons why a startup is better than a publicly-owned
| company
| africanboy wrote:
| are you saying that startups are the equivalent of SoDoSoPa
| or that NASA didn't work?
|
| 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.
| cblconfederate wrote:
| nasa is not a company. I dont see something wrong with
| startup cities. They are not for everyone nor advertised
| as such
| africanboy wrote:
| > 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.
| bigmattystyles wrote:
| I had a Doc Brown moment where upon reading just the headline I
| just said 'Akon? The singer?'
| imwillofficial wrote:
| "GREAT SCOTT!"
| shrubble wrote:
| The 'miracle of Worgl, Austria' would seem to indicate that it
| might be possible.
|
| 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.
| markwkw wrote:
| 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.
| notahacker wrote:
| 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...
| rvz wrote:
| 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.
| the_only_law wrote:
| > 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?
| imtringued wrote:
| 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.
| imwillofficial wrote:
| THIS is peak cypto. Akon went to jail for banging a 13 year old,
| then released a song blaming everyone but himself for the
| incident. He does not have a track record of good judgment.
| ceilingcorner wrote:
| 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.
| arithmomachist wrote:
| From the Akoin white paper:
|
| >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.
| bassdropvroom wrote:
| 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.
| karlerss wrote:
| "Driving adoption amongst merchants/vendors" sounds like
| creating a self sustaining economy.
|
| https://youtu.be/YAKOWcs8w54
| chris_st wrote:
| 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.
|
| [0] https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2020/05/26/welcome-to-
| celebr...
| rdxm wrote:
| lol.....will the bull shit never end?
| tim333 wrote:
| I'm a little skeptical how well that'll go.
|
| 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.
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(page generated 2021-04-10 23:00 UTC)