The other day I wrote about Whoopi Goldberg’s proposal to add a Wakanda Theme Park to Disney World. But F that. Why settle for a small scale theme park when you can recreate the real thing in Africa?!
That’s right. We could soon have a real world Wakanda, based in Senegal, thanks to a plan put in place by R&B singer Akon who has raised some of the $5 billion needed to pull off the project to go along with 2,000 acres of land that Senegal gifted to him, within a five minute drive of their new international airport.
The best part of Akon’s plan though is how he intends to base it around the use of a new cryptocurrency, tied to cell phone usage, that bears his name. Considering how much people in Africa already depend on their cell phones to conduct transactions its an idea that I can really see taking off. Especially, if the use of this cryptocurrency and by extension the Blockchain, secures transactions and eliminates corruption.
As CNN puts it:
“The plan is for Akon city to trade exclusively in its own digital cash currency (cryptocurrency) called Akoin. Unlike other cryptocurrencies tied to stable currencies, Akoin is tied to cellphone minutes and relies on the use of smartphones. According to the singer, more people in Africa trust their cellphone companies more than they trust local currency.
In November 2019, the singer told CNN that cryptocurrency will allow Africans to become less dependent on their governments. He argued that Akoin will enable people to have control of their own currency and by extension make financial decisions without external interference from their countries. ‘We want to be able to kill corruption through blockchain itself and I think starting with currency, it is the biggest thing. The main thing they (Africans) will be able to gain is independence and I think being in the position to make your own financial decisions is key,’ he said.”
I couldn’t agree more. And I couldn’t agree more with the overarching decision to create a real-world Wakanda. It could be a real boon, not only to Senegal, but to Africa as a whole, and not just for tourism, but for a whole host of industries. The kind of place that could become a hotbed of innovation and put Africa firmly on the map in the 21st Century.
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