It seems like novel cryptocurrency projects are not a thing of the past yet. Renowned rapper and philanthropist Akon has announced a whitepaper for his upcoming cryptocurrency project. Akon joins other rappers, sports personalities and other public figures in launching a personal cryptocurrency project for a variety of reasons.
According to Akon’s team, Akoin is a cryptocurrency “designed for entrepreneurs in the rising economies of Africa and beyond…, [it will help] unlock the potential of the world’s largest growing workforce” using blockchain technology”. Now these are big claims coming from the rap king whose charity and other philanthropic work back in Africa is extensive.
In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Akon shed light on some of the basic principles the cryptocurrency project. He said:
“We have so many currencies in Africa – a lot of them are unstable, and most of them are untrusted. It got to the point where the day-to-day African people don’t even use the currencies anymore, they’re using their cell phone minutes and credits as a way of trading for basic goods like produce, fish, fruits and things on the market….., Ultimately, outside of the villages, you really can’t trade cell phone minutes for anything,” he continued. “So we want to utilize that same mindset to take advantage of that mechanism outside of Africa – so even when they leave the continent, they can be able to utilize all of their credits and really be able to purchase real things.”
To Akon’s credit, he is right in determining that currency exchange and swapping is a real problem in many countries within the continent. The whitepaper envisages Akoin as a kind of atomic swaps for different digital existence of value including fiat, mobile phone credits and cryptocurrencies themselves. The token can also be used to pay fees, listing applications, advertisement fees as well as means of direct exchange as well. The platform will make extensive use of the Stellar (XLM) platform’s dapps functionality and can be stored in both XLM wallets and custom Akoin wallets themselves. Private transactions on the platform have a fixed rate of 2.5% which is quite high overall.
The platform is engaged in a range of partnerships for effective utility in the near future. They include an association with mobile payments platform and exchange service BitMinutes. BitMinutes is looking to launch the first app on the network and the move could see further interests from the community.
While currently a novel project like other cryptocurrency projects named around public figures, it can be seen that Akoin has been put a considerable thought into. Other projects like Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr’s coin project, his compatriot Ronaldinho’s project as well as projects by Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand as well legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. have all stalled in the recent past as the cryptocurrency sector cooled off. Akoin however has weathered the storm till now and is eagerly looking forward to its launch. An Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) is going to be held for the project in the near future with only 10% of the total number of coins up for grabs. 45 million Akoins at $0.15 each will be available for purchase, with a set hard cap of $6.75 million.