It's about time the man behind 'Smack That' and 'Locked Up' turned his attentions to cryptocurrency
What is a cryptocurrency?
Well, a cryptocurrency, very much like real money, is an entirely made up item with a predetermined value that can be used in exchange for goods and services.
Unlike real money, which you can hold in your hand, and burn, and roll it up very tightly if you are Diego Maradona, cryptocurrencies do not have a physical form and instead exist virtually on your computer or indeed, solely in the imagination of that colleague of yours who keeps saying he "really wants to invest in some Bitcoin" not realising he has not just missed the boat, but missed it's return voyage, and then the trip after that, too.
Well that colleague may now just get the chance to be in from the get-go, aslong as they were willing to relocate to Senegal, with the news that singer/rapper/lover/not-a-fighter Akon will be launching his own cryptocurrency, appropriately named
Akoin.
Do you see? Because it's like, coin, as in, the shiny metal circles you give to the cashier in Gregg's in exchange for a pasty, but also Akon, the name of the person who is also the creator of the thing. Do you get it? Clever. Very clever.
Speaking at the Cannes film festival, the ideal place to announce any ambitious tech endeavours if you ask me, Akon explained that he has been granted a 2,000 acre area of Senegal, not far from the capital Dakar, as a gift from the president of the country.
He is now planning to turn the land into a "real-life Wakanda" as well as "the first 100% crypto-based city with AKoin at the centre of transactional life"
Under the "Akoin Ecosystem", he hopes to create a futuristic environment in which inhabitants will be able to buyand spend Akoin straight from their phones.
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https://www.akoin.io[/caption]
"It brings the power back to the people and brings the security back into the currency system," he added.
"It also allows the people to utilise it in ways where they can advance themselves and not allow government to do those things that are keeping them down."
He also stated that it could be "the saviour of Africa".
Oh, and if you were wondering how Akon plans to implement all of this, or even if you wanted a bit more technical detail of how the guy who sang 'Lonely', you know, about being lonely, "I am so lonely, I'm Mr Lonely", how that guy is going to run his own microstate fuelled by a volatile digital currency without a central bank?
Well he has an answer for you.
"I come with the concepts and let the geeks figure it out".
Good. Good. I was just starting to worry that Akon might actually go ahead and change the world.
