Akon, the singer?

Yes. Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, the Afro-American pop star, popularly known as Akon. Most Indians would know him as the one who sang ‘ Chammak Challo ’ in Shah Ruk Khan’s 2011 sci-fi flick Ra.One .

Fine. Now what’s Akoin?

As it sounds, it’s a coin named after, yes you guessed right, the 1973-born singer himself, whose net worth reportedly is around $80 million. The singer, whose first single album, Locked Up, earned him global success and fandom, now wants to launch his own cryptocurrency which he says will be the the central form of (currency) exchange in a city he wants to build in Senegal, where he spent most of his childhood.

That’s indeed music to the ears of cryptocurrency fans!

You said it. In fact, the Grammy winner is the latest entrant to the growing club of celebrities and elites enamoured by cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology which powers the digital money. From soccer legend Lionel Messi to tennis veteran Martina Hingis to Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, celebs are making a beeline to invest in and promote blockchain-backed products, including bitcoin.

Interesting! Now, take me to Wakanda.

Akon, who owns record labels Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution and a diamond mine in Africa, among many other enterprises, runs a charity Konfidence Foundation, which takes up social welfare activities in Africa. In 2014, the singer started ‘Akon Lighting Africa’, an initiative to bring solar power to the continent and reports say the venture found success in 15 countries.

Now, according to Akon, the Crypto City in Senegal will purely run its financial affairs on Akoin and will be modelled on Wakanda, the fictional super-tech country located in Sub-Saharan Africa, made popular by Marvel Comics franchises such as Black Panther and Avengers . Akon says the city will be spread on 2,000 acres and will have educational institutions, hospitals, sporting centres, and more.

Sounds cool. But does this really mean business?

Granted that the project seems to be very utopian as things stand now. But considering how Akon is executing some of his projects in Africa, it won’t be a surprise if he pulls this off. His Africa lighting programme has won international acclaim, even from the United Nations, so much so that the project secured a $1 billion loan from China.

That’s big money, man!

Yo! So if Akon can get the Chinese backing to his Wakanda mission in Senegal, a country in which Chinese companies have made significant investments already, and given the Chinese obsession with new technologies including blockchain and cryptocurrencies, which the country’s current regime wants to harness for its economic expansion — the People’s Bank of China’s research lab has filed 41 cryptocurrency patents so far — Akon’s Crypto City might become a reality .

Agreed. But what’s the general mood in the cryptodom as we speak?

Reports from analysts and new agencies such as Bloomberg suggest that the universe of cryptocurrencies is expanding given the way it attracts scientists, miners and investors, despite the fact that many governments, banks and businesses see it as a threat or a techno fad. As authors Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott observes in their recent book Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies is Changing the World, a technological genie has been unleashed from its bottle and the best and most recent example of it is the advent of blockchain and cryptos. So turning your back to them would be foolish as many banks and governments have realised by now and the best way to make sure blockchain and cryptocurrencies are saved from the porn-to-Ponzi factor and get into prosperity mode is to promote their legal applications. Akon’s Wakanda is just one of the many ways to make it happen. If it works, that is.

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