What is Afkoin?
Learn more about Afkoin $AFK, The Face of The African Cryptocurrency Ecosystem.
Before we explain what Afkoin is, we would like to explain the main events that led to that moment, that moment when everything changed, that moment when Afkoin $AFK was created and nothings has been the same again.
Africa, The Most Diverse Continent In The World Is Becoming A Digital Giant.
The African continent has great natural wealth and is the most diverse in the world. From the natural resources to the cultural wealth and heritage of African countries, there is potential and opportunity in every field and a great chance for innovation. Sectors such as agriculture, industry, wildlife, finance, tourism, and even entertainment are seeing rapid and exponential growth as Africans continue to tap into their entrepreneurial potential and drive innovation beyond the country and continental borders.
The best part? The most diverse continent in the world, on the cusp of a breakout, is going digital.
In 2020, 397 startups were funded to the tune of USD 701 million across 13 sectors on the continent. These were record-breaking numbers but a consistent trend, as innovations and entrepreneurship in the tech ecosystem continues to rapidly replace traditional forms of business, communication, and work. The much talked about African potential is booming into tangible opportunities across key sectors like agriculture, infrastructure, banking and finance, mining, etc.
With the volume of transactions on the rise, trust, speed, efficiency, and security have become the primary concerns of investors and entrepreneurs.
The Birth of Afkoin
Africa is quickly realizing its potential as a diamond in the rough, as technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship push the envelope of the financial and economic ecosystem.
In recent years, there has been a shift from more traditional forms of financial transactions, which required third-party facilitators like the bank, that could be trusted as a mediator and in some cases, the validator of the transaction. Introducing this third-party means more cost in terms of money and time. The mediator imposed charges, and bank transactions can sometimes take up to a week or more, depending on the bank and its procedures. Also, there is a risk of transaction breakdown due to bank requirements that have nothing to do with the transacting parties.
Added to the inconveniences of third parties, there is also an issue of trust. There needs to be presumed trust and good faith between the merchants and the third parties. Basing business on an assumption of good faith or trust is fundamentally risky and offers very little security to all the parties involved.
Going back to that shift from traditional forms of transactions…
In 2007, Safaricom, a Kenyan telecommunications company launched an alternative to the usual transaction methods. M-PESA is a peer-to-peer solution that eliminates the high costs and charges of third-party financial institutions and allows the transacting individuals to use their mobile phones as electronic wallets instead of the more traditional bank accounts. Within the next two years, powerhouses Orange (2008) and MTN (2009) would follow the same path and by 2015, half of the operational 270 mobile money services active in over 80 markets around the world, originated from Sub-Saharan Africa according to GSMA.
Tracking data between March 2018 and March 2021 shows that MTN Mobile Money active customers have more than doubled, from 22.7 million to 46.6 million.
To reflect the exponential growth of cashless peer-to-peer transactions, and also in response to COVID-19, registered mobile money accounts ballooned by 12% in 2020, making it 562 million active accounts, as Sub-Saharan Africa recorded over USD 490 billion in transactions in 2020 alone.
Cashless (or contactless, if you want to link it to the pandemic) transactions are rapidly becoming the norm in the African economic ecosystem, a reality that is reflected in the growth of fintech startups and their success. The pandemic added emphasis to a foregone point.
The challenge now was how to make these transactions more secure, more cost-efficient, faster, and more decentralized. A decentralized system means the merchants are more in control of their transactions and don’t need a third party.
Enter Cryptocurrency, The Blockchain.
Cryptocurrencies are iterated as tokens and live on a decentralized digital ledger called the blockchain. Think of tokens as coins or tender, while the blockchain is an account log containing a record of all the transactions made with the tokens and by who.
Bitcoin, the first-ever cryptocurrency was founded in 2008 to solve issues of trust between merchants and third parties (banks and financial institutions). Third parties not only slowed down transactions but also made them more expensive and susceptible to attacks. Cryptocurrency is based on cryptographic proof rather than the trust model, making it easier for two willing parties to transact directly without the need for a third party (peer-to-peer). All the parties will need are digital wallets with their cryptocurrency, and every transaction will be stored and registered on secure digital ledgers on the blockchain. A more secure, faster, cost-efficient way to do business.
As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, especially in Africa, the vision is to have an African cryptocurrency that is built on the values and aspirations of the continent.
Given the continent’s pivot to digital finance and trove of natural resources, there is a need to merge these two, to provide a financial ecosystem that is firmly in the hands of Africans, pushing the concept of Group Economics to a continental scale, to truly value African resources.
This is how Afkoin was born.
As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, especially in Africa, the vision is to have a true African community, a cryptocurrency project built on the values and aspirations of the continent. This is how Afkoin was born.
Afkoin (AFK) is a cryptocurrency that will initially run on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The name is derived from the continent’s name, “Africa”, and the basic unit of money on the continent, “coin”.
Binance inspires us by being the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, which transacts USD 26 billion in 24 hours every day, per Statista.
Running Afkoin on Binance-backed technology was a way of showing the commitment and ambition of Afkoin to be a secure, reliable, and Africa’s pioneer digital token.
Backed By Something Better and Bigger Than Gold
Afkoin (AFK) is a BEP-20 token that runs on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), built by Africans. The name is derived from the continent’s name, “Africa”, and the basic unit of money on the continent, “coin”.
With only a mobile phone and the power of secure peer-to-peer transactions using a tender that is not controlled by any government, eliminating third parties, merchants will be able to instantly buy, sell, or invest all over Africa.
Afkoin is backed by the natural resources of Africa, in the same way, the currencies of the world are backed by gold.
Instead of a single resource that is centralized, Afkoin is backed by all the natural resources of Africa and is decentralized. As long as there are natural resources, Afkoin will have value.
Imagine being able to transact in a currency that is completely decentralized, secure, and can never lose its value, that is Afkoin.
Why Binance?
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, which transacts USD 26 billion in 24 hours every day, per Statista.
Afkoin as currently iterated runs on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which is a proof-of-stake network, meaning it can process more transactions in quicker time with lower costs, all with the added protection of smart contracts, as opposed to proof-of-work blockchains like Ethereum.
Smart contracts are automated digital versions of a standard contract between two parties. Their architecture is a combination of legal principles, economic theories, and computer theories of secure protocols. As transactions are defaulting to cashless and digital formats, smart contracts become necessary to protect the interest in principals (merchants) not only from each other but also from third parties that could be malicious. In this case, trust and good faith are not implied, they are enforced by the contract and can be verified.
Running Afkoin on Binance-backed technology leverages the security, speed and cost-efficient offering by Binance aligns merchants with the familiarity of peer-to-peer transactions and opens up a world of investment opportunities on a platform that has worldwide reach and validation. Additionally, it is a way of showing the commitment to excellence and ambition of Afkoin as Africa’s pioneer digital token.
Afkoin will eventually move to be independent, existing as a fully decentralized token for Africans, by Africans.
Afkoin $AFK
Backed by high valued and pristine African Resources and Wealth, Afkoin $AFK is The Face of The African Cryptocurrency Space.