American rap and R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Akon, while in Cannes, France, announced his plans to launch a new cryptocurrency called Akoin with the aim of helping people in Africa. Last week, on 18 August 2018, via a report in Vice, we got an update on how the project was going.
Back in June, Akon explained the motivation for the project:
“I think that blockchain and crypto could be the savior for Africa in many ways because it brings the power back to the people and brings the security back into the currency system and also allows the people to utilize it in ways where they can advance themselves and not allow government to do those things that are keeping them down.”
Akon, who was born in the U.S. but raised in Senegal, since retiring from music back in 2010, has been spending much of his time in Africa, “working on bringing 21st century stability and infrastructure to underdeveloped regions.” His first major project in Africa came in 2014, which is when he set up a charity called Akon Lighting Africa (ALA), which was a solar energy initiative that had the goal of bringing electricity to more than 600 million people in rural Africa who have no access to electricity in their homes. Since then, the program claims “to already have covered 480 communities and erected over 100,000 solar street lamps.”
https://dictoms.com/us-based-rapper-akon-talks-about-his-new-cryptocurrency-akoin/