In our Crypto Africa Roundup, YouHash take a look at some recent developments in this fast-growing crypto continent
Binance Uganda Goes Live
With a zero trading fees incentive for the first month, Binance Uganda went live this week, allowing Ugandans for the first time to be able to access crypto using local currency.
Leaning on the experience and scale of Binance, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges and with technology being used by more than 30 exchanges globally, Binance Uganda accepts deposits in Ugandan Shillings, Bitcoin, and Ether, and offers BTC/UGX and ETH/UGX trading pairs.
With the world’s 90th largest GDP at $26.39-billion (source: Wikipedia 2017 stats) and a high interest in cryptocurrencies consistent with many other countries in Africa, Binance Uganda can look forward to brisk trade.
Blockchain Technology Employed to Manage Water Regulation in South Africa
The severe drought which brought one of the world’s premier tourist destinations, Cape Town, to its knees, served as a reminder to the world about the extent of the growing water crisis affecting cities around the world.
Rapid urbanization along with an inability to harness rainwater (without it running into the sea) are some of the underlying reasons for the drought being declared a national disaster in the Southern Cape. Hashcash Consultants, with representation in the USA, Australia, Singapore, and India, are working with local regulators to record the rainwater footprint on a decentralized, immutable ledger that can be access by all for verification and reference. The platform will take a net-positive approach to track water usage by manufacturing units, housing complexes, and agricultural lands. A computing base with unlimited storage to prevent system crashes will be used in conjunction with blockchain technology.
In addition, the team is focusing on promoting water resilience and is part of the advisory council of new dam building projects.
Awehcash Debuts as Namibia’s Maiden Cryptocurrency
In a country where the central bank (Bank of Namibia) is openly critical of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, an enterprising group have launched the first blockchain token, Awehcash, allowing Namibians a safe and painless entry into the world of blockchain.
According to BitcoinAfrica.io, Awehcash makes use of the Waves Platform to ensure the project is run on an affordable yet capable system. In total, just 21-million tokens were created on the platform and to date close on 50,000 have been distributed wallets.
Whilst the founders are marketing to Namibians, participation is not restricted and interested parties can find more information at Awehcash or follow the project on Twitter.
Getting to Know Africa’s Blockchain Movers and Shakers
Ran Neuner
Ran Neu-Ner was voted in 2018 as one of the 100 most influential people in crypto by Crypto Weekly and rated as #9 of the ‘Most Influential People in Blockchain’ by Richtopia. A serial entrepreneur, Neu-Ner has won numerous prestigious awards in South African including Business Leader of the Year (separately by CNBC Africa and National Business Awards), Entrepreneur of the Year (Sanlam), Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young), and many others.
More recently as founder and CEO of Onchain Capital, a crypto investment and advisory business, Neu-Ner has become involved as advisor on 15 boards in the last few months, including Fantom, Essentia, Aov.global, Coti, Metadium, Insureum, and Chromaway. Prior to becoming involved in crypto, Neu-Ner was founder and CEO of the Creative Counsel, one of SA’s largest advertising agencies, which was subsequently acquired by Publicis in a deal valuing it at over $100-million.
