How blockchain can help reimagine a new state in Africa
On episode 12 of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast, Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan, explains what it means to build a country on the blockchain.
From an event and media company, Afropolitan has transitioned to a blockchain-based state of Africans on the continent and in the diaspora. Emole, an African in the diaspora with a political science, philosophy and law background, believes the nation-state experiment has failed in Africa. According to him, the existing state structures have stifled the development of people on the continent.
“We truly believe that the nation-state experiment has failed for Africans globally. It has yielded nothing but poverty, weakness, corruption, and it very stifling.“The co-founder of Afropolitan explains that the inspiration to build a network state comes from an article titled “How To Start a New Country,” written by former Coinbase chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan, who has recently been in the news for a $2 million bet on Bitcoin reaching $1 million in 90 days. Another piece of literature that inspired the creation of Afropolitan is the first of the federalist papers, published by Alexander Hamilton.
According to Emole, the plan to build Afropolitan will occur in four phases: building a community, offering governance as a service, becoming a minimum viable state and securing land for the real-life version of the state, featuring a Chinatown and an embassy.
Emole believes that another reason why Afropolitan is necessary is the lack of opportunities that exist for Africans. Emole explains that the issue is a two-part problem beginning from the point where most Africans are not in the rooms where major decisions are being made. Moreover, the lack of cross-industry communication prevents collaborations between Africans in a way that solves problems.
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Elisha (GhCryptoGuy) and Emole also discuss the hurdles of creating a nation on the blockchain, the future of crypto in Africa and Vitalik Buterin’s visit to the continent.
Listen to Hashing It Out Episode 12 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn. You can also check out Cointelegraph’s full catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.