beincrypto.com
The Central African Republic’s Sango crypto hub is set to launch today. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra tweeted the website and said that it would spark innovation.
President Faustin-Archange Touadéra said that digital gold will serve as the “engine of our civilization for ages.” Currently, the countdown timer on the official Sango website says that it will launch in about 10 hours.
The official documentation for Sango states that the government will create a dedicated legal framework for crypto by the end of the year. The website has also posted a link to a video that describes the SANGO Coin genesis event. The video describes the asset as “the birth of a new digital monetary system.”
Among the features of the Sango are an e-residency program, a citizenship program, the tokenization of natural resources, and “the only metaverse backed by reality.” It is not clear what the latter feature entails exactly, but the Central African Republic has made it known that it is keen on the metaverse.
The Sango crypto hub was first announced in May, with the government saying that it would foster innovation. The hub will be headquartered on an island called Sango, and residents will not be subject to corporate or income tax. Like the blockchain island Malta, the Touadéra administration hopes that such conveniences will attract business and entrepreneurship.
The Central African Republic all in on crypto and blockchain
The Central African Republic has featured in the media heavily in the past few months, as the country takes to crypto to boost its economy. The country recently made bitcoin legal tender, joining El Salvador in doing so.
Of course, the decision to make bitcoin legal tender was met with criticism and disapproval from global organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These authorities deem the crypto market as having too many risks and that legalizing them could lead to macroeconomic and legal risks.
Other countries will keep a close eye on how crypto can benefit economies. The Central African Republic is perhaps an extreme case of countries taking to crypto, and the experiment may see a few bumps along the way. But developing countries are keen to leverage the technology to jumpstart the digitalization.