🟠 Visa’s crypto lead: Blockchain eases financial product development in Africa

Blockchain-based carbon credit project receives $250,000 investment from EMURGO Africa

Topline: EMURGO Africa, Cardano’s commercial arm on the continent, has invested $250,000 in the environmental credit exchange company Changeblock. (Details)

Quick facts: In a press statement, the Cardano affiliate noted that its investment aimed to promote sustainable development and environmental responsibility, especially in the carbon exchange market.

Of note: Changeblock employs blockchain to facilitate carbon credit trading, enabling companies that surpass emissions limits to counterbalance their excesses by acquiring credits through emission-reduction projects.

Why this matters: Carbon credits are becoming vital for offsetting emissions. They’re bought from projects that reduce carbon, like tree planting. Some better-known carbon trading projects include Anew, Ecologi and Finite Carbon.

• However, verifying the legitimacy of carbon credits is challenging, and blockchain have been tipped to provide the missing transparency.
• A few African projects are looking to use blockchain to record every credit’s journey immutably, potentially enhancing credibility and preventing fraud. Shamba Network is another example of a blockchain-based carbon trading project.

Angola moves to regulate virtual assets and ban cryptocurrency mining

Topline: The Angolan government is preparing a bill to regulate digital assets and ban cryptocurrency mining activities in the country. The bill seeks to protect the country from the purported environmental hazards commonly associated with crypto mining. (Details)

State of play: According to an official statement from the President’s office, the proposal to ban crypto mining stems from the need to protect the national electricity system, considering the high consumption of infrastructures in the activity of mining cryptocurrencies

• In addition, the country wants to limit the circulation of digital currencies and tokens not issued by the country’s central bank.
• Angola’s minister of finance, Vera Daves, said that the bill would bring virtual assets under the regulation of the country’s Capital Market Commission (CMC).

Essential background: While cryptocurrency in Angola is not illegal at present, the government has previously warned against transacting with bitcoin and others and restricted financial institutions from dealing with them.

• In 2021, the country was ranked third among countries with the most crypto-mining operations in Africa. On the other hand, the rise of bitcoin mining has triggered environmental concerns in Angola.
• Earlier this year, the country’s Criminal Investigation Service detained seven Chinese nationals for mining crypto from a camouflaged brick factory. They were accused of using enormous amounts of electricity from the public distribution system to mine cryptocurrencies.

Visa’s crypto head and Stellar director of product speak on the state of blockchain in Africa

Topline: In a recent episode of the crypto@Scale podcast, Cuy Sheffield, who leads crypto initiatives at Visa, and Tori Samples, director of product at the Stella Development Foundation (SDF), discussed the growing influence of blockchain and crypto in Africa. (Details)

Blockchain’s financial impact: Sheffield highlighted the significance of stablecoins in Africa as a form of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) technology.

• Unlike the West, where fintech often builds upon traditional banking, African entrepreneurs are finding blockchain infrastructure more accessible to develop new financial products.

African-Centered Innovation: Samples emphasized that Africans are best suited to understand the needs of their continent.

• She stressed that Africa is no longer just a recipient of innovation. It is generating its own solutions, particularly in the crypto space, and is uniquely positioned to address its financial inclusion challenges.

Coming soon: Mariblock Roundtable

Topline: Mariblock’s top priority is fostering impactful conversations that drive the advancement of the African blockchain and digital assets space.

• We see stakeholder engagement as a significant part of that.
• Mariblock Roundtable will bring builders, talents, investors, enthusiasts and regulators around the continent together to engage in discussions that move the needle for the industry.
• This won’t be a crypto/blockchain education series.
• We’re open to partnerships. Do reply to this email if you’d like to learn more.

Catch up

🇰🇪 Police raid Worldcoin’s warehouse in Nairobi (Mariblock)

🌍 PayPal launches stablecoin, but experts doubt it will make a difference in Africa (Mariblock)

🇺🇬 World Bank suspends funding to Uganda over anti-LGBTQ law (Mariblock)

🇳🇬  Nigerian bureau de change union asks the government to ban Binance (Mariblock)

🌍 African DeFi lenders need to partner with traditional institutions to scale, says Jia co-founder (Mariblock)

🇳🇬 Blockchain 2.0: Building the next generation of African blockchain products (Techcabal)

🌍 The innovations driving Bitcoin adoption in Africa (City A.M.)

🇰🇪 Cryptos are here to stay, even with CBDCs allure (The East African)

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Cheers,

Oluwaseun.