The Bitcoin for Africa By Reggie Baker
Military Vet and Entrepreneur
Here’s a good one.
There’s this guy. Lives in the U.K. Hails from Abeokuta in Nigeria.
So, one day he decides to quit work for two months. He plops down behind his computer and starts to google. Searches for everything he can find about a blockchain called Cardano. Decides that’s the place to build his own cryptocurrency.
He finds out that crypto projects built on the Cardano blockchain must be programmed in a language called Haskell. Googles some more and finds tons to read about Haskell.
He then learns how to code in Haskell which powers Cardano. Though he’d never done it before, he starts to code. And code he does. Night after night, day after day.
Finished with the coding, he then finds out everything he must do to create a cryptocurrency on the Cardano blockchain. So he checks all the boxes and complies with all the requirements.
Then He Hits the “Enter” Key
Just last February, the big day comes. He’s ready. His wife at his side, he takes a deep breath and hits the Enter Key.
Poof!
He checks an Exchange on the Cardano blockchain. Lo and behold, there it is;
“BLC” he sees. That’s the symbol for his new crypto coin.
It looks like BTC, the symbol for Bitcoin. He wanted his symbol to look like the one for Bitcoin.
Because from the beginning, he had set out to make “The Bitcoin for Africa.”
Meet Akin Ayeni Soyoye
Akin Soyoye graduated from the Université Centrale Privée d’Administration des Affaires with a degree in International Relations. After emigrating to the U.K with his wife. he served as a Randstad UK fulfillment consultant.
Early in his life, Akin became acutely aware of the problems plaguing African countries, including his own — Nigeria. Many of Africa’s natural resources end up benefitting Western countries — not Africa. Many of Africa’s objets d’art reside in foreign museums — not Africa’s. Meanwhile, events in other countries — the war in Ukraine — combine with African governments’ fiscal and monetary policies and negatively impact the day-to-day lives of many Africans.
Economic woes in Africa, especially in Nigeria, seem to proliferate. The website tradingeconomics.com provides links to a not very pretty picture:[1]
Nigeria Private Sector Growth at 1–1/2-Year Low
Nigeria Inflation Rate Picks Up to 11-Month High
Nigeria GDP Growth Slows for 3rd Quarter
Nigeria Jobless Rate Hits Record High
Akin focused on African currencies and the limited opportunities for Africans to save, earn significant returns, and send currencies to family members living around the corner or residing abroad.
An African cryptocurrency — that’s the answer, he decided.
An African Bitcoin — to store value — to earn passive income — to transfer electronically with a computer click of a mouse or an iPhone tap of a thumb.
No one else had created a Bitcoin for Africa. So that’s what Akin did.
Before he hit that Enter Key, he had programmed the name for his coin; IbileCoin.
IbileCoin — Why That Name?
Akin gave his coin the name IbileCoin. In the Yoruba language, Ibile means “tradition.” Borrowing from African artifacts, Akin gave his coin a traditional look, which the IbileCoin White Paper describes:
IBILECOIN Concept is an original Benin Bronze head that is part of a group of more than a thousand metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin in what is now Nigeria. Collectively, the objects form the best examples of Benin Arts and were created from the thirteenth century onwards by artists of the Edo people. Apart from the plaques, other sculptures in brass or bronze include portrait heads, jewelry, and smaller pieces. The beauty of the traditional artifacts cannot be overemphasized. Such is the Traditional Importance attached to these artworks they were believed to be more precious than Gold.[2]
For more information on the origins of IbileCoin, Crypto Ivy produced a most informative video. Watch it here: Crypto Ivy
IbileCoin — On the Move
IbileCoin began its existence on the Cardano blockchain on February 18, 2022. At that moment, BLC (the Cardano trading symbol) had one holder — Akin. His wife is the first buyer and thus the second holder. Now, just five months later, in Cardano Epoch 350, BLC transactions appeared in more than 8,000 owners’ accounts and over 182,000 on-chain transactions.[3]
IbileCoin — What It Will Do
In early March, IbileCoin had a market cap of $15,000. Like BTC (the big Bitcoin), BLC has a maximum supply of 21,000,000. So that $15,000 market cap divided by 21,000,000 yields a BLC price of $0.00071429. That’s .07 of 1.0 penny.
Now, four months later, BLC’s price stands at $.011. It reached that coveted 1-cent level a week or so ago: up 15.4 times since March.
A Store of Value
Owning IbileCoin will enable Africans — or anyone[4] from any country — to store the value of their wealth. The number of IbileCoin will never exceed 21,000,000. No government will print more. One can buy it now at 1 penny. The price might go up. The price might go down. But the value of IbileCoin will never go down because of any increases in supply. That 21,000,000 maximum number is programmed into IbileCoin’s very existence. A change cannot happen as “Code is law”.
Earn Extra Income
Owners enjoy another feature as well. On the Cardano blockchain, new coins are mined each “Epoch,” which is five days. So every five days, owners can go to their accounts and claim additional coins at no cost to them. If they wanted to, they could sell those coins for dollars or Euros or other fiat currency and deposit them in their checking accounts. Or they can keep them in their accounts and these additional coins will earn “interest” as well.
And what is that interest rate? 6.79 % per year. So if you have 100,000 IbileCoins at a cost of $1,000, you’ll receive an additional 6,790 coins at the end of the year. That is 6.79% returns on the Token. However, At today’s price of $0.0199, that’s $140 USD, a 14% return on the Value of the Token earned.
Ibilegems NFTs mining Utility: As you earn rewards on your tokens held, You also have access to our Virtual Miners which are Ibilegems NFTs. They are designed as an alternative to ASIC Bitcoin`s miner machines' proof of work but utilize our pioneering proof of hold consensus, all you need to do is hold the NFT or NFTs in your wallet and claim your rewards every epoch (5 days). You can have as much as you want, all it does is give you a multiplier effect on the amount of $BLC you earn risk-free on the amount of $BLC you earn.
How to Buy IbileCoin
1. Buy ADA. To buy IbileCoin, you must first buy ADA, the coin of the Cardano blockchain. If you already own any crypto, then you probably use Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, or some other centralized coin exchange. You can buy ADA on any of the major exchanges.
If you’re new to the world of crypto investing, this video will show you how to buy ADA: How to Buy ADA
2. Create a Cardano Wallet. Next, you must create a Cardano Wallet. There are several wallets you could use: Nami, Flint, Eternl, and Gero. From your PC, watch this video and set up your Nami Wallet. How to Set Up Your Nami Wallet
3. Send ADA to Your Wallet. After buying ADA, you will “send” it to your wallet’s “Receive Address.” Very simply, in your wallet, you’ll find an address to use for receiving coins. You just copy your own address and in your exchange account (Binance, Coinbase), you’ll “Withdraw” or “Transfer” your ADA. Just paste in your wallet’s receive address and pick the amount of ADA coins you want to send and click the “do it” button.
In a few minutes, your ADA will appear in your Cardano wallet.
4. Connect Your Wallet to an Exchange. Several exchanges enable you to buy BLC. Once you click any of these links, you can “Connect” your wallet and then “Swap” your ADA for BLC: minswap, or sundaeswap or wingriders.
5. If You Need Help or Have Questions. IbileCoin has a very friendly and supportive community. On “Discord,” we have an active chat room. Click this link to join our Discord channel. IbileCoin Discord Channel. On the “general” section under “Community,” you can post a message with any question about IbileCoin.
Buckle Up
I’m neither a professional investor nor a financial advisor. So one thing you have not found in this article is financial advice. Who knows where the price of IbileCoin will be in a year? Heck, who knows what the price of gasoline will be next week? Mr. Market will answer both of those questions.
But one thing I do know is this: Akin Soyoye regretted what was happening to his homeland. He knew that fellow Africans were having a tough time when the value of their money today pales in comparison to its value of yesterday. He knew that they lacked a store of value assets. They lacked a way to earn passive income. And they had to pay huge fees to Western Union and others to send money to family members.
If there ever was a situation just screaming for a currency residing on a blockchain, the situation in Africa is it.
Akin Soyoye saw that.
And did something about it.
All by himself, he created a Bitcoin for Africa.
Extra: The Ibilecoin Logo can also be seen on all new Nigeria International passport, which is the Image of Queen Idia the First Iyoba of the 16th century Benin Empire. Which was pure coincidence as the Ibilecoin project had begun before the New passports were designed and Issued.
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About the Author. After retiring from the military, Reggie returned to Virginia, the USA with his wife. As an African American entrepreneur, Reggie is now exploring crypto technology in order to help African artists, African-American artists, and American artists monetize their artwork by minting them as NFTs on the Cardano blockchain. You may contact him at blackconnoisseurllc@outlook.com
.Visit their website to learn more : HTTPS://www.ibilecoin.com
[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/currency
[2] https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/3edea174-bf69-44d9-b5a2-dcd64813a2f8/downloads/IBILECOIN%20(%24BLC)%20WHITEPAPER.%2C.%20(1).pdf?ver=1657808162732
[3] https://cexplorer.io/asset/asset1lsykdl5hvqg0ax2whp0f9zp3qc332yyhs9tu0v
[4] Disclaimer … I’ve owned IbileCoin since I discovered the project in April of this year.
