On Nov. 2, the African Digital Asset Framework (ADAF) launched with a mandate to promote cryptocurrency commerce within the continent. Co-founder Felix Macharia said ADAF is an open-source software platform to create cross-border standards for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. It will also complement the African Union’s Single African Digital Market initiative, which leverages technology to stimulate digitized economic integration.
Also Read:
‘Digital Assets Know No Borders’
“ADAF was formed by organizations in the digital asset space who looked to harmonize standards and regulation in the space,” Macharia, who heads strategy at the Nairobi-based project, told news.bitcoin.com. “Digital assets know no borders. If Africa is to benefit from the full potential of distributed ledger technologies and even from agreements around free trade, we must start drafting standards, legislation and regulations that are in line with this new reality,” he added.
The framework, which is backed by ambassadors of the African Union, its member states and the African Development Bank (AfDB), marked its inception with a research and development paper on digitally-driven borderless commerce within the African continent and between its diaspora. The paper points to virtual currencies like bitcoin as key to enhancing economic integration within and beyond the continent, while actively developing strong legal and technological standards on the project’s open-source platform.
Africa has an economic footprint across the globe through its diaspora, but trade between African countries accounts for only 11 percent of the continent’s collective gross domestic product. Africa’s inchoate intra-continental trade infrastructure is partially responsible for the great conundrum whereby some African countries earn a measly 5 percent royalty for their natural resources, according to pan-Africanist journalist Baffour Ankomah.
ADAF to Spur Cross-Border Trade
“Digital assets create a secure way for people to trade, peer-to-peer, across borders, enabling people to securely access and transfer items like currency, identities, land titles and votes over the internet,” said, in a separate . Standards will be tabled, discussed, edited, and implemented on the ADAF platform, with a view to “encouraging digital asset ownership and value exchange in digital economies between Africans and its diaspora.”
Felix Macharia
Macharia stated that the platform, built around the idea of collective creation, will display technological codes and policy proposals for different commercial sectors, data on sustainable development objectives, and thought leadership from community members. It includes a multi-lingual interface for individuals, civil society, entrepreneurs and policymakers to propose solutions, actions and standards of self-regulation that reflect changes in the cryptocurrency space, as well as offering translation services for such proposals.
Diplomatic heavyweights signed to the pan-African initiative include former president of Mauritius Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim; AfDB chief of corporate governance and shareholder relations Adewale Iyanda; and Queen Diambi Kabatusuila Tshiyoyo Muata of DRC’s Kasai Kingdom. There is also a high-profile tech buy-in, with ambassadors such as the AU’s Head of Internet Society and ICT Infrastructure Moctar Yedaly and chair of Kenya Blockchain and AI Taskforce Dr. Bitange Ndemo.
ADAF was initially introduced to the global community as an idea on Nelson Mandela international day at the United Nations in July. It is led by its three founding member organizations: Raise, Kotani, and andalba.one, and supported, as a platform, by the ADAF Foundation, which is registered as a trust in Kenya.
What do you think about the ADAF initiative? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our , the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at , another original and free service from bitcoin.com.
The post appeared first on .
Welcome to episode 60 of‚The bitcoin Game, I’m Rob Mitchell. I’m happy to bring to you part two of my interview with Cypherpunk and CEO of Blockstream, Dr. Adam Back. In this episode, we take a deep dive into Liquid, Blockstream’s new federated sidechain. There’s a lot more to Liquid than I realized, and it’s fascinating to hear tons of details about the protocol. I lead us astray with some of my questions, but Dr. Back never fails to drop tons of crypto-knowledge.
And if you missed the first part of my interview, give episode 59 a listen to hear a great Cypherpunk history lesson.
EPISODE LINKS
First half of our interview (The bitcoin Game #59)
Adam Back (Adam3us) on Twitter
Dr. Back’s Info Page
Blockstream
Lightning Network White Paper by Joseph Poon & Thaddeus Dryja
Duplex Micropayment Channels by Christian Decker & Roger Wattenhofer
ETHZ (where Christian Decker earned his bitcoin PhD)
Rusty Russell
C-Lightning
Liquid
Liquid Assets
Confidential Transactions
ERC-20
Counterparty
UTXO
Bulletproofs
Tether
)
Proof of Burn
Public Key vs. Public Address
Lamport Signatures
The Byzantine Generals Problem
Schnorr Signatures
ECDSA
Denial-of-Service Attack
Tor
Liquid Block Explorer
NBitcoin by Nicolas Dorier
Green Address Wallet
KYC Compliance
Paul Sztorc talks about Sidechains, Drivechain, Liquid
RootStock
Spark Lightning Wallet by Nadav Ivgi
Lightning Splice-In, Splice Out (and more)
SPV Wallet
Neutrino Lite bitcoin Client
Lightning Watchtower
ABCore by Lawrence Nahum (BTC full node on Android)
Hardware Wallet
STAY IN TOUCH
Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to The bitcoin Game!
Rob@TheBitcoinGame.com
SPONSORS
BTC Inc is excited to announce its upcoming conference, Distributed Health, November 5 & 6 in Nashville, TN. This is the first conference to bridge the gap‚between blockchain technology and the healthcare industry. Now in its third year, this‚two-day event is an opportunity for all members of the ecosystem, including payers, providers, law makers, retailers, investors and innovators, to reshape the future of healthcare.
For more information, visit:‚health.distributed.com‚and use the promo code: BTCGAME20 to secure a 20% discount!
While much of a Bitcoiner’s time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it’s nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world famous .
As Seen On
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘
bitcoin Keychains –
CREDITS
All music in this episode of The bitcoin Game was created by Rob Mitchell.
The bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by .
bitcoin (Segwit) tipping address:
3AYvXZseExRn3Dum8z9tFUk9jtQK6KMU4g
Note: We’ve recently migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) from Soundcloud to Libsyn. So if you notice the Soundcloud numbers have dropped off recently, that’s the reason.
