The president Faustin-Archange Touadéra wanted to attract foreign investors. Acquire citizenship, land and even resources against his new cryptocurrency, the Sango Coin. The highest court in the country found this kind of cut-out sale unconstitutional and his decision is without a possible appeal.
At the beginning of July, the Sango project was launched. But the Constitutional Court of the CAR invalidated President Touadéra’s project on Monday, August 29, 2022. The sale of Sango Coins against Central African lands and resources has been deemed unconstitutional: everything related to ” the sale of the Central African nationality […], from the e-residence, […] of land and natural resources, as provided for in the official Sango Genesis Paper and on the website Sango.org is rejected”.
Citizenship for $60,000
Four months after the adoption of Bitcoin as the national currency and one month after the official launch of the Sango Coin project, the president’s ambitions have stalled. The Court considered that this was nothing more nor less than a big sale on a global scale. The government hoped to seduce foreign investors by offering :
- the acquisition of a citizenship “by blocking a fixed guarantee from SANGO Coins in the amount of $60,000 for a period of 5 years” ;
- An e-residence “by blocking a fixed guarantee of SANGO parts in the amount of 6000 dollars for a period of 3 years” ;
- A landed property “by blocking a fixed guarantee from SANGO Coins in the amount of $10,000 for a period of 10 years”.
The project is stopped, will the investors be reimbursed?
We are waiting for the government’s reaction following this unequivocal no. In the meantime site is still online and the sale is expected to continue until October. 7% (or 14,000,000) of the 200 million Songo Coins have already been sold: will investors be reimbursed? At 10 cents a coin, it still represents $1,400,000, a windfall for a bloodless country.
The site of the cryptocurrency Sango.
If some cities have adopted a local cryptocurrency, the city coins, there is no question of “selling” land or resources. We can understand that President Touadéra wants to modernize his country and attract investors, but his project is unclear and looks like a cut-and-paste sale. It would certainly be better to involve the population first, as in El Salvador, starting with bitcoin trainings. Education above all with the population at the heart of the projects: this does not seem to be the case with the Sango Coin.
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Subprime, financial crises, rampant inflation, tax havens… Bitcoin was designed for more transparency and maybe finally change the game. I am trying to understand this new environment and trying to explain it in my turn. The road is undoubtedly long, but it is worth it.
