Announcing the Africa Token

Nantium Limited (“Nantium”) is introducing the Africa Token (“AT”). AT is an Ethereum Token that will serve as an effective store of value for the African regions South of the Sahara dessert. The token’s goal is to track the cost of living for 1 non-married individual in the region and include the person’s typical monthly living expenses such as housing, food, clothes, transportation, medical, utilities, and leisure. Also, the underlying target individual’s profile will be geared towards the median income level within the region’s urban areas.
Just to summarize: 1 Africa token should be equivalent in value for everything the average person living in Africa buys in 1 average month on average.
It should be noted; however, that Africa is such a diverse continent that there isn’t really a such thing as “average” in Africa. To make this concept more perfect, each region in Africa would need it’s own Token, but it isn’t really practical. Much like Bitcoin to other cryptocurrencies, this could serve as the benchmark for for other tokens.

Why?

The people of several countries in the region have suffered from either hyperinflation or US dollar dominance. The goal of the token is to offer one alternative to the current options available. Although several cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and Ethereum) exist, their values (currently) come with high volatility that make them difficult to use as a store of value, despite their long-term prospects. The Africa Token’s goal is (to the extent possible) to track the region’s cost of living for single individuals living in urban areas at or near the median income levels for the region.
Although Bitcoin and Ethereum may stabilize in value at some point in the future, their current volatility makes them a difficult choice to store a high proportion of your wealth or to rely on them as the denomination for performing work. Until then, people need a combination of stable cryptocurrencies that have stable values in addition to their higher risk investments / savings in BTC and ETH(to the extent people are comfortable with the volatility).
The Token’s Reserve
Nantium will establish a reserve to ensure exchangeability of the Token into Ethereum on a best effort basis. The reserve will be made of a basket of liquid cryptocurrencies which will be bought and sold to maintain the target price range. The addresses comprising the reserve balance will be published for verification so that at all times, the value of the reserve can be compared against the tokens in circulation.
Limitations
It is impossible for 1 token to represent the exact cost of living for the entire region. The geographic region is economically diverse. For example, crop failures affecting some regions while (at the same time) other regions can produce record crops. Hence, the tracking is done on a best effort basis and reflects more localized tracking than the current global cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and Ethereum), which have prices that are affected by global supply and demand.
Target Price
The Target Price of the Africa Token will be publicly stated and denominated in Ethereum. The target price is for 1 Token to be equivalent for a full consumer basket for 1 month of a median income individual living in the urban cities of Africa that have (at least) moderate internet penetration rates.
Distribution Methods
Tokens will be sold via Token Exchanges in small amounts to individual buyers and will also be loaned out for borrowers on the Ethereum Network with high Trust Scores: https://decentralize.today/trust-score-beta-for-ethereum-2b12ddad3fc9. Currently, I started speaking to bokkypoobah about buying / selling them on https://cryptoderivatives.market/.
Side note 1: I think what bookypoobah is doing is nothing short of awesome. I was looking around through many unfinished decentralized Token Exchange projects until I stumbled upon cryptoderivatives.market. I don’t know how other people in the Ethereum community feel, but I got this feeling that the whole decentralization movement is really starting to come together.
side note 2: people who are approved for the loans would (in theory) be able to take the loans, exchange into Ether, and never pay the loan back. However, those individuals should be aware that by doing carrying this out with the intent of solely making a quick buck, they are hindering the emergence of decentralized trust. The loans (combined with the exchangeability into Ethereum mechanism) are being provided despite the risk that some individuals will game the system.
Having said all of that….
The proceeds of token sales will be partially placed in a reserve to defend the value of the token and will be partially kept by Nantium. Just to be clear, Nantium is not a non-profit company. However, the goal is not to generate profit from the token sales, but instead, to profit on the interest from lending the tokens. The ratio of the reserve value to the amount of outstanding tokens will fluctuate. However, it is envisioned, that the reserve will have to be increased when needed to defend the Token’s value. So, trust in Nantium will be needed to maintain the value of the Token, and hopefully this will be established, but there are steps being taken to ensure and verify trust, such as making the reserve balance publicly available and verifiable via Ethereum contracts.
Hey, Can I get Rich by Buying the Africa Token?
Given the number of scam coins (allegedly) circulating, I just wanted to go ahead and get this out into the open. The answer is no. The token’s goal is not to rise in value; it is to maintain it’s value. So if the Token does it’s job well, you will not have any noticeable gains or losses in the real buying power of the token. Hopefully, it will buy the same amount of goods in Africa today as it did yesterday. Obviously and as touched on above, it is impossible to maintain a perfectly constant store of value for this context, but (hopefully) it will be pretty damn good as a store of value for Africa.
But wait, isn’t this like fiat currency itself?
Yes, in a sense. But, the independence of the Token from political pressures should be highly valued along with the stated goal of the Token, which if successful, would be a good tool for people to store value. There are currently several countries around the world where traditional fiat currencies are not successful at the most basic job of a currency. The horror stories of hyperinflation are well documented.
Token Summary
Goal: Create a token that has a stable value and maintains the purchasing power of urban people living in Africa south of the Sahara to buy all the monthly goods they buy.
Price Target: Price targets of the token versus Ethereum (AT/ETH)will be provided daily.
Distribution Method: Tokens will be sold and loaned. Sales will be conducted via cryptoderivatives.market. Proceeds of sales will be both retained by the issuer (Nantium Limited) and applied to the reserve.
Exchangeability: ability for token holders to sell and buy Ethereum will be maintained on a best effort basis.
Changes: the Token’s structure and mechanism is not yet finalized. Some refinements may occur before the release.
Expected Release Date: 30 September 2017
ERC20 Compliant