After Adopting Bitcoin, Central African Republic Set to Build a Crypto Hub

A month after adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, the Central African Republic (CAR) announced its first-ever crypto initiative – the Sango Project – designed to attract business and enthusiasts, take the Bitcoin legacy to the next level, and establish a so-called crypto island Sango with the Metaverse-related elements.

An Initiative Set to Attract Investors Worldwide

CAR’s President Faustin-Archange Touadéra tweeted that the new initiative – aiming to turn the country into a crypto hub – carries the potential to reshape its financial system. The president did not provide details regarding when the hub would be made available to investors and how its Bitcoin agenda would be carried out. However, he had reportedly expressed an urgency to launch such a project:

“The formal economy is no longer an option. An impenetrable bureaucracy is keeping us stuck in systems that do not give a chance to be competitive.”

According to the presentation published by the government, the Sango project involves creating a Digital Nation Bank and developing a crypto wallet compatible with layer-two implementations such as the Lightning Network and able to put in use for businesses to accept such payments.

CAR’s “Bitcoin Law” has outlined that all crypto exchanges operating in the country are not subject to taxes. The nation’s legal framework has also ensured that government entities recognize digital identity and ownership. In this way, the government aims to attract crypto investors worldwide.

The initiative stated that the authorities would support crypto firms’ access to the country’s natural resources such as gold, diamonds, and uranium and establish a “citizenship by investment” program with business tax exemptions. Besides, the government will facilitate “land acquisitions in Bitcoin for worldwide investors.”

In addition, the county’s leaders will brand “Sango” as the crypto island, a crypto-economic zone that will link to a virtual metaverse with the same name. The virtual cyberspace – mapped 1:1 to the real-life island – will incorporate functionalities such as NFT mintings and tokenization of assets in the future.

IMF Concerned About CAR’s Bitcoin Adoption

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) previously warned that CAR adopting Bitcoin as its official currency might raise a series of challenges, including financial instability and financial legal uncertainties.

Though CAR claimed its Bitcoin move would spur its economic recovery and growth from the decade-long civil war, it received criticism from crypto experts and domestic lawmakers. Considered one of the world’s poorest countries by the United Nations, CAR has a very low Internet usage rate, with only 11% of its population having access to the technology.