 cell phone, prepaid cell phone minutes is used as currency in a lot of parts of Africa. Do you know when the white paper for A-coin will be released? That's a great question because it's actually being released today. What's up YouTube? My name is Jackson. Today I'm joined by musician turned crypto entrepreneur A-Con. How are you doing today A-Con? What's up big man? Cool. So you are a world famous musician with two number one billboard hits, four triple platinum songs and numerous music and entertainment awards including five Grammy nominations. Where and when did you first hear the words cryptocurrency and blockchain? It was 2008. I went out of office in Atlanta. I flew out to New York and through a guy named Ken Wilkowski. I met a guy named Block Pierce who was selling me on the idea. That's how far back I go with it. Yeah. So you were there right from the beginning then? Yeah, I was there from the beginning for sure. That's cool. So why have you decided to put some of your energy into cryptocurrency? I mean was there a specific moment where you realized the opportunity and power of crypto? I don't think it was a specific moment but it was some specific moments that motivated me to want to do it even more and like really focus on it. But I think it was more so about me just understanding that the digital, like digital is the future because I saw how digital had to conform in the music business, how we went from analog into the digital world in music and I saw the drastic, you could say impact of the labels not being prepared for it and the impact that it hit because they weren't prepared for it. So when you look at the currency side of it, it's pretty much the same. It's going all digital and we're clearly not prepared for it but we've been slowly kind of moving into it. But in Africa we've been doing mobile exchanges and mobile monies and transactions for years. So it was something that I was pretty familiar with. Which people or companies do you admire within the space? From where have you drawn inspiration? I think, you know, me pretty much, we kind of partnered with a lot of the companies that we really did admire in the space and felt, you know, that they were doing great things and kind of aligned with our, you know, agenda, you know, like bit minutes for instance, who's doing great things in Africa, you know, on the cell phone devices and transferring of, you know, currencies and of that nature. I mean, you also have Stella who has built amazing platforms for the crypto world who's really concentrated also in Africa as well. You know what I mean? Outside of course, of the Bitcoin system itself and how blockchain actually works, but those are like two companies that we really did admire and that's why we partnered with them. What about them did you admire so much? I mean, you know, me think I like companies that kind of think outside of the traditional developed world market, you know, and I thought that, you know, they really put more energy into developing markets and they built their platforms to actually be parallel with, you know, developing markets. And these are the kind of things that we needed for our platform because that's what we cater to was developing markets that can actually work in the developing world. So you yourself have been developing your own cryptocurrency called Acoyne for a couple of years now. And which as far as I understand, this is a utility token that will tokenize cell phone prepaid minutes. How did you come up with the idea for Acoyne? Well, see, a lot of people don't really understand how Africa itself works. This is why a lot of our platforms built on Africans and how they live on a day-to-day basis, because there we have so many currencies in Africa and a lot of them are unstable and most of them are untrusted. We got to the point where the day-to-day African people didn't even use the currency anymore. They were using their cell phone minutes and credits as a way of currency trading cell phone minutes and credits for basic goods like produce, fish, fruits and things on the market. So that came with a crazy idea that allowed us to even build what you call the atomic swap on the Acoyne platform where you can utilize your credits and turn those into Acorns, which will give you the actual currencies that you can spend them in any market. So would you say that these prepaid cell phone minutes, are they like a sort of universal currency in Africa? Yeah. I mean, prepaid cell phone minutes is used as currency in a lot of parts of Africa. That was one of the things that propelled us to realize, man, Acoyne is going to be very needed because ultimately, outside of the villages, you really can't trade cell phone minutes for anything. So we want to be able to utilize that same mindset to take advantage of that mechanism outside of Africa. So even when they leave the continent, they can be able to utilize all their credits and really be able to purchase real things. And do you know when the whitepaper for Acoyne will be released? That's a great question because it's actually being released today. So yeah, happy to see you, man. You know, you can look it up and get all the information you need on it. And I thought it was a great thing because most people do have a lot of questions. So the whitepaper really clear up a lot of those questions. And of course, I've been in a lot of events and blockchain summits and stuff like that to be able to answer any questions after the whitepapers read. Awesome. I can't wait to take a look at it. And so why exactly did you choose the Stellar blockchain to issue your token on? Well, I always felt Stellar was really, I love the way that their system is set up. And they're really set up to really conform within these underdeveloped markets, especially specifically in Africa. They've been doing a lot of great things. They teamed up and partnered with thousands and thousands of banks, you know. And of course, you know, they think a little bit outside of the box. And I always felt that, you know, they will be a great partner for us to have for sure. So you've said in the past that you would like Africa to become the United States of Africa or essentially unify Africa. The only way Africa can evolve in that way is that we have to be united. There has to be a united Africa. How do you see Acoyne and cryptocurrency being used to unite Africa? Well, you know, my currency is really set up for empowering the entrepreneurs all throughout Africa, you know. And then when you look at the, you know, the population in Africa, you know, like literally between 65 and 75% of the African population is under 21, who's all very digitally savvy and understand the world of the digitized future. And I thought that ultimately that having that and having that specific audience personally will clearly unite us. And I think the way to unite nations is through money. You know, I think when the money is set up and it's well-trusted and people can trade it amongst each other and utilize their gifts and have all their, you know, you can say, products that they can tokenize and be able to sell it amongst each other, that alone creates a unity that can fulfill the whole future of what Africa can become. And on top of this cryptocurrency, you're also planning to build an entire city powered by transactions with your cryptocurrency. The city will be called Acoyne City and it will be located on 2000 acres of land that the President of Senegal recently signed over to you. At what stage of development is this city project currently at? Oh, no, it's actually at the very, very beginning. We just acquired the land and now we have, you know, technicians on the ground doing all the feasibility studies on it. We also have the master plan being built out. So within the next month and a half, two months, we'll be able to, you know, really launch it and let everyone know exactly how the city is going to look before it's fully built. We also have a streaming rendering of it. So you can be able to go on YouTube and see it in real time and go through, you know, the city itself and see exactly how it's going to look when it's done. So we're really at the very early stages, but I'm super excited because things are moving really fast. Do you have a target date for when you think this might be completed? Right now it's set to be done within five years, but we're building it within five to 10 depending on the technologies that might exist as we're building because we want to make sure that it's really, you know, fueled with all the top latest technologies that's not anywhere. We want to be the first in everything we can see. How do you see this crypto-powered city advancing your goal of a united Africa? Yeah, because, you know, this city is really more so a model that we want to be at a copy and paste throughout the continent. You know, every major African country we want to be able to have an ACON city there. We're currently working on the ACON city in Kenya as we speak right now. And then, of course, we're going to do Gambia, Senegal, that we're currently starting with, and then we want to go into, you know, Nigeria, in Ghana, Ethiopia, you know, where we have the land as well. I mean, it's going to be moving out pretty fast. I think once we get the first city going, it will definitely help to align all the other partners to be able to invest in all the other countries that we want to do it. Where are you getting the funding for all of these projects? A lot of funding is all private funding, partly funding from the government because they also partners within the city itself. But I think we're going to get a lot of more, we're going to get more private funding than anything. Of course, the government will hold the initial funding and get the first phase of funding going because it will be the ones building the basic infrastructure, you know, like the streets and roads and, you know, the things like that that you have to have actually. But I think once we start moving on, I think the crypto world itself is going to be in the digital world and younger generation. I think we're going to kind of, I think we're going to bring in a lot of funding for that.