African countries seem to be doubling down on cryptocurrencies. Central African Republic [CAR] took a step ahead and announced the launch of its very own crypto, Sango Coin. This isn’t the country’s first crypto-friendly move. Back in April CAR emerged as the first African country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Now, further elevating its inclination towards crypto, CAR announced the launch of a bitcoin sidechain to its Sango Coin.
In a recent report, it was revealed that CAR would roll out the Sango Platform on the 25th of July. This entity is expected to lure in businesses and crypto talent/enthusiasts across the globe. Alongside this, the Sango Platform would act as a core for activities like crowdfunding, community engagement, and distribution.
“Users are now able to become eligible and get ready for the official launch on the 25th of July by registering & getting KYC approved.”
As highlighted in the Sango Whitepaper, the Sango would carry out functions as a private Bitcoin sidechain. Its characteristics will mirror Blockstream’s Liquid Network. A common question that is posed is why not use Bitcoin as it is?
The whitepaper points out several reasons why. BTC’s scalability remains a major one.
“Bitcoin is designed for large transfers, but not daily operations, so Bitcoin’s capacity to support 5-7 transactions per second is not sufficient for daily usage. Africa is unbanked at this moment, onboarding the millions of users to use such a system would go over the support that TPS Bitcoin has at this moment.”
In addition to this, the e-government infrastructure of CAR cannot be displayed on a public blockchain, due to privacy reasons. Therefore, BTC’s blockchain wouldn’t be feasible.
Here’s how the Sango sidechain will function
According to reports, the Layer 2 of the project will include an integrated Bitcoin interoperability through a two-way peg mechanism. The Institutional Quorum of validators will be in charge of maintaining CAR’s Bitcoin treasury. Processing transactions to and from Bitcoin will fall under the purview of these validators. They will also be verifying sidechain rules in addition to this. The sidechain will entail 21 node validators and will be overseen by elected officials.
Furthermore, Users that deposit BTC into the Sango sidechain will generate a wrapped bitcoin known as Sango BTC (s-BTC). Users can further exchange their s-BTC for SANGO.
CAR’s latest move could undoubtedly elevate the country’s hold in the crypto market.