My belief is that my kids and the children of today will be completely fluent in moving in and out of not just cryptocurrency

In 2007, after graduating with an MBA in Management and Strategy from the University of Chicago, my passion for innovation and disruption led me west to California in search of 'golden' opportunities in the tech boom sweeping the nation. I found myself drawn to all things Web 2.0, community-driven, and focused on social impact. After a decade serving as COO for star startups in this space, the next logical step was the evolution into Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. The ability to establish new forms of value with cryptocurrency, backed by the global efficiencies and transparency found in blockchain—still in its nascent stages—was a transition I was destined to dive into fully.

With my background in management, strategy, and innovation, I began advising executives of blockchain and crypto startups looking to scale their business to market. I quickly found myself presented with a game-changing opportunity I couldn't refuse: joining forces with Akon (the global icon) and Akoin, a new cryptocurrency and DApp ecosystem designed for Africa and other developing nations.

We are currently in the final stages of launching Akoin on a major exchange and deploying the wallet to market in Africa. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring global and economic empowerment to the entrepreneurial-minded youth of Africa.

Meeting the iconic artist Akon and his brilliant partner Jon Karas. Within hours, we had aligned on a shared vision for economic empowerment, entrepreneurial tools, and delivering a more trusted, less volatile cryptocurrency—Akoin—for all of Africa. We aimed to create a digital asset that provided real utility and value on our Akoin wallet and in the local context through vendor, partner, and regional partnerships.

With 54 countries in Africa, each trading in its own local fiat currency with varying degrees of volatility and trust, our vision for Akoin was to create a unifying currency and a store of value for the continent. This is coupled with the trust and brand recognition of Akon, who successfully brought solar power to Africa and is currently building the futuristic Akon City in Senegal. It's a powerful combination.

Furthermore, the Akoin wallet delivers business and life-building tools and services to rising entrepreneurs and the growing youth population. It provides real utility and value to help individuals build sustainable livelihoods and achieve global economic inclusion. The Akoin cryptocurrency powers and provides access to this ecosystem, alongside local and regional business partnerships.

Having a suite of business tools and using a currency you can trust to store value is something we take for granted in the United States. We want to bring that to Africa and take it a step further. With a population that has leapfrogged into mobile technology and is significantly more adept with cryptocurrencies, it's the perfect environment where enormous need meets a massive solution.

Social mobility is the perfect way to describe this movement, combining the power of mobile-based finance with upward mobility and global economic access. The possibilities are endless as we introduce these foundational tools and services to Africa. We will then amplify this success by showcasing the adoption of these new models in Africa and then replicating them in other countries—a true global cross-pollination!

As these stories are shared, more people will enter the space, especially visionaries and entrepreneurs, which is a great thing. The more brilliant minds that come together at this unique moment in time, the greater the global innovation—and the better it is for the world. We can all move into this next wave of cryptocurrency and blockchain together.

At the core of Akoin, we're supercharging what Africans can already do with mobile money transactions, which are already a massive store of value on the continent. A user can enter the Akoin ecosystem and gain access to powerful tools and services on the wallet by using mobile money (and local fiat and other cryptocurrencies), all while participating in both the global economy and transacting locally.

Specifically, regarding economic impact, we're focused on ensuring more and more Africans can enter the economic marketplace through Akoin. We start with a more trusted, less volatile, and digital cross-border currency in Akoin, ensuring high fungibility in the local market and online for global exchange. Adoption only happens if people can access your service, so partnerships from education to connected Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and devices are all on our roadmap. Ultimately, we are deeply invested in ensuring people have efficient and secure ways to manage and own their digital identities.

Akoin is not a crypto lending wallet, though we will be offering partnered solutions within the Akoin ecosystem for crypto lending and investment, all the way to educational programs and investment opportunities out of our Akoin Foundation, including micro-lending and crowdfunding.

We're launching on a major crypto exchange in the coming weeks, which has been a tremendous effort and will provide huge value for our users and partners. We're very excited about that milestone.

Beyond the roadmap items mentioned above, I'm particularly excited about a 'DApp Builder Agency' we're developing. It will allow ANYONE to create and list their product or service online and transact in and out of Akoin, creating value for the creator and providing them with global sales opportunities and business liquidity.

I'm also thrilled about the educational programs we'll be rolling out from the Akoin Foundation. This includes a major initiative we're building with Gist.AI to launch Opportunity Hubs throughout Africa. Here, individuals can learn creative and blockchain skills and earn Akoin in the process. This program will bring waves of new opportunities to Africa, and each Opportunity Hub will feature an Akoin on and off-ramp for local fiat currencies.

I'm particularly excited about the prospects of blockchain-based Universal Basic Income (UBI) programs, like the one we're seeing with Good Dollar, led by pioneer Yoni Assia, the founder of e-Toro.

User experience, plus globally recognized and aligned payment and regulatory standards. Crypto needs to become as simple to use as every other form of digital payment widely used today, and we're getting close.

Also, similar to my experience bringing together the CEOs of major banks to find common ground on exchange standards and regulations everyone could agree on, we need global leaders from business and government to come together. We must drive and adopt global cryptocurrency exchange standards, regulations, and adoption programs to achieve true global transformation and the highest level of fungibility.

My belief is that my kids and the children of today will be completely fluent in moving in and out of not just cryptocurrency, but in managing their perceived and real 'assets' across multiple properties, projects, and digital stores of value.

I've spoken about this at conferences. When I talk to my own kids about cryptocurrency, they grasp the concept instantly as I describe a world where they can move the 'points' they've accumulated playing games like Roblox or Minecraft into items they want to buy on Amazon. They completely understand a world where they have a 'wallet' that includes all the places they go and store value (even if it's just in-game points now). They see how these points could equate to real-world purchasing power, which could be interchanged into SOME of the other places they want to transact within—e.g., Roblox to Amazon, achieving fungibility. They're empowered by the idea of having this level of control over their perceived and actual 'assets,' and they're only 9 and 11. This is the future.