Uganda is fast becoming the site for the growth of financial experiments aided by crypto, and these have the potential to bring about a revolution in the cryptocurrency industry. This can cause a collapse of the fiat currencies in the Western world which has been providing staunch resistance to cryptocurrency.
$DALA, an Ethereum-based crypto, was launched by Wala which is a South African start-up. $DALA has enabled bringing a large number of people living in the South-Eastern region of Africa back into the fold of the financial system. Earlier, due to Uganda’s impractical, uneconomical and costly financial system, a vast proportion of the population was excluded from the same. $DALA is offering various financial services such as money transfer, airtime top-up, making school fees payment etc. All these financial services are being offered almost on a zero-fee basis.
Since its successful ICO launch in May 2018, where the crypto successfully raised $1.2 million, it has witnessed over 2.5 million transactions and the opening of over 100000 $DALA accounts.
$DALA provides millions of Africans easy access to efficient, cheap, seamless financial services allowing them to borrow, save and transact using a decentralised financial system which is much economical and accessible as compared to the existing financial system prevalent in the country. The token utilises Ether for its crypto-wallet function and Stellar for making transaction.
$DALA-CPEM Electricity Partnership
$DALA is also participating in a new large-scale electricity project in Uganda valued at $1.5 billion. This project aims to enable citizens of Uganda to join in the clean energy economy enabled by the blockchain technology. This project is initiated by CleanPath Emerging Markets Uganda or the CPEM; an energy company co-founded by the Prince of the Buganda Kingdom, Prince Kudra Kalema. The Buganda Kingdom’s royal lineage goes back to the 14th Century AD.
The Prince informed TechCrunch that with the utilisation of the $DALA protocol, it is evident that the current structure of the existing financial system is inadequate for the citizens of the African Nation, making it clear something more was needed. The fiat currency of Uganda shilling is not stable enough to such programs. Using $DALA is more than using a form of cryptocurrency in an emerging economy. It is also about the creation and developing the best possible types of financial institutions for the country.
Tricia Martinez, the CEO and co-founder of Wala also spoke to TechCrunch and stated that the numbers witnessed since $DALA’s launch are staggering, and a considerable proportion of the current users of the cryptocurrency are from Uganda, hence the partnership is an organic process of allowing users the opportunity to benefit by using the $DALA even further. The user traffic levels of the token are quite high, indicating that the people of Uganda are ready to embrace and use cryptocurrencies in their daily transactions.
Under the current partnership, the people of Uganda can purchase solar energy from the electricity project of $DALA whereas the CPEM will utilise the blockchain platform of $DALA for organisation of its ledger, creation of smart vendor contracts, partnership commitments etc. wherein vendors and workers will be paid in accordance with the $DALA framework.
