Hello Steemit! We are Baracoin, and we have a vision: to build a continent-wide financial network that will connect millions of Africans like never before, stimulating and simplifying trade between countries and benefiting customers and businesses alike.
We are going to do this using the Stellar consensus protocol as our backbone, allowing us to deliver these services cheaper and faster than traditional means. This will open the global financial system up for demographics and populations in Africa that have so far been excluded from participating in it - mostly those lower on the socio-economic ladder, those who live in remote areas that are difficult to penetrate, and those who work in the informal sector, which accounts for nearly 60% of sub-Saharan GDP.
Our system will be powered by two native assets: the primary one is Baracoin(BRC), a currency coin which will have its value pegged to 1 Euro and will be backed by equivalent reserves in bank accounts set up exclusively for this purpose. This will provide stability that many national currencies in Africa lack, as well as a common currency that can be used anywhere in the content without having to deal with exorbitant exchange rates.
The secondary asset is Baratoken(BRT), a reward/loyalty token which will be awarded to customers for making transactions on the Bara Network, and will be redeemable for merchant discounts and value added services. These discounts will give customers an incentive to purchase from Network Merchants - these are merchants who opt into membership of the Bara Network, who will also receive preferential placing in the location-based directory app we are building which will list all places that accept Baracoin.
If you'd like a more detailed explanation of how Baracoin and Baratoken work, check out this article from our Medium blog.
Why are we doing this?
It is a well-known fact that Africa lags far behind the rest of the world in almost every metric of development you can name, whether it’s urbanisation, literacy, adoption and penetration of technology or our own personal bugbear, financial inclusion. The situation is far from bleak and hopeless, though – it simply means that there is a much higher ceiling for improvement. New technologies are poised to accelerate development to a rate much faster than has been seen before, and an underdeveloped place like Africa will see the greatest percentage benefit from it. It is in this backdrop that we see blockchain technology as having immense potential in Africa, not only to supplant current financial systems, but to leapfrog them entirely for large segments of the population.
Every one of Africa’s limitations is interwoven with the others, and progress in one area will inevitably lead to progress in the others. We have chosen to put our focus on this particular issue and those directly related to it, such as improving technical literacy and internet access, with the knowledge that the benefits will ripple outwards and add to the feedback loop that is lifting thousands of Africans out of poverty every day.
Our Team
Our team hails from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Zimbabwe, Ireland, The UK and the UAE. The majority of the team is from Zimbabwe, a country which has experienced firsthand the worst of the problems that plague the rest of Africa. The issues we have set out to contribute towards fixing in our own way don’t just exist as abstractions to us – they are a real part of our lives. The people whose opportunities we are helping to broaden aren’t just numbers on spreadsheets or faceless masses; they are our friends, our neighbours, our relatives, the people we buy bread and milk from every morning, who transport us, who grow our food. The work we are doing is personal for us, and we are committed to making a difference.
A few members of our team above - Robert Maweni(Left) is our CEO. Hussein Jaafar(Center) is our COO and CTO and oversees our outreach efforts, and you will get occasonal comments and posts from him. Jabulani Mhlanga(Right, also 
You can check out the rest of our team on our website, and you'll get to meet them over the next few weeks as we explore the different parts of our operations.
Images by Tinashe Mandimika of Baracoin