1
00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:03,040
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest episode from the

2
00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,440
Speaker 1: midweek edition of the coin Bureau podcast. Every week, I

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,040
Speaker 1: pick out two of my favorite videos from coin Bureau's

4
00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:12,440
Speaker 1: YouTube channel to present to you in podcast form. The

5
00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:15,120
Speaker 1: audio you're about to hear is from those videos I've

6
00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:17,880
Speaker 1: chosen this week, and I hope you enjoy listening. The

7
00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,440
Speaker 1: fallout from the collapse of f t X and Alameda

8
00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:24,160
Speaker 1: Research continues to dominate the crypto headlines and is likely

9
00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:27,440
Speaker 1: to do so for some time. There are well founded

10
00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,000
Speaker 1: concerns that the contagion from this disaster could spread to

11
00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,120
Speaker 1: other crypto companies and projects in due course. One project

12
00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:38,240
Speaker 1: that could be most at risk is Slana, thanks to

13
00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:41,080
Speaker 1: the fact that f t X and Alameda were its

14
00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:46,560
Speaker 1: biggest investors. Slana is, or rather was, f t x's

15
00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:51,240
Speaker 1: day facto exchange chain too. The project is therefore uncomfortably

16
00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,720
Speaker 1: exposed to the fallout, and Soul's price has already crashed

17
00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:59,440
Speaker 1: much harder than most other cryptos. It's not just Slana itself, though,

18
00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:03,080
Speaker 1: the projects in its ecosystem are also at risk, which

19
00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:05,480
Speaker 1: means a lot more pain is coming for them. For

20
00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,320
Speaker 1: Salana and for the crypto market as a whole. So

21
00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:12,480
Speaker 1: here's a breakdown of what Salana is all about, why

22
00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,800
Speaker 1: it's so threatened by ft x IS collapse, and why

23
00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,160
Speaker 1: there may still be hope for the future. Next up,

24
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:21,880
Speaker 1: it's mercifully time to move away from crypto for a

25
00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,440
Speaker 1: while and look at something happening in the wider world.

26
00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,200
Speaker 1: Aging populations in the West and elsewhere mean that Africa

27
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:32,240
Speaker 1: is projected to become increasingly influential in coming decades as

28
00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:35,479
Speaker 1: it reaps a demographic dividend from its higher birth rates

29
00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:38,920
Speaker 1: as well as young working age people. The continent is

30
00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:41,840
Speaker 1: also rich in other resources too, and as such is

31
00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:46,040
Speaker 1: attracting increasing amounts of investment from countries looking to capitalize

32
00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:49,200
Speaker 1: on its riches. One country has been more proactive than

33
00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:52,360
Speaker 1: any other in this regard, and that is China, which

34
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,640
Speaker 1: has invested billions of dollars across Africa as part of

35
00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,360
Speaker 1: its Belt and Road initiative. An increasing amount of Africa's

36
00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,760
Speaker 1: infrastructure has been built using Chinese money, and naturally, China's

37
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,520
Speaker 1: influence across the continent has grown with every railway laid

38
00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:11,520
Speaker 1: and airport terminal built. But as some nations have discovered

39
00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,079
Speaker 1: to their cost, Chinese money can come with some unpleasant

40
00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:18,240
Speaker 1: strings attached, and many are worried that the ultimate cost

41
00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:21,520
Speaker 1: of China's largesse may be greater than what many in

42
00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,720
Speaker 1: Africa bargained for. In the second part of today's episode,

43
00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:27,680
Speaker 1: you'll hear the story of China's own scramble for Africa,

44
00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,520
Speaker 1: how it's gone down with Africans themselves, and what the

45
00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:34,880
Speaker 1: future might hold. Thanks for listening to today's episode, and

46
00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:37,400
Speaker 1: there'll be more coming your way soon. And if you

47
00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,040
Speaker 1: want even more content from coin Bureau, be sure to

48
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:43,520
Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube channels and visit us on social

49
00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,960
Speaker 1: media too. And one more thing. This year at the

50
00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,720
Speaker 1: coin Bureau, we're celebrating Black Friday with up to fifty

51
00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:54,640
Speaker 1: off items in our merch store. There's a link in

52
00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 1: the description of the podcast, so please do check it

53
00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:20,519
Speaker 1: out and see if there's something you fancy. The collapse

54
00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,960
Speaker 1: of f t X and Alameda Research has done serious

55
00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,600
Speaker 1: damage to the crypto market, and it seems that Slana

56
00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:31,600
Speaker 1: was one of the most affected crypto projects. Now this

57
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,679
Speaker 1: makes sense given that Salana was the day facto exchange

58
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,120
Speaker 1: chain of f t X, and that both f t

59
00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:43,760
Speaker 1: X and Alameda were big investors and participants in Salana's ecosystem. Today,

60
00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,000
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a quick recap of Salana,

61
00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:48,600
Speaker 1: tell you what's been going on with the project, and

62
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:53,360
Speaker 1: examine whether Soul will survive the f t X Alameda meltdown.

63
00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:57,080
Speaker 1: I want to start with some transparency, and that's that

64
00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:01,200
Speaker 1: I no longer hold Soul as part of my crypto portfolio.

65
00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:04,480
Speaker 1: If you're subscribed to my weekly newsletter, you'll know that

66
00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:08,480
Speaker 1: Soul accounted for almost eight percent of my portfolio until

67
00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,520
Speaker 1: last weekend. Note that you can find the link to

68
00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:15,800
Speaker 1: my weekly newsletter in the description. Now, my decision to

69
00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,080
Speaker 1: sell Soul was based on many factors, including the current

70
00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,080
Speaker 1: state of the crypto market, but there is no denying

71
00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,719
Speaker 1: that the ft X Alameda situation was top of mind

72
00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,800
Speaker 1: for me. Now, I must also stress that this is

73
00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:33,040
Speaker 1: not financial advice. It's just my opinion, and you will

74
00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,479
Speaker 1: obviously have yours. That said, I will give both a

75
00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:41,440
Speaker 1: bearish and a bullish case for Salana in today's video.

76
00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:45,159
Speaker 1: That's because there does seem to be some hope for

77
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:48,960
Speaker 1: Soul on the horizon. It just looks very far away

78
00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,800
Speaker 1: from where I'm standing. That's just my perspective, though, and

79
00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,640
Speaker 1: I would love to get yours in the comments section now.

80
00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:59,479
Speaker 1: As many of you will know, Slana was founded in

81
00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:03,919
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen by former Qualcom engineer and a Toty Yakovenko.

82
00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,200
Speaker 1: The Salana blockchain was built by Salana Labs, which is

83
00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:11,719
Speaker 1: based in the United States, and its ongoing development is

84
00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,880
Speaker 1: coordinated by the Salana Foundation, which is based in Switzerland.

85
00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:20,240
Speaker 1: Salana raised twenty five million dollars across various I c

86
00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,480
Speaker 1: o s between twenty eighteen and twenty, and raised an

87
00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:27,480
Speaker 1: additional three hundred and fourteen million dollars from crypto vcs

88
00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 1: last year. F t X and Alameda Research were two

89
00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,960
Speaker 1: of the largest investors in Salana and were two of

90
00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,400
Speaker 1: the largest investors in Salana's ecosystem, that is, crypto projects

91
00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:46,240
Speaker 1: building on Salana. This is because Salana's original goal was

92
00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:50,720
Speaker 1: to become a decentralized alternative to centralize stock exchanges like

93
00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,680
Speaker 1: the NASDAK. Now this is a goal that f t

94
00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:58,159
Speaker 1: X and Alameda founder Sam Bankman Freed could get behind,

95
00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:01,719
Speaker 1: given that his endgame was also to displace the existing

96
00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:06,960
Speaker 1: institutions with his own infrastructure. Salana's main net went live

97
00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:11,240
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty and its blockchain is still technically in beta.

98
00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,200
Speaker 1: Recent comments by anatotally suggest that Salana may soon be

99
00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,560
Speaker 1: entering its alpha stage, which is surprising given that the

100
00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:24,440
Speaker 1: Salana blockchain continues to experience issues. More about all that

101
00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:29,400
Speaker 1: later on. Under the hood, the Salana blockchain uses a

102
00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:33,760
Speaker 1: novel proof of state consensus mechanism that time stamps transactions

103
00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:38,479
Speaker 1: using a technology called proof of history. This consensus mechanism

104
00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:41,520
Speaker 1: makes it possible for the Salana blockchain to process up

105
00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:46,320
Speaker 1: to sixty five thousand transactions per second. Until recently, the

106
00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:50,520
Speaker 1: Salana blockchain was secured by almost twenty two hundred validators.

107
00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:54,839
Speaker 1: Salana's validate account was just eighteen hundred and fifty when

108
00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:59,120
Speaker 1: ft X and Alameda collapsed. This suggests that f t

109
00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:03,479
Speaker 1: X and a meda we're running lots of Salana validators.

110
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:08,600
Speaker 1: Note that Salana transactions are processed by clusters of up

111
00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:12,840
Speaker 1: to one hu fifty validators now. Soul is the native

112
00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:17,400
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency coin of the Salana blockchain. Like all cryptocurrency coins,

113
00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:21,679
Speaker 1: Soul is used to pay for transaction fees. Of every

114
00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:26,480
Speaker 1: transaction fee is burned, with the other half going to validators. Obviously,

115
00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:31,120
Speaker 1: Soul is also used for staking staking rewards are currently

116
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,720
Speaker 1: around eight percent for both validators and delegators with a

117
00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:37,920
Speaker 1: five day lock up. There is no minimum stake for

118
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,720
Speaker 1: validators or delegators, though the hardware requirements for running of

119
00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:48,560
Speaker 1: validator are very high. Misbehaving validators are also slashed. Staking

120
00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:52,240
Speaker 1: soul as a delegator can be easily done using the

121
00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:56,240
Speaker 1: Phantom Browser extension wallet, which also acts as a gateway

122
00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:01,360
Speaker 1: to Salana's ecosystem. The Phantom extension has been downloaded over

123
00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:05,400
Speaker 1: two million times on Chrome and dab Radar's data suggests

124
00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:08,800
Speaker 1: that Salana's DAPs have at least half a million monthly

125
00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:14,800
Speaker 1: active users. The focus of Slana's ecosystem was initially defy.

126
00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:17,640
Speaker 1: This was in large part due to f t X,

127
00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:22,400
Speaker 1: which had its own defied project called projects Serum. What's

128
00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:25,680
Speaker 1: crazy is that the order book based Serum decks lay

129
00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:30,520
Speaker 1: at the heart of Salana's entire defy ecosystem, providing liquidity

130
00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:34,720
Speaker 1: and pricing data to many other major DeFi protocols. To

131
00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:38,480
Speaker 1: my knowledge, most of Serum's liquidity came from f t

132
00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:42,440
Speaker 1: X and Lameter. Now, the massive draw down in the

133
00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:46,920
Speaker 1: total value locked in Salana's DeFi protocols following terrorist collapse

134
00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:50,920
Speaker 1: in May. Therefore, suggests that this is when ft X

135
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:55,040
Speaker 1: and Alameda started to experience the issues that ultimately lead

136
00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:57,880
Speaker 1: to their collapse. You can learn more about the ft

137
00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:01,280
Speaker 1: X an Alameda situation using the in the description I

138
00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:05,680
Speaker 1: digress now. It's barely been three months since our last

139
00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:08,360
Speaker 1: covered Salana, but a lot has happened since then, and

140
00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:11,599
Speaker 1: not just stuff that's related to Alameda and f t X.

141
00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:15,440
Speaker 1: Shortly after our last update, a group of Salana projects

142
00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:19,120
Speaker 1: announced the creation of a cross chain messaging protocol. If

143
00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,480
Speaker 1: you watched our Cosmos update from around that time, you'll

144
00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:25,199
Speaker 1: know the announcement seems to have been a not so

145
00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:30,960
Speaker 1: subtle response to cosmos announcement about its upcoming interchain security.

146
00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:35,760
Speaker 1: To my mind, Salana's subsequent announcement underscored the multi chain

147
00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:41,760
Speaker 1: future of crypto. Institutional crypto custodian fire Blocks also announced

148
00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,079
Speaker 1: that it had added support for Salana DeFi protocols and

149
00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,400
Speaker 1: Salana n f t s in case you missed the memo,

150
00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:54,560
Speaker 1: Salana was becoming increasingly popular with institutions. This was in

151
00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:58,120
Speaker 1: large part due to Salana's close relationship with f t

152
00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,959
Speaker 1: X and Alameda. In early September, a crypto project called

153
00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:06,720
Speaker 1: Sui announced that it had raised three hundred million dollars

154
00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:11,280
Speaker 1: from various crypto vcs. Now this is significant because suey

155
00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:15,319
Speaker 1: has its roots in Facebook's failed digital currency project d

156
00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:19,960
Speaker 1: M a k A. Libra, just like Aptos, and Aptos

157
00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:24,120
Speaker 1: is considered by many to be a Salana killer. This

158
00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:28,520
Speaker 1: arguably makes Sue a Salana killer too. This is in

159
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:32,600
Speaker 1: part because both Sue and Aptos are coded in Move,

160
00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:37,720
Speaker 1: a novel programming language developed by d MS developers. Move

161
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:41,319
Speaker 1: is based on the Rust programming language used by Salana,

162
00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:44,800
Speaker 1: but is much more developer friendly, or so I've heard.

163
00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:48,840
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, Sue and Aptos are considered

164
00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:51,920
Speaker 1: to be Salana killers because they're all backed by the

165
00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:56,640
Speaker 1: same entities. Ft X Ventures was a big investor in

166
00:10:56,679 --> 00:11:00,400
Speaker 1: both Aptos and Sue, and aptos co founder Mohammed Shake

167
00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:04,240
Speaker 1: confirmed in an interview that the project was working very

168
00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:09,920
Speaker 1: closely with fd X. Fortunately for Slana, Aptoss and Sue's

169
00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:12,960
Speaker 1: exposure to ft X so early on in their development

170
00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:17,960
Speaker 1: could set them back quite a bit. Unfortunately for Slana,

171
00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,880
Speaker 1: it's even higher exposure to f t X could mean

172
00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:23,920
Speaker 1: that it will be the crypto project that picks the

173
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:29,440
Speaker 1: shortest straw. More on that in a moment anyways. Another

174
00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:33,480
Speaker 1: Salana related announcement in early September came from coin base,

175
00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,839
Speaker 1: whose cloud division spun up archival notes for the Salana blockchain.

176
00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:42,840
Speaker 1: This is significant because Salana's full transaction history was only

177
00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:46,719
Speaker 1: being stored on Google Big Table, which made it quite centralized.

178
00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:51,319
Speaker 1: In mid September, sec chairman Gary Gensler said that proof

179
00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:56,320
Speaker 1: of state cryptocurrencies could be securities. Although Gary's comment was

180
00:11:56,400 --> 00:12:00,480
Speaker 1: likely about Ethereum's transition to proof of steak, Slana Labs

181
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:05,200
Speaker 1: was recently accused of selling securities that is soul, which

182
00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:09,000
Speaker 1: could put it at risk. At the end of September,

183
00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:12,440
Speaker 1: the Helium community voted to migrate it's peer to peer

184
00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:16,920
Speaker 1: networks from the Helium blockchain to the Salana blockchain. This

185
00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,760
Speaker 1: is something we had predicted in one of our earlier

186
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:23,680
Speaker 1: Salana updates. Were it not for the f t X

187
00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:28,760
Speaker 1: Alameda situation, this would have been bullish for h and However,

188
00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:33,040
Speaker 1: the ft X Alameda situation wherein has made Helium Salana

189
00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:36,880
Speaker 1: integration incredibly bearish for h n T, and not just

190
00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,920
Speaker 1: because it's a part of Salana's ecosystem. Back in February,

191
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,400
Speaker 1: Helium raised two d million dollars in a funding round

192
00:12:44,559 --> 00:12:48,319
Speaker 1: co led by you guessed it, f t x Ventures.

193
00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:55,640
Speaker 1: At the end of September, Circle also announced that it

194
00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:59,840
Speaker 1: would be expanding its USDC stable coin to five additional

195
00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:05,839
Speaker 1: smart contract cryptocurrencies and introducing its own cross chain interoperability protocol.

196
00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:10,920
Speaker 1: Now this is evidence that Circle is moving away from Salana,

197
00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:16,880
Speaker 1: which is apparently the official chain for USDC. In early October,

198
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:22,160
Speaker 1: the Salana blockchain experienced yet another outage. This time it

199
00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:27,040
Speaker 1: was due to a misconfigured validator node. For context, most

200
00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:31,320
Speaker 1: of Slana's outages have been due to spam transactions facilitated

201
00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:35,360
Speaker 1: by its block chains fixed transaction fees, which are extremely low.

202
00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,640
Speaker 1: In mid October, app toss announced its main net launch,

203
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,280
Speaker 1: and if you watched our video about the project, you'll

204
00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:45,920
Speaker 1: know that the launch was pretty badly botched. It's still

205
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,720
Speaker 1: boggles my mind that a project with so much funding

206
00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,440
Speaker 1: and backing managed to make so many mistakes, but hey,

207
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,760
Speaker 1: let's not go there. At the end of October, a

208
00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,800
Speaker 1: crypto project called trip Protocol announced it would be creating

209
00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:04,200
Speaker 1: a decentralized alternative to right sharing apps like Uber built

210
00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,680
Speaker 1: on Salana Now, this is the kind of DAP that

211
00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:11,360
Speaker 1: could reach serious mass adoption, and it's such a damn

212
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:15,480
Speaker 1: shame that it's been set back by recent events. In

213
00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:20,400
Speaker 1: early November, almost half of Salana's validators went offline after

214
00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:25,040
Speaker 1: a German cloud service provider called Hetzner banned all crypto

215
00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:29,760
Speaker 1: companies and projects from using its services. The huge impact

216
00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,720
Speaker 1: this had on the Salana blockchain raised even more questions

217
00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:40,000
Speaker 1: about Salana's supposed decentralization. Luckily, for Solana, this bearish news

218
00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:43,160
Speaker 1: was quickly overshadowed by all the bullish news that came

219
00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:47,400
Speaker 1: out of Salana's annual Breakpoint conference in Lisbon. The biggest

220
00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:50,880
Speaker 1: news was that Google Cloud had begun running a validator

221
00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:54,840
Speaker 1: on Salana, which logically means that Google had purchased lots

222
00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:59,000
Speaker 1: of soul. Google Cloud also announced that it had released

223
00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,840
Speaker 1: software too, in decks. Slana's transaction history, which your recall,

224
00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:07,080
Speaker 1: is being stored on Google Big Table. Now. This is

225
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:11,160
Speaker 1: significant because Anatole had mentioned in earlier interviews that it

226
00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:16,720
Speaker 1: was extremely difficult for developers to analyze Salana's transaction history.

227
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:20,560
Speaker 1: Helium also announced that it was building out a mobile

228
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:23,440
Speaker 1: network and would be giving out simcards with a free

229
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:28,440
Speaker 1: thirty day trial to everyone who purchased Salana's upcoming Saga phone.

230
00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:33,080
Speaker 1: Helium also recently partnered with telecoms Giant T Mobile to

231
00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:37,720
Speaker 1: increase five G coverage in rural areas, another great initiative

232
00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,160
Speaker 1: now under threat now. The announcement that everyone seemed to

233
00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:46,120
Speaker 1: miss was that Salana's Neon layer would be launching sometime

234
00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:49,720
Speaker 1: in December. If you've been keeping up with our Salana updates,

235
00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:54,040
Speaker 1: you'll know Neon supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine or e

236
00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:59,200
Speaker 1: v M. E v M compatibility could supercharge Salana's adoption.

237
00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:02,480
Speaker 1: As a cherry on top, Circle announced that it would

238
00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:06,360
Speaker 1: be bringing it's recently released eurostable coin to the Salana

239
00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:10,720
Speaker 1: blockchain next year, making Salana the second smart contract cryptocurrency

240
00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:16,280
Speaker 1: to support euroc after Ethereum. This suggests that Circle hasn't

241
00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,600
Speaker 1: given up on Salana just yet. And then f t

242
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:24,720
Speaker 1: X and Alameda blew up. Not surprisingly, the price of

243
00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:27,960
Speaker 1: every single cryptocurrency that f t X and Alameda had

244
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:32,320
Speaker 1: invested in instantly plummeted. As ft X is day facto

245
00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,840
Speaker 1: exchange chain, Soul was at the top of the list.

246
00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:40,320
Speaker 1: Souls price was only the tip of the Iceberg, However,

247
00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:45,000
Speaker 1: as its entire ecosystem also went into crisis mode, loans

248
00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:48,560
Speaker 1: were liquidated, wrapped tokens issued or backed by f t

249
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,640
Speaker 1: X and Alameda d pegged. The total value locked in

250
00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:57,280
Speaker 1: Slana's DFI protocols fell off a cliff. The upgrade keys

251
00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,720
Speaker 1: for Project Serum and the Serum DECKX were revealed to

252
00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,200
Speaker 1: be in the hands of f t X, causing the

253
00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:07,760
Speaker 1: community to fork what was left of the protocol. Soul

254
00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,080
Speaker 1: holders also feared that nearly a billion dollars of Soul

255
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:15,679
Speaker 1: set to be unlocked would be sold now. Their fears

256
00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:19,080
Speaker 1: were calmed after the Salana Foundation announced it would be

257
00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:22,240
Speaker 1: postponing the unlock of the thirty or so million Soul

258
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:28,120
Speaker 1: once again, though calling Salana's decentralization into question. To add

259
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,439
Speaker 1: insult to injury, Google Cloud announced that it will also

260
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,800
Speaker 1: run validator notes for the ap toss blockchain, and that

261
00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:39,000
Speaker 1: it had partnered with the project for a developer accelerator program.

262
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:44,239
Speaker 1: The timing couldn't have been worse given the circumstances. So

263
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,119
Speaker 1: as you can see, Soul's price was holding up quite

264
00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:52,840
Speaker 1: well until the FTX Alameter situation. Now this is impressive

265
00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,920
Speaker 1: considering that Soul's supply has increased by around fifteen millions

266
00:17:56,920 --> 00:18:01,479
Speaker 1: since August. Assuming an average price of around thirty dollars

267
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:05,320
Speaker 1: per soul, this means Soul experience up to five hundred

268
00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:09,159
Speaker 1: million dollars of cell pressure. On the demand side, it

269
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:13,240
Speaker 1: seems that Solana's n f T marketplaces were absorbing most

270
00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:17,480
Speaker 1: of this supply shock. Institutional investment vehicles for Soul also

271
00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:21,160
Speaker 1: still have more than one hundred million dollars invested at

272
00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:26,080
Speaker 1: Soul's current prices. This is scary considering some of these

273
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:29,199
Speaker 1: et f s were seemingly issued with the help of

274
00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:33,480
Speaker 1: f t X. What's even scarier is that analytics on

275
00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:37,800
Speaker 1: the Salana Explorer show that transactions on Salana have fallen

276
00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:41,639
Speaker 1: off a cliff over the last week. The silver lining

277
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,080
Speaker 1: is that the analytics also suggests the drop in Salana's

278
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:49,320
Speaker 1: validate account was due primarily to Hetzner's crypto ban and

279
00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:53,560
Speaker 1: not the f t X Alameda situation. In any case,

280
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,119
Speaker 1: it's clear that the demand for Soul is down, and

281
00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:01,400
Speaker 1: it's easy to understand why some have begun to question

282
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 1: Solana's future. And this is in large part due to

283
00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:07,520
Speaker 1: the massive amount of Soul that f t X and

284
00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:11,119
Speaker 1: Alameda will be forced to sell when the time comes

285
00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:15,879
Speaker 1: to compensate their creditors. According to the coindesk article that

286
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:19,040
Speaker 1: kick started the concerns about f t X and alamedas

287
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:23,639
Speaker 1: balance sheets, Alameda held roughly one point to billion dollars

288
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:27,719
Speaker 1: of soul in June. Assuming the price was around forty

289
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,159
Speaker 1: dollars per soul at the time, This works out to

290
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:34,640
Speaker 1: around thirty million soul held by the market maker. As

291
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:37,879
Speaker 1: for f t X, recent leaks suggests the exchange held

292
00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:40,720
Speaker 1: around one billion dollars of soul as of a few

293
00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:44,240
Speaker 1: weeks ago. Assuming an average price of around thirty three

294
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:46,920
Speaker 1: dollars per soul, this means that f t X held

295
00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:51,879
Speaker 1: an additional thirty or so million soul now. It's not

296
00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:55,400
Speaker 1: clear how much soul f t X and Alameda currently

297
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:59,199
Speaker 1: hold for what it's worth, these numbers are consistent with

298
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,760
Speaker 1: the recent disc closures by Solana Labs and the Salana

299
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:06,520
Speaker 1: Foundation about their exposure to f t X and Lameter.

300
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,840
Speaker 1: Slana Labs and the Salana Foundation sold a total of

301
00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:14,080
Speaker 1: fifty eight million soul to f t X and Alameda

302
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:18,440
Speaker 1: over the course of more than two years. At current prices,

303
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:22,919
Speaker 1: this soul is worth roughly nine million dollars and accounts

304
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,440
Speaker 1: for more than fifteen percent of souls total supply. While

305
00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:29,879
Speaker 1: not all the Soul held by f t X and

306
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,960
Speaker 1: Alameda is liquid, the fact of the matter is that

307
00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 1: it will inevitably be sold at some point as part

308
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 1: of their bankruptcy proceedings. As I mentioned a few moments ago,

309
00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,160
Speaker 1: Soul managed to survive half a billion dollars of cell

310
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:47,879
Speaker 1: pressure over the last three months. However, this assumes that

311
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:52,000
Speaker 1: the fourteen million Soul that entered circulation were sold, which

312
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:56,520
Speaker 1: is unlikely. This means that Soul may not be nearly

313
00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,879
Speaker 1: as resilient to sell pressure as it seems. More importantly,

314
00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:03,760
Speaker 1: the demand for Soul is not nearly what it was

315
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,360
Speaker 1: even just two weeks ago. This could make it difficult

316
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,360
Speaker 1: to absorb the hundreds of millions of dollars of cell

317
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,359
Speaker 1: pressure that's coming. And that's just from f t X

318
00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:18,399
Speaker 1: and Lameter. There are certainly other institutions and retail investors

319
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: who will sell their Soul, never mind all the promising

320
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,480
Speaker 1: Salana projects that will die because of their exposure to

321
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: f t X and Lameter. To make matters worse, the

322
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:33,560
Speaker 1: bottom of the cryptobar market probably isn't in yet. This

323
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:37,439
Speaker 1: means that Soul will go lower even without all the

324
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:41,560
Speaker 1: cell pressure from these entities. It's long term price charts

325
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:46,280
Speaker 1: suggests Soul could fall to eight dollars. This would be

326
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:50,840
Speaker 1: consistent with the estimated percentage loss in other large alts. Now,

327
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:54,000
Speaker 1: if you're wondering how long this cryptobear market will last,

328
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,440
Speaker 1: be sure to check out our video about that from

329
00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:59,240
Speaker 1: a few months back. I reckon it still holds true

330
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:03,159
Speaker 1: and be doing another video about the potential catalyst that

331
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 1: could take us out of the crypto bear market lows

332
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 1: in the next week or two, so stay tuned. Now.

333
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,360
Speaker 1: Whether Soul will ever rally back to its all time

334
00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 1: highs and beyond depends on the project's upcoming milestones. These

335
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,960
Speaker 1: can be found in an October blog post on the

336
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 1: Salana GitHub and in interviews with Salana founder Anatoly Yakovenko.

337
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:29,399
Speaker 1: The October blog post in question is called quote Salana

338
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:32,520
Speaker 1: Network Upgrades, and it appears to have been published in

339
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:36,639
Speaker 1: response to the outages Solana had experienced earlier that month.

340
00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:40,639
Speaker 1: The next milestone on the list is the introduction of

341
00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 1: different fee markets for different types of transactions. After that,

342
00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,960
Speaker 1: Solana will be increasing the size of the blocks on

343
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:53,320
Speaker 1: its blockchain. This should make Salana even faster, but it

344
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,359
Speaker 1: will likely make its blockchain even more centralized and could

345
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,760
Speaker 1: further compromise its security. As a alt more about the

346
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:05,520
Speaker 1: tradeoffs of tps using the link in the description. The

347
00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,440
Speaker 1: third milestone noted in the blog post is compact vote state,

348
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 1: which can be simply understood as reducing the size of

349
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:17,920
Speaker 1: certain transactions. This could further increase Salana's TPS while protecting

350
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:21,359
Speaker 1: against some of the centralization and security issues that could

351
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:25,359
Speaker 1: arise from the block size increase. Now, what's funny about

352
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:29,480
Speaker 1: these milestones is that they're eerily similar to aptosses milestones.

353
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:33,440
Speaker 1: Ap toss is currently working on implementing different fee markets

354
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:38,640
Speaker 1: for different types of transactions. Salana's inspiration doesn't stop at

355
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 1: transactions either. That's because a repository on the Salana gitub

356
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:46,119
Speaker 1: suggests that it's looking to make it possible to build

357
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 1: on its blockchain using the move programming language. This is

358
00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: significant because the difficulty of building on Salana has been

359
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:58,680
Speaker 1: one of the project's biggest drawbacks. The Salana gitub also

360
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:02,560
Speaker 1: contains many repositi trees related to on chain governance, something

361
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 1: that's been in the works for a while now. I

362
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,160
Speaker 1: don't imagine Solana is in a rush to roll out

363
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:11,919
Speaker 1: its on chain governance now that a significant chunk of

364
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 1: Soul's supply is in limbo via f t X Alameda

365
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 1: and other affected crypto vcs. Speaking of which, anatotally dropped

366
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 1: a bombshell about Salana's development during a panel discussion at

367
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:30,560
Speaker 1: the project's aforementioned Breakpoint conference earlier this month. He basically

368
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: said that he will consider Solana to be out of

369
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: beta once a second validator client has been completed. Now,

370
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 1: this is huge news that seems to have flown under

371
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:46,159
Speaker 1: everyone's radar because of the ft X Alameda situation. To

372
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 1: be fair, and it's only only said that he would

373
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: consider Salana to be out of beta at that point,

374
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: not that it necessarily would be. Even so, it's the

375
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: closest thing we've got to an alpha timeline thus far.

376
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:04,440
Speaker 1: The thing is that Salana still seems to be unreliable,

377
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:08,119
Speaker 1: and its block chain and especially its ecosystem seem to

378
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 1: be in a more vulnerable position than ever. This makes

379
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 1: it hard to understand how Salana could be considered complete

380
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:21,679
Speaker 1: when it's still experiencing so many issues. This brings me

381
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:25,440
Speaker 1: to my concerns about Salana, and my first concern has

382
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,879
Speaker 1: to do with Salana Labs and the Salana Foundation, specifically

383
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 1: their balance sheets. The blog post detailing their exposure to

384
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 1: f t X and Alameda suggests that the Salana Foundation

385
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,439
Speaker 1: only has around one hundred million dollars of cash on hand.

386
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,000
Speaker 1: In case you're wondering, the foundation only had around one

387
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 1: million dollars of cash on ft X when it collapsed. However,

388
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 1: it had two hundred million dollars worth of f t

389
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 1: T and s r M sitting there. These tokens are

390
00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:00,240
Speaker 1: now essentially worth nothing, along with the three point two

391
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 1: million shares of ft X the foundation also holds. Frustratingly,

392
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: the blog post didn't reveal how much runway Salana Labs has,

393
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 1: but Anna Totally mentioned on Twitter that it has enough

394
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,480
Speaker 1: money in the war chest for another thirty months or so.

395
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:20,120
Speaker 1: Anna Totally specified that this runway is in dollars, which

396
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:24,120
Speaker 1: begs the question of how much soul Salana Labs holds,

397
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,480
Speaker 1: and a Totally also confirmed that Salana Labs had no

398
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 1: assets on ft X, which is certainly good news. The

399
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: bad news is that f t X and Alameda were

400
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:38,920
Speaker 1: the primary money funnel for the Salana ecosystem. What's more

401
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: is that Salana's association with ft X and Alameda could

402
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 1: make its ecosystem unattractive to other vcs. What this means

403
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: is that the Salana Foundation and Slana Labs might be

404
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 1: the only entities willing to invest in Salana's ecosystem for

405
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,680
Speaker 1: a while, and the cash they currently have on hand

406
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: won't be nearly enough. This means they might have to

407
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,680
Speaker 1: start selling Soul, which would cause its price to fall

408
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: even further. This relates to my second concern, and that's regulation.

409
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:15,199
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, the SEC is watching proof of

410
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:19,640
Speaker 1: state cryptocurrencies very closely, and Salana Labs is already involved

411
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,280
Speaker 1: in a security suit. The fact that the SEC and

412
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:27,440
Speaker 1: others are now investigating FTX means that Salana could come

413
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:33,200
Speaker 1: under additional scrutiny. Now, my final concern about Salana is straightforward,

414
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 1: and that is competition. Anatoly admitted in an interview that

415
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 1: the Salana team is anxious about Aptos and Suey because

416
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 1: of how developer friendly they are. Aptos and Suey also

417
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 1: have an absurd amount of big tech backing due to

418
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:52,679
Speaker 1: their d M origins. There are also other smart contract

419
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 1: cryptocurrencies like Polka Dot, Near Protocol, Avalanche, Cardana, and Ethereum,

420
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 1: which are fundamentally fighting for dominance of the same critical

421
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: crypto niche. These crypto projects aren't nearly as exposed to

422
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:11,400
Speaker 1: f t X and Alameda as Salana was and continues

423
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:20,439
Speaker 1: to be. In the race for superpower dominance, resources and

424
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:25,199
Speaker 1: influence are the currency's worth accumulating, and this is something

425
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,680
Speaker 1: that China has been doing for years in a continent

426
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:32,360
Speaker 1: many in the West seem to have forgotten about. I am,

427
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,679
Speaker 1: of course talking about Africa, home to some of the

428
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 1: largest deposits of natural resources in the world, a continent

429
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: that contains sixty of the world's arable land, a continent

430
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: that by twenty fifty will have a quarter of the

431
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: world's population. Today. I'm going to tell you exactly what

432
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 1: China has been up to in Africa and what it

433
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: could mean for the balance of global power. Before we

434
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: dive into China's strategy in Africa, it's important to appreciate

435
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,840
Speaker 1: how important the continent will be in the next few decades.

436
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, it's a vast and largely untapped resource

437
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 1: for all types of minerals and commodities, everything from copper

438
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: to cobalt, gold to diamonds, and aluminium to titanium. For example,

439
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 1: according to estimates from the United Nations, Africa is home

440
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: to thirty percent of the world's mineral reserves of the gold,

441
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 1: twelve percent of its oil, and nine of its chromium

442
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 1: and platinum. This map over here is pretty handy, and

443
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: it shows exactly how resource rich Africa is. It's color

444
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 1: coded by those countries with the most abundant minerals. All

445
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 1: of these resources are important for any country that is

446
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:54,479
Speaker 1: looking to continue growing economically. They're even more important at

447
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: a time when older minds are starting to become exhausted

448
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 1: and older wells are running empty. What's perhaps most surprising

449
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: about this is the fact that Africa only accounted for

450
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 1: about five point five percent of the world's total mind

451
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 1: minerals in twenty nineteen. Those deposits are sitting there waiting

452
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: to be extracted, and it's not only the mineral wealth

453
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: that much of Africa is sitting on. Those vast tracts

454
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 1: of arable land mean that the continent could become a

455
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: bread basket for the world. This is particularly relevant now

456
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 1: when you realize how dependent we've become on farmland in

457
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 1: regions such as Ukraine and Russia. And finally, we also

458
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 1: have to consider African's human capital potential. The continent has

459
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: the fastest growing population in the world. Sub Saharan Africa's

460
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: population is expected to double by twenty fifty. This is

461
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,239
Speaker 1: important because of the fact that population decline is one

462
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 1: of the biggest threats the world faces. It's something that

463
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: Elon Musk is most concerned about and it's the subject

464
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,240
Speaker 1: of a video I did recently that is in the

465
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: description for you. The point is that countries cannot continue

466
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: to grow economically if they have declining populations. Hence, as

467
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: Africa is going to have plenty of new young people

468
00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 1: entering the workforce in the coming decades, it can continue

469
00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: its rapid economic growth. By some estimates, Africa is well

470
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 1: on its way to becoming a five trillion dollar economy,

471
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 1: as household consumption is expected to increase at a three

472
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: point eight percent yearly clip. This growing population also presents

473
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: economic advantages for key trading partners. All of these African

474
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 1: citizens will be important consumers of products and services and

475
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: hence will offer strong export demand for countries that have

476
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 1: tapped out Western markets. Not only that, but all these

477
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 1: people could be potential allies or adversaries based on how

478
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: they view other countries. In a game of international influence,

479
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: the more people and country that you have on your side,

480
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: the more geopolitical clouds you have. So it's quite clear

481
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,320
Speaker 1: that there are a number of reasons why Africa is

482
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 1: a continent which cannot be ignored and China is now

483
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: involved in a modern day quote scramble for Africa. Take

484
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,640
Speaker 1: a look at this chart over here. This is the

485
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: total amount of f d I, or foreign direct investment

486
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: that China has been sending to Africa over the past

487
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 1: seventeen years. As you can see, it has gone from

488
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 1: a mere seventy four million dollars in two thousand and

489
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:37,960
Speaker 1: three to over forty five billion in two thousand and eighteen,

490
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: although it shrunk slightly during COVID. All of this makes

491
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 1: China Africa's fourth largest investor and places it ahead of

492
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,960
Speaker 1: the United States in this regard. Not only that, but

493
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 1: Chinese loans to African countries have totaled one hundred and

494
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: fifty three billion dollars between two thousand and two thousand

495
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:01,000
Speaker 1: and nineteen. More about that, in a bit. The vast

496
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:05,240
Speaker 1: majority of this investment in and loans to Africa has

497
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: gone into the development of infrastructure. This is all part

498
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 1: of China's so called Belt and Road Initiative or b

499
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:17,200
Speaker 1: r I for those unfamiliar. This is a global infrastructure

500
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 1: initiative unveiled by the Chinese government in twenty thirteen. It

501
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: forms the centerpiece of Zijimping's foreign policy and calls for

502
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,720
Speaker 1: China to play a greater role in world diplomacy. Essentially,

503
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: it's a strategy to win the hearts and minds of

504
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 1: foreign populations. Of course, this is all infrastructure that the

505
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:42,520
Speaker 1: Chinese could also eventually use themselves. Now. As of August

506
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, one hundred and forty nine countries were listed

507
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: as having signed up to the b r I. Chinese

508
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 1: investments in infrastructure for African countries have been particularly outsized, however.

509
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 1: For example, according to this report in twenty eighteen, China

510
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: provided over twenty of the overall funding contributed towards infrastructure

511
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:09,720
Speaker 1: development projects in Africa, and in this seventeen McKinsey report,

512
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 1: Chinese firms and construction companies one almost half of all

513
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: engineering and procurement projects continent wide. However, while China has

514
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,439
Speaker 1: been ramping up its infrastructure development on the continent under

515
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:27,640
Speaker 1: z it's not in fact a new phenomenon. That's because

516
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:31,319
Speaker 1: China first entered Africa back in the nineteen seventies and

517
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: one of its first projects was a railway that connected

518
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:38,640
Speaker 1: ports in Tanzania to towns in Zambia. This was done

519
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,319
Speaker 1: under the leadership of Chairman Mao and it was the

520
00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: most expensive infrastructure project that China had ever attempted. It

521
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: was also a godsend to Zambia, which was effectively cut

522
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: off from seaports further south thanks to the actions of

523
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:57,400
Speaker 1: the Zimbabwean government. With this new railway, Zambia could export

524
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 1: its copper to world markets, including co incidentally enough, a

525
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: fast growing China. I'll leave a link to the story

526
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 1: about the Tazara railroad in the description for you. It

527
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: is truly fascinating now. Of course, infrastructure developments like this

528
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: and many subsequent ones mean that China has strong ties

529
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 1: with politicians and business leaders in the African countries it

530
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:24,319
Speaker 1: has been built in. This means that they can enter

531
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:28,359
Speaker 1: into mutually beneficial trade agreements which shake up the status quo.

532
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,960
Speaker 1: According to data from China's Customs Agency. Trade between China

533
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,960
Speaker 1: and Africa rose to its highest level last year. It

534
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:41,360
Speaker 1: increased by thirty five percent from twenty to two hundred

535
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:44,759
Speaker 1: and fifty four billion dollars last year. You can see

536
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:48,440
Speaker 1: what that looks like here. Not only that, but China

537
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 1: looks set to overtake the EU as Africa's biggest trading

538
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:57,359
Speaker 1: partner by This will be a symbolic moment given that

539
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: many European nations are viewed by any in Africa as

540
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 1: the colonizers of yesteryear now being overtaken by new colonizers

541
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:09,680
Speaker 1: so to speak. What do I mean by that, Well,

542
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 1: it all really depends on the terms that China has

543
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:17,839
Speaker 1: attached to much of its infrastructure spending. While f DI

544
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 1: is great loans for bridges eight and Africa has been

545
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 1: racking up quite a number of loans over the past

546
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,359
Speaker 1: few years. If you take a look at this infographic here,

547
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,880
Speaker 1: you can see those countries that are most in debt

548
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,880
Speaker 1: to China. African ones stick out like a sore thumb.

549
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: Those countries with the highest debt loads were Jibooty and Angola,

550
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:45,280
Speaker 1: where the aggregate Chinese debt exceeded forty of their gross

551
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 1: national income. In the case of Jibouti, China holds seventy

552
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:52,839
Speaker 1: of its total debt. According to the World Bank and

553
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 1: the i m F, these loans are structured more like

554
00:36:55,719 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 1: commercial loans, and they have shorter repayment windows. Their conditions

555
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 1: are also confidential, and they're usually used for the purpose

556
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:09,920
Speaker 1: of building infrastructure rather than broader humanitarian goals. Now, of course,

557
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,400
Speaker 1: I would argue that the i m F and World

558
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,600
Speaker 1: Bank don't exactly have much right to opine on the matter,

559
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 1: but perhaps that's just me. Either way, the point is

560
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,319
Speaker 1: that when someone owes you money, you have a great

561
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 1: deal of sway over them. That's why people have accused

562
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:31,360
Speaker 1: China of engaging in what is termed quote debt trap diplomacy. Essentially,

563
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:34,800
Speaker 1: if you owe China money, you're more likely to dance

564
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,480
Speaker 1: to its tune, not only when it comes to concessions

565
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 1: within your own country, but also on the international stage.

566
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 1: For the clearest example of this, you only need to

567
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 1: look at how countries in Africa tend to vote on

568
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:52,360
Speaker 1: u N resolutions. For example, in fifty countries issued a

569
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:56,600
Speaker 1: statement supporting China's crackdown in Hong Kong, more than half

570
00:37:56,880 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 1: were African Some African countries have also been silent on

571
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:05,440
Speaker 1: China's human rights record in places like Sinjang. The president

572
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 1: of Burkina FASO has stated, quote, some Western forces hyping

573
00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 1: up the so called Sinjang related issues are actually launching

574
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:17,880
Speaker 1: unprovoked attacks on China to serve their own ulterior motives.

575
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 1: That same meeting was attended by the presidents of Sudan

576
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,920
Speaker 1: and the Republic of the Congo. Or if you want

577
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,240
Speaker 1: to take a look at a much more sensitive issue

578
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:32,879
Speaker 1: with China, you can see how support for Taiwan has

579
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 1: almost completely evaporated across Africa. This wasn't always the case.

580
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 1: Back in the nineteen sixties, Taiwan outpaced China in its

581
00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: efforts to cement diplomatic ties with African nations. However, ever,

582
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,080
Speaker 1: since a ninety one vote that denied Taiwan a seat

583
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: at the UN table, African countries have been switching their

584
00:38:54,640 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 1: allegiances in Burkina FASO officially cut ties with Taiwan, and

585
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 1: now there is only one African country that retains ties

586
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:09,520
Speaker 1: with the island. That's the Kingdom of es Swatini, one

587
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:14,080
Speaker 1: which has been under represented in Chinese investments and wasn't

588
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 1: invited to numerous Africa China summits. It does make me

589
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:22,520
Speaker 1: wonder how long they can hold out. The point is

590
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 1: that China knows that these investments, as well as debts,

591
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:29,280
Speaker 1: give it a great deal of clout with these countries.

592
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: But what happens if a country finds itself in a

593
00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 1: position where it can no longer service its debts. Well,

594
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:41,279
Speaker 1: like any hard up individual debtor, it could lose some

595
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:44,839
Speaker 1: of its collateral. Up until a few years ago, the

596
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:48,839
Speaker 1: notion that a nation state would seize another country's key

597
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:54,160
Speaker 1: infrastructure over a bad debt was laughable. However, this happened

598
00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: a few years ago when China took over the hambn

599
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,080
Speaker 1: Tota Port in Sri Lanka. This was a port built

600
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:05,560
Speaker 1: by the Chinese with debt financed by Chinese banks. When

601
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,600
Speaker 1: Sri Lanka struggled to repay its debt, it was forced

602
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:11,280
Speaker 1: to hand over the port on a nine year lease.

603
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: More about Sri Lanka's economic woes in the description. So

604
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: given Sri Lanka's experience with bad Chinese debt, African countries

605
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: are naturally beginning to worry too. You only need to

606
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,320
Speaker 1: take a look at the number of Chinese built ports

607
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 1: around the world and where they are concentrated. The alarm

608
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:35,360
Speaker 1: over this was raised three years ago in Kenya, for example,

609
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:39,360
Speaker 1: by the country's Order to General. He said that Kenya

610
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,239
Speaker 1: could be made to surrender control of its port in

611
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,800
Speaker 1: Mombassa if it defaulted on a three point six billion

612
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:49,879
Speaker 1: dollar loan from China used to build a railway. It's

613
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 1: not just ports either. Quite recently, there were concerns that

614
00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 1: China may attempt to grab Uganda's sole international airport. This

615
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 1: was due to the fact that China had extended a

616
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 1: two hundred million dollar loan to expand the facilities there.

617
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:09,480
Speaker 1: A parliamentary probe in Uganda concluded that China had imposed

618
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:13,799
Speaker 1: onerous conditions on the loan, including potential forfeiture of the

619
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: airport in case of default. The Ugandan finance minister was

620
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:22,920
Speaker 1: hauled before parliament and grilled about the loan. He apologized

621
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:27,160
Speaker 1: profusely and said, we shouldn't have accepted some of the clauses,

622
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: but they told us you either take it or leave it.

623
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:33,359
Speaker 1: Whether that is indeed the case is hard to tell.

624
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:37,320
Speaker 1: The Chinese, for their part, have adamantly denied the claim

625
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:40,400
Speaker 1: that they were attempting to seize the airport. Moreover, the

626
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:43,920
Speaker 1: concerns that were raised about the Mombassa port appeared to

627
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,759
Speaker 1: be as a result of a misunderstanding over a key

628
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:50,920
Speaker 1: clause in the contract, and as of yet, China still

629
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 1: hasn't seized any African infrastructure. However, concerns do remain. Now

630
00:41:57,360 --> 00:41:59,959
Speaker 1: remember that chart I showed you about how in debt

631
00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 1: Djibouty was to China. Well, it turns out that China

632
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:07,839
Speaker 1: has been investing heavily in the country. This has been

633
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:11,360
Speaker 1: happening ever since China's People's Liberation Army or p l

634
00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:16,520
Speaker 1: A established its first and only overseas military base. China

635
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:19,800
Speaker 1: is said to have spent five hundred and ninety million

636
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: dollars on both this military facility and the door Allah

637
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:27,759
Speaker 1: Multi Purpose Port, the deepest port in East Africa. The

638
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:32,160
Speaker 1: port is also of great strategic importance given its location.

639
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 1: It sits on the Horn of Africa and near key

640
00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:39,719
Speaker 1: shipping routes. More recently, a Chinese company agreed to finance

641
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:43,000
Speaker 1: Djibouty's port revamp in a three hundred and fifty million

642
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 1: dollar investment deal. The company already owned twenty three and

643
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 1: a half percent of the port, so this could be

644
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:53,640
Speaker 1: a further ploy to embed its influence. Given the parallels

645
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 1: that this shares with the Sri Lankan port prior to

646
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:59,840
Speaker 1: its seizure, you have to worry. Let's also not forget

647
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 1: that military base near the port, one that the Chinese

648
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 1: seem dead set on keeping in place. Either way, the

649
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:12,400
Speaker 1: prospect of infrastructure seizures or more onerous concessions will always

650
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:16,480
Speaker 1: dog those African countries that have taken on Chinese debt. Okay,

651
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:19,760
Speaker 1: So that's a concern that many have with Chinese engagement

652
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:23,879
Speaker 1: in Africa. But what do Africans themselves think of this?

653
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 1: And are these characterizations by the Western media fair. Most

654
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 1: Africans view China in a positive light. For example, a

655
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:38,040
Speaker 1: survey last year of thirty four African countries by Afro Barometer,

656
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 1: a research group, found that six of the respondents thought

657
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:48,240
Speaker 1: China had a very or somewhat positive influence. The US meanwhile,

658
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:53,800
Speaker 1: only scored Quite surprisingly, the African Union has a lower

659
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: rating than both countries. The Economist magazine also conducted a

660
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 1: similar survey earlier this year, where the majority of the

661
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 1: respondents thought China had a good rather than a bad influence,

662
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:09,960
Speaker 1: and in another survey by the Ichi Kowitz Family Foundation,

663
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:13,799
Speaker 1: the vast majority of African youth see China as the

664
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:18,359
Speaker 1: most influential player on the continent. This survey targeted four

665
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:21,440
Speaker 1: and a half thousand younger Africans between the ages of

666
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 1: eighteen and twenty four. It's also important to note that

667
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:29,040
Speaker 1: US influence in the minds of these citizens has also

668
00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:32,759
Speaker 1: dropped over the years. China's impact on the continent was

669
00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 1: also seen as more positive than that of the US.

670
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:40,160
Speaker 1: According to the survey's authors, quote, young Africans are telling

671
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:43,879
Speaker 1: us that they are seeing tangible, visible and very impactful

672
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,719
Speaker 1: signs of the role that China has played in the

673
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:51,960
Speaker 1: development of Africa. This is all quite telling. It shows

674
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:55,360
Speaker 1: that despite the concerns in the Western media about China's

675
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:59,759
Speaker 1: intentions in Africa, African people themselves still view China as

676
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 1: a end rather than a foe. That is interesting in itself,

677
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 1: but it also shows that mistrust of the West runs

678
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:12,880
Speaker 1: deep in Africa. China is definitely not making these investments

679
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: for charitable purposes, but as long as local citizens see

680
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 1: some of the returns from said investments, it's an improvement

681
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:23,440
Speaker 1: on the status quo. So what if China is funding

682
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 1: the construction of an airport or a road. It's better,

683
00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:29,960
Speaker 1: surely than not having them at all. Let's also not

684
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 1: forget that the i m F and World Bank have

685
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:36,640
Speaker 1: a really shoddy record when it comes to growth and development.

686
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 1: I talked about this in my video on the I

687
00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:42,840
Speaker 1: m F, which I'll leave in the description for you. Moreover,

688
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:46,200
Speaker 1: I happen to think that the often patronizing way in

689
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:51,320
Speaker 1: which Western governments, media and other organizations portray Africa could

690
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 1: play a factor in these surveys. Africa is sometimes made

691
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 1: out to be a somewhat hapless place that's unwittingly being

692
00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:02,520
Speaker 1: taken advantage of by ruthless foreign governments, an image that

693
00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 1: many Africans doubtless take issue with. African leaders also want

694
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:09,880
Speaker 1: to make it clear to Western governments that they have

695
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,279
Speaker 1: no option but to deal with China on account of

696
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 1: the lack of engagement from the West, and they have

697
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 1: a point. Despite this, though, it's encouraging to see that

698
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,960
Speaker 1: many Africans do also have a healthy dose of skepticism

699
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,800
Speaker 1: when it comes to China. According to that aforementioned Afrobarometer survey,

700
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:33,880
Speaker 1: the majority of the respondents are concerned about being heavily

701
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 1: indebted to China and say that their governments have borrowed

702
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 1: too much money. The respondents also think that China's influence

703
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: is on the decline. The proportion of Africans who said

704
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:50,120
Speaker 1: China's economic activities in their countries have some or a

705
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 1: lot of influence on their economies has declined over the

706
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:59,839
Speaker 1: past five years from se to But if China can

707
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,920
Speaker 1: in us to be viewed more favorably by Africans than

708
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:06,040
Speaker 1: the West, then it will be well positioned to take

709
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:08,759
Speaker 1: advantage of a continent that is poised to become a

710
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:18,360
Speaker 1: global powerhouse in a few decades time. Okay, time for

711
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:21,360
Speaker 1: a few of my thoughts on China's scramble for Africa.

712
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:24,680
Speaker 1: It's quite clear that Africa is going to become one

713
00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:28,040
Speaker 1: of the most important, if not the most important, continent

714
00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: in the not too distant future. Therefore, it makes logical

715
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,799
Speaker 1: sense for China to be positioning itself to make the

716
00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:39,280
Speaker 1: most of the opportunities there. China cannot continue to power

717
00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:42,680
Speaker 1: its economic engine unless it has the resources to buy

718
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: goods as well as the buyers to consume them. It

719
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,600
Speaker 1: also needs to curry favor with countries around the world,

720
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:53,600
Speaker 1: especially at a time when it's vying for allies against Taiwan,

721
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,800
Speaker 1: and its initiatives on the continent have had a great

722
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:01,160
Speaker 1: deal of success. This is affected in the growth of

723
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:05,280
Speaker 1: Chinese trade and the favorable perceptions the citizens of Africa

724
00:48:05,520 --> 00:48:10,280
Speaker 1: have of China's influence. However, practices that threatened to entrap

725
00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:13,600
Speaker 1: countries into debts they cannot pay back threatened to sustain

726
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 1: that reputation. This is something that China seems to have

727
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 1: appreciated more recently, and it has in fact forgiven the

728
00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:24,879
Speaker 1: debt of a number of African countries. I also think

729
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:28,280
Speaker 1: that African countries have a healthy skepticism about these loans

730
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:32,680
Speaker 1: and Chinese involvement more generally from the era of European

731
00:48:32,719 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: colonialism to the I m F, World Bank and USSR

732
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:39,680
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties. They know that

733
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:43,240
Speaker 1: other countries have long been eager to feed at their trough.

734
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 1: But if they're able to craft deals and agreements with

735
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,719
Speaker 1: the Chinese that give them infrastructure and trade that they

736
00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:52,719
Speaker 1: wouldn't have with the West, then they are in a

737
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:56,759
Speaker 1: strong position. It doesn't have to be a zero sum game,

738
00:48:57,360 --> 00:49:00,360
Speaker 1: and for the West's part, he should also try and

739
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:03,920
Speaker 1: engage more with Africa, but it shouldn't be with the

740
00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:07,800
Speaker 1: same playbook that many Western countries used in the past. Moreover,

741
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:12,200
Speaker 1: viewing Africa as a victim of exploitation isn't flattering, and

742
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 1: trying to present yourself as the white knight who can

743
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:19,280
Speaker 1: save it is insulting. Quite simply, global superpowers should treat

744
00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 1: Africa as they would like to be treated. They should

745
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,560
Speaker 1: show its leaders respect on the world stage and foster

746
00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:29,840
Speaker 1: mutually beneficial relationships that can take advantage of its growth.

747
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:33,920
Speaker 1: It could be an investment that pays off handsomely in

748
00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 1: thirty years time. Thank you so much for listening to

749
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:40,799
Speaker 1: the coin Bureau podcast. If you'd like to learn more

750
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: about cryptocurrency, you can visit our YouTube channel at YouTube

751
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:47,560
Speaker 1: dot com forward slash coin Bureau. You can also go

752
00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:50,400
Speaker 1: to coin bureau dot com for loads more information about

753
00:49:50,400 --> 00:49:53,000
Speaker 1: all things crypto. You can follow me on Twitter at

754
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:56,320
Speaker 1: at coin bureau or one word, and I'm also active

755
00:49:56,360 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 1: on TikTok and Instagram too. You ll known call Cong

756
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:03,919
Speaker 1: Kong Kong