What happened to the Central African Republic that started the halfway virtual currency 'Coral Coin' after adopting Bitcoin as a legal currency?

In April 2022, the Office of the President of the Central African Republic announced that it would adopt the virtual currency Bitcoin as legal tender. It is the second country in the world after El Salvador to announce that a country will adopt a virtual currency as a legal tender. In addition, the Central African Republic announced in July 2022 that it would issue its own virtual currency “ Coral Coin ” as a token, attracting attention from all over the world. However, it seems that the economic policy of this Central African Republic is not going well at the time of writing the article.

Central African Republic delays crypto token listing, cites 'market conditions' | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/central-african-republic-delays-crypto-token-listing-cites-market-conditions-2022-12-20/

One of the World's Poorest Countries Put Its Faith in Crypto – Why?
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7qyz/central-african-republic-bitcoin

African countries have a history of being colonies of European countries such as France and the United Kingdom, and there are many countries whose official languages are French and English. And in the former French countries such as Central African Republic, Senegal , Benin , Cameroon , the currency 'CFA franc' was used.

This CFA franc is the currency France introduced in 1945 to control printing and distribution. However, there is criticism that ``the CFA franc is a currency used by France to exploit the resources of 14 African countries and control them financially. We are trying to build a currency system for

The Central African Republic, which is a landlocked country with a population of about 5 million people and is also known as one of the poorest countries in the world , is also aiming to break away from the CFA franc, and the presidential office of the Central African Republic announced on April 27, 2022 that virtual currency announced that it will adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

Central Africa adopts Bitcoin as legal currency, second country in the world | Reuters
https://jp.reuters.com/article/centralafrica-economy-bitcoin-idJPKCN2MJ28C

`` The alternative to cash is crypto assets, or virtual currencies.

The Central African Republic has been in civil war for more than 60 years since its independence in 1960. Bitcoin is the currency of a decentralized ecosystem based on a blockchain (distributed ledger) system, so it is technically and universally available, censorship-free, and not controlled by any power. Therefore, it can be said that Bitcoin has great merit for the Central African Republic, where the political situation is always unstable.

However, in the Central African Republic, only 14% of the population can use electricity, and only about 10% of the population can access the Internet. The median annual income of Central African Republicans is $ 493 (about 65,000 yen), and it takes decades to buy 1 bit coin.

A student at Bangui University in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, said, 'When the plan to adopt bitcoin as legal tender was announced, there was a big celebration and we were all proud of this country. I thought, but even if it becomes legal currency, life has not improved at all.' Another student commented, 'Most market traders and customers do not have access to telephones or the Internet. Residents outside of Bangui have nothing.'

As a result, most people living in the Central African Republic are unable to invest in Bitcoin, and in July 2022, the presidential office of the Central African Republic aims to raise $ 1 billion (about 133 billion yen), and has its own We announced the virtual currency “Coral Coin”.

However, on December 19, 2022, the Central African Republic announced that it had postponed the listing of Coralcoin due to 'current market conditions and marketing considerations.' According to Reuters, at the time of writing the article, coral coins had achieved only 0.01% of their sales target.

The coral coin was labeled 'the future of the Central African Republic' and required a minimum investment of $500 (about 66,000 yen) to obtain it. Furthermore, as an investment incentive, investors can purchase land in the Central African Republic with an investment of $ 10,000 (about 1.33 million yen), and also purchase citizenship of the Central African Republic with an investment of $ 60,000 (about 8 million yen). It was possible, but these were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in August 2022 and became invalid.

As a result, coral coin transactions are locked at the time of article creation, and even if you get them, there is no way to sell or exchange them. Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation , a human rights nonprofit, is a critic of the CFA franc and a proponent of adopting bitcoin as legal tender in developing countries. Regarding the coin, it is evaluated as 'it was really halfway'.

'The Central African Republic's decision to make bitcoin legal tender appears to have been somewhat of a fraud to promote coralcoin, with the aim of meaningfully integrating bitcoin into the domestic economy,' said Gladstein. I don't think it was, the president seems to be interested in bitcoin, but there are probably a few people around who have tried to use that interest to make huge profits on coral coins. It seems that only a small amount of money was actually raised.'