The Center for Coin Liberty continues with various activities to help promote favorable legislation for blockchain technology and projects leveraging on it in Ghana. This report contains activities and initiatives for December.

• Policy Paper The Center for Coin Liberty has completed the first draft of its policy brief No.100 titled ‘Blockchain Mining and Staking; Comparative Analysis on Selected Industries Energy Use’. The rationale behind this policy paper is to contribute to the knowledge gap and change the narrative that blockchain mining wastes energy. Also, the policy paper highlights the improvement in blockchain mining and how the staking protocol used by Cardano has improved energy use. The policy paper would have two peer reviews before publication. Kindly access the draft with the link below: https://mega.nz/file/yUUzkaSA#6cBQFLZFlGKNoIm-iagLFSetSNT7C5nYl7Lwh86waMk

The second policy paper is on ‘The Skepticism of International Financial Institutions to adopt Blockchain technology and Decentralized Finance’ subject to change. These financial institutions have a great influence on nations and impact the monetary policies of other nations. For instance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urging countries to roll out Central Banks' digital currencies (CBDC) has seen many countries undertaking various activities and at different stages in the quest to launch CBDCs. However, decentralized finance revolutionizes centralized finance by empowering the individual to undertake peer-to-peer digital exchanges. Decentralized finance uses emerging technology like blockchain and eliminates bank fees as well as excludes centralized organizations and third parties from financial transactions.

The goal is to compare and contrast institutional regulations and identify institutional interests and fears of international financial institutions in adopting blockchain for financial inclusion. The tentative date for the completion of its draft is January 10th, 2023.

• Ghana Youth Onboarding The Director of the Center for Coin Liberty, Nathaniel Dwamena, was invited to the Ghana Youth Onboard event at the Academic City University College. His presentation focused on the fundamental of blockchain and introduced youth at the university to the Cardano Project Catalyst.

• Youth Outreach with Youth Empowerment Consortium The Center for Coin Liberty would in partnership with Youth Empowerment Consortium undertake an outreach for the youth in the Volta region of Ghana. This event is slated to take place on 28th December 2022.

The Center for Coin Liberty continues with various activities to help promote favorable legislation for blockchain technology and projects leveraging on it in Ghana. This report contains activities and initiatives for the month of November.

• Policy Papers The Center for Coin Liberty having identifies 4 policies areas for research is currently working on two policies papers. The two policies areas are Blockchain Mining and Energy use and Financial Institutions comparative regulatory Interest & Analysis with Focus on Developing Country. We project to complete these two policy papers by the end of December 2022.

• Interview on Policy Paper The Center for Coin Liberty had two media interviews to help explain blockchain technology to the public as well as share insight on its policy paper on CBDC. The interviews were held on 8th and 15th November 2022 at Rainbow Radio 87.5 FM in Ghana. The interview sought is address public perception on blockchain technology and promote regulatory preparedness by calling on institutions to build readiness. The earliest penetration of blockchain in Ghana and Africa were all Ponzi schemes making money lose their funds. This experience has informed many to shy away from blockchain technology and associated native cryptocurrency. The insight from the interview created a great public interest and the Center was called upon for another interview. Also, aspects of the interview discussed that policy papers on CBDC and advise the Bank of Ghana not to isolate its E-Cedi but integrate it on other digital exchanges to increase usability.

The interview had to media publications on online news portals. The links below

https://rainbowradioonline.com/2022/11/08/ghanas-plan-to-roll-out-e-cedi-must-have-an-integration-with-digital-exchanges-yafo/?amp=1

https://rainbowradioonline.com/2022/11/15/blockchain-technology-is-not-a-ponzi-scheme-it-can-help-fight-corruption-organize-free-fair-polls-ilapi/?amp=1

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Ghana-s-plan-to-roll-out-E-Cedi-must-have-an-integration-with-digital-exchanges-ILAPI-1658771

• High-Level Economic and Digital Investment Policy Dialogue The effort of WADA and the Institute for Liberty & Policy Innovation (ILAPI) held a high-profile policy discussion on digital investments on 18th November 2022. The Center for Coin Liberty joined partners to hold high-profile policy discussion and contributed to the discussion. The Center for Coin Liberty was called upon to make a presentation on Emerging Technologies; Blockchain for Economic Trade & Governance. The presentation focused on how blockchain can facilitate trade in Africa and the need to investment for better internet penetration for the realization of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement.

• Cardano Summit 2022 The Director at the Center for Coin Liberty, Nathaniel Dwamena, had the opportunity to be part of speakers at the Cardano Summit 2022. His presentation on blockchain focused on the Cardano blockchain and the amazing works within the ecosystem. He also mentioned real world use case impacting livelihoods. Land title registration and management is a problem that affect many in Ghana, with highlights from Landano projects, participants were made to understand how Cardano ecosystem is impacting livelihoods.

• Identification of Policy Areas The Center has identified 4 topical areas for policy input that would be favourable for blockchain adoption. These are

1. Kenyan regulations on Blockchains: This paper will focus on using existing legal framework and review regulations on blockchain and cryptocurrencies in Kenya. This objective is to develop homegrown regulations for Kenya which can serve other African countries.

2. Blockchain Mining and Energy use: One of the most used averments against blockchain and cryptocurrency is energy use. Even with improvements in mining and the advent of proof of stake, policymakers continue to hold past data on energy use and use it as a justification for more stringent regulation. This policy paper would focus on the current state of energy use and make comparative analysis on energy use by traditional sectors.

3. The concept of decentralization in the Digital Future and the Role of Blockchain: This paper would look at the concept of decentralization to build readiness for the digital future in Africa as well as promote good governance.

4. Financial Institutions comparative regulatory Interest & Analysis with Focus on Developing Country: Financial institutions including BIS, FATF, IMF & WB, WEF, and Collection of financial institutions on wall street are influencing crypto regulations, especially in Africa. This policy paper would focus on institutions’ interest and comparative regulations.

• Collaboration with DeFi Africa We have initiated talks with Defi Africa to build collation for blockchain and web3 education. We are hoping for a great outcome from this collaboration.

• Building Research Capacity The center has officially welcomed Mr. Vladan Lausevic to help contribute to research, especially on financial institutions.

Our Activities Undertaken So far

• Identifying More Policy Areas The Center for Coin Liberty undertook an outreach dive to identify critical policy areas yet has inadequate information for regulators, legislators, media, civil society organizations, youth and professionals, and students to make decisions that would be favourable to blockchain ecosystems. The purpose is to provide policy briefs, articles, and Op-Eds to fill the needs of our audience as a think tank.

• Recruitment of Research Assistance We opened an application for a research assistant position at the Center for Coin Liberty. This call was to help the center boost its research capacity. The post comes with a stipend and it is published on ILAPI's website. Find details here.

• Update on Activities under Landano Partnership Landano project has designated Ghana as one of the starting points. To wit, the goal of Landano is to reduce poverty by providing better titles to land and reflecting the needs of land owners in Ghana. The Center for Coin Liberty as partners, provided research input specifically, legal research on land regulation and the evidence admissibility criteria to validate a better land title in Ghana that has the backing of the Ghanaian law Land Act 2020 (Act 1036) and Evidence Act of Ghana 1975 (NRCD 323).

• CBDC Policy Paper Published The Center for Coin Liberty would publish a policy paper titled Central Bank Issued Digital Currency, A Hope for African Economies? As part of our arguments, we have mentioned that Central Banks should create accounts, not a token base digital currency, and also serve as a bridge between cryptocurrencies and fiat. The policy paper discusses several opportunities within the digital currency space for Central Banks. This ranges from exchanges and usability for CDBC. The Central Bank must leave the dominant position to build cooperation in the financial future that blockchain technology is leading. The paper also highlights governance and excited Cardano as a proven example.

Individuals in the catalyst community who wish to have a copy of the policy paper can fill their details in here

• Media Outreach The Center for Coin Liberty has made a lineup of interviews coming up after releasing the policy paper by the end of the month thus September. The media outreach is tailed to commence policy conversation and advance for favourable regulations in Ghana.

NB: Kindly find attached documents to the monthly report for all the links.

The project has reviewed the first 3 months and it is positive with all activities completed. The project would be focusing on writing more policy brief in the next phase.

Our work at the research center is novel in Ghana. Most individuals within the policy space know of blockchain with some skewness to financial investment schemes. In the course of our work, we have realized that we have to commence some form of blockchain education since most people in the policy space have little appreciation for blockchain voting, real estate management, and blockchain governance. Our center is using an evidence-based approach to shaping legislation therefore we have resulted in using real-world impact as evidence that would help us leverage on to influencing policies and not only abstract research.

The project commenced in June with an inaugural launch that would announce the establishment of the Center for Coin Liberty in Ghana. Unfortunately, we could not submit a report for the Month of May. We had the misconception of commencing the project before reporting begins. Therefore, our team would be glad if the funds for June can be added to that of July and paid on 13th July 2022.

The project would be a new voice within the public policy space in Ghana judging by the reception received thus far.