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    Home » Tech Shows » Interview | Behind SA cryptocurrency start-up Project Ubu

    Interview | Behind SA cryptocurrency start-up Project Ubu

    By Duncan McLeod24 July 2017
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    Steve Sidley and Justin McCarthy

    [dropcap]I[/dropcap]n this episode of the TechCentral podcast, Duncan McLeod chats to two of the directors behind Project Ubu, a South African start-up that’s working to combine the idea of a universal basic income (but separate from government-led initiatives) with a blockchain-housed cryptocurrency.

    In the podcast, Project Ubu chief technology officer Steve Sidley (formerly CTO at Altech) and marketing director Justin McCarthy explain how the concept will work in practice.

    “Its purpose is to apportion value to all humans, whether economically active or not, so that those trapped in poverty are provided access to the economy where they can create wealth,” the company explains.

    The idea is to create a cryptocurrency that unlocks dormant, inefficiently allocated and unrealised resources to create commercial and social value

    It was established as a “mechanism to enable the free-market redistribution of inefficient resources with the objective being to promote growth-enabling economic access to billions of excluded people”.

    The idea is to create a cryptocurrency that “unlocks dormant, inefficiently allocated and unrealised resources to create commercial and social value”.

    Founded by Bridge Capital director Dudley Baylis, the project has attracted several heavy hitters, including McCarthy, Sidley and former Vox Telecom CEO Douglas Reed.

    The advisory board includes former Wooltru CEO Colin Hall.

    In the podcast, Sidley and McCarthy talk about how the system will work and who will benefit. It’s a fascinating idea. Its backers think it could change the world. This is a podcast you most certainly do not want to miss!

    How to subscribe to TechCentral’s podcasts

    There are many ways to enjoy TechCentral’s podcasts, beyond simply streaming them from our website. A good way is by subscribing to them using an app on your phone, allowing you to listen in the car, at the gym or wherever you happen to be.

    The TechCentral Podcast RSS feed is available via iono.fm. Note that this is a separate feed to the weekly TalkCentral podcast, the RSS for which is available here. If you’d like both podcasts in one RSS feed, that’s here.

    Use the RSS feeds to subscribe to either podcast (or both podcasts) in your favourite reader (we recommend Pocket Casts for Android, iOS and Windows Phone — look for “TechCentral” in its search engine to find both shows).

    We are also available through iTunes. Simply open the iTunes app on your iPhone and search for “TechCentral” to find the two podcasts.  — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media



    Colin Hall Douglas Reed Dudley Baylis Justin McCarthy Project Ubu Steve Sidley top
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