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The Future of Money!

Cryptocurrency is a completely digital, formless currency, tied together using computer science, cryptography and economics. Bitcoin is the first and most widely used cryptocurrency.

In our previous blog we looked at the history of money and how money is created, a system that was established at The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 (post World War II). It was it at this conference in New Hampshire where a new Monetary System was created by World War II allies initiating a new World Order which established the US dollar as global reserve currency abolishing the gold standard. The creation of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were two other key outcomes of this conference. The video below illustrates just how well entrenched the dollar is in the global financial system today.

The global financial system today built around stock and bond markets has three main sources of money:

  • Central bank notes and coins
  • Money created by private commercial banks, through a system called fractional reserve banking (constitutes 97% of all money in circulation)!
  • Quantitative Easing (QE) – monetary policy by which Central banks inject additional currency into the monetary system to stimulate economic activity!

Fractional-reserve banking, the most common form of banking practised by commercial banks worldwide, involves banks accepting deposits from customers and making loans to borrowers while holding in reserve an amount equal to only a fraction of the bank’s deposit liabilities. – source Wikipedia

QE has been overused by these authorities since the 2008 financial crisis and when minimum reserve requirements for depository institutions were removed by the Federal Reserve on March 26th, 2020 the printing of currency has continued unabated at an accelerated rate. 

The consequences of this endless printing of money is inflation, which means the purchasing power of $1 is diminished everyday. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, today’s prices in 2020 are 2,517.18% higher than average prices since 1913. The U.S. dollar experienced an average inflation rate 3.10% per year during this period, causing the real value of a dollar to decrease.

In other words, $1 in 1913 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $26.17 in 2020, a difference of $25.17 over 107 years. The future of fiat currency does not look very bright and may be led by the demise of the almighty dollar. 

Fiat money is currency established as money, often by government regulation, but that does not have intrinsic value, Fiat money does not have use value, and has value only because a government maintains its value, or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value – source Wikipedia

 Bitcoin is an innovative payment network and a new kind of money!

A potential solution to the what appears to be the slow demise of fiat currency led by the US dollar is Bitcoin! Bitcoin is inherently built to be anti-inflationary with a finite or limited supply of 21 million Bitcoins written into the blockchain code by the founder Satoshi Nakamoto. This means that no more Bitcoin can be created beyond the mining of the 21 millionth coin which will occur in the year 2140. 

Bitcoin Digital Decentralized Peer to Peer!

The Bitcoin design was deliberate to eliminate any tendencies to create more Bitcoin, having the reverse effect to what has been going on in the financial markets described above. Over time with wider scale adoption by institutions and individuals, Bitcoin will become more valuable due to its scarcity, an attribute which has earned it the tag ‘digital gold’. At the time of writing one Bitcoin costs $11 859. Therefore unlike fiat currency, crypto currencies led by Bitcoin are designed to be a store of value, among other uses within their ecosystems!

Through out time gold has been seen as a good store of value and in times of crisis investors have sort refuge in it by increasing their exposure to the precious metal in their investment portfolios. Bitcoin prices have been extremely volatile since its establishment, particularly between 2016 and 2020 confounding enthusiasts and investors as it is not demonstrating attributes of gold, which tends to have a more stable price. 

The Bitcoin story!

Bitcoin was created in 2008 by an anonymous person or group of people referred to as Satoshi Nakamoto, who no one knows or has ever seen. Bitcoin is an open source software described in a 9-page white paper freely available to anyone on https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf . In the abstract to this white paper Satoshi Nakamoto simply describes Bitcoin as….

 ‘A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash which allows online payments to be sent directly from one party to the another without going through a financial institution’. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is required to prevent double spending….

What is Bitcoin? – by Rea Savla

Cryptocurrency is a completely digital, formless currency, tied together using computer science, cryptography and economics. Bitcoin is the first and most widely used cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin is inspired by the Cypherpunk Movement in the 1980s, which advocated for protection of privacy from external entities using cryptography. Satoshi Nakamoto first outlined and created Bitcoin in 2008 and 2009.

Bitcoin aims to be pseudonymous, trustless, decentralized, and immutable. In addition, anyone with a computer and internet connection can join the Bitcoin network. Each computer is a node in the Bitcoin network, and each node may verify and audit the transaction history of their own funds. In Bitcoin, the minting and distribution of bitcoins is determined through mining; since anyone can mine and win bitcoins, this process also aims to be decentralized.

Some of the challenges Bitcoin addresses are:

  • The difficulty to ensure every Bitcoin node holds a consistent version of the transaction history
  • The difficulty to identify malicious actors

These conditions may normally allow a node to conduct a Double Spend Attack, in which the one spends the same funds more than once by tricking parts of the network to believe different versions of the transaction history. However, Satoshi overcame this problem using blockchain and Proof-of-Work. 

Bitcoin is robust because it serves the same functions as a bank:

  • Account management; the Bitcoin protocol gives users a way to create and manage their own identities (account)
  • Legitimacy; It ensures we are legitimate owners and accessors of our accounts
  • Record-keeping; It honestly records account balances at each transactions.

Unlike a bank, Bitcoin is decentralized and ensures a high degree of privacy and trust. 

Trust is built on the blockchain due to a high level of transparency: blockchain is a publicly verifiable ledger, not owned by any entity, and it prevents any single point of failure.

To maintain this trust, we need identity in Bitcoin for authentication and assigning blame. Bitcoin uses public keys to send funds and private keys to prove ownership of the public key and redeem the sent funds. Each individual is responsible for creating and managing their own private and public keys. Public keys are generated from Private keys and are used to send/receive funds. Private keys are randomly generated and used to prove ownership of the public key. The chances of guessing the same private key are very low.

In addition to proof of ownership, in order to be considered valid, transactions must also have enough available funds to spend from and guarantee that no other transaction uses the same funds. Bitcoin uses the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO), in which users spend directly from transactions made to them.

Instead of storing transactions individually, Bitcoin batches them into “blocks,” built off of their previous blocks, thus forming the tamper-evident, blockchain data structure.

Users on the blockchain must come to a consensus on which updates and blocks to add to the blockchain. Doing so also prevents Double Spend Attacks. Bitcoin uses a form of peer validation to build a shared transaction history; everyone on the network casts votes on the validity of a transaction. To prevent a Sybil Attack, where users create multiple identities for malicious purposes, Bitcoin employs Proof of Work, where voting power is based on computational power, to make voting expensive.

The essence of how Bitcoin works is explained in the video below (non-technical version):

How to get started with buying, selling or investing in Crypto currencies

Getting started with buying and selling crypto-currencies may seem daunting at first as it is a highly technical and a specialized area. It is crucial when setting up an account on a crypto currency exchange to take all the necessary precautions to safe guard personal information. Some of the well established exchanges which I have used before include, Crypto.com, Gemini, Coinbase, Binance, Bittrex, and Luno. At the time of writing Binance is the most liquid, and has the widest variety of crypto available, supports the widest range of FIAT currency deposits with very low comparative trading fees.

When choosing which cryptocurrency exchange to use things to look out for include trading volume (liquidity) of the exchange, trading fees, customer support and whether the exchange is supported in your territory for FIAT currency deposits/withdrawals and last but not least how secure the exchange is. Always keep hard copy back-ups of digital keys, and passwords and never to save this information online where it can be hacked or stolen by cyber criminals.

There are also many scams online where cyber thieves will use well known personalities images or videos with fake free Bitcoin giveaway offers which require you first to send your Bitcoin under the guise of doubling what you send. Don’t do it! You will not get your money back let alone the extra currency promised! In addition to this, never send any money to so called traders who claim that they will generate a profit for you by investing your money for you in crypto-currencies or binary options – you will never see your money again if you fall for these scams!

There are many free resources that can be found online for how to get started in crypto currencies, and when I got started a little while ago I followed Crypto Casey who is very knowledgeable in the technical aspects of Digital and crypto-currencies and has a great series of You Tube videos users can follow starting with the video below:

Top rated Beginners Guide on Google!

Digital Wallets and how you can store Crypto currencies

Once you have bought your crypto on an exchange it is also not safe to just keep your currency on the digital wallet you have set up on that exchange, as sometimes these exchanges can go down or even get hacked. It is advisable to transfer and store your crypto on a digital hardware wallet in cold storage (i.e. in a Ledger Nano X wallet) or on a mobile digital wallet (an app on your smart mobile device as illustrated below in the Trust Wallet):

Trust Wallet (mobile digital wallet)

The benefits of using crypto-currencies for peer to peer transactions are clear for all to see given the convenience, accessibility and significantly lower transaction costs. This technology hits at the heart of the current financial system managed through third party intermediaries (banks and other financial institutions).

The ability to send and receive money globally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with near instant fulfillment cannot be matched by the current system, which is set to be completely replaced in the near future especially when company to company, customer to company (& vice versa) transactions on the blockchain become mainstream!

For Africa this kind of emerging technology is set to completely accelerate financial inclusion and break down the barriers to entry as all that is needed to participate is a smart mobile device with an internet connection. As mobile penetration and smart phone adoption grows on the continent more and more Africans can send and receive funds to/from anyone in the World!

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The History of Money

“You have to know the past to understand the present” – Carl Sagan

We spend many years in school and for some reason this vital instrument on which our society runs is not part of school curriculums. We never really get to learn about money until either our parents proactively teach us at home or when we come of age and start working and earning money for a living. Learning about money at this stage is often too late for many.

There are many tragic examples of people who have had the fortune to earn money quickly while young through professional endeavors (high paying jobs like professional sports, high profile acting careers or even large lottery winners) who go bankrupt, simply because they never learnt about money and how money works.

What is money and how did it come about? Money by definition is a medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes, which is created to facilitate trade for goods and services. Money is created through three channels – by government through Central Banks who print physical notes or produce coins through a coin mint. Commercial Banks play the biggest role in the creation of money in an economy’s money supply through DEBT.

The video below illustrates how private Commercial Banks create up to 97% of all the money in circulation. The third method used to create money is through Quantitative Easing (QE). QE is monetary policy whereby a central bank buys government bonds or other financial assets in order to inject money into the economy to expand economic activity.

The manner in which global money supply is being managed by Central Banks to deal with crisis today appears unsustainable. The unfettered printing of money in the form of quantitative easing is leading to higher and higher inflation resulting in the devaluation of currencies. In the developed markets the use of interest rates as a policy tool to manage inflation has also become ineffectual as interest rates are near or on zero percent.

There is a significant disconnect between the real economy and the current levels of stock markets which hold a large proportion of institutional and wealthy individuals wealth. The video above also illustrates how the markets are seemingly tied to this relentless printing of money by central banks. This all looks like a huge bubble that is about burst, and where does this leave the man on the street?

In the next post we will look at ‘The Future of Money’ by taking a closer look into emerging technologies like Fintech and Blockchain which could provide a solution to what appears to be an inevitable reset of the global financial system in the horizon.

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COVID-19 ‘The perfect storm’…..how can we adapt and survive?

The World was not prepared for the advance of the all-pervading storm, that is Covid-19. A storm that has invaded our lives in every possible way. Scientists, the best analytic minds and forecasters foresaw the potential difficulties the World would face but perhaps not something quite as horrific as what we have experienced in the last four months. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the pressures to maintain everyday life. Our welfare has taken a severe beating – emotionally, mentally, socially, physically and financially. Being in quarantine for such a long time, 120 days and counting in South Africa has taken a huge toll on sustaining our well-being.

Global Lockdown has severely damaged economies resulting in a significant number of job losses!


Our government chose a hard lockdown. We started at level five, a strict restriction of movement was enforced. Only essential workers were allowed to work, that is health workers, those providing our food and those who protect us. A strict curfew was in place, we were allowed to only leave the house to buy food and medicine at specific times. We were not allowed ( still not allowed) to see our loved ones, not allowed to travel, exercise, when we do venture outside we have, had to learn to move about extremely cautiously. A ban on alcohol sales and cigarettes is in place. The Government opened many sectors of the economy in level 3 June 2020 , however some restrictions still remain.


When the lockdown was first announced our President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was trying to balance the overriding objective of saving lives and protecting livelihoods. He also said this harsh decision would allow our medical system to prepare for the impending influx of Covid 19 patients, this decision helped slow down the infection rate dramatically. The opening of the economy at beginning of June has resulted in a drastic increase of infections and hospitalisations.

Heath systems are severely under pressure as infections rise globally!

Hospitals are under severe pressure, government is still in the process of building makeshift hospitals and supplying field beds in the hotspot areas like Gauteng Province, the epicentre. Many health workers are testing positive for Covid and in some areas there is a shortage of nursing staff. The figures are terrifying to say the least, 408000+ infections, 6000+ deaths and 236000+ recoveries. The recovery rate in South Africa is greater than the death rate, it’s very encouraging even though one death is a death too many. South Africa is the epicentre on the continent of Africa, infections including South Africa sit at 750000 as of 24th July 2020.

South Africa widely commended for acting early is now very suddenly and rapidly in the top 5 globally in terms of cases, after loosening restrictions after 90 days of hard lockdown. This decision was driven by the hard economic impact of the lockdown on many citizens!


We faced many unknown , unknowns at the beginning of this pandemic. Economically the hard lockdown decision was never going to be sustainable. South Africa was already in a recession before the pandemic hit. 40% of South Africans live below the poverty line and before the lockdown the unemployment rate at the first quarter of the year sat at around 30.1% according to STATS SA. This figure was published end of March 2020 after its Quarterly Labour Force Survey. This has risen, many have lost their jobs and many more will too before the end of the year.


7 July 2020 Media24 Publishing Company announced its considering the closure of five magazines and more than three newspapers. They also plan to take print publications to digital only platforms. This restructuring process could likely result in about 600+ South Africans losing their jobs, adding these job losses to the culling that has already been happening across many sectors of the economy. Many small businesses have succumbed and other’s have suffered devastating financial losses brought about by the pandemic, many of them might not be able to reopen. Media24 has joined a growing list of Publishing Companies who have permanently closed or reduced its publications. Including Associated Media Publishing, owners of Cosmopolitan Magazine and Caxton also recently withdrew from publishing magazines.

Avid readers like myself are at huge disadvantage because of this, there will be fewer choices and less diversity of opinion in print media. Print media operations were already in state of fragility because of the growth of digital media. The onset of the pandemic has greatly reduced the circulation of papers and magazines. Game stores also announced impending retrenchment after 24 Media’s announcement. It is also predicted that 117000+ will lose their jobs in the Western Cape in the hospitality and tourism industry. We hear stories every week about retrenchments and job losses all over the country. This is a very frustrating and terrifying time we are living in. The future may appear bleak, however there are few creative ways to create an income.


1) Create a blog.
This is not a get rich quick scheme. If you do it right you could make enough to support your family. A common way bloggers make money is by placing ads on their sites. —CPC/PPC ads: Cost per click also called pay per click. When a reader clicks on the link, you receive a payment. CPM ads: Cost per 1000 impressions, you receive a fixed payment based on many readers view your ads. The most popular network for placing your ads is Google Adsense, with this program you do not need to be in direct contact with the advertisers. You place a banner on your site, Google then chooses the ads relevant to your content and readers then click on those ads.

• Sell Private Ads- If your blog has a substantial following and enough traffic, advertisers may contact you and ask you place their ads on your site. Or you can also approach advertisers yourself. Private Ads come in the form of banners, links or buttons. You can also write sponsored posts where you review a product or service…

• Affiliate marketing is another option to make money with blogging. An advertiser has a product they want to sell and you agree on a commission for every sale when a buyer purchases said product through your site. The advertiser may also give you a link that tracks your affiliate code. This allows the advertiser to keep track of when buyers use your link to make purchases. And you can also add your affiliate link on your site, when a reader clicks on your unique link and purchases a product you recommended you can receive a percentage of the purchase. Amazon Associates is an affiliate marketing network you can use.

• You can sell digital products…..eBooks, Online courses/workshops, photos, apps and plugins.

• You can also use your blog as a marketing tool for your business, a tool that will drive visitors to your actual physical business.You can also use your blog to build your credibility. If you have a large enough following and become a popular source of information, this may result in you being a recognized figure in your industry and you become the “go to guy”.


Create quality content on your blog, remember to always put your reader first. Readers are the ones who will make money for you by clicking on your ads and buying your recommended products. Also create relationships with other bloggers your sponsors and affiliate marketers. Relationships with other bloggers will direct traffic to your blog. There are several websites that offer Blog creation courses.

www.studyonline.co.za

www.udemy.com


www.wix.com


www.skillshare.com , these are just a few, you can find many more online and skillshare.com offers some free classes.

There are a number of work from home opportunities available!


2) Get paid to write online.
If you have always loved writing and wanted to write professionally but you were afraid to or life got in the way. What better time to start than now during the lockdown? Many online writing jobs don’t pay, however there are a few websites where you can make money with your high quality creativity.


• Publish a book on Kindle, Amazon paid over $300 million to self published authors on it’s Kindle platform in 2019. It’s very competitive but if you create something worthwhile, it will be very lucrative for you. https://kdp.amazon.com


• Become a Clickworker, Clickworker is a website which offers jobs and tasks that you can do at home. The tasks includes anything from taking pictures if you are a keen photographer to creating audio. You will find something you are comfortable doing. www.clickworker.com


• Sell your story, Magazines and websites will pay for everything especially personal dramatic stories. www.realpeoplemag.co.uk pays £2000 for stories. There are groups you can find on Facebook, like FeatureMe. They offer around $500 for feature stories.


3) Work as a Virtual Assistant
Remote call centre representatives and remote tech support. You need to have a strong WiFi connection in your home. In June Amazon announced 3000 jobs in SA. A few are still available.

https://www.businessinsider.co.za/tech/amazon-is-hiring-for-3000-positions-in-sa-2020-6;

www.recruitmymom.co.za


www.clickearners.com;

www.simplyhired.com

4) Join Upwork.com
Upwork.com connects businesses of all sizes to freelancers, independent professionals and agencies for all their hiring needs.
You “bid” for jobs in your field and get paid in American dollars after set milestones.
www.upwork.com

5) Become a delivery driver, there is huge demand for delivery drivers at the moment. Deliveries for online shopping, food and medicine services. It’s a risky job because of infection and transmission rates, many people are using delivery services.

6) Get paid to transcribe audio. There is an increase in online video content and this has fuelled a demand for transcription services. www.gotranscript.com

7) Join Fiverr, this is a freelancing marketplace. www.fiverr.com
These are just a few ideas and may come with a drastic dip in pay. It’s something to do whilst we wait for this trying episode to pass. Who knows, in the long run the route you choose may prove lucrative for you and open up other avenues of income. We, in South Africa have endured and survived a very painful past. This pandemic won’t break us. The survival/recovery rate for Covid 19 in South Africa , sits at 60%. I am confident we will survive this and come out on the other side much stronger.


Qinisile M.


www.upwork.com

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Solar energy and battery technology

Emerging technologies are enabling people and communities to become self-sufficient and according to think tank RethinkX the disruption of five key sectors is imminent in Information, Energy, Food, Transport and Materials. This think tank predicts that emerging technologies will reduce the cost currently associated with these sectors at least 10X by 2030.

Tesla’s vision of a modern home powered by solar roof tiles with Powerwall storage completely “off grid’!

For this post we will focus on solar and the advances being made in battery technology developed to store this abundant source of energy. With solar energy being freely available from the sun it is expected that the cost of solar technology will significantly decrease from the current relatively high levels when compared to existing electricity powered by fossil fuel based systems.

What is solar energy?

In simple terms solar energy is ’radiant energy from the sun’. The diagram below illustrates how this energy can be captured and be utilized to power a homes needs, with any excess capacity being sold back to the utility grid!

How radiant energy is converted into direct current and used within a home or where excess capacity can be sold into utility grid!

In 2016 Tesla Motors Corporation acquired Solar City for $2,6bn, a company founded in 2006 by Peter and Lyndon Rive (cousins of Elon Musk). In addition to Tesla and Spacex, Musk was also Chairman of Solar City as he sort to advance the agenda to create energy storage capacity for both Tesla vehicles and for homes. He had previously encouraged his cousins to establish the company as a key area of disruption in the energy sector. Musk’s vision is to accelerate transition of the world towards sustainable energy.

Solar City based in San Mateo, California is now a division of the merged entity renamed Tesla Corporation and it specializes in solar energy services including residential battery backup services that incorporates Tesla’s Powerwall 3, with a capacity to store 14 kWH of which 13,5 kWh is usable. The typical amount of power needed in an average house for normal consumption is 9.2 kW or 9200 watts as you typically do not use all the appliances in the house at once, according to Energuide.

The Powerwall and Powerpack are rechargeable Lithium-ion battery and stationery products manufactured by Tesla. This system is guaranteed for 10 years and is a game changer in this category, providing peace of mind for users particularly in places with unreliable utility electricity supply. The upfront cost is currently high but the savings post the initial investment are huge.

Powerwall 2 is available for purchase from Smart Energy SA in South Africa

The latest version, the Powerwall 3 currently costs $6 500, with the supporting hardware costing $1 100, and installation costs between $2 000-$3 000. The total installed value ranges between $9 600 – $10 600.

SunPower Energy Installation by Milholland Electric in San Diego Orange County

Solar roofs and solar panels

Tesla is offering various solutions in this category for its US customers where users can install solar panels on an existing roof or complete solar roof tiles. This is an exciting and revolutionary innovation which is going to completely change how communities power generation needs are met. The video below gives a great overview on the costs, benefits and how transformational the solar roofs are.

In conclusion, the developments in this space hold significant promise, particularly in the cost to acquire solar power for energy consumers. Tesla is focused on driving down the costs of solar products and batteries as improvements are made to the technology.

For Africa which generally gets plenty of sunshine it seems only logical that Tesla would set up manufacturing facilities there to produce these products especially since 30% of global supply of the primary raw material used to manufacture the batteries is sourced from Africa. Cobalt is found in abundance in Namibia and Zimbabwe making these two countries ideal locations for a Gigafactory.

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Tesla Overtakes Toyota as Worlds Most Valuable Car Maker

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-01/tesla-overtakes-toyota-as-the-world-s-most-valuable-automaker

Tesla is a pioneer in the high performance modern fully electric vehicle market, and just ten years into its existence is ready to significantly scale globally. Tesla has been building up its manufacturing capacity and rolled out gigafactories (plants where they manufacture their electric batteries and vehicles) in America, Europe, and significantly in the large and burgeoning Chinese market, and these plants are almost completely automated with robots on the vehicle assembly line. Humans are also still present on the line playing, but just to complete certain minor activities (quality checks) that the robots can not complete.

Tesla is set to disrupt two huge industries that were established since the first industrial revolution with the advent of the internal combustion engine (ICE), which is fueled by the very large oil and gas industry. The second key element is the source of energy used to power Tesla batteries which is solar energy.

Wide scale charging infrastructure has been developed all across the US, Europe, China and other territories where Tesla operates. The model s vehicle can get a half charge using a super charger in under 25 minutes, and 1 hour for a full charge. On a full charge a Model S Long Range can travel a distance of 379 miles (or approx 609 kilometers for those using the metric system), before needing to recharge.

Tesla is positioning itself to completely disrupt the Oil & Gas and electricity power generation industries. These are two huge industries whose basis for existence is the burning of fossil fuels. Tesla’s main purpose for existing is to lead the complete eradication of fossil fuel powered industries. This will consequently significantly reduce the globes greenhouse gas emissions and the ongoing depletion of the ozone layer.

The Tesla proudly displays its zero emissions status in the images above at one of its Boston Dealerships. The founder of the blog, Lindani Mabuza got to get a feel for this computer on wheels in Boston in 2017. The model displayed is the Model-S Long Range which is in the BMW 5 series and Mercedes E-class range, retailing from $79 000 up to $124 000 for the 2020 model.

The onboard computer receives regular software updates remotely as users would typically receive software updates for a smartphone. The vehicle also has a mobile application on which drivers can perform various functions such as use Media, Software updates, Climate control, Charging, Location and get this you can Summon your car as illustrated on the below iPhone screen shots within the Tesla app:

1 / 7

The Model-S has two compartments in the front and back for stowing luggage as there is no engine under the hood in front. The wheels are powered by two motors in the front and rear axles and the lithium ion battery is very heavy and lies flat on the under belly of the car in between the two axles, giving the vehicle a low center of gravity improving its safety and handling or cornering ability.

The interior of the Model-S is very high-tech with a large touch-screen to control the vehicles functions with most functions being computerized. This vehicle is amazing and at the time of writing it was still the fastest production vehicle which can do 0-60 mph (0 – 100km/h) in 2.4 seconds according to Tesla. This is quicker than the top end high performance Porsche, Mercedes or BMW ICE models as demonstrated in the drag race in the video below. Only the Lamborghini Aventador was quicker over the quarter mile (400m), in a different test by Carwow in the ICE super car range, however the Tesla is always quickest out of the starting blocks (first 100m). The new Porsche Taychan (the all-electric response from Porsche which retails from $125 000, is a worthy opponent in the speed and luxury stakes as well.

Tesla has various models in its line up targeting the various income levels and the launch of the Model 3 which retails from $35 000 upward and is set to take on the mid-range BMW 3-Series and Mercedes C-class. This will change the vehicle market for ever as it will drive wider-scale adoption of the brand. Tesla may even produce a new hatch-back vehicle which will cost even less than the Model 3 from $25 000 to further entrench itself in the lower-end of the market.

The Tesla stock recently surpassed the $1000 a share mark for the first time and with a $225 billion market capitalization has past the worlds largest vehicle manufacturer Toyota as the largest manufacturer by market cap. As Tesla continues to build up its capacity, it appears as thought it will be very difficult for competitors to catch up in terms of battery technology and all the data they have built up from 10 years of operating these vehicles to continue to improve their already superior machines in all vehicle classes.

In Africa we eagerly anticipate the date when these vehicles will become available on the continent as at the time of writing there are no plans that have been publicized by Tesla for the launch of the vehicle in Elon Musk’s continent of birth.

Africa is home to approximately 30% of the world’s lithium mineral reserves, which is mined as raw material for the lithium ion batteries. Zimbabwe and Namibia and Democratic Republic of Congo are among the top 10 countries for global lithium production. There is a strong case for the development of a Gigafactory at the source, to get Africa out of this resource exporting trap and enable Africa to assume her place in the global battery race.

In the next post we will take a closer look at how Tesla is building out their solar strategy to power a homes energy requirements which will enable complete neighborhoods to get of the electricity power grid and be self-sustaining by storing solar energy on the Tesla Powerwall.

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Where to from here – post COVID-19?

Early in 2020 the World changed forever in a way no one could have foreseen! The pause button was hit from March 2020 and continues at the time of writing this blog. The entire globe completely shutdown in a coordinated effort to combat the spread of the novel Corona virus, forcing a time out on all economic, social and political activities that require citizens to leave their homes.

This meant that all interactions including business, commerce, education had to quickly transition to virtual delivery, with activities like construction, sports and travel being forced into a sudden 90-day hiatus. All countries closed all ports of entry for movement of people with only essential goods and services being exempt from the strict lockdown regulations.

This has resulted in wide scale unemployment while many employers struggle to come to grips with economic conditions that have significantly slowed consumer demand and consequently top line revenue, while in the meantime fixed costs like salaries and rental costs for office premises remain among other major operating costs.

  • Downtown New York during March 2020 – May 2020 “Lockdown’
  • N1 Highway in Johannesburg – Lockdown 2020!

How global citizens lives will be impacted by the present and future challenges brought on by this global pandemic is varied among different economic sectors and population segments and will have significant and lasting economic consequences particularly for poorer communities.

Economists are predicting a long and protracted flatter shaped recovery than initially anticipated, with markets initially predicting a v- shaped recovery. This is why there seemingly is a disconnect between current high stock market levels and what is happening in the world with the true impact of the pandemic yet to unfold. Market participants are even predicting in the extreme case that the scale of this current crisis may be even greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s.

  • Grounded airlines owned by the world’s largest fleet owner during 2020 ‘Lockdown’- Emirates!
  • Parking the vast fleet of planes by major airlines during 2020 ‘Lockdown’ took some skill!

What can citizens do to survive in case of loss of main income sources, or if they want to create multiple sources of income? Are you ready for the new digital world? We shall explore this phenomenon on an ongoing basis as it set to be with us for the foreseeable future!

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Hello World!

Welcome to Southern Point Online, your repository for all things Digital and how to thrive in a rapidly digitalized world!

The World has been transformed by the internet in the past 25 years and is set for a new revolution with internet 2.0!

The name Southern Point is inspired by the location of its founding company, at the southern most tip of the African continent in South Africa!

The mission of this Blog is to initiate and sustain a global conversation about Africa and her place in the World!

Some key aspects that will be interrogated in quite some depth will include:

What could a united Africa look like, meaning an Africa that is united in purpose and function, particularly one in which Africa is in full control of her own resources within the global economy? In this segment we will seek to understand how and why Africa is where it is today and what Africans can do for themselves to leverage her sheer size, resources and youthful population to build a better Africa! A better and integrated Africa is not only good for Africa but also has the potential to create the next China which can only benefit the rest of the World.

If Africa is so poor, why then is the whole world so interested in it? There are significant vested external interests which influence Africa’s standing in the world, for instance the so-called FRANCOPHONE ‘independant’ states in Africa are still in this day and age sending billions of dollars to France -‘for what’? Dr Arikana Chihombori Quao a Zimbabwean born medical doctor, diplomat and activist shares some very astonishing views on ‘the continued colonization of 14 western African states by France’. This followed her dismissal in 2019 from her role as an African Union representative to the US.

Africa is now a continent made up of 55 ‘sovereign states’, whereas historically, prior to The Scramble for Africa, Africa was a single territory with many tribes spread across its vast and expansive terrain. Isn’t a Borderless Africa the best structural formation to build lasting continental integration? Does Africa not need to find herself again in order to truly realize her full potential and be a real participant in the global economy?

Africa is not just a cheap source of resources previously for the Western colonizers and now seemingly for the benefit of the East, with China in particular taking up a new and different form of ‘colonization’ by making substantial infrastructure investments on the ground in Africa.

Longest suspension bridge in Africa connecting Maputo City to Katembe in Mozambique developed and 85% financed by China’s Exim Bank at cost of $1bn.

There are concerns being raised about the quality of the deals being entered into by the African states with China and how China implements these infrastructure projects given that they typically use their own labour and do not transfer any skills to locals for the ongoing maintenance of these infrastructure.

China is providing significant amounts of the financing for these projects and there are further concerns that a lot of these African nations will not be able to service the debt linked to these projects, meaning they will ultimately become beholden to China who will then take out a disproportionate amount of African resources to China when these nations inevitably default on the loans.

How can Africa use technology to catch-up with the rest of the World and participate in the Global Economy on an equal footing? Certain technologies have enabled Africa to leapfrog some developmental steps, as was seen with the rapid expansion of cellular technology on the continent in the past 25 years.

Africa historically did not have well developed fixed telecommunications infrastructure, thereafter from the mid-1990s mobile telecommunications infrastructure was developed and today connects 747 million Africans in sub-Saharan Africa. This number is expected to reach 1 billion connections by 2025 according to ZDnet.

Emerging technologies in Fintech and Blockchain are well positioned to break down more barriers to entry and accelerate financial inclusion riding of the telecoms revolution with the mobile device being at the center of the next wave!

SPO will focus on trying to find answers to the above questions and will explore in quite some detail the history that has brought Africa to its current state and then try to encourage Africans to work together to craft a better future for its people, not withstanding the past. The main focus will be forward looking and positive!