From Gold Smuggling to Bridging Bitcoin and Cardano in Africa

Edan Yago lived in South Africa from the age of 9 to 11 by smuggling gold coins hidden in his mother’s clothes.

The apartheid government had introduced capital controls in an attempt to stabilize the rand amid international sanctions. Authorities were after some family members whom they described as “terrorists”.

Yago and his family eventually had to leave South Africa.

His family was no stranger to tyranny. Some relatives had survived the Holocaust; Others were not so lucky.

This background, combined with his education in neuroscience and data science, led Yago to his Bitcoin adventure.

“My focus throughout has been trying to develop tools for greater sovereignty,” Yago said in an interview with CoinDesk.

Yago, a self-described “Bitcoin accelerator,” is the founder of Sovyrn, a decentralized trading platform. The platform builds BitcoinOS, a rollup stack designed to perform complex transactions such as smart contracts using the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

BitcoinOS took an important step in July by confirming that it was moving to zero-knowledge proof on the Bitcoin network. Emphasizing that this is a major development, Yago said, “We are building a platform that will allow rollups in Bitcoin and thus contribute to maintaining the security of the network without making any changes to smart contracts.”

“The goal is to transform Bitcoin into an operating system rather than just a system usable for bitcoin transactions.”

Yago’s team is currently working with a company called Emurgo to turn its native token, the 11th largest cryptocurrency, Cardano (ADA) blockchain into a smart contract layer for Bitcoin.

The first technical step will be to integrate the BOS Grail bridge with Cardano’s open source ecosystem to allow “bridging BTC and Bitcoin assets using BOS’s ZK-based BitSNARK verification protocol and bringing Bitcoin’s unique liquidity to Cardano,” according to Thursday’s announcement .

Yago has been a regular presence on the blockchain scene for over a decade. At the Bitcoin conference in San Jose, California, in 2013, he introduces the idea of ​​a “cryptocurrency-based political district.” Afterwards, three special economic zones related to the project emerged in Honduras and they fought a legal battle with the government. Thus, the concept marks the beginning of network states in Balaji Srinivasan.

Since then, the groundbreaking visions of early adopters have been eclipsed by later entrants to the industry with their obsession with candlestick charts and Lamborghinis. According to Yago, “The biggest challenge facing the entire crypto ecosystem has been the confusion of idealism with speculative casinos.”

However, Yago emphasizes that there are merits to both sides: “While it may be tempting for ideologically driven people to completely dismiss memecoins, centralized exchanges, and all similar nonsense, the truth is that this is how people take more financial control of their lives.” It offers an important gateway for them to discover what they can do.”