Schoeman stepped down as Vumatel CEO<\/strong><\/a> in May 2018 and served as executive chairman of the fibre network operator for a while.<\/p>\n Pretorius and Shoeman have since founded digital infrastructure investment firm Advencap with Richard Tunstall and Andrew Parker.<\/p>\n Toco insists it isn\u2019t a cryptocurrency, although it is a cryptographically-secured digital currency running on a permissioned blockchain using Polkadot\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n Polkadot was created by Ethereum cofounder Gavin Wood and was initially released in May 2020.<\/p>\n Toco minted its genesis block<\/a><\/strong> on 23 October 2022.<\/p>\n Crucially, tocos will not be traded on any cryptocurrency exchanges. The only way to convert from fiat currency (i.e. rands) to tocos and back again is through the Toco mobile app.<\/p>\n The app acts as a digital wallet and lets users make payments by scanning a merchant\u2019s QR code. You can also receive tocos into your account via a QR code or public wallet key.<\/p>\n Toco charges a 1% transaction fee for payments.<\/p>\n Creating a wallet is free, and there are no monthly account fees.<\/p>\n Toco\u2019s initial launch is in the founders\u2019 home turf of South Africa, but it has global asperations.<\/p>\n A handful of businesses in Stellenbosch currently support the platform and a map of tocos-supporting merchants is available on the project\u2019s website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Toco team<\/p><\/div>\n Each toco represents a tonne of carbon dioxide removed from Earth\u2019s atmosphere, and is how the currency got its name.<\/p>\n Toco explains that new tocos are minted and verified by The Carbon Reserve, a non-profit established in Switzerland.<\/p>\n Schoeman, Rowell, and Pretorius are on The Carbon Reserve\u2019s board of governors.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happens if instead of debt, gold, or mined ones and zeroes, we represent a currency using carbon removed from the atmosphere?\u201d Toco says in an explanation<\/a><\/strong> of how its system works.<\/p>\n \u201cCarbon dioxide emissions are either reduced by a switch to renewable energy, or removed from the atmosphere through projects like reforestation or soil-based carbon capture.\u201d<\/p>\n The amount of emissions saved is verified, and certificates issued representing the amount of carbon dioxide mitigated.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Carbon Reserve purchases the certificates, creating a digital vault of carbon mitigation assets.\u201d<\/p>\n Tocos are then minted.<\/p>\n The certificates and tocos are registered on Toco\u2019s permissioned blockchain.<\/p>\n According to Toco, this lets the source quality and quantity of the certificates be independently verified.<\/p>\n Paul Rowett<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cAs more banks, consumers, and merchants use tocos, demand increases. To meet this demand, more carbon credits are purchased, so the carbon reserve can issue more tocos,\u201d it states.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this way, using tocos creates an incentive for high-quality carbon reduction and removal projects. This simple cycle allows everyone to become part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n A permissioned blockchain generally trades decentralisation and a level of transparency for privacy.<\/p>\n In Toco\u2019s case, it requires that users must go through a \u201cKnow Your Customer\u201d (i.e. FICA) process for anti-money laundering purposes.<\/p>\n As a result, transactions on its blockchain are not anonymous by design.<\/p>\n \u201cToco securely encrypts all personal details, including the card and banking information you use to exchange tocos for your local currency,\u201d it assures.<\/p>\n \u201cThese details are never shared, and they are not stored on our systems. Your card details are encrypted and only used in combination with your passcode, fingerprint, or Face ID when an exchange is made.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Jordaan, Montegray Capital<\/p><\/div>\n Toco is backed by Michael Jordaan, a venture capitalist and former First National Bank CEO.<\/p>\n Speaking to MyBroadband, Jordaan said it is a great use case for crypto.<\/p>\n \u201cCrypto is high on hype but low on real use cases. Fighting climate change is an important and real application of blockchain tech,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis project has very high ambitions. Some may even say crazy. But if it succeeds, it will definitely make the world better, and it is great to be involved in mission-driven startups alongside proven entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n Niel Schoeman’s new project has attracted the backing of Michael Jordaan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":481063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[84465,35,10830,27331,84461,75248,84463,84459],"class_list":["post-481061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-gavin-wood","tag-headline","tag-johan-pretorius","tag-niel-schoeman","tag-paul-rowett","tag-polkadot","tag-the-carbon-reserve","tag-toco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481073,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481061\/revisions\/481073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Toco-team-scaled.jpg\")
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\nNow read: Binance launches South African rand direct bank deposits<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"