Sango Bitcoin sidechain coming to Central African Republic next week

What

The Central African Republic (CAR) is preparing for the launch of its Sango Bitcoin sidechain on the 25th of July

Why

According to the Sango whitepaper, operating as a sidechain will allow transactions to be settled away from the main Bitcoin network

What next

Sango is set to launch on 25th July and will feature a two-way peg for Bitcoin and Sango

The story

Sango is a layer 2 solution for Bitcoin. Layer 2 chains and sidechains have thus far featured on the Ethereum network. Ethereum transactions can be slow and expensive due to high network congestion, so sidechains allow some transactions to be settled separately to reduce the strain on the main Ethereum chain.

Sango works like this: users deposit their Bitcoin onto the Sango sidechain and are able to mint Sango Bitcoin (S-BTC) in return. This is wrapped Bitcoin that can be exchanged back and burned in return for BTC at any time.

According to the Sango whitepaper, this would allow Bitcoin to be integrated with CAR’s own monetary policy. Bitcoin would therefore act as more of a supporting asset than a currency. This, the paper explains, will help transactions scale beyond Bitcoin’s “5-7 transactions per second”, allow the unbanked of Africa to use a scaleable cryptocurrency and bring smart contracts to Bitcoin holders via Sango.

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