Grassroots Grassroots - Vol 19 No 1 | Page 27

NEWS ‘Rhino Coin’: Can a Cryptocur- rency Help Save Africa’s Rhinoceroses? South African ranchers who raise rhinos are supporting a virtual currency, backed by stockpiles of valuable rhino horn, to fund protection of the threatened animals. But their hopes rest on the long-shot gamble that the global ban on the horn trade will be lifted. Adam Welz Reprinted From: http://bit.ly/2T8W6cy I n a deep underground vault some- where in South Africa is a well-guarded collection of rhino horns, each of which has been weighed, measured, photo- graphed, and tagged with a microchip, and had its DNA sampled, decoded, and recorded in a database. Together, the horns — legally harvested from rhi- nos raised on private land — weigh 108 kilograms. “In terms of an undervalued asset, it’s madness,” says Alexander Wilcocks, a director of Cornu Logistics, the company that owns the stash. Wilcocks is referring to the fact that ille- gally-traded rhino horn — used to make jewelry, or sold as “medicine” with no significant proven effect — is currently one of the most valuable commodities on the planet, going for up to $125 per gram on the black markets of Asia. The international trade of rhino horn has been banned for decades. But that has not stopped Wilcocks and his part- ners, supported by South Africans who raise and protect rhinos on their own land, from devising a scheme that could net its investors massive profits should international trade one day be legal- ized. They’ve launched a new digital currency called Rhino Coin, through which almost anyone can own a share of the horn in Cornu’s vault for about $4 a gram — a tiny fraction of the black mar- ket value. South Africa has by far the world’s larg- est rhino population, with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 white and black rhi- noceroses. But poachers have been kill- ing more than 1,000 rhinos a year there since 2013, and many of the country’s 330 private rhino owners — who care for more than 7,000 rhinos — say they are going broke paying for security to keep Grassroots Vol 19 No 1 Figure 1: Recently removed rhino horns on a private ranch in the North West province of South Africa. Photo: Mujahid Safodien/AFP/Getty Images heavily armed poaching syndicates from slaughtering their animals for their horns. By selling Rhino Coin — a virtual currency somewhat like Bitcoin, but backed by rhino horn — Wilcocks says his company can raise capital for rhino protection. It’s “cryptocurrency with a conscience,” he says. “Private reserves have spent well over 2 billion Rand (about $140 million) from 2009 to the end of 2017 in protecting their animals,” says Pelham Jones, chair- person of the Private Rhino Owners As- sociation. “We desperately require a rev- enue stream to pay for the conservation of these animals, especially when you put it in the context that we now own about 50 percent of the national herd.” March 2019 “We desperately require a revenue stream to pay for the conservation of these animals,” says a spokesman for rhino ranchers. Rhino Coin lies at the bleeding edge of a debate that has raged for years about legalizing trade in rhino horn, a debate sharpened by ongoing, intense poach- ing. The international sale of rhino horn 26