The inside story of toco, the Stellenbosch-born digital currency

Loading player...
TechCentral on Tuesday broke the news about Toco, a new payments platform and associated digital currency, toco, backed by the founder of Vumatel.
Now Toco CEO Paul Rowett joins the TechCentral Show (TCS) to chat about the project, which aims to fight climate change by “fixing the current economic model so it places a value on the environment”.
Read all the details about the launch of Toco and its digital currency on TechCentral, but in short, each unit of toco in circulation is represented by a carbon mitigation asset which is held and owned centrally by a Swiss-regulated entity called The Carbon Reserve.
The Carbon Reserve is an independent non-profit foundation responsible for toco issuance, purchases and custody of the carbon assets. It is mandated to maintain the convertibility of tocos to carbon assets and to grow the toco supply and expand the voluntary carbon market.
Founded by Rowett with Vumatel co-founders Niel Schoeman and Johan “Joe” Pretorius, Toco has also drawn early-stage investment from venture capitalist and former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan.
In this episode of TCS, Rowett unpacks the ideas behind Toco, how he partnered with Schoeman and Pretorius to launch the venture, and why they chose Stellenbosch to pilot the project.
The founders want to use the platform and currency to help save the planet. Rowett sets out in this TCS interview how exactly the company intends to do that. Don’t miss the discussion!
21 Feb 2023 4AM English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita on competition, AI and the future of mobile

South Africa’s big three telecommunications operators have all reported numbers in recent weeks, and the theme is clear: competition in prepaid has intensified sharply. Telkom’s resurgence has put pressure on both MTN and Vodacom, with MTN acknowledging it has “discernibly” lost prepaid market share. This is one of the topics…
28 Nov 5AM 57 min

Dominic Cull on fixing South Africa’s ICT policy bottlenecks

Returning to the TechCentral Show is ICT regulatory expert Dominic Cull, founder of Ellipsis and regulatory advisor to the Internet Service Providers’ Association (Ispa). Cull recently attended communications minister Solly Malatsi’s policy colloquium in Pretoria – the first under a non-ANC communications minister. Cull says there is a discernibly different…
21 Nov 2AM 1 hr 04 min

BMW CEO Peter van Binsbergen on the future of South Africa’s automotive industry

South Africa’s automotive industry is in a state of flux. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, BMW Group South Africa CEO Peter van Binsbergen unpacks the challenges – and opportunities – facing a sector under pressure. He tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the future of BMW’s Rosslyn manufacturing…
6 Nov 4AM 30 min

Why Altron is building an AI factory

Altron earlier this month announced that it has deployed an "AI factory" in one of Teraco’s new Johannesburg data centres. Powered by Nvidia AI infrastructure and software, the factory is has already gone live with half a dozen customers. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Altron Group chief technology…
28 Oct 5AM 26 min

The company building a ‘living computer’ with human cells

The invention of the silicon transistor was fundamental to the success of the digital age, driving the core of the modern-day digital economy. The rise of generative AI has put hardware at the epicentre of the next wave of economic growth, with chip makers such as Nvidia and AMD reaching…
23 Oct 8AM 19 min