**Preparing Your Trinity Audio Player…** The Gambia is set to introduce a blockchain-based digital platform aimed at improving public service delivery. Partnering with the Kalp Foundation, a non-profit promoting blockchain in the public sector from northern India, they will launch Gambia One, an app built on Kalp's blockchain infrastructure designed to digitalize essential government services. Tapan Sangal, founder of Kalp Foundation, remarked that this collaboration is a step toward helping The Gambia become a future-ready nation with a robust blockchain-driven digital ecosystem. He emphasized that this partnership will initiate a series of transformative projects to empower countries with sustainable digital public infrastructure. With a small population of under three million and a GDP of $2. 4 billion, The Gambia faces structural challenges like limited internet and smartphone penetration which restrict digital asset adoption. However, Gambia One will allow residents to benefit from government services transitioning to a blockchain system without needing technical expertise. These services will become faster, more secure, and more efficient while still remaining user-friendly. Additionally, Gambians will gain ownership of their data on the blockchain. Lamin Jabbi, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, highlighted the initiative’s focus on delivering innovative, citizen-centered solutions in line with global standards of trust and transparency. The Gambia's venture mirrors Nigeria's blockchain efforts, particularly with Nigerium, a national network aimed at data sovereignty. These initiatives illustrate the challenges public institutions face in choosing between decentralized public blockchains and private networks.

The Gambian government plans to utilize a private decentralized network through the Kalp Foundation, unlike Nigeria's approach, which reflects on the Ethereum transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and its impact on users' assets and data. In a broader context, Estonia has utilized blockchain, relying on its custom KSI Blockchain, while Georgia employs a private blockchain, Exonum, for land registries. Meanwhile, the BSV public blockchain has addressed issues previously raised against public networks, providing privacy similar to private systems while ensuring decentralized security. **East Africa Leverages Blockchain for Environmental Clean-Up** In East Africa, blockchain is increasingly central to environmental clean-up efforts, with local communities incentivized through digital tokens. In coastal Kenya, Aquapurge is making strides to clean the Indian Ocean—a key resource for tourism, fishing, and port activities—by rewarding participants with digital assets that can be exchanged for cash or used for purchases at local shops. In late 2023, this initiative successfully collected 5. 4 tons of waste. Conversely, in Tanzania, the startup Chatafisha focuses on cleaning the rivers in Dar es Salaam without using tokens. Instead, they collaborate with locals to gather plastic waste for recycling, compensating them with revenue from the processed materials, while using blockchain to monitor waste collection and recycling efforts. **Watch: Is your company ready to embrace blockchain adoption?**