‘Boundless crypto currency potential’ for our sea turtles

Published on: Sunday, June 20, 2021

By: Kan Yaw Chong

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FINALLY, the “boundless potential of crypto currency” is lending a big hand to the sea turtles of Libaran Island which is not part of the Sabah Turtle Islands Park.

Those are zealous words quoted from US-based Jhunehl Fortaliza – Charity and Outreach Co-ordinator of Aquagoat Finance which has entered into a historic partnership with Sabah’s Friends of Sea Turtles Education and Research, headed by Alexander Yee.

Jhunehl even “bets” Libaran becoming a “hotspot destination” one day should world tourism opens up after the pandemic, because of the media blitz associated with this “exciting” breaking news partnership. So, cheers.

AquaGoat’s Charity Wallet for ocean conservation

But heard of AquaGoat? It’s a latest generation of eco-friendly crypto currency that will pump money into our turtles, I mean actual turtle conservation – by design.

They have what they call a built-in “Charity Wallet” designed to inject what in their language called ‘tokens’ specifically into “Ocean Conservation”, particularly to real people who are already doing real, actual ocean related conservation, on the ground.

So who fits the bill?

In Sabah, they found one Real project called “Friends of Sea Turtles Education and Research (Foster)” which had laboured for 10 years to sustain Walai Penyu Conservation Park’s turtle hatchery in Libaran Island run by its mastermind, Alex, through all the ups and downs over the last 10 years.

The worst down moment is none other than the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown since March 2020 during which the hatchery saw not one single tourist who used to be charged RM50 each to pay for the hatchery’s operations.

But Alex plowed on, using his own reserves, to avoid abandoning the turtles.

So it proves there is no pretence – the real guy.

But when the chips are down, Alex found his real AquaGoat and they, as Alex put it, “we clicked immediately!”

So cheers, sea turtles of Sabah – a well deserved “stimulus package” “endorsed” at last, through a historic “partnership” that connects AquaGoat crypto currency and Foster’s real sea turtle conservation in action.

“Tell good stories,” former Malaysian Minister of Primary Industries Teresa Kok once said.

So this is a very good story about this exciting historic turn of event.

The team behind this rare eco-crypto currency technology comprise young vibrant Filipino diaspora resident in the United States and Canada, about 30 of them but I heard only Patrick Aberin, Jhunehl Fortaliza and Mariel Operana.

Why Sahan’s pioneer in crypto currency picks AquaGoat

But no surprise to me AquaGoat found a worthy partner in Sabah – Alex, who pioneered the first land transaction using crypto currency in 2018.

Being a pioneer in crypto currency land transaction means he understand the technology – a big plus.

But there are about 10,000 different crypto currencies in the global market, big and small.

Why pick AquaGoat?

“As Jhunehl put it, there is boundless potential in crypto currency, I know there is money in it, in this case for sea turtles and having attended a FinTech seminar on crypto currency in Singapore in 2016, I am convinced this is the future,” he said.

But there is a deciding reason.

“There is no mining involved in AquaGoat,” noted Alex who metaphorically.

Mining? Most people would be baffled by this jargon.

Alex explained:

“First generation coins like Bitcoin, in order to increase the quantum of the coin, they must use a powerful computer to solve a mathematical problem, the reward is getting a Bitcoin in return.

“But because they have to use a powerful computer, it uses a lot of electricity so many people deem it environmentally unfriendly.”

New generation of crypto currency eco-friendly by design

“By contrast, this new generation of crypto currency like AquaGoat is Defi (Decentralised finance), it has a built-in deflationary function. That means whenever a transaction takes place, a fee is charged and a portion of that fee is given back to the investor or holder,” Alex noted.

“This cuts out mining from a powerful computer and so no extra energy is used – eco-friendly.”

But it’s not just dumping mining, it’s about spending on environment and social causes.

“Defi or decentralised finance implies one portion of the transaction fee is given back to the investor or holder, a second portion is set aside to a wallet for the environment or social causes, a third portion for liquidity,” Alex shares his insight on this interesting new evolution which few people know.

“For example, I am an investor in AquaGoat, when I invest let’s say RM100, there is a 4pc transaction fee, 1.3pc goes to the investor or holder, 0.7pc to conservation and 2pc to liquidity,” Alex explained.

The reason even 0.7pc can work out to mean a lot of money because calculation is based on pooling, that is, 0.7pc of the total transaction fees charged to all investors!

“Because AquaGoat sets aside a portion of the transaction fees to their wallet designated for ocean conservation, it ties in perfectly with the work of Foster (Friends of Sea Turtles Education and Research) is doing in Libaran Island and I know it can mean a lot of money there.

“But still, I find a lot of people don’t understand what crypto currency is,” Alex lamented.

“For instance, what is a wallet?” he asked.

The best way to understand a wallet is by comparing it to an email address which people use to send or receive messages.

“A wallet is given a public address too in the alphanumeric form into which AquaGoat will send tokens electronically. They are not sending cash but Foster can cash out only what it needs with a trader of Exchange in the market, to meet regular expenses.”

“That means I can actually hold the bulk of tokens in the wallet in my computer and not cash them till the correct time,” he said.

But driven by the zero tourism receipt over the pandemic, it was Alex who first approached AquaGoat.

‘We found a real person in Sabah: AquaGoat Outreach Co-ordinator

Jhunehl Fortaliza, Charity and Outreach Co-ordinator of AquaGoat Finance, recalled her initial encounter with Alex:

She told Alex in a virtual discussion: “I was going to say when you first reached out to me on Telegram: I wondered who this person is and then you sent me the pictures of what you are doing and description.

“Immediately, I said, okay, I hope this is a real person, I really want to get involved with this project, you know, I get different suggestions and messages especially on Telegram and Inbox daily.

“So when I saw this, I said: Please let this be real but once we got out of that Zoom call I was like from there, this is definitely the first partnership that we want to announce out of all the many ones we have – this is the first one.”

So, wow, the search for a real guy found one – like a genuine crypto met a genuine conservator, it was trust and belief at first sight – birds of the same feathers flock together, it has been said.

Jhunehl: ‘We will be paying for the aquaGoat sea turtle Hatchery.’

So Jhunehl announced to the thousands of AquaGoat investors about the new mystery partnership:

“Hi everybody – the moment we are waiting for: yes, it does have to do with turtles. That’s right, we are going to be constructing the AquaGoat Sea Turtle Hatchery (on Libaran Island, Sabah), yeh!”

She added: “This is going to be the first transaction of its kind and it’s going to have some massive media coverage especially in Malaysia but we will be paying for the AquaGoat Sea Turtle Hatchery fully with AquaGoat tokens.

“So it’s actually using our tokens to pay for a real world conservation. But not only that, for the whole year, AquaGoat will be paying also the villagers every single day cleaning the beaches so that the turtles will be able to breed safely and it will be not just good for the turtles and it will be simulating the economy of the villagers there and also putting their efforts onto the world stage.”

Noting that Walai Penyu Conservation Park has won the Number One Best Tourism Product Award, Jhunehl continued: “We are going to be doing something really good in the world.

We know that our upcoming partners are also excited by this transaction. Our mission is to connect crypto currency with conservation and this is the really first real world application of that actually happening – crypto currency meeting together with conservation and using the funds that we get from that redistribution (Deflationary function) in order to get this happen.”

Tons of Charity Coins to walk the talk

“That is something that sets AquaGoat apart from many other crypto currency as we do have tons of Charity Coins but AquaGoat is doing some real world action – projects that are doing good things, not just talking the talk, we are walking the talk. We are spending our charity money and who we are partnering with. Big things take time to grow.

“This is the start of something very big and we are setting this ambition with our agenda with Foster and showing the world with what we are doing with our tokens and we mean business when we talk about conservation efforts, when we talk about bridging the gap between of conservation and bridging it with the limitless potential of crypto currency. This is the first step and this is what we are really excited to share with everyone,” Jhunehl articulated.

Mariel Operana, AquaGoat’s Vancouver-based Marketing Co-ordinator, affirmed: “Everything will be financed by AquaGoat.”

Absolutely timely

In response, Alex said: “Fantastic. I am actually very excited about this. What your AquaGoat team had done is very, very timely,” as he extended his appreciation the Jhunehl, Mariel and Patrick Aberin, the Co-Project Manager.

“The reason being that the project had always being funded by tourism receipts but right now with the Covid pandemic we had not had a single visitor on the island since January 2020 so it is absolutely timely.

“I started this project 10 years ago, it’s been lots of ups and downs. The downs being dealing with villagers and dealing with nature. We got tons of rubbish being washed up the shores and usually when you get that, turtles cannot land so what your team is doing is very, very timely.”

“It’s true that two years ago we were voted The Best Tourism Product Award, a major reason being the judges noticed our telling impact on the cleanliness of the island’s village so we will continue to try to protect and conserve the turtle population down there and this time, I am absolutely thrilled knowing that the international community are behind me,” Alex told the AquaGoat team.

First thing: Build AquaGoat Sea Turtle Hatchery on the village side

When Jhunehl asked whether AquaGoat were going to construct a brand new hatchery from the ground up, Alex jumped in to answer, yes, AquaGoat involvement is not only timely but “this is absolutely important because for the last 10 years, the land that I am now working on is actually a private land that I am leasing.

“I have been trying to get the greater community involved but it had been difficult because the community depended on harvesting the eggs. They would sell it for an income so now what we are doing is we have managed to convince them to get themselves involved and the first thing we are going to do is to build their hatchery on the village side of Libaran so that they will go out to look for the nests themselves and move the eggs to the AquaGoat Turtle Hatchery.

“This is like getting the whole community on the island involved. This is something very novel and something absolutely great news,” Alex expounded.

A big deal for AquaGoat: Jhunehl

Although this makes AquaGoat look like the greater altruist, Jhunehl turned the coin around instead:

“It is a big deal to be able to work with you on this,” she told Alex.

“This is a great opportunity, a great honour for us to be able to partner with you, we are so happy that this is something that we will be able to broadcast across the media.

“We will continue to build the momentum not just for the tokens but also for the hatchery for all the efforts that you guys have been making so that one day coming out of Covid all the struggles with the lack of tourists being able to come once the world starts opening up and being able to see the AquaGoat Turtle Hatchery. I bet once the world opens up again, this is like going to be a hotspot destination for people,” Jhunehl enthused.

As the excitement reached a crescendo, Mariel intercepted the virtual discussion to report “people are asking for pictures”.

To which Jhunehl said: “Oh, yes, absolutely, as the hatchery is being built, we will be taking pictures as we get the eggs. As the eggs hatch we will be doing lots and lots of coverage, we can also follow Foster’s Facebook page and I think they also have Twitter which we can also follow what’s happening.”

Cashing out only what’s needed: Alex

As the interactive exchange continued, Jhunehl noted a “concern” that the tokens from AquaGoat maybe “cashed out” for the money they want for the buildings.

Being experienced as a pioneer crypto currency investor in Sabah which includes one big lost opportunity because of a pre-mature cashing out, Alex said he had in fact “discussed the matter with the team.

“But definitely the initial amount for construction of the hatchery we will cash it out. You need to have a cashing out as well as buying so that there is movement within the coin itself. It is important for us to hold the coin. The other component of the coin is actually to support the community beach cleaners. This payment is paid to the beach cleaners once a month so it will not be the full quantum amount cashed out straight away.

“The amount on the hatchery and later on the amount for the community cleaners will be cashed out on a monthly basis. I hope it will not be cashed out for certain reasons. If I see that the timing is not correct, I will most probably see that the coin will hold on to the Foster Wallet.”

Spending ‘limitless potential of crypto currency’ on Planet of Life

But here is a serious thought for everybody. We live in an exceptional plane of life.

All nine planets in our Solar System are dead except Earth – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto where multiple rover probes since the 70s had found not even one speck of nano bacteria!

But here, on the sole “Super Power of Life” that is Planet Earth, spectacular species are going extinct at every turn.

This is classic example of “Tragedy of the Commons”, caused by a dynamic operation of a phenomenon where everyone says “yes” – fantastic Earth yet no one has an incentive to cooperate, meaning really act or care.

Governments and the corporate industrial complexes are economic and financial colossus but where are their spending in life on earth – pitiful, miserable.

Everything about life on earth had been marginalised, left for dead.

Practically there is zero interaction between big money and this plane of life.

It’s not that no money had gone into conservation but just not big enough and often as an afterthought.

The real problem is just famine of real people who are real in caring for this exceptional planet – the sole Planet of life.

The epic characteristic in AquaGoat-Alex deal: Real people!

Yet this is the good story around the AquaGoat – Alex Yee partnership.

Upon reflection on the virtual interactive discussion between Yee and the AquaGoat team, I detected one epic characteristic that is really needed from the dominant human species if we want to stop the existential threat to life on earth.

And that is: Real people.

Short of enough real people, I think the environment, the ecosystems and the biodiversity which live in and depend on these ecosystems, are doomed.

But when real people meet real people, it’s done, by design, an incentive which exists deep in the heart but in the end, there must be scale to beat accelerating “Tragedy of the Commons”!

We hope Alex is right – that there is a future in crypto currency, by design.

Real financiers paying for real actual conservation on the ground and enough of them.

Jhunehl had repeatedly said it in this report.

Real people incentivise real people

Real people incentivise real people. And the following interaction illustrate the proverbial “birds of the same feathers flock together”.

They can click instantly for immediate action.

Here is the interesting exchange.

When Mariel popped this question to Alex: “Do you consider AquaGoat a group of professionals to recommend to people?”

Alex, who had invested and already held a portfolio of AquaGoat coins, replied:

“I was actually on the verge of saying something about the team. I want to tell my friends out there when I started first approaching the team three weeks ago, I would tell you this is the first team that I approached,” he said.

“I had not approached any other team before your group and I remember Patrick (Co-Project Manager) diverted me to Jhunehl (Charity Outreach Co-ordinator) and I thought; it’s amazing how we just clicked.”

‘We clicked immediately’ – Alex

“As soon as I told her what my intentions were, she straight away told me: can you send me some details but I am sure she did some background search as well and as soon as she felt it’s genuine project, she sounded it out to Patrick and we had a Zoom meeting right away.

“I thought it came out very smoothly. We just clicked, I am a bit surprised – very vibrant and it has to be because to survive in the crypto industry you have to be a very young team, very open to ideas because conservation is definitely not your forte but then you have opened yourselves up to it and what suggestions I gave during the course of our discussions,” Alex noted.

“Conversely, when you asked for signs at the turtle hatchery, yes, one of the things we’ll do for AquaGoat is lots of publicity – a sign which says that this is an AquaGoat Sea Turtle Hatchery, the same for the Community Project consisting 500 metres of beaches to be cleaned so that turtles can come up to lay eggs and there we’ll put up signs for every 100 metres to depict that this land is actually adopted by AquaGoat so that when it opens up after the pandemic, people will be able to see the signs.”

“So I’ll make a point that your rights and your goodwill are protected as well because as soon as you say you want to put AquaGoat’s name on the hatchery, I see the importance of that.

“I thought I will give you the maximum exposure as far as media in Malaysia is concerned so that for the genuine effort that you want to work this out, that you actually get some forms of return.

“From the financial organisation point of view, it is a necessity to break even at least if not a profit. I am very much aware of that. So it is my responsibility as a partner to make sure you get maximum exposure of this collaboration. Yes, to answer the question – fantastic team. I have seldom have a team that I can click with immediately,” Alex concluded.