Central African Republic document photos online

In April 2022 the Central African Republic, one of the world's poorest and most landlocked nations, stunned global finance by becoming the second country on Earth, and the first in Africa, to make Bitcoin legal tender alongside its CFA franc. The government then launched its own "Sango" crypto-token, promising e-residency, tokenized land and a futuristic "Crypto City" carved out of the rainforest. Reality bit fast: with most citizens lacking reliable electricity or internet, the experiment fizzled, regional central bankers objected, and parliament repealed the law roughly a year later. It remains one of the boldest, and shortest-lived, monetary gambles a state has ever made.

• Currency The country uses the Central African CFA franc (XAF), born in 1945, whose acronym once stood for "Colonies francaises d'Afrique" before being rebranded after independence and pegged today at a fixed 655.957 to the euro.
• Crypto gamble In 2022 it became the first African nation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, even launching a "Sango" coin and a planned "Crypto City" before repealing the law about a year later.
• Centimes Although the CFA franc is officially divided into 100 centimes, not a single centime coin has ever been minted, making the smallest real coin worth one whole franc.
• Passport The Central African passport ranks around 84th worldwide, offering visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to roughly 48 destinations, with its data page printed in French.
• Citizenship Nationality runs almost entirely by blood: a child of even one Central African parent is a citizen wherever in the world they are born, and dual citizenship is fully permitted.
• Flag design Designed in 1958 by founding father Barthelemy Boganda, the flag deliberately fuses the blue-white-red of France with the Pan-African red-green-yellow, joined by a single vertical red stripe symbolizing shared blood.
• Imperial era In 1977 ruler Jean-Bedel Bokassa crowned himself Emperor on a gold eagle throne with a diamond-encrusted crown valued near $5 million, a ceremony costing roughly a third of the national budget.
• Geography Sitting at the geographic heart of Africa, this landlocked country straddles the watershed between the Congo and Nile basins and is a notable source of gem-quality diamonds.