Welcome to Nigeria, the biggest and most populous country in Africa. This fact may create controversies and arguments but I stand to defend this truth. Most people’s Blockchain journey started on Steemit especially during the bullish run. It felt so good blogging and earning big with the advantage of meeting people too. Other part heard of Bitcoin when it was very cheap but very few opted to buy into it and I can say boldly that they gained heavily. The other few believed it was another Ponzi scheme and cursed the information about Bitcoin. Well, you should know how they would feel when the price of a bitcoin drove to above $17,000. This is the beginning of the Blockchain experience in Nigeria.
When you google Nigeria online, you see so many negative stories about us and a little positive ones. The result is because the negative news affect and pull more traffic than the opposite, this is why the international community may be skeptical when dealing with us. Come to the Blockchain community and the story is different, Nigerians are really making waves to seek for mass adoption of Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. We have daily traders, graphic designers and programmers that work efficiently with different Blockchain projects and deliver efficiently. Not to forget marketers, ambassadors and heavy users that make sure these projects get a face in this part of the country.
Ask any Telecommunication and/or Smartphone company and they will tell you, Nigeria is one of the heavy users of any brand that can infiltrate the market. Techno, iPhone, Samsung, Infinix, Redmi and others have strong users from this part of the world. This is why Blockchain companies should look into this part of the world and take advantage of the current crusade and gospel of Blockchain. Yes, notable Nigerians are on the forefront of mass crusade of the gospel of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency to the right front. Let me start with SIN (Steemit in Nigeria) – a Nigerian version of Steemfest. The third edition of SIN was held this year in Uyo, the second edition was in Abuja and the first edition was in Ile-ife. It is a usual gathering of Steemians for a week program filled with knowledge, fun and networking.
Since Blockchain is more than Steemit, other projects have come up which has opened up ambassadors from this part of the world. This is a great opportunity for some Nigerians to come together and organize meetups to promote different projects. There is Blockchain Campus Tour – this is a meetup around different universities to introduce Blockchain knowledge to students and people on these campuses. Next is Blockchain Saturday, a Saturday event where ambassadors of different projects organize a meetup to discuss their projects with the community. It is an opportunity to meet with different Crypto Enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and novices. Recently, there was Lagos Blockchain Conference where CEOs from different projects spoke to the Lagos communities about their projects and it was interactive with so much to win and eat.
Not to forget the recent event; The Blockchain Road Trip 1.0. This is a road trip across three states and a seasonal meetup at the notable universities in these states. This is just to make sure the gospel of Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency gets to the grassroots. The turnout were massive and you could see the hunger in these youths. They wanted to know more, do more just to be a part of this. The speakers spoke their hearts out and answered every questions that were pushed to them. There are other events worth of mention organized by Nigerians but that will put into another article. The EOS invasion is coming next year and we can’t wait to be a part of it.
I have contributed my quota by attending and networking in almost all these events and will still attend more. Every time, I gain something tangible that has worked for me and this is the reason why I will always be a fan of these events. As you can see, I didn’t mention any name. This is to avoid blowing anybody’s horns but you can look up for these events to know further. Nigerians are making sure they are pushing Blockchain to the front where it should be.
