UPDATE: Blockchain4Africa Conference
29th July, 2017, Moringa School, Nairobi, Kenya - http://moringaschool.com/Where do I begin? First off let me say that Nairobi is an amazing city. A real melting pot of African cultures. It's also a LOT bigger than I was expecting, but I guess it would be with a population of over 3m. Most people know of the business district but there's a whole lot more to Nairobi than just the business district. I won't go any further into all the tourist stuff...
The event was tweeted live and I'll give links to some of the tweets at the end of the post.
Kobocoin is very well known in Africa even though we here in the wider community are seeing the currency languish in the markets. The main issues, as I found out are that:
1. Very few people are actually crypto aware.
2. People who are crypto aware don't know how to get KOBO from the exchanges. They are not crypto traders and it looks too complex.
3. There are MANY bitcoin/crypto scams taking place in Africa, and these people go knocking from door-to-door looking for victims! How do you compete with that??
4. Those scams are making people very wary of the real thing, of which KOBO is one.
I was invited to give a talk on the story of Kobocoin. Where the idea came from, how it was launched, and the challenges KOBO has faced up to the present day. Feedback from my talk was that people in the audience were inspired by my journey with KOBO. I guess what's in the OP is the lead up and I discussed the creation of the Android wallet, exchange issues, perception of KOBO within the industry and where I see things going in the future. Not just with KOBO, but also with the blockchain in Africa.
Questions included things I've heard before, the main one being "How do you cash out?". Of course, this is a challenge at this stage and I'm not one for lying about that.
I met with people involved in government, legislation around the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and venture capital. I chatted with all of them and will be chatting more with all of them as they all seemed genuinely interested in what Kobocoin has to offer, and want to get involved. There was a lawyer I was particularly interested in talking to whose knowledge of blockchain and legislations was just awesome. Unfortunately with all the networking going on I never got the opportunity to have a more in-depth chat, but I'll definitely be following up in the near future.
There was also a very knowledgeable VC who has crypto interests in Europe (Spain). Really nice guy. I'll be following up with him in the near future as well.
I've been chatting with the Bitsoko guys about some of the challenges to getting KOBO to those who want to purchase some and we've decided to work together on a solution.
I'm back at the hotel after spending the day with the Bitsoko guys. I'll be at their office tomorrow (they have something to show me that they've built and integrated with KOBO - I'll try and get some screenshots!
)
There's a lot more to post about the event and I'll be doing so over the next few days. I'm going to be involved with a VERY exciting blockchain project that will raise KOBO's great reputation even more within the African Blockchain community. It's the work of Bitcoin Lady
https://twitter.com/bitcoinlady and to say it's exciting is an understatement.
BitcoinLady really is a fantastic human being and crypto ambassador. She has achieved a lot in and for the African crypto community. She has a full training center in Botswana, and a team of really excellent developers (I met two of them) -
https://twitter.com/bitcoinladyAnyways, for now here's some links to tweets of the event.
My young head and the advert for my talk on Kobocoin (that's an old pic!)
https://twitter.com/moringaschool/status/890844549194690560My discussion on the story of Kobocoin
https://twitter.com/Bitsoko/status/891212620874883072BitcoinLady, Alakanani Itireleng giving her talk on blockchain technology
https://twitter.com/Bitsoko/status/891201937324081152Gibson, CEO of Bitsoko
https://twitter.com/FlamestingInc/status/891239851714125825Allan of Bitsoko and their ETH mining rig
https://twitter.com/B3laze/status/891272989345492992https://twitter.com/Bitsoko/status/891261156937134080Bitsoko presentation of their bits wallet
https://twitter.com/Bitsoko/status/891289239144550400Bitsoko and their IoT advertising platform (Yes! Bitsoko actually create new hardware!)
https://twitter.com/Gibsongibbz/status/891279697035890688Yes, Bitsoko create real world blockchain applications
https://twitter.com/Bitsoko/status/891283173446995971I really don't want to give out too much info just yet as discussions are still taking place but over the next few days there should hopefully be updates as more things become confirmed.
Kobocoin, Bitsoko, and BitcoinLady are to become a team. By hooking up with these two teams, Kobocoin now has access to a pool of developers who are committed to progressing blockchain technology in Africa.
A great conference and networking opportunity. Watch this space and see what we do!