crypto@scale

NFTs at Work with Afropolitan's Eche Emole & Momint's Ahren Posthumus

The Flip Media — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:56:09 +0200

In today's episode, we're talking about NFTs. Now, here at crypto@scale, we'd like to talk about the pragmatic use cases for crypto technology. And while NFTs, as a digital tradable asset, have had a lot of focus from an art perspective, we want to take our conversation about use cases a step further.

In today's episode, we're joined by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan, and Ahren Posthumus, co-founder and CEO of Momint.

Eche and Afropolitan are building a digital nation and using NFTs as a tool to build their community and to create a digital passport for its members.

Ahren and Momint are working to bring digital assets to the real world.Earlier this year, they launched SunCash, a blockchain platform using NFTs to crowdfund solar power projects in South Africa.

In this episode, we'll hear from Eche and Ahren about their respective companies, their vision for a crypto-enabled continent, and much more.

Discussed in this episode:

00:00 - Intro
04:58 - What are NFTs?
07:14 - How SunCash is using NFTs
10:23 - How Afropolitan is using NFTs
15:01 - Bringing digital assets to the mainstream
17:18 - Afropolitan's Web2.5 approach
21:37 - Why did Momint launch SunCash to address South Africa's electricity challenges?
23:38 - What does a crypto-enabled future look like in Africa?
32:01 - Recommendations
33:51 - Follow us on Twitter

crypto@scale - https://twitter.com/cryptoatscale
Eche Emole - https://twitter.com/Echecrates
Ahren Posthumus - https://twitter.com/Ahren_eth

Why Crypto Needs Africa with Yoseph Ayele

The Flip Media — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 08:58:41 +0200

In today's episode, we're talking about why Web3 and crypto need Africa. We're joined by founder and investor Yoseph Ayele, who we first met in Nairobi earlier this year, during a four-country learning and listening tour he organized with the Ethereum Foundation, for which they were joined by Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin.

Yoseph believes that crypto needs Africa, and he's working to build bridges between the global crypto ecosystem and the communities and builders on the ground across the continent.

In this episode, we talk to Yoseph about that work, about his thesis that crypto needs Africa, about his vision for a borderless Africa, and much more.

00:00 - Intro
03:39 - Yoseph's background
08:00 - Why does crypto need Africa?
19:46 - Ethereum Foundation's Africa trip
24:37 - Global crypto's interest in Africa
32:44 - Borderless Africa
36:12 - Recommendations + follow us on Twitter

crypto@scale is sponsored by Ripple. Across Africa, Ripple is partnering with local financial institutions and fintechs to bring the benefits of better cross-border remittances to the region. To learn more and get in contact with the Ripple team, head over to ripple.com.

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptoatscale
Follow Yoseph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yosephayele
Yoseph's keynote at Devcon Bogotá: https://youtu.be/9X6HqcuL2Zk
Yoseph's keynote at EDCON2023: https://youtu.be/a2cT9qIyG88

Global Crypto's Focus on Africa with Visa's Cuy Sheffield & Stellar's Tori Samples

The Flip Media — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 09:48:33 +0200

Here at crypto@scale, we're of the belief that Africa is home to market conditions that will enable widespread, mainstream crypto adoption, and that many of the most immediate and meaningful crypto use cases will happen on the continent.

We’re not the only ones who think that - and in today’s episode we’re joined by two friends from outside of the continent who are both deeply interested in the African crypto ecosystem, as well.

Today’s guests are Tori Samples, senior product manager at Stellar Development Foundation, and Cuy Sheffield, the head of crypto at Visa.

crypto@scale is sponsored by Ripple.

Across Africa, Ripple is partnering with local financial institutions and fintechs to bring the benefits of better cross-border remittances to the region. To learn more and get in contact with the Ripple team, head over to ripple.com.

00:00 - Intro
02:43 - Intro to Tori
04:35 - Intro to Cuy
08:29 - Visa is investing $1 billion in Africa
10:37 - Why SDF is focused on Africa
15:09 - Crypto use cases on the continent
30:42 - Crypto-enabled impact and change
43:40 - Tori's recommendations
44:55 - Cuy's recommendations
48:28 - Follow all of us on Twitter!

Wallets & Crypto Adoption with Nestcoin's Yele Bademosi & WalletConnect's Will White

The Flip Media — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 15:40:39 +0200

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Yele Bademosi, the Co-founder and CEO of Nestcoin, and Will White, the COO of WalletConnect, to talk about a critical piece of crypto infrastructure: Wallets.

When talking about wallets here, we’re talking about non-custodial wallets - where users have full access and control over their private keys, unlike a custodial wallet which relies on and trusts third parties.

In the context of web3, we’re excited by the opportunities enabled by connecting a wallet and a user’s tokens or transaction history to a decentralized application. At the same time, we hear a lot about user experience challenges in the crypto ecosystem and wallets, of course, are central to that conversation.

crypto@scale is sponsored by Ripple.

03:11 - Intro to Yele, Nestcoin and Onboard.
04:05 - Intro to Will and WalletConnect.
06:45 - WalletConnect as web3 infrastructure.
11:04 - The UX challenges with non-custodial wallets.
22:48 - The question of localization in the global crypto sector.
27:40 - The crypto ecosystem’s focus on Africa.
38:39 - Use cases.
50:13 - Follow Yele on Twitter.
50:36 - Follow Will on Twitter.
51:01 - Follow crypto@scale on Twitter.

Inside the Lazerpay Shutdown: A Conversation with Njoku Emmanuel

The Flip Media — Thu, 25 May 2023 10:33:42 +0200

In today's episode, we welcome Lazerpay’s Njoku Emmanuel to the show.

In April 2023, Lazerpay announced that it would be shutting its doors in April of 2023. The startup, which was founded at the height of the crypto bull market in 2021, and to much fanfare Njoku who was just 19 years old at the time, promised to bring seamless crypto payments to Africa.

But since it shut down, a lot has been said in the ecosystem about the company and its shortcomings, so we wanted to get the story directly from Njoku himself.

00:00 - Intro
02:49 - Lazerpay's founding story.
05:51 - Pre-seed round, headcount growth, initial traction.
09:12 - Bear market impact.
14:59 - The issue of Njoku's age.
19:55 - Building with transparency.
22:57 - On the decision to shutdown.
34:48 - Njoku's lessons.
40:56 - The future of crypto in Africa.
42:18 - What's next?

crypto@scale is sponsored by Ripple.

Bringing DeFi Lending to the Real World

The Flip Media — Thu, 11 May 2023 08:00:00 +0200

While DeFi, or decentralized finance, has seen a volatile rise in adoption within the crypto ecosystem, the big question in our context is to what extent this model and technology can be adopted and adapted for lending use cases across emerging markets, where there is an over $100 billion credit gap, according to the IFC.

To explore that question further, we're joined in this episode by Cheng Cheng, co-founder of the DeFi protocol Jia, and George Mosomi, COO of the Safi Protocol, and a founding member of the Africa DeFi Alliance.

00:00 - Intro.
03:02 - Introducing Cheng Cheng, Co-founder of Jia.
05:32 - Introducing George Mosomi, Co-founder & COO, Safi Protocol, and founding member of the Africa DeFi Alliance.
08:19 - What does the credit landscape look like on the African continent?
17:57 - How does DeFi address Africa's lending challenges?
26:42 - How do traditional debt capital markets work versus DeFi?
34:21 - Who are the lenders and borrowers in DeFi?
40:05 - What are the challenges for DeFi protocols lending in the "real world"?
49:31 - What else needs to happen to see DeFi lending at scale?
56:35 - George's recommendations.
57:09 - Cheng's recommendations.

This season of crypto@scale is sponsored by Ripple.

Follow crypto@scale on twitter: https://twitter.com/crypto@scale

Africa's Peer-to-Peer Story

The Flip Media — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 12:51:20 +0200

African markets are inherently peer-to-peer. And peer-to-peer markets, whether formal digital marketplaces or informal trading groups on WhatsApp and Telegram, have played an important role in the adoption of crypto across African markets.

According to Chainalysis, the transaction volume from peer-to-peer exchanges in sub-Saharan Africa more than doubles the share of the next closest region. And indeed, this peer-to-peer nature of African markets extends beyond just crypto, from community lending to the airtime trading and user behavior that predated formal mobile money.

To tell the peer-to-peer story and to interrogate this dynamic further, we're joined by two guests, Michael Kimani, the Co-founder of Fonbnk, and Emmanuel Babilola, or "Babz", the CEO of Bundle and the Director of Fiat at Binance Africa.

This season of The Flip is sponsored by Ripple.

00:00 - In today's episode, we're exploring Africa's peer-to-peer story.
02:59 - Introducing Michael Kimani and Fonbank.
03:52 - Introducing Emmanuel "Babz" Babilola and Bundle.
06:30- Today's P2P crypto trading reminds Michael of the early days of airtime currency trading.
09:56 - What we're seeing with the adoption of crypto is people trying to exit from the current financial system.
14:07 - Exploring the challenges with P2P.
24:40 - What does the future look like?
27:16 - Michael's recommendations.
28:44 - Babz's recommendations.

Resources discussed in this episode:

Follow crypto@scale on Twitter @cryptoatscale.

In Centralised Exchanges We Trust?

The Flip Media — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 11:45:48 +0200

In today's episode of crypto@scale, we're exploring centralized exchanges with our two guests, Ruth Iselema, the CEO of Bitmama, and Chris Maurice, the CEO of Yellow Card.

There's a lot of strong opinions about the role of centralization in crypto, particularly in the aftermath of FTX. Yet, centralized exchanges still provide perhaps the easiest on- and off-ramps into the crypto ecosystem.

If you visit retailers that accept crypto payments in any African city, they're likely using a centralized exchange as their wallet. In order for us to see adoption of crypto at scale, that approachable user experience really matters. And undoubtedly, centralized exchanges like Bitmama and Yellow Card have an important role to play.

This episode of crypto@scale is sponsored by Ripple. Across Africa, Ripple is partnering with local financial institutions and fintechs to bring the benefits of better cross-border remittances to the region. To learn more and get in contact with the Ripple team, head over to ripple.com.

00:00 - Intro.
02:40 - Bitmama & Yellow Card's founding stories.
06:30 - Yellow Card's expansion to 16 countries.
08:43 - Bitmama's evolution from P2P to CEX.
10:53 - Post-FTX, proof of reserves, centralization, and use cases.
23:07 - Crypto education and regulation.
42:37 - Ruth & Chris' recommendations.

Stablecoins: Africa's Killer Crypto App

The Flip Media — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0200

In this episode of crytpo@scale, we're exploring what might be Africa's killer crypto app, stablecoins. According to data from Coinmetrics, cumulative Stablecoin volumes are at a $9 trillion annualized run rate, exceeding the volumes of all major card networks, except for Visa. Across the African continent, stablecoins are finding meaningful uptake, particularly in markets with low USD liquidity, or countries experiencing currency devaluation.

In today's episode, we're going to explore stablecoins in two parts. First, a global perspective with Joao Reginatto, the VP of Product at Circle, which is the company behind the USDC stablecoin. Second, a local perspective with Ngozi Dozie, Co-Founder of the African digital bank, Carbon.

00:00 - Intro. Stablecoins are the best thing since sliced bread, according to Ngozi Dozie.

02:23 - Introducing Joao Reginatto, VP, Product at Circle and product lead for USDC.

02:48 - What is a stablecoins?

04:21 - Why stablecoins?

13:33 - Not all stablecoins are equal. USDC is pegged 1:1 to the Dollar.

24:22 - What else is Circle focused on to broaden the adoption of USDC?

28:30 - Regulation.

32:10 - What's next for stablecoins?

36:25 - Joao's recommendations.

37:44 - Exploring stablecoins in the African context, with Carbon's Ngozi Dozie.

40:48 - Use cases: access to foreign exchange, hedge against devaluation.

44:05 - Carbon's FX and borrowing woes.

48:22 - Stablecoins as a platform.

52:27 - Challenges to stablecoin adoption.

1:00:06 - Ngozi is scared of the risk of capital flight.

1:03:46 - Ngozi's recommendations.

Introducing crypto@scale

The Flip Media — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0200

Introducing crypto@scale, a new show from The Flip, co-hosted by MFS Africa's Head of Crypto, Gwera Kiwana, and The Flip's Justin Norman.

crypto@scale is a pragmatic and hopefully hype-free exploration of the crypto ecosystem across the African continent.

Today's episode is a conversation recorded live from Nairobi last month. In this conversation, we share our perspectives on the sector, the use cases we find the most intriguing, the challenges we find most pressing, why we're launching a crypto show in the middle of a bear market, and what you can expect from us and this show.

For more from crypto@scale, follow us on Twitter @cryptoatscale.

00:00 - Intro

02:16 - Why are we launching this show

3:51 - The African market conditions and context for crypto's adoption

6:47 - Crypto use cases: stablecoins

10:36 - Regulation, centralization, and CBDCs

14:16 - DeFi and real-world assets

17:36 - Interoperability

19:26 - User experience and crypto education

22:17 - The DeFi Mullet

23:14 - Who's going to build and design for the future of African markets?

26:57 - Why the name crypto@scale? And what does crypto at scale mean to us?

29:15 - Prediction and wishlist