Blockchain and crypto heavyweights congregate at the maiden edition of the International Blockchain Summit

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July 22, 2022
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5 min read

The first edition of the International Blockchain Summit tagged Blockchain Vibes Lagos was held at Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos, on Saturday, July 9, 2022. 

The event was packed with inspiring speakers, founders, enthusiasts, and other stakeholders in the blockchain and crypto space. 

The Summit had thought-provoking keynote lectures and panel sessions, including product demos from brands such as Qitmeer, Sinso Technology, Bitget, and BoundlessPay.

The CEO of BoundlessPay and convener of Blockchain Vibes Lagos, Franklin Peters, welcomed everyone and introduced the guests.

He spoke briefly about why everyone had gathered and discussed his passion for blockchain and his plan to move the International Blockchain Summit to other parts of the world.  

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The first keynote speaker at the event was Chimezie Chuta, Partner, Adverse and President, Blockchain Nigeria User Group (BNUG). 

He spoke on the depth of blockchain technology and how it can help individuals, especially those living in Nigeria and Africa. 

His lecture covered blockchain technology's evolution, growth and development in Nigeria. According to Chuta, Nigeria leads in funding for blockchain startups in Africa. 

"Over 91 million USD has been invested in blockchain startups this year in Africa, with Nigeria taking about 39 per cent of that investment." 

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He added that Adaverse is leading in funding for blockchain startups in Africa. He encouraged founders and people building solutions with blockchain technology to visit the Adaverse website and send in their funding applications or reach him via email. 

Discussing blockchain technology’s challenges in Nigeria, Chuta said there is no definite regulatory framework. Some of these challenges are crypto scams and Ponzi schemes, technical challenges of scalability, and a shortage of requisite talents. 

He suggested some progressive steps and what the Nigerian government should be doing in the blockchain space. 

The government should be working with communities and other stakeholders to address stakeholder engagement issues, skilling staff (reskilling and up-skilling of staff), creating sandboxes and regulatory frameworks, and sponsoring friendly legislation. 

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Immediately after the first keynote speech was the first virtual panel session of the event, which had Paula Tavangar, investment principal at Swissborg Ventures, as the moderator and Nauman Ali, CEO of Eumlet, as a panellist; they discussed the journey through startup funding. 

The second-panel session had heavyweights from the international crypto community discuss the crypto market crash and what to expect. The moderator for that session was Grey Jabesi, Founder and CEO of Crypto University. 

The panel had world-renowned crypto influencers in the persons of AM Crypto, Davinci Jeremie J15, Carl Runefelt, and Futurist Kwame.

Grey asked the much-expected question, "What should we expect with the current drop in the crypto market?"

Futurist Kwame said that despite the current crash, he is with crypto all the way, 

"The first thing is you shouldn't be in a project for a short time; you should think long-term." 

Ugochukwu and Guest

Advising the audience to focus on long-term value, he concluded by saying, "If you understand the tech we are building, we should know that one bitcoin is one bitcoin." 

AM Crypto said he believes the bear market will continue. 

Carl Runefelt expects crypto to be in a down market and the traditional financial market to perform badly. He believes the best investment should be in bitcoin and gold. 

On what the future looks like for bitcoin, Davinci Jeremie J15 believes bitcoin remains the best form of money in the crypto space. 

Futurist Kwame closed the session by saying that nobody knows what's going to happen and added that people should only put money they don't mind losing in crypto. 

The next keynote speech was delivered virtually by Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe — Founder of Tekedia Capital — who spoke extensively on the topic "Keying into the digital economy.” 

In the panel session titled, Virtuality to Reality - How Blockchain Technology is Changing the Real Estate Sector, Tony Obiajuru and Prince David Omaghomi (Founder of Landcheck Africa) discussed some impressive blockchain use cases in property tech. 

Prince David spoke about the digitisation of land ownership using blockchain technology. He believes there is more work to be done and sees potential in the eNaira and its possible use case in the real estate sector. 

Finally, he encouraged the audience to start investing in real estate as soon as possible because it is an investment that has the potential to continue appreciating.  

Speakers

The final panel session had Ugochukwu Aronu, CEO, Xend; Ikechukwu Okeke, CEO, OBIEX Finance; Emmanuel Babalola, CEO, Bundle; Oluwarotimi Ogunwede, CMO, Patricia Technologies, and others contribute to the discussion about the role of exchanges, wallets in blockchain adoption. 

Frank Fagbo, a media and communications expert, moderated the session.

Senator Ihenyen Lead Partner, Infusion Lawyers and President, Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SiBAN), gave the final keynote and spoke on the need for regulation in the blockchain space. He also discussed the role of SiBAN in the Nigerian blockchain space. 

Ihenyen, in his lecture, highlighted the need for self-regulation in the blockchain space and concluded that he believes that both self-regulation and government regulation can work hand in hand and are welcome in the blockchain space.  

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Franklin Peters

In an interview with Techpoint Africa, the event's convener, Franklin Peters, said he conceived the idea of holding an international blockchain summit over four years ago. 

He said his goal is to bring education that will lead to the adoption of blockchain technology in Africa and the world at large. 

On the future of blockchain, Franklin believes blockchain is the big revolution, especially in the financial space. According to him, blockchain technology is multidimensional and can be applied in a wide variety of sectors, and he believes it will revolutionize the global economy. 

He also sees his company BoundlessPay—a blockchain-powered bank that enables people to perform banking transactions—becoming one of the biggest blockchain banks in the world. 

Franklin and AM Crypto Shakes hands

Franklin added that leading from the success of the summit; more international blockchain summits will be held, with the possibility of one holding later this year. 

According to him, there are plans to expand and take the event to other cities such as Abuja, Port Harcourt and other countries such as Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and more.

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