Bringing DeFi Lending to the Real World

05/11/23 • 59 min

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

This season of crypto@scale is sponsored by Ripple.

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

Previous Episode

Africa's Peer-to-Peer Story

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:

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Next Episode

Inside the Lazerpay Shutdown: A Conversation with Njoku Emmanuel

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.

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.