Why Crypto Needs Africa with Yoseph Ayele

07/06/23 • 38 min

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

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.

Previous Episode

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

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!

Next Episode

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

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