Shaping blockchain communities in Africa
Take-aways after PositiveBlockchain’s online round-table on 17.05.2021
Communities are mobilizing across the African continent to explore positive use cases of blockchain technologies. And there is a lot happening already — see some examples below taken from our database:
Round-table
During this online round-table, we invited some community builders to share about their work and calls to action.
Great minds connected from Mombasa, Berlin, Johannesburg, Zug, Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt, Tunis, Lagos, Brussels, Douala, San Francisco, Cape Town, Accra and more.. Meet our speakers/ participants and join the movement!
West Africa Decentralized Alliance (Ghana, Western Africa)
Mercy was representing WADA, the West Africa Decentralized Alliance. The community is spreading across several countries in the region but actually also in central and southern Africa. WADA focuses on the Cardano ecosystem, working on infrastructure, education or dapp development. The community is also part of the project Catalyst, a “series of experiments to advance on-chain governance and accelerate community-driven innovation on Cardano” (read more). The Fund5 round had its deadline on May 17th, but next rounds will be organized soon!
Website: wadalliance.org
Email: team@wadalliance.org
Africa Blockchain Institute (Rwanda)
Erastus Kirui is currently performing a survey for ABI on Blockchain Technology in Africa Especially Kenya. Are you blockchain founder? please help Erastus and his research! https://qonnsqrs7xn.typeform.com/to/ebY5o9GU
About: think tank focusing on blockchain education and research in Rwanda and Eastern Africa
Website: africablockchain.institute
Twitter: twitter.com/AfricaBlockInst
Blockchain for Good (Paris & Nairobi)
Pierre Champsavoir is based in Nairobi and looking to build partnerships with projects, communities and academics to further analyze and research blockchain applications for the SDGs. Get in touch with him!
About: French association close to academics and universities researching on blockchain applications for good. They are closely working with PositiveBlockchain to build the open database and further qualify projects.
Website: blockchainforgood.fr
Blockchain for Africa (Cameroon) & Blockchain Association of Cameroon
Junie Maffock has founded the online media Blockchain for Africa to raise the awareness of positive blockchain applications in Cameroon and Western Africa. People need to see more examples of impactful blockchain projects made by Africans or for the benefit of Africans. There is also a need for awareness and education locally, as blockchain doesn’t always have the best publicity especially because of scams in the crypto-space happening frequently.
Two ways you can help Junie:
- fill out this quick form (French) to identify more blockchain projects in (Western) Africa
- get in touch with her to publish an article about your project/concept.
Website: blockchainforafrica.com
Twitter: twitter.com/BlockchainForA2
United Africa Blockchain Association (SA + across Africa)
Yaliwe Soko and Anita Mukuchamano were representing UABA. The Association obviously has a broad span of community development activities in the blockchain space in South Africa but also in various countries with ambassadors and local partners. A core goal UABA is focusing on is educating Africans on the blockchain and Celo ecosystem with a Train the Trainer model. Get in touch with them if you want to join the courses or organize a class in your area!
Website: www.uaba.io
Training: google doc form
Great Lakes Blockchain Initiative (Burundi-RD Congo)
In January 2021, several organizations among which the European Partners for the Environment (Brussels), the local association Dunia Bora as well as members of international development organizations met up in Burundi and outlined the plans for an multi-partner initiative exploring thepotential of blockchain in the Great Lakes region in Africa: Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda. The initiative is looking for more blockchain and ecosystem partners and experts in the fields, especially in areas such as mining, food or biodiversity. Get in touch!
Contact: ombenibie@yahoo.fr
We also thank the other speakers and participants during the call:
Luise Ammerschuber from YESS Impact Blockchain Project (Uganda). Luise is looking forward to connect with experts and partners in Uganda focusing on micro-finance, financial inclusion, savings and loan association or community development.
Glen Jordan from Empowa.io — the community platform empowering African communities to create wealth and improve living conditions through affordable housing finance
Maciej Bulanda from Emerging Impact, partnering with humanitarian & government agencies and FSPs to modernize financial services by using flexible, open banking infrastructure accessible to the Global South.
Karim Chabrak from Coinsence.org platform, mainly working on enabling communities to create own currencies. Currently focusing on Tunisian Diaspora mobilization for impact projects in Tunisia.
Roselyne Wanjiru from Pesabase, a peer to peer remittance service built on Celo, currently linking Australia and East Africa.
Shaun Conway from Ixo, the proof of impact protocol.
Alex Maaza from the Cardano Foundation who shared this initiative https://cardano.ideascale.com/
Joanna & Johannes from Gravity.Earth a decentralized identity company based in Nairobi.
Taira & Serena from the Next Billion team at the Ethereum Foundation. They have just announced new fellows the Ethf will support for the next months, check out some of their bold ideas!
Thanks for joining to Peter from the AfD, Raymond & Stuart from Stuart representing European Partners for the Enviroment (www.the-epe.org), and all other participants!
And then what? 3 steps for a winning eco-system
1. Help us map the eco-system of positive blockchain projects and startups. We need to learn from them and connect!
The next release of the updated database (1200 projects!) is planned for the 21.06.2021. We look for individuals, organizations, universities, students willing to help by adding projects in the list and information about their activity. You can join the collaborative effort directly on this spreadsheet or by contacting us at hello@positiveblockchain.io. Your organization or name will be cited as contributor.
2. Speak to next events, and attend :)
The Zoom poll has spoken and we will be happy to host next events for you.
We plan to organize next round-table and online panels and look for speakers in various fields of blockchain such as: supply chain, agri-food, financial inclusion, mining, healthcare. You run a projects or have experience on implementation best practices? Come and tell us more!
Make sure your receive invitation to next events: positiveblockchain.io/newsletter
3. Join the movement, connect, share, create together!
Telegram: t.me/positiveblockchain
Web positiveblockchain.io
hello@positiveblockchain.io
