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

The first edition of the International Blockchain Summit tagged Blockchain Vibes Lagos was held at the 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 featured thought-provoking keynotes and panel sessions, including product demos from brands such as Qitmeer, Sinso Technology, Bitget and BoundlessPay.

Managing Director 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.

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

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

His talk covered blockchain technology’s evolution, growth and development in Nigeria. According to Chuta, Nigeria leads the way in funding blockchain startups in Africa.

“Over US$91 million has been invested in blockchain startups this year in Africa, with Nigeria taking about 39 percent of this investment.”

He added that Adaverse is a leader in financing blockchain startups in Africa. He encouraged entrepreneurs and people building solutions with blockchain technology to visit the Adaverse website and submit their funding applications or reach him via email.

Discussing blockchain technology’s challenges in Nigeria, Chuta said there is no set regulatory framework. Some of these challenges are crypto fraud and Ponzi schemes, technical challenges with scalability and lack of necessary talent.

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

Government should work with local communities and other stakeholders to address issues of stakeholder engagement, train staff (reskilling and upskilling staff), create sandboxes and regulatory frameworks, and sponsor friendly legislation.

Immediately following the first keynote was the first virtual panel session of the event, which had Paula Tavangar, Investment Director at Swissborg Ventures, as moderator and Nauman Ali, CEO of Eumlet, as panelist; they discussed the journey through start-up funding.

The second panel session had heavyweights from the international crypto community discuss the crash in the crypto market and what to expect. The moderator for that session was Gray 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.

Gray asked the much-anticipated question, “What should we expect with the current fall in the crypto market?”

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

“The first thing is that you shouldn’t be in a project for too short a time; you should think long term.”

Advising the crowd to focus on long-term value, he concluded by saying, “If you understand the technology we’re building, we should know that a bitcoin is a bitcoin.”

AM Crypto said he believes the bear market will continue.

Carl Runefelt expects that crypto will be in a bear market and that the traditional financial market will perform poorly. He believes the best investment should be in bitcoin and gold.

As for what the future holds for bitcoin, Davinci Jeremie J15 believes that bitcoin is still the best form of money in the crypto space.

Futurist Kwame ended the session by saying that no one knows what’s going to happen and added that people should only put money they don’t mind losing into crypto.

The next keynote speech was delivered practically 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 real estate technology.

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

Finally, he urged the public to start investing in real estate as soon as possible because it is an investment that has the potential to continue to appreciate.

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

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

Senator Ihenyen Lead Partner, Infusion Lawyers and President, Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SiBAN), delivered 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 talk, 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.