THE STATE OF WEB3 IN NIGERIA:

It’s almost impossible to talk about countries adopting cryptocurrency and web3 without being amazed at the pace and resilience of Nigeria, especially with the consideration of major obstacles such as lack of proper awareness, scams, and the regulatory environment.

Despite the fact that in February 2021 the Nigerian government effectively banned banks and fin-techs from dealing with crypto, Nigeria currently leads the world in web3 adoption with at least 47% of Nigerians — depending on your data source — owns and use cryptocurrency on a daily basis.

However, the most interesting thing for me is how I observed Nigerians become more particular about web3 and cryptocurrency in an almost dramatic and inevitable fashion.

This subtly takes us back to the #EndSARS protest in 2020:

The #EndSARS protest which started as a call to end brutality, intimidation, oppression and extrajudicial killings by the Police — especially the SARS unit, eventually lead to an epoch that changed a series of events in Nigeria. One of this involves financial transactions.

On the 14th of October 2020, former @X CEO @jack tweeted; “Donate via #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS 🇳🇬”.

This was to support the @feminist_co who had their bank accounts blocked by the Nigerian central bank @cenbank to stop them from receiving donations made to aid the protest.

Indirectly, this highlighted one of the most important attributes of cryptocurrency which is DECENTRALISATION.

If the government can freeze bank accounts to prevent you from having a say against them, then this surely means that you have no say against them, yes?

Hmmm…

The sun had gone blank and if there was a way to light it up, Nigerians were willing to take it.

Crypto donations started coming in, people were interested in this anti-controllable “solution” and many wanted to be actively involved.

But this isn’t where it got interesting…

Barely 7 months later, twitter user @Rx_Deyholar posited that the @feminist_co silently withdrew $51,000 worth of @Bitcoin from the #EndSARS protest donation wallet. As expected, this stirred up serious controversy and Nigerians demanded accountability from the coalition.

[twitter.com/ireaderinokun/status/1370427023353597954](https://twitter.com/ireaderinokun/status/1370427023353597954](https://twitter.com/ireaderinokun/status/1370427023353597954))

With “receipts” categorically stating that no data on the blockchain can be altered, and that every transaction can be read on-chain by just anyone, it unlocked yet another web3 grail in the eyes of the masses; TRANSPARENCY.

Since Web3 represents the advancing phase of the internet’s evolution with the aim to foster a more decentralized and accountable society, then it is really a no-brainer that only transparency can build trust.

And this is where web3 education comes in.

For every good thing to thrive, it has to first of all break it’s obstacles. In the case of web3 adoption in Nigeria, the major dilemma is not just a mere lack of awareness, but the “lack of awareness that web3 is NOT a scam”.

— A major misconception by both the government and a very high number of the populace.

But how can you convince a victim of numerous Ponzi schemes such as MMM, Twinkas, Rastekerli and so many others, that @Bitcoin, @Ethereum and @Solana amongst others are not scams like these Ponzis?

How do they see and touch this crypto? Or is it just another “internet magic money”?

Fortunately, some wonderful web3 communities were gradually growing and some enthusiasts were spearheading this adoption. For instance, @wisdomatic was actively holding physical seminars and spaces, @ogagamedia was hosting twitter spaces through @web3Hxc, @defiprincess talking about web3 jobs, @crypto4bailout was educating on youtube and twitter.

@hangoutdao, @boomers_dao, @BEI_edu @spacepalsdao, @TheNirvanAcad, @DegenZ, @AlphaDawgsDAO and some other communities were not only onboarding more Nigerians into the web3 ecosystem, they also served as a platform where enthusiasts can mutually hunt for opportunities, either through airdrops, trading or NFT flips.

To include women in the web3 space that was gradually getting saturated with men, communities like the @women_in_defi and @Goaldiggers_dao embarked on a mission to onboard, educate and empower more women in web3 through their exclusive communities.

On other platforms like Facebook, we have @BrosFerdinand and @IreGoodness who actively encourage more people to join the web3 space by highlighting and educating them on the opportunities in Web3.

@Chris_Ani was also pushing strides with Daba School, and @AlphaR was doing the same with Alpha Academy.

In April 2022, @adisaolashile took a picture of a vibrant old drummer, minted it on @Opensea and sold it for about 1.1 $ETH and gave the drummer 50% of the earning.

Was it really so easy to take a picture, upload it on the blockchain and make about N2m in Nigerian currency?

[twitter.com/adisaolashile/status/1510288527329832963](https://twitter.com/adisaolashile/status/1510288527329832963](https://twitter.com/adisaolashile/status/1510288527329832963))

Surely, this had to be a gold mine. People were interested and they wanted to find out.

This led to a rise in NFT interest in the country, and everyone was minting just about any picture they laid their hands on.

From gallery to opensea, with an outrageous price attached to it.😅

With the rush of enthusiasm, came the cold embrace of disappointment from the lack of selling the said “NFTs”.

On the brighter side, many eventually understood that NFTs are more than mere Jpegs and just like some addiction, it was already too late to leave the opiate of this web3 section.

Like many other countries, there a quite a lot of socio-economical problems in the country that web3 can help solve. After all, what is the essence of web3 adoption if it is not problem solving?

When Nigeria leverages Web3 technologies, problems such as salary delays, bill payments, cross-border payments, inflation, currency devaluation, unemployment and even inheritance problems can be efficiently solved.

There are already prominent web3 companies located in Nigeria with the ability to help solve these problems.

@Roqqu, @Tatcoin and @Boundlesspay for instance, can help us foster cross-border payments, utility bill payments and remittance.

@cassavanetwork are also a Web3 platform where users can earn rewards by carrying out simple online tasks, thereby providing opportunities for the masses.

They also hosted the biggest IRL web3 event in Jos a couple of weeks ago.

On the other side , through their community , @Harri_obi, @nzube and the entire team @superteamng (which Africa’s first @SuperteamDAO chapter), helps Nigerian @Solana developers and creators who seek opportunities in web3 to grow , learn, earn and build together in crypto.

@DannySimpl3r of @Solanafndn also aids talented Nigerian developers — and Africans in general — by providing resources necessary for improving the growth of web3 and actually building a product that will improve the country in general.

It will only be right to say that the state of web3 in Nigeria can only get better because for each setback, the masses will always find a way to move forward and adopt web3.

The crypto ban lead to an increase in P2P transactions on platforms like @Binance, the Twitter ban which affected many enthusiasts from actively following some web3 communities and spaces was nullified by the use of VPNs, lack of technological development in many areas encouraged educators to hold more physical seminars.

Web3 adoption and education cannot be overemphasized, this why I must also commend the @MoonHubDAO for the extensive research and education hosted by my colleagues, and also grateful for the opportunity to drive web3 forward with them.

LET US MAKE WEB3 GREAT AGAIN!