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We believe that blockchain technology will fundamentally change the way people collaborate and exchange value, especially in emerging countries. While in western countries, the innovations are mostly nice-to-have for a few while the majority is somewhat happy with the status-quo, blockchain technology can radically change the lives of all people in these countries. Huge problems are still unsolved: Access to banking systems in general, cross-border payments, authoritarian governments which censor transactions and freedom of speech, inflation, etc. For all these problems, a blockchain based solution seems feasible.
African society has a history of leapfrogging technology: Everybody has a mobile phone nowadays but landlands were never really a thing. The same will happen with banking: A great number of people will never be banked, but will directly manage their wealth from their smartphone on-chain. Let’s build this future together!
Why Accra then? Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa and is home to great technical innovation. Thousands of Nigerian engineers have sparked the attention online. On the other side, Ghana is the smaller sister of Nigeria. Politically and economically stable, safe to travel. Both countries have English as their official language and are culturally linked: Musicians collaborate, … and they share the passion for food, especially Jollof, although they argue which country has the better recipe.
Anyways, this makes Accra, the capital of Ghana, the perfect place for the first Ethereum Hackathon in West Africa:
It is a safe place for international people to travel to. In fact, Google, Roche and other big companies have their West African offices in Ghana because of this.
All people with a West African passport can travel freely to Ghana without visa restrictions. In fact, Ghana is for a lot of upper-class Nigerians a holiday destination.
Accra is centrally located in West Africa: It’s a 1 hour flight from most cities including Lagos and a 10 hour drive from Lagos.
For these reasons, we believe that Accra will become the hub for great ideas and the driver for the Ethereum driven ethos in West Africa. ETH Accra will be the first milestone of this journey.