Web3bridge, a Lagos-based blockchain development community commenced its 3-day conference tagged Web3 Lagos Conference 2022 last week. The conference which is planned to span three days (Thursday to Saturday) received participants from all parts of the country and beyond.
The welcome address was given by the community’s founder and CEO, Ayodeji Awosika who says there’s a limit to what developers and web3 enthusiasts can learn in a day. Hence, the Web3 Lagos Conference is scheduled to run for three days. He further gives an outline of how the events would unfold.
Related post: Ayodeji Awosika speaks on foray into crypto, training 1000 developers
The first workshop – ‘understanding the architecture of web3 apps’ was handled by Trust Onyekwere. The aim of the session was to expose those in web2 space to the possibilities in web3.
An expression that stood out in the session was-“ Web3 is not web2 but web2 is web3”. This means that you can find elements of web2 in web3 but you can’t find elements of web3 in web2. Being in web2 is a great step in understanding how web3 works and what is known in web2 can be useful in web3.
Trust Onyekwere illustrated the upgrades and differences between web2 and web3 apps with the popular blogging app, Medium. He concludes that Web3 is an upgrade to web3. So builders have to be well grounded in web2 to start.
The second session of the first day of Web3 Lagos Conference was about Decentralised Autonomous organisations (DAOs). The lecture which was taken by Isreal Rex focused on the possibilities and opportunities in DAOs.
DAOs are basically communities that utilise blockchain technology and the blockchain is the reason why web3 exists.
Two or more persons can decide to build anything or any group of persons can decide to be a DAO.
Some of the elements of DAOs include membership tokens, Treasury, a voting system, and payroll capabilities for use by businesses, charities, collectives and other organisations. Types of DAOs include social DAOs, investment, Commerce, media, protocol, political and many others.
Isreal Rex said the best thing about DAO is that members can contribute to all decision-making processes. Some DAOs require the purchase of tokens to join, while most are free. The steps for contributing to a DAO are to decide if it’s right, get onboarded, and check the community vibe. Understand how to socialise, start socialising, join the DAOs live events and talk to a core contributor.
Read also: Clinton Felix on how you can become a successful blockchain developer
The following parts of Web3 Lagos conference, day 1 featured lectures for developers on how to build contracts and tokens. Adesanya Joshua Ayodeji took them on how to build customised tokens on the Binance Smart chain.
He also spoke about areas such as creating tokens using minting functions, burning tokens which means erasing and lastly and customising tokens.
Other technical sessions included ‘Understanding the Starknet Ecosystem’ taken by N. Darlington and ‘Building Polylithic and Upgradable contract with the diamond standard’ led by Temitayo Daniel.
How to build web3 apps
The second day of Web3 Lagos conference started on a good note like the first. Idris Olubisi, development relation manager at Mara started by giving a lecture on web3 stack.
He defines Web3 by quoting Nader Dabit: “Web3 is the stack of protocols that enables fully decentralised applications”. Some of the types of applications that can be built in web3 are finance, social network, DAOs, streaming, digital arts, and decentralised web infrastructure protocol.
Idris Olubisi says web3 does not replace existing technologies, but it increases the range of possible solutions. The steps of building a full stack app in web3 are: Build smart contracts, Deploy smart contracts, build a frontend application, and deploy the frontend application.
Web3 starter pack platforms include Mara academy, learnweb3, buildspace, SpeedRunEthereum, Freecodecamp Web3, Web3 Afrika, Developer Dao, Learnweb3 Dao, Web3bridge, Mara community. He concludes by saying web3 will welcome you to keep dispensation.
Also, Tunmise Olaoluwa, a seasoned crypto trader gave a lecture on a pragmatic approach to profitable crypto trading. He emphasises the importance of building and patience in crypto. Trading is business and should be treated as such and trading every day doesn’t make one profitable.
According to Tunmise, to be profitable, learn to take profits. A profit not taken is not yours. Focus on one or a few baskets of crypto assets. Find a style that works for you and stick to it. Take stock of your trades. You don’t have control of the market. Risk management is key. Pay attention to macroeconomic fundamentals.
Lanre Adeoye, Talent Operations at Stack Shift also gave a keynote speech on how you can develop your career capital in web3.
“Career capital means the investment in a career, in order to get returns.”- Lanre Adeoye at Web3 Lagos Conference.
She says Remote work and web3 have given people the opportunity to work for international platforms and earn handsomely. Lanre emphasises the importance of personal networks and the maximisation of distribution.
According to Lanre Adeoye, Sources of opportunities are building in public like Twitter, medium, LinkedIn and discord. Communities are important. Keep relationships. Attend events and conferences.
Following that, Yusuf Kehinde, solution manager at Polygon gave a Developer guide for frontend devs.
Afterwards, students of Web3bridge came on stage to share their experiences in the academy. The highlight of the discussion is that it is better to learn on-site and have tech friends. Then, Michael Jerry lectured participants on how to build a community.
Blockchain education is important
Day 3, the last day of Web3 Lagos conference, featured discussions and panel sessions by stakeholders and innovators in the African blockchain space.
Oluchi Enebeli, Senior smart contract Engineer at Liquality and the founder of Web3ladies spoke about the importance of communities in blockchain adoption. She said For global adoption to be achieved, we need a lot of education.
“Many people still don’t know about the technology. It’s important to onboard more people into the ecosystem. There are a lot of opportunities to tap from.” – Oluchi at Web3 Lagos Conference.
According to Oluchi, Web3ladies has a community of over 3000 ladies across Africa. The aim is to foster a community of excellent, passionate and groundbreaking ladies in the African web3 space who can work together, not only to challenge the status quo but also to create impactful open-sourced solutions in the web3 space.
After that, a panel session with representatives from different blockchain clubs from university campuses across the nation was held. The discussion bordered on the role of blockchain campus clubs in increasing community onboarding.
According to Kevin Okoye, co-founder of BlockchainUNN, what led to the formation was the determination to spread blockchain knowledge. The representative from Uniben says his community is out to drive social economic change using blockchain technology while Odion Ifehboh, co-founder of BlockchainOAU says there’s enough time to learn about blockchain due to the ASUU strike.
Panel on Crypto regulation
Also, a one-man panel session on Cryptocurrency Regulation in Nigeria was held. It featured Senator Ihenyen, president of SiBAN. He comments on the regulatory journey of crypto in Nigeria over the years and says the SEC guide on crypto assets in May is a welcome development.
On the issue of whether the CBN ban on crypto is in reaction to the Endsars campaign where bitcoin played a prominent role, Senator says the CBN Governor has addressed the issue in the past. The authorities are concerned with illicit usage, and they didn’t ban bitcoin for petty reasons.
“The best way is to monitor transactions, don’t kill transactions.” – Senator Ihenyen at Web3 Lagos Conference.
Senator further emphasized the need to regulate all forms of innovation while speaking on the contrast between decentralisation and regulation.
To cap off an eventful three-day conference, Olumide Aderinwale gave a lecture on how to build a career in tech. Ayodeji Awosika, founder/CEO of Web3bridge gave the closing remarks amidst feedback from participants on how impactful the past three days at Web3 Lagos Conference have been.
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