Kenyan Dev James Wasonga on Ethereum, Web3 & Blockchain | Addis Ababa

0:00I’m thinking about going to, I don’t know, maybe out there, but, I don’t know, my name is from Kenro, genetically. I don’t know, Kenro. Alright, what’s up, where should I be looking? What’s up everybody, welcome to another episode of We Them Niggas. Today we’re out here at Ethiopia, the Hackathon has kicked off this past Monday, teams have been formalizing, and I’m here with James.

0:33And how are you doing today? It’s very busy, it’s very amazing being in Ethiopia. When did you arrive in town? I arrived in Ethiopia, that was by 2nd, I flew by 1st and I arrived in the 2nd of this month. Ok, and how have you been finding it? You’ve been here 10 days now or so? It’s been amazing, amazing time meeting new faces, meeting new developers, interacting with the team. Getting to build a certain frame is really cool. And from an audience that don’t know what a hackathon is, what is a hackathon? A hackathon is like a coalition that developers come together, like try to come up with new solutions.

1:17So the key thing is just to enable the capability of developers and developers to be able to come up with a new, unique idea to solve current real-world problems. And you told me you’ve been in the space now around two years. Yeah, sure. So around when did you first hear about blockchain and when did you first start becoming curious or more engaged? Thank you. The first time I heard about blockchain, that was when I wanted to transition to blockchain, that was in 2022. When we started out a little bit. I talked first too, so it’s okay. So, it was on 2x2 in 2022 when I first joined my university. So I got to meet Matu and Richie.

2:03They are like, the ones who are hiding Web3 app scanner. So they got to introduce me about what the blockchain is all about, what the blockchain does. So, there they offered us several people to the second port by then, that was the Solidity port, Ethereum based as blockchain. So we were able to build on Ethereum, know about the chain and what it does, and deal with applications, that’s the first time we built our application that was a real estate, known as blockchain, to be able to enable people throughout the world, to be able to buy property and lease their property within the chain. So for most people who even have any idea of crypto, the only thing they really know is Bitcoin.

2:45But you just mentioned Ethereum and this hackathon is all around Ethereum. Can you put your own words what Ethereum is? Okay, thank you. Basically when you talk about to be divided, Ethereum is different from Bitcoin to me. Bitcoin was the first blockchain, the first crypto platform, but the big thing why Ethereum came about is that in Bitcoin, we could be able to write contracts within them, Bitcoin as a whole, the use case of Bitcoin was to enable currency, so it was more like a crypto currency use case, but Ethereum came about, they saw the need that this developer will be able to build on the chain, that they will be able to build a blockchain, so that way

3:34So, the use case of Ethereum itself was to bring the idea of the developers to develop blockchain.

3:46The key use case was to enable developers to build on blockchain, to know how blockchain was

4:05And so what can you do with Ethereum now that you can’t do with Bitcoin in your life? Yeah, the same thing what you can do in Ethereum is that you can build Bitcoin. In Ethereum you can develop and build applications in Ethereum. you can’t be able to build on Bitcoin, you can’t be able to build on Bitcoin, but you can’t build on Ethereum, you can’t build on Ethereum, you can’t build on Ethereum, so that’s why, the second layer, the second layer, the second blockchain, the Ethereum itself, gives the developers opportunity and advantage to be able to build that, you know, all these conditions are about to die, they’re not.

4:35Yeah, I mean, I really appreciate you giving that, like, nuanced breakdown, I feel like a lot of people, that can be hard to digest, and so I’m curious, like, all that being said, what do you feel like, like, why do we call it Web3, you know? as you’re talking about what Ethereum is versus Bitcoin. Why is it Bitcoin 2? Why is it Web 3, the stuff that we’re talking about? Okay, thank you. The way it’s called Web 3, we need to make it more understandable. The normal development is more niche. Like developers or builders, usually building when they start, it’s usually the Web 2. Web 2, we usually have Web 1. Web 1 was like, we have a person who will just make it a difference or others

5:16So in web1, web2 and web3 is all about. So in web1, one could only be able to read, like to see what’s all, you can’t be able to do anything, but then in web2, you could be able to read, write and do anything like possibly within, develop applications within, then there came web3. So what web3 could be able to do, that web2 could learn to, is that in web3, you could be, it was now decentralized. It was now from web2 which is centralized to how much way you have to have a database, somebody controlling the database, for Web3 now, it’s more like everything was on chain, on rocks, like everybody will be

5:50able to access data, it’s like public data, but confidentiality, and the data is all about, it’s a decentralized, it’s nobody’s control, so that’s what Web3 is all about, it’s about decentralization and security of data, and security of users and use cases all about what you tell, so Web3 is more like a highlight to Web2, advanced Web2, in such a way that

6:15So the key here is to be able to centralize security and transfer it to us to be able to see what the change is all about. Yeah, a very impressive response. I appreciate you breaking that down so well. I myself got into this space around three years ago, but I’m not technical. I think for a lot of people they can wrap their head around the concepts of the technology or at least like decentralization, you know, these values but I think it’s still hard to know whether or not at the foundation this technology is fulfilling one’s vision, you know, and whether or not that value proposition is actually real today. Do you feel like that’s true? Do you feel like Web3 is doing what it’s designed to do? Do you feel like Ethereum is fulfilling one’s vision today?

7:02Yeah, that’s the way it’s doing what it should be doing. It’s fulfilling the use case. It’s doing what’s in the aspect of developers. But it’s the second like, let me say Ethereum is now the main key chain of developers you like to build in. So, if everybody comes across the wall, if everybody comes across the wall, every developer when it comes to ground, they always say I’m building in Ethereum. Ethereum is the matter, they know what Ethereum is all about, because it’s the first key use case to come about, the first chain before the other chain, so on and the rest came about. Ethereum came about to be able to enable developers to build. So every developers know about Ethereum

7:36and the first issue they will have to introduce to when they came from web 2. So it’s doing what it’s supposed to do to enable developers to build. So I’m very proud of Ethereum being able to implement this. I love that. I guess, what is your perspective on some of the other layered ones? Do you feel like they are a part of this future as well? Do you ever find yourself I’ll be interested in building on other layer ones, you know, Ethereum being a layer one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m sure, sure, I’m very proud, like, blockchain is blockchain, what blockchain does, others can also do, unless they’re simple, like, several, like, years ago, others can be missing, but I’m very proud, I’m very, once blockchain developer, I’m very cool of shifting to any chain, like, you’re capable of transitioning to, every chain you wish to transition to, some people that are not confident, like, even other chains are better, like, L chains are good, like, they’re perfect, they can’t be great of, upgrade one chain to the other,

8:28So I am flexible to develop in any chain, I have developed in several chains so I am very confident that I am proud that other chains are also the best in the United States I am curious to hear how you feel people see crypto blockchain in Kenya Yeah, yeah, yeah, so people in Kenya, let me say blockchain, not only in Kenya, blockchain is now the world moving, moving, moving, moving out The world is moving. When I say the world is moving, everybody in the world knows what blockchain is. Several countries are implementing the blockchain implementation within their governance, within what they do as the public.

9:08If you get to a country, several countries now, before Thailand, nobody knew about the blockchain. People are not interacting now. There are several Bitcoin mining machines within the country. So it’s like blockchains, not only in Kenya, but products that Kenya do, blockchains now advance in Kenya more than it was before But I think to other countries, so it’s more movements hybrid, it’s like going up, so blockchain

9:33It’s super expensive chain Yeah, I don’t feel what happened, did the camera turn off? The camera turn off though Okay, it turned off off? Off off, the batteries Yeah, so I’ll get one Huh? I’ll go grab one So we’re gonna cut it somewhere Some of the little bit like 30 minutes, 30 seconds, it’s gonna be cut off Cut off? Yeah, some, this is the last 30 seconds Oh, no idea Because it was not recording

10:09It’s crazy