A Kenyan developer explains the chain from the ground up.

0:00AI’m thinking about going to Ghana, maybe Africa. Um, no, no, no.

0:06BMy family is from Cameroon.

0:07AGenetic. I don’t know. I don’t know Cameroon. All right, what’s up?

0:14BWhere should I be looking?

0:15CYeah, yeah, you kind of should be looking there.

0:17AWhat’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.

0:27BAmazing, James Sosonga, I’m a developer from Kenyan software approach and developer.

0:33AAnd how are you doing today?

0:35BI’m okay, I’m very pleased. It’s very amazing being in Ethiopia. Yeah, it’s very cool.

0:39AWhen did you arrive in town?

0:41BOkay, I arrived in Ethiopia, that was by second flight, by first, and I arrived in Ethiopia second of this month.

0:48AOkay, and how have you been finding it? You’ve been here 10 days now or so?

0:50BYeah, yeah, it’s 10 days. Yeah, it’s been amazing, amazing, amazing meeting new faces, meeting new developers, interacting with the team, uh, getting to build as a team, fail, restart, bring up a new one.

1:03AAnd for my audience who don’t know what a hackathon is, what is a hackathon?

1:06BA hackathon is just like a -- a hackathon is like a coalition where developers come together, like, try to come up with new solutions, a unique solution from any other solution that aims at solving real-world problems. So the key thing of hackathon is just to enable, uh, check on the capability of developers as developers to be able to come up with a new unique idea to solve current real-world problems.

1:29AYeah. And you told me you’ve been in the space now around 3 years.

1:35BYeah, sure.

1:35AAnd so around when did you first hear about blockchain and when did you first start like becoming curious or more engaged?

1:42BOkay, thank you. The first time I heard about blockchain, um, that was when I wanted to transition to blockchain. That was in 2022 when you slow down a little bit.

1:52AYeah, I talk fast too, so it’s okay.

1:53BGo ahead. So it was on 2022 when I first joined university, so I got to meet, uh, Matu and Richie. They are like the ones who are heading with Drake Labs Kenya, so they got to introduce me about what the blockchain is all about, uh, what blockchain does at all to have a job. So there they onboarded us Several people to the second port by then, that was the Solidity port, Ethereum-based blockchain. So we were able to build on Ethereum, know about the chain and what it does, and came up with application. That’s the first ever builder in world application that is a real estate non-asset chain to be able to enable people throughout the across the world to be able to buy property and lease their property within the chain.

2:40AAnd so for most people who even Have any idea crypto? You know, the only thing I really know is Bitcoin. But you just mentioned Ethereum, and this hackathon is all around Ethereum. Can you put in your own words what Ethereum is?

2:53BOkay, thank you. Basically, when you talk about to differentiate what Ethereum is different from blockchain, from Bitcoin to me, Bitcoin is the first blockchain, the first crypto platform too. But the big thing why Ethereum came about. It’s like in Bitcoin, we could be able to write contracts within there. Bitcoin as a whole is just made to -- the use case of Bitcoin was to enable currency, which was more like a cryptocurrency use case. But Ethereum came about like they saw the need, like, can this developer be able to build on the chain? Can they be able to build something, build a blockchain? So that’s whereby Ethereum came about to ease the developers to be able to write on chain, to be able to deploy contracts, to able to interact and create that.

2:53BSo the use case of Ethereum itself, as we have remarked, the use case of Ethereum was now to bring the reality of developers to develop blockchain. Yeah, so unless like, although it’s also another, the key use case was like to enable developers to build on blockchain, to know how blockchain also works. Then again, another use case was now the crypto itself, the coin itself, the Ethereum coin. But the key use case was to differentiate it from Bitcoin blockchain. reach the aim of Bitcoin was like mainly the crypto use case itself, the demand of crypto.

4:04AAnd so what can you do with Ethereum now that you can’t do with Bitcoin?

4:10BYeah, yeah, the same, the same thing what you can do in Ethereum that you can’t do in 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 that you can build on Ethereum and bridge to other chains. So that’s why, uh, the second layer, the second or the third chain Blockchain, the Ethereum itself gives the developers opportunity and advantage to be able to build and know what’s blockchain all about.

4:35AYeah, 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 Web three? You know, as you’re talking about like what Ethereum is versus Bitcoin, like why is it Bitcoin two? You know, why is it Web three? Okay, thank you.

4:55BOkay, the way it’s called Web3, we -- okay, to make it more understandable, the normal, uh, the more normal development mode which like developers or builders usually build in when they start, it’s usually the Web2. Then, uh, Web2 usually had Web1. Web1 was like where a person could be -- let me just make it different so others would be able to know what Web1, Web2, Web3 is all about. So the web one, uh, in web one, one could only able to read, like to see what’s all. You can’t be able to do anything. But then in web two, you could be able to read, write, and do anything, like possibly within develop applications within.

4:55BThen there came web three. So what web three could be able to do that web two could not do is that in web three, you could be it was now decentralized. It was now from as it was now from web two, which is centralized. Don’t know where you have to have a database, somebody controlling. The database for you. But in Web3 now, it’s more like everything was on-chain, on blocks. Like everybody will be able to access data. It’s like public data but with confidentiality. And the data is all about -- it’s decentralized. It’s not -- 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 case, all about what you obtain.

4:55BSo Web3 is more like a highlight to Web2, advanced Web2, in such a way that it doesn’t have to All databases are integrated, but it’s not one chat. The Web3 itself, like, so the key thing for coming with Web3, to enable decentralization and security and transparency to us, or to be able to see what the chain is all about.

6:27AYeah, very impressive response. I appreciate you breaking that down so well. I myself got into the space around 3 years ago, but I’m not technical, and I think for a lot of people they can Wrap their head around the concepts of the technology, or at least like decentralization and you know these values. But I think it’s still hard to know whether or not at the foundation this technology is fulfilling on its vision, you know, and whether or not that value proposition is actually real today.

6:56BYeah.

6:56ADo you feel like that’s true? Do you feel like Web three is doing what it’s designed to do? Do you feel like Ethereum is fulfilling on its vision today?

7:02BYeah. That’s a big stream. What’s true? It’s like it’s fulfilling the use case. It’s doing what it should do as far as aspect of developers. That is the second, like, let me say Ethereum is now the main key chain of developers united to building. So if everybody comes across the world, if I ask a person which chain are you building in, every developer when it comes to ground, they always say I’m building Ethereum. Yeah, Ethereum is the mother, like they know what Ethereum is all about because it’s the first key use case to come about, the first chain before the other chains. So now the rest came about, Ethereum came about to be able to enable developers to build. So every developer knows about Ethereum. It’s the first usually developers came to introduce to when they came from Web2. So it’s doing what it’s supposed to do, to enable developers to build and function. So I’m very proud of Ethereum being able to implement Layer 2.

7:48AThat’s it. Yeah, I love that. I guess, what is your perspective on some of the other Layer 1s? Like, do you feel like they are a part of this future as well? Do you feel like -- do you ever find yourself interested in building on other Layer 1s? You know, Ethereum being a layer one.

8:04BYeah, yeah, sure, sure. I’m very proud. Like, uh, blockchain is blockchain. What blockchain does, others can also do, unless there’s simple, like, uh, several, like, key aspects that’s been missing. But I’m very proud. I’m very -- once a blockchain developer, you’re capable of shifting to any chain. Like, you’re capable of transitioning to every chain you wish to transition to. So I’m very proud. I’m confident, like, even other chains are better. Like, all chains are good. Like, they’re passing accounting grade. अपग्रेड वाले चेंज और दूसरा सो लाइक फेसबुक डेवलपिंग इन एन चेंज लाइक अपडेटेड सेवर चेंज्स लेयर वन सो आई एम वेरी कॉन्फिडेंट लाइक आई एम प्राउड अदर चेंज्स आर आल्सो बेस्ट दुनिया में या ना आई एम क्यूरियस तू हीर हाउ यू फील पीपल सी क्रिप्टो ब्लॉकचेन इन केन्या या या या सो या moving, moving, moving, or like the world moving, moving.

8:04BLike when I say the world moving, like everybody in the world now knows what blockchain is. Several countries are implementing the blockchain, uh, implementation within their governance, within what they do as, as the public. Like if you get your country, South African countries now, before Valentine, nobody knew about blockchain. Like people are not integrating now. There’s a lot of Bitcoin mining machines within the countries, several. So it’s like Blockchain is not only in Kenya, but probably it’s a Kenyan deal. Blockchain is now advanced in Kenya more than it was before, but I think to other countries also it’s more moving as high grade.

9:29AIt’s like going up.

9:31BSo blockchain, it’s super, super amazing change.

9:36ALike, yeah, it’s okay. What’s up?

9:38BYou okay?

9:38AWhat happened? Did the camera turn off?

9:39CCamera turned off though.

9:41AOkay, it turned off, off, off, off the batteries. Yeah, so I’ll get one. I’ll go grab one.

9:50CSo we’re gonna cut it somewhere. Some of the -- it’ll be like 30 seconds. It’s gonna be cut off. Yeah, some -- this is the last 30 seconds because it was not recording.