It is my pleasure to let everyone know the conference in South Africa went very well for DigiByte. The videos should be online soon. We will post links to them as soon as we get word they are posted. Many new people were introduced to DigiByte and we have made several new influential connections on the African continent.
Overall the SA event was far more professional than many Bitcoin and blockchain events I have attended in the past. The organizers were professional and very warm and welcoming. Overall I was very impressed with how warm and welcoming the South African people were. There seemed to be an excitement in the air for the positive change this technology is bringing to Africa.
The majority of the attendees were bankers, government officials and business tech professionals. It was nice to see such a vested interest in blockchain technology and the impact it can have on Africa. Africa is in a much better position to begin adopting DigiByte and blockchain technology than the rest of the world. More importantly there seems to be a hunger for change and a will to explore new ideas that you just don’t see in other western countries. In the US and Europe you have a lot of legacy infrastructure that companies have spent billions of dollars developing in the past twenty years that is now obsolete. Given such a hefty investment many companies with this tech "debt" are not easily swayed to move beyond their legacy infrastructure. Africa does not have this issue given its lack of infrastructure in many areas. They are well positioned to "leapfrog" the rest of the world with wide spread blockchain tech adoption.
However there still are some technical issues for Africa to overcome before widely adopting blockchain technology. The main one being wide spread internet access. What was interesting to note is most people felt this would not be an issue for very long as Africa is rapidly getting continent wide mobile internet access. This highlights the importance of DigiByte developing and maintaining mobile SPV wallets, as most Africans will not be using desktop computers.
The blockchain and DigiBye can help bring three things to Africa; Transparency & Security, Innovation and Standardization. The transparency of the blockchain/bitcoin is already making a big impact in Africa through companies such as BitPesa. For those not familiar with BitPesa I would highly encourage you to check out their story. The CEO Elizabeth is a fantastic speaker with more insight into Africa on a country-by-country basis than anyone I have heard speak on the matter.
https://www.bitpesa.co/There are some fascinating and exciting projects underway to help bring this exciting technology to Africa by local people. The one I was most impressed with is known as the SatoshiCentre in in Botswana founded by Mrs. Alakanani Itireleng. I would encourage everyone to check them out and engage with them on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/SatoshicentreBw They are encouraging the adoption of Blockchain tech and are working to teach kids and people to code in Africa on a very grass roots level. After speaking with Alakanani she is more than happy to help introduce people to DigiByte if we send her and the Centre some DGB ☺
Another very good speech was by the gentlemen behind BitFinance and how blockchain/bitcoin is being used in Zimbabwe. When the video comes out I would recommend people watch their presentation to get a sense for the true impact blockchain tech can bring to Africa.
I was also able to check out my first "accelerator" lab put on by Barclays in Capetown. As we move DigiByte forward through 2016 and look to get DGB tech adopted by banks and other larger corporations it is becoming apparent there are "channels" to help speed this process up and make things happen quicker.
Over the next several months DigiByte will be represented at several more events to help facilitate this. If anyone has any suggestions, ideas or contacts for these events please let us know.
We would also like to encourage people to start representing DigiByte at local blockchain/bitcoin events throughout the world. We feel this is a very important step in growing DigiByte as DGB is much larger than anyone person or group. A prime example of the power this can have is if you look at Ethereum/ Factom and the conference networking they have done and are doing.
So what did this event mean for DigiByte? First of all hundreds of new people across the African continent have been exposed to what we are working toward in a professional manner & environment and are looking closely at what we are doing. This includes major financial institutions (every major SA bank plus the SA Government) and many tech companies. This impact may not materialize right away but it will no doubt help us moving forward in the long run.
It has come to my attention some people are concerned with the lack of communication. I want to let everyone know we will be addressing this and opening up more channels in the future. This Africa event was a bit hard as the internet in many places was very slow and limited. Combine that with a very busy schedule and the fact I was traveling alone in remote areas down here makes constant updates very tough. Its important to maximize the networking time while in a place like this as who knows when we will be back.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support and your passion for DigiByte. 2016 is on track to be a huge year for DigiByte. The timing just could not be better. Every major bank and company in the world is looking at blockchain tech, and they are looking outside of Bitcoin. We are going to put Digibyte in front of them. Our next event will be FinDev in New York City on March 29th. Between now and then expect more updates and news!
Cheers,
Jared
