Announcing Blockchain & Decentralized Finance Conference/ Exhibition Lagos 2020
Blockchain Nigeria User Group is happy to announce that our next national blockchain technology conference of value and innovation, captioned “Blockchain & Decentralized Finance Conference/ Exhibition Lagos 2020”, #Block-DeFi:2020, for short will be held at the usual prestigious Civic Center facility, along Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria from the 29–30 May 2020. The conference is designed to bring attendees the best industry experts, insightful discussions on stage and a unique networking opportunity in the breathtaking commercial city of Lagos Nigeria. Our hope is that everyone present will have the opportunity to establish meaningful connections. The conference agenda is: Advancing the Tokenized Economy for a Decentralized Future on the Blockchain.
This is the 4th edition of our blockchain conference series in Lagos, and the 9th overall national conference in Nigeria since 2017!
We have planned the following content over the two-day event;
- power-packed Panel sessions
- Blockchain and DeFi product exhibitions
- Blockchain for Lawyers & Legal Practitioners Workshop in Partnership with Innovation & Technology Lawyers Network.
- Communicating Blockchain Technology Workshop for journalists in Nigeria, in partnership with Africa Blockchain University (ABU)
- and Blockchain4Good Hackathon for developers. (Platform partnerships include IBM, Tezos, Quras, Vitelab, Waves, Ethereum Foundation).
Our conference theme has been carefully chosen in line with current waves in the industry. Talks will explore the critical role of asset tokenization, stablecoins, etc in financial inclusion, an insight into how regulators are attempting to keep up with the pace of global innovation, and the expectations for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) in the coming years. Unlike our past events known for choked up sessions, our objective this time is clear; bringing together industry experts/ investors from around the world and creating unforgettable memories by offering long breaks so that high-quality contacts can be forged, major deals and collaborations struck.
Why Blockchain & Decentralized Finance?
Blockchains and smart contracts currently offer new ways of building financial applications that are trustless and globally accessible. Instead of relying on trusted intermediaries that are geofenced in specific regions, blockchains bring us closer to a global Internet of Money. No doubt, DeFi has become a trending topic in the global blockchain community. Flashes of DeFi discussions are also seen and heard in local community groups. Here is the real thing, in contrast to the decentralization of money through Bitcoin, DeFi aims for a broader approach of generally decentralizing the traditional financial industry. It is an emerging category of financial applications that are being developed on top of open, trustless networks like ethereum, EOS etc. DeFi aims to give anyone with an internet connection access to world-class financial services. So the concern for us is this, given the new building blocks of the emerging programmable money world, how can we make financial services better and include the huge number of the excluded masses in Nigeria and across Africa?
Despite the successes of traditional financial systems, we all know that it is overtly inefficient, inaccessible and opaque. Obviously long overdue for a revolution! Today, a multitude of projects are being developed that provide the same functions, even better than the legacy financial world — payments/ remittances, borrowing, lending, insurance, prediction markets, collateralizing, derivatives, and more. These dApps allow worldwide, permission-less access to different financial features, all directly on the blockchain. Many popular Dapps have already emerged in this space including — Augur, dy/dx, Uniswap, MakerDAO, Dharma, and more. For those who think that finance is the best application of blockchain, Decentralized Finance or DeFi, should make you super excited for all the innovation it will bring. We are essentially driving for the emergence of a brand-new monetary system built on public blockchains.
As an influential technology advocacy group, it is our duty to bring to the attention of our countrymen, all the tools, trends and development that will drive Africa's relevance in the emerging decentralized future. Some have argued that most Africans do not know about DeFi yet, so why hold a conference on the subject? We do not need to play the second fiddle anymore in the tech space. What is wrong in starting when and where everyone else is starting? In November 2019, at the Fintech Week event organized by Fintech Association of Nigeria where I was also privileged to moderate a session on blockchain technology impact on fintech, Yele Badamosi, and Khadijat Abdulkadir my fellow panelists, opined the inevitability of building a parallel financial system completely independent of the traditional financial system. DeFi has vindicated us.
One of the key components that make our conference a huge success is the trusting relationships we forge with our sponsors and partners. We seek to connect with companies from various industries who share our values and vision. Our sponsorships/ partnerships are designed to be mutually beneficial to both parties and are tailored to individual requirements.
Please contact us for more information on how you can be a part of the event.
In the coming weeks, we shall be announcing our keynotes, speakers, and exhibitors. Feel free to shoot us an email if you will like to make presentations in line with our conference agenda.
Further information about the event can be found on the group's website.
Regional Blockchain & Digital Assets Conference Makurdi, Benue State.
We are also excited to announce that we shall be holding the first-ever Blockchain & Digital Assets Conference in Makurdi, Benue state Nigeria in Partnership with NiMEdix Ecosystem.
About the Benue Blockchian Summit Event
Internet money has enabled monetization of ideas paving way for technological revolutions that could not have been imagined a few years back. It will be a “Future of Jobs Conference” on, Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Agenda: Blockchain Career & Business Opportunities. The low-hanging Fruits!
- Blockchain and Crypto 101: A primer for career and business professionals.
- Blockchain Careers for Government and Regulatory Agencies.
- Blockchain for business and startup entrepreneurs.
- Building scalable DAPPS on the blockchain.
- Digital Asset class and the future of Asset Managers.
More information is available on the event website.
