Few days ago, I published an article about AgriFi, a child project of ToroNet. In truth, I came across ToroNet on LinkedIn some months back and I was intrigued mostly by the founders' commitment to building solutions to real life issues that people face in Africa.

ToroNet has some integrated projects with various aims but having one thing in common - they are solutions to real life problems. I must admit, it's a great feeling seeing projects like this because the web3 industry, as we know it, is filled with projects without actual utility, with founders looking for customers' funds to use as exit liquidity.

This led me on a rabbit hunt till I found myself in the dm of one of the co-founders of ToroNet, Bolaji Akinboro.

Mr. Bolaji is a visionary and a futurist. I had the opportunity to spend invaluable time with him as we chatted about his drive, his views on the African blockchain ecosystem and about ToroNet.

Here's our conversation.

🔹️ Good morning sir. How are you doing? Hope you had a good night's rest?

I'm fine, I did and you?

🔹️ I did. Thank you.

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to hop on this call with me. I really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

🔹️ Let's get on with it. I see you're a visionary, a futurist and a firm believer in the possibilities of blockchain tech.

Do you mind sharing with me your first experience with blockchain technology?

My very first encounter with blockchain tech (from a knowledge perspective) was in 2016 when I read the Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Then my first experience with blockchain as a builder who wanted to utilize the tech was in 2017.

🔹️ Which industry do you think that blockchain should really be employed in?

My own perspective is that blockchain is not specific to any industry. Blockchain is what you'll call gpt (general purpose technology), meaning it's for everyone and everything.

- I regard blockchain as a gpt because records on it are unchangeable & available for everyone to see unlike other database tech in which records stored on them can be changed, and in a case where there is no backup, the new change becomes the new "truth."

- Another reason I regard blockchain as a gpt that can be used for everything and everyone is because of smart contracts which execute orders once predetermined conditions are met.

🔹️ From your LinkedIn posts, I can tell that you're a thought leader in the African blockchain ecosystem.

What African-specific issues do you believe that blockchain tech can provide solutions to?

I'll answer this question in terms of problems and the sector.

1. Blockchain can solve the problem of access to capital for small & medium farmers in the Nigerian agricultural sector or Africa as a whole.

Today, farmers across the continent don't have access to capital. Africa, which is known to be the region with the most viable land, cannot become a food powerhouse; whereas smaller countries like Neatherland, Ukraine are powerhouses for agriculture. How come?

It's all about access to capital which enables access to other necessary resources needed for agriculture.

Blockchain can make a difference by solving the problem of access to capital and even access to markets for agricultural products.

2. A second aspect in which blockchain can make a difference is in the environment.

We use a lot of plastics in Nigeria, for instance, so lots of plastic wastes are generated which are not environmentally friendly. Blockchain can help reduce this.

How so? People with plastic wastes can monetize them for collectors who will collect them. While the few people in the world who care about the environment provide the capital to pay these people for the plastic wastes which can then be recycled and reused. All of this process can be monitored and recorded using blockchain technology.

3. Another issue which blockchain can solve for Africans is remittances. Many people in many African countries are prisoners of their government, but blockchain sets them free.

Blockchain allows them to avoid the negative effects of reckless policies in their countries, thereby allowing them to protect their wealth. It allows them to send and receive funds from anyone & anywhere in the world in an instance.

Side note: in another article I wrote about cryptocurrency as Africans' payment choice for remittances.

4. Even in aspects of certification and documentation in the education & health industry. In African countries where you cannot trust documents or certificates that are issued to you, blockchain is a very good source of truth for documentation.

These are the four major problems in Africa that I believe blockchain can provide solutions to in a very big way.

🔹️ Thanks for your insights on this. Moving to the next question.

What prompted the idea of ToroNet? The vision behind it.

If you take a look at how the global economic system is designed today, if you take a look at how the global financial system is designed today, if you take a look at how the internet is designed today; you'll notice that they weren't designed for African people. Africans only get the short end of the stick.

When these technological advancements were going on, Africans didn't know what was going on. We couldn't be players, just observers. Hence, many internet infrastructures were built by people from the First World, none from Africa. However, web3.0 changes all of that, allowing Africans to be players as well.

So at ToroNet, our fundamental motivation is that Africa should be part of the underlying infrastructure of the emerging internet (web3.0). We created ToroNet to be one of the building blocks for the new internet.

Another motivation behind ToroNet is the fact that old methods will not solve real problems of the Africa continent, new methods are needed.

For example, Nigeria is 63 years old and even after all these years, we can't boast of stable electricity. After 63 years, we're only generating about 5,000 megawatts of electricity for a country of over 200 million people.

Another motivation behind ToroNet is to give African governments and communities an infrastructure that is simple to use in order to break the bank of corruption because if we don't kill corruption, corruption will kill us.

So, these are the underlying motivations behind ToroNet.

🔹️ Can you share with me the challenges you and your co-founders faced when building ToroNet?

The major challenge we faced was finding people with the technical skills needed to build. Web3 is new and many Africans didn't have the technical knowledge on how to use blockchain tech (write smart contract codes).

We also faced the challenge of mindset. Many Africans are still struggling to believe in the possibilities of web3 (blockchain tech).

Another earlier challenge we faced (which we're slowly overcoming) is finding believers who really believed in the project and are ready to build with blockchain technology.

🔹️ I came across a LinkedIn post where ToroNet hit a milestone of $15M in transactions. How do you feel about this and how long did it take you guys to get to this amount?

The team and I feel good about it because we are putting the building blocks together, so we're happy about it. It took about 8 months to get to this stage.

🔹️ What is the recently announced ToroNet Hackathon all about?

There's no blockchain in the world that prepares Africans to be owners of the blockchain through governance tokens. Majority of the blockchains out there just want Africans to come and build on their chain, whereas they retain the value. We want to decentralize and distribute the ownership of ToroNet to the community and a very important piece of the community are the developers.

So the hackathon is being organized to:

1. Build our developer network.

2. Decentralize governance to the community through our governance token.

3. Get a better understanding of the problems that different people think that blockchain can solve.

🔹️ What is your long term goal for ToroNet?

To get 100 million people on-chain

🔹️ When it comes to funding, do you think there is a bias against African blockchain based project?

Yes, I think there's a bias but there's nobody to be blamed for that. The regulatory environment in Africa is not yet strong enough to protect investors properly. So international investors prefer to invest in what they know.

Rather than rely on them, African leaders and investors with deep pockets should begin to invest in African ideas.

🔹️ One more question to wrap it up.

What advice do you have for up and coming African blockchain founders?

"Don't rely on anybody to invest in your project. Build the hard way. Make sure you can get the product market fit very quickly and then begin to monetize. If investors decide to come in, good but don't delay waiting for investors."

Conclusion

With the growing interest of Africans in this new internet powered by this mighty tech, more innovative projects are expected to emerge from the continent. Maybe then, Africa will have a better regulatory body that'll create a better platform for international investors.

But until then, like Mr. Bolaji advised, keep building. Build the hard way.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the growth of blockchain in Africa.