Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) DecaHack Empowers Nigerian Youth in Blockchain Innovation

• The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) ecosystem held its DecaHack in Nigeria, offering a hackathon, online bootcamps, and pitch competitions to the country’s aspiring entrepreneurs.
• Industry leaders from ICP and other blockchain ecosystems such as Arbitrum interacted with the participants, offered advice and tips, and gave keynote presentations.

Nigeria was ranked second globally for cryptocurrency adoption by Chainalysis last year, with the country’s youth championing blockchain use in several spheres of their life, as we have reported. This made the country a perfect destination for the latest Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) DecaHack, an initiative that combines education, networking, hackathon, and more.

Held at the University of Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria, the DecaHack awarded the first five startups with up to $25,000 in non-equity grants and an even bigger opportunity when they compete in the grand national finale. It also connected the finalists with mentors and consultants to help them with their ideas and resources for building on ICP.

One speaker after another talked about the massive opportunity blockchain presents for Nigeria and Africa at large. Arbitrum’s Ucheena Agams was one of the speakers, and in his presentation, he delved into interoperability in the blockchain world. He called on the Nigerian developers to solve the interoperability challenge by building dApps that can connect the various blockchains and unlock billions of dollars in value.

Agams also dove into the importance of user interface in taking blockchain to the masses. While the underlying technology must be secure, scalable, and stable, users will not adopt it if they can’t use it easily and intuitively, he told the young developers. Agams highlighted the growing importance of front-end developers to the success of blockchain and called on aspiring developers to focus just as much on UI as the backend technology.

Adedayo Adebajo, co-founder of ICP Hub Sahara, also took to the stage at the DecaHack. Adebajo, whose entity is recognized officially as a branch of the ICP community, discussed the importance of blockchain to the future of Nigeria. He believes that if the country fails to take advantage of the blockchain opportunities, it will regret it in the future as other African countries leap above it.

The call from Adebajo came at a time when the Nigerian government has been cracking down on the crypto industry as we have reported. This year, several global exchanges have exited Nigeria or axed some services such as P2P trading. The controversial trial of Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan is also ongoing despite pressure from the US Congress to drop the charges.

The Nigerian DecaHack is part of the ongoing efforts by the ICP community to push the adoption of the network globally and venture beyond speculation. With AI being the hottest tech trend, ICP announced AI integration earlier this year.  As we reported, it was the first instance of AI operating directly on blockchain as a smart contract.

ICP trades at $9.21, gaining nearly 5% in the past day and shooting up 30% in the past week.

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