Victor Asemota Reminisces on the major Disruptions Caused by Tech in our Lifetime

I have seen some major upheavals and disruptions in my short life caused by tech. First, I saw typewriters and typists disappear because of the PC. I witnessed the Internet become mainstream and saw knowledge (and porn) explode. I saw mobile take over the world and payments blow.

I remember New Nigeria Bank’s startup project team when I wrote a tech strategy document stressing that tech will become part of what happens in banking daily instead of what is used occasionally. I mentioned that cards will become very important. They laughed at “plastic money”.

Plastic Money became a very BIG deal. I remember trying to get my uncle and his investment team to buy ATMC to be able to launch a POS network. I still have that business plan. I shared it with someone and he went to SA to acquire a POS company that still exists in Nigeria today.

Banking has changed a lot since my 1999 prediction and my 2001 moves. The future is now crypto and I have seen that this is another genie that can’t be put back into the bottle. This is another PC/Typewriter/Plastic Money moment for banking. People are in denial AGAIN as usual.

Between January and April, I have seen Billions of dollars of value created by a market and Billionaires created by that market. A company that helps that market thrive just went public yesterday and create even more billionaires. Where is Africa in this? Why are we missing?

Who is going to be Africa’s first Crypto Billionaire? Will it be someone like Russel Okung (@RussellOkung) who straddles the best parts of the world and Africa? Will it be a guy building something in Africa to be used by the next Billion people or a combination of both? Africa can’t be behind.

Crypto is NOT going away. Banks will not wish it away. Volatility will not make it disappear. It is NOT a fad. It may look complicated and complex but that is what the Internet was like before it became mainstream. This is a new world and Africa has to participate fully.

The Internet is not only used by Yahoo Boys as the police want you to think and Crypto is not restricted to criminals as bankers would want you to believe. The future was created many years ago and the rest of world just caught up but Africa still remains in the past.

Regulation and Policing are decades behind. Value will soon be created outside those systems that will come back to overhaul them. I believe that what will happen in Africa will be bigger than a revolution. It will happen when we stop thinking small.

Coinbase made the investors and founders rich because it helped others to become rich. This is the same formula that we need in Africa. Whatever will create more African billionaires will no longer impoverish others and create poverty but make them richer as well. That is crypto!

Crypto is about markets and making them more efficient. It is starting with currency and will become commodities and everything tradable. Markets create wealth and anyone who makes markets more efficient becomes wealthy by capturing a fraction of it. Africa desperately needs this.

Pushing people towards P2P is probably the best thing to ever happen to crypto in Africa. It will accelerate the creation of new markets. Many still don’t get it yet. P2P is not a feature, it is a layer. It is a new market.

P2P is a new way of creating trusted networks. A market is a network of people transacting based on trust and infrastructure. Unbundle P2P from just currency and crypto, let it be applied to all wealth-creating activities then you will see magic. This is a new dawn and new way.

I have seen some major upheavals and disruptions in my short life caused by tech.

First, I saw typewriters and typists disappear because of the PC. I witnessed the Internet become mainstream and saw knowledge (and porn) explode. I saw mobile take over the world and payments blow

— Osaretin Victor Asemota (@asemota) April 15, 2021

EDITOR’S NOTE: Written by Victor Asemota