The six-hour train journey from Nairobi, Kenyas capital, to the coastal city of Mombasa is a pleasant one. Clean carriages, very well-dressed passengers and a punctual timetable make a nice change from the uncertainty of traveling in Africa.
Opening in 2017, it replaced a colonial-era railway line known as the Lunatic Express, which is fitting enough when headed to any sort of crypto event.
My destination, two more hours by car from Mombasa, is ETHSafari in Kilifi, a paradise-like town on the coast, but Im early. Theres yet another Block Train to the second part of the conference the following day.
In Swahili, safari is another word for journey, and a fairly apt one considering the 36 hours of travel required. Walking into the venue, Beneath The Baobabs, is like arriving at a festival. Its a huge 50-acre area that hosts a huge New Years party every year, attracting ravers from across Africa and, increasingly, the world.
Crypto is on the rise here. Africa has been on the frontlines of financial innovation, led by the success of mobile money services such as Kenyas M-Pesa, which revolutionized banking by enabling millions of unbanked individuals to access basic financial services.
ETHSafari draws crypto fans from around the world
The community-driven ETHSafari is a way to showcase and bring together African talent, projects and innovation, says Jason Eisen, co-instigator of ETHSafari.
ETHSafari is such a beautiful thing I think precisely because its not Token2049. What do you mean I have to take a long train with everyone?! When you say its in the forest, like how deep?
ETHSafari is not just about technologyit also celebrates culture, music and environment, bringing together diverse minds to collaborate on crypto-based solutions to Africas unique challenges.
The events success is not measured solely by the number of attendees or deals made but by the relationships and networks formed across the continent.
We created this event as a way to bring the world to this ecosystem since, for many reasons, African founders and projects are excluded from global Web3 events. We are simply a (mostly) like-minded community group that hosts this event with a lot of love and nothing but ambition for the African Web3 ecosystem, says Eisen.
M-Pesa set the stage for crypto adoption in Africa
M-Pesa, launched in Kenya in 2007 by telecommunications giant Safaricom, is widely regarded as one of the worlds most successful mobile money systems. With more than 50 million users across several African countries, it allows users to send, receive and store money using their mobile phones.
M-Pesa has been instrumental in increasing financial inclusion, particularly for those without access to traditional banking infrastructure. More than 70% of Kenyas adult population now uses mobile money services such as M-Pesa. Its done more to bank to unbanked in the country than crypto.
This innovation was critical for millions of Africans who previously relied on informal, cash-based systems, and it now accounts for more than 50% of Kenyas GDP. The platforms low fees, accessibility and ease of use helped solve one of the continents biggest challenges: bringing financial services to the unbanked population.
Also read: South Africas digital-nomad crypto hub Cape Town, Crypto City Guide
While M-Pesa revolutionized mobile banking, cryptocurrencies have emerged as the next frontier, offering a decentralized and borderless financial system.
While both aim to improve financial inclusion, M-Pesa is centralized, tied to mobile networks, and operates within a regulatory framework. It is already highly accessible, user-friendly and widely accepted, making it an indispensable part of everyday life for millions of Africans.
Crypto is decentralized and permissionless, but adoption in Africa faces significant challenges, including limited internet access, a lack of understanding, regulatory uncertainties and the volatility of digital currencies.
There are potential ways for M-Pesa and crypto to complement each other. It is already easy for M-Pesa customers to buy crypto, and platforms such as AZA Finance (formerly BitPesa) have integrated M-Pesa with crypto services to make remittances cheaper and faster.
AZA Finance enables users to convert cryptocurrency into local currencies, facilitating same-day transfers to M-Pesa mobile wallets.
Elsewhere, at the end of 2023, Opera unveiled MiniPay a blockchain-based wallet built on the Celo blockchain. Directly integrated into the Opera Mini browser, MiniPay makes it easier and more affordable for individuals across Africa to acquire and send or receive stablecoins simply by using mobile phone numbers.
According to a report by Chainalysis, small retail transactions account for the majority of crypto transfers in Africa, indicating that crypto is being used as a financial tool rather than a speculative asset.
Africa is crazy for stablecoins
As the global crypto market expands, Africa has become one of the fastest-growing regions for crypto adoption. According to Chainalysis, Africa is crazy for stablecoins, which now account for approximately 43% of sub-Saharan Africas total crypto transaction volume.
Stablecoins and select cryptocurrencies are gaining traction because they offer protection against inflation and currency devaluation, which have plagued numerous African economies.
In Nigeria, for instance, the naira has depreciated significantly over the past few years, pushing many to adopt Bitcoin as a hedge. Cryptocurrencies also enable cross-border transactions with fewer fees compared to traditional remittance channels, making them an attractive option for Africas large diaspora population.
Blockchain also offers potential solutions to long-standing issues such as corruption, lack of transparency and inefficient land registries. Crypto in Africa is still in its early stages but holds tremendous potential.
Developers and entrepreneurs across the continent are experimenting with blockchain to solve real-world problems, from financial exclusion to environmental degradation.
And ETHSafari is one way to bring them all together to bounce ideas off one another. Jimi Cohen, founder and CEO of Treegens DAO, tells Magazine:
One of my many highlights at ETHSafari was seeing the spark in the eye of developers working towards solving real-world problems through blockchain tech. Seeing all the real-world use cases throughout ETHSafari made me more bullish than ever about the future of crypto and reaffirmed why this industry needs to flourish.
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Treegen DAO: Planting trees with a DAO
Cohens company, Treegens DAO, is pioneering a global movement to make tree planting more accessible, rewarding and transparent. They have planted more than 60,000 mangrove trees and set a Guinness World Record for planting more than 30,000 trees in 24 hours.
Also read: Bitcoin in Senegal Why is this African country using BTC?
Using the relevant elements of a DAO and its decentralized community structure and smart contracts, Treegens has also developed an AI-powered tree-counting tool with over 97.5% accuracy, ensuring transparency in its environmental impact. Its goal is to plant 1 billion mangrove trees by Earth Day 2025, a move that would surpass Ethiopias record of 350 million trees planted in a day.
Treegen DAO integrates blockchain into its business operations by leveraging the decentralized and community-driven structure of a DAO. As with many DAOs, Treegen utilizes smart contracts self-executing agreements encoded on a blockchain to automate tasks, execute transactions and enforce agreements.
Bill Okoba is one of the young Kenyan Web3 pioneers that ETHSafari attracts. He works in business development for Global Ledger, a European-based crypto risk assessment company.
He shows me around his tent, a high-end glamping setup with a Starlink connection, nestling next to a water standpipe.
At ETHAfrica, Global Ledger engaged in research on top African CEXs, uncovering significant compliance challenges, with notable illicit transactions, he tells me in a message after he gets back home.
We engaged several on/off-ramp crypto projects in Kenya that are heavily integrated with the global economy via M-Pesa, highlighting the urgent need for compliance as crypto regulation remains limited, except in South Africa.
Compliance and difficulties with crypto in Africa
One promising innovation is Yield Guru Investments, which is transforming Kenyas public transport sector by tokenizing electric mobility, also using the Celo blockchain that the Opera Mini wallet is built on.
The platforms co-founders Eliud Mungai, Mike Ochara and Eric Wachiuri tell me at the event that their goal is to create a sustainable, investable transportation system using blockchain backed by the Kenya shilling stablecoin cKES.
These digital tokens can be used as a universal payment method across various electric public transport services such as buses, trams, ridesharing for electric vehicles and electric scooters. Users can also earn tokens as rewards for environmentally friendly actions, such as using renewable energy for charging or participating in ride-sharing.
Electric vehicles can even be integrated into decentralized energy markets. Tokens represent units of energy, allowing EV owners to sell excess energy back to the grid or directly to other users in a peer-to-peer market.
This is just one of the crypto projects with big dreams for Kenya and Africa.
As co-instigator of ETHSafari, Eisen emphasized that the African crypto community is a diverse, collaborative ecosystem driven by ambition and love for the continents unique challenges and opportunities. That diversity is the essence of how things change in Africa, and in many different ways.
There are 54 countries in Africa, and somewhere, there is a Steve Jobs or Vitalik Buterin in one of them, preparing the next crypto revolution; I may even have met them in Beneath The Baobabs. After two great days in the forest, it was time for me to go back to the beach and spend my last 24 hours by the sea. Global Ledgers Okoba came over to see me off at my coastal hotel before I left for Mombasa and, this time, a flight, not a train, back to Nairobi.
As I said before, safari is Swahili for journey, and it is one that is undoubtedly going to be very, very interesting for any African involved in Web3 or crypto. Its the future thats almost certain.
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