At the beginning of May 2023, I attended the inaugural CV Summit Africa 2023. The summit was the inaugural African edition of CV Summit Zug, and showcased the current state of the emerging African blockchain ecosystem, and glimpses of its future. Over the course of 2 days – 4 and 5 May – the summit featured over 40 speakers and 330 attendees, at Workshop 17 in Cape Town’s iconic V&A Waterfront. 

Highlights from the event included:

• educational and innovation initiatives to position Africa as the next web3 powerhouse (such as the University of Cape Town’s Financial Innovation Hub)
• a panel discussion on the need for regulatory clarity particularly for crypto asset service providers, with panelists from leading crypto exchanges (including VALR, Revix) and local government
• The NODO-CV VC Pitching Competition a pitching competition in which 6 startups from across the continent (@pravicasuite, @riskbloq, @Web3Sanctuary, @SafiProtocol, @HelixaTCG, and @fastagger) showcased their solutions, and the crowd voted on the winner (@Web3Sanctuary)

In addition, I also chaired a panel discussion on “Sustainability in and through Web3” with panelists George Mosomi, Max Kordek and Oyedeji Oluwoye. The thread running through this discussion was the need for a long term mindset (e.g. if building a protocol, what does this look like in 10 years for the community, the environment, the team working on the protocol…) to realise sustainability in blockchain ecosystems and through blockchain innovation.

Shout out to CV Labs for hosting the event and all the sponsors that made the event possible!