After Office Hours // with John Karanja

February is the month of love and we would like to celebrate our love for Blockchain Technology with John Karanja (MSc in Political Sociology from the University of Oxford, England (2010) and a Bachelor of Business and Information Technology Strathmore University Kenya (2006),the founder of BitHub.Africa and Whive.com.

BitHub. Africa, is an Incubator based in Nairobi, Kenya that is driving the adoption of Blockchain technology across the African continent. On the other hand,  Whive.com is an SMS based social media platform for Africa and is the winner of the 2011 Pivot 25 Mobile technology competition. The Kenyan Government has awarded the Vision2030 ICT Award 2011 to Whive for Innovation in youth and gender Sector. Today BitHub.Africa is implementing the Whive project and is seeking to assist businesses scale their products and services using a decentralized social engine powered by Blockchain technology.

Throughout his career, John has witnessed how African countries are leapfrogging legacy systems like banks and landline telephony through the adoption of mobile money platforms like M-Pesa and the Internet as well. John believes that Bitcoin and Blockchain technologies can provide much needed solutions like cross border money transfer or microloans. John in recent articles has stated that Bitcoin is not a panacea to African problems but a technology that drives down costs with respect to transfer of value across all our borders. It is opt-in and as such allows for open and permissionless innovation.

As smartphone technology becomes more affordable we should expect the opportunity for Bitcoin and Blockchain solutions to disrupt incumbents to grow across Africa.

Join us on February 22nd for #AOHwithJohnKaranja at Nairobi Garage, Westlands from 6pm-7pm.

Register your attendance here.