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From the day 1 of muAccra, we stood together as diverse groups of builders, opening a new chapter for the web3 ecosystem in Africa. And we are proud to say we have met our goals for muAccra, setting the stage for a long-term plan led by African leaders for African builders, the African Onchain Collective.
Date: June 9th - June 22nd, 2024
Where: Accra, Ghana
Who: 100+ African Builders and Community leaders.
Focus: Igniting the growth of African blockchain ecosystem.
Starkware, The Graph, Aligned Layer, ESP, GCC, The Grand Line DAO.
The muAccra working team consisted of two powerful forces: Team Aya and The mu crew.
AyaHQ is a trusted builder ecosystem dedicated to growing the on-chain builder economy in Africa. We identify promising African builders, establish distribution networks, and support the development of real-world applicable technologies.
The mu is a community where talents from diverse backgrounds come together to ignite change worldwide.
Both teams will continue to foster the long-term movement (African Onchain Collective.), working alongside other African community leaders.
๐ฆ 99 residents co-lived together for 14 days
๐ 284 participants joined the muAccra events
98% of African participants
65% were dev participants
๐ 77 events were hosted, an average of 5.5 events created by everyone.
๐ฉ๐พโ๐ซย A week-long Starknet bootcamp and a week-long hackathon.
๐ 20 projects were built, winning a total prize pool of $27,000
โจ Over 490 posts were created with the hashtag #muaccra on social media
๐ฑ Partner ecosystems gained new long-term projects
๐ฃ A new movement aimed at enhancing the reputation of African builders in the global arena has started โ more details below! ๐
By the end of muAccra, a strong community of young African talents had emerged.
For many, this was the first long-term event theyโve ever attended. This co-living and building experience has laid the foundation for a greater collective movement.
Great friendships were forged, as always in any mu ;)
muAccra hosted over 70 permissionless events organized by sponsors, partners, and muvers.
The muAccra Hackathon is an event designed to engage African Web3 talent in using blockchain technology to address real-world challenges faced by the local community in Accra and the surrounding region. The AyaLab hackathon platform (powered by AyaHQ) was used to handle the submissions and judging process.
In total, over the hackathon week:
20 projects pitched.
$10,000 was awarded to 5 projects in the general track.
$1600 was awarded to 2 projects that best integrated GraphQL.
$3000 was awarded to 2 projects that integrated zkPass.
Two ZK lectures given by mentors from PSE: @only1franchesco and @blockdeveth for attendees to have the skill to develop their ZK Dapps.
Two external workshops were conducted during the hackathon, one by the zkPass team, featuring @Francis_Berwa& @thefranceway and the other by @chidubem_w3 from the Graph. Additionally, the muAccra team held a workshop covering everything hackers needed to know.
You can read the full hackathon report here
On the 16th, we visited the AyaHQ Builder Hub, a cool spot with residential space for 30 builders and facilities for tech workshops and hackathons that can handle over 150 people.
We engaged in a presentation by the Soccersm team and met some awesome local builders.
If you're in Accra and want to dive into the ONCHAIN scene, come visit the hub here!
The Aya and mu teams with the Chief Executive of Ga East along with other ministers of her cabinet
On June 12, the attendees of muAccra met with and listened to a speech by the Chief Executive of the Ga East Municipality, the Honorable Deborah Ampofo. The Chief Executive spoke about the Greater Accra Regionโs receptiveness and gratefulness for the bright minds across Africa that came to attend. We learned about their IT training programs for youth and their plans to embrace AI and blockchain education.
On the 18th, the BlockHeader & StarknetAfrica teams along with representatives from OnlyDust hosted an ODHack event where builders learned about contributing to open source (even as a nontechnical talent) and several companies in the ecosystem (most notably Starknet).
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, led peaceful protests and fought for the countryโs independence from Britain. Ghana was the first African country to gain independence, inspiring other nations to follow suit.
Working in a pioneering industry like ours comes with challenges. Our visit to the museum reminded us of the importance of unity, how we can move forward, and that striving to make the world a better place is a universal dream we are all building towards.
โNo one can live entirely on their own, nor can any country or society exist in isolation.โ โย Daisaku Ikeda
Historically, Africa has been isolated from global technology development due to the imperial system that is optimized for exploitation. However, blockchain has permeated the space as a multifaceted solution against problems like currency devaluation (another imperialist exploit) and transparent elections to name a couple. The open nature of blockchain makes information readily available to builders, who have been gaining expertise quickly.
Unlike traditional capitalist technologies, the open-source nature of web3 has made it so that African creators are not left behind. They are one of the most thriving communities of builders in web3 across the world. We intend to foster this growth to its maximum potential.
(this mission was co-identified by community leaders during muAccra)
We aspire to be an all-encompassing resource and community for anyone remotely interested in web3 in Africa. Given the resources to do so, we believe all people can accomplish great feats. To be successful in our endeavours, we need to upskill and build the networks of creators in the space.
Bridge African builders with the global Web3 community
Support the growth of new community leaders across Africa
Support the growth of potential African unicorn companies
Weโll do this by assisting developers across the African continent to attend conferences across the world. We should acquire connections to enable an easier and more reliable visa process for African builders.
Weโll also assist with building skills by connecting builders to communities like Aya and Web3Bridge. If you are starting from scratch in web3, you should be able to access the AOC for the information and connections you need to be successful.
There are several events happening on the continent. Here are just a few:
The AOC should be a pan-African hub for the individual web3 communities of Africa to unite and act as a unit. Just as ETH SEA connects southeast Asia and ETH LATAM connects Latin America, we will connect Africa.
ETH Safari September 9 - 15 Nairobi & Kilifi, Kenya
ETH Cape Town September 20 - 22 Cape Town, South Africa
Follow our X (ex-Twitter) for the muโs latest news ๐ย right here ๐
Stay in touch with the Aya team (@ayahq_)!
PK โ @pkstevenz_
Eric โ @eannan_24
Faith โ @faith_creator
Stay in touch with the mu team (@themu_xyz)
Lance โ @lancenonce
Vee โ @Bonecato
Sun โ @sunbh_eth
Manon โ @ManonFurst
Santi โ @scristobal94
๐Twitter
๐ฅRecap video
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