How I got started in the blockchain industry?
My blockchain journey started back in 2019 when I was still a student at George Brown College. I heard about crypto prior to 2019 but never paid any close attention to it, as I was in the transition of moving from Barbados to Canada to further my studies in computer networking (CCNA). My father’s side of the family lives in Canada so settling in wasn’t a problem, my major fear was having to suit up and travel through the blistering cold. This was a first for me. Traveling from home to school was the toughest time for me in Toronto, Canada.
Despite all this, George Brown college was where I first paid special attention to what this blockchain technology really was and how this new cryptocurrency Bitcoin was taking over the internet. Around that time BTC was around $10,000 per coin and this alone surprised me on how well this asset did since inception. I started to have that feeling of FOMO then realized I just got a student loan to attend college and I didn’t have much savings to make a substantial investment.
I decided to look elsewhere for an opportunity to invest in my first crypto project and stumbled upon something that was close to my heart. When I first read the whitepaper of this project, saw who was behind it and who they planned on solving problems for, I said to myself I have to put something in just for the idea alone. This project was Akon Smart City in Senegal which the AKN token will be the sole currency of the city as well as provide services to unbanked or underbanked communities in Africa.
Start of my blockchain career
After getting my feet wet in the crypto space, I started participating in the crypto social communities on Twitter, Telegram & Discord. This is where I began to gather info and start making like-minded friends who share the same passion. Now it’s been almost a year and I have begun to build up a small portfolio with Akoin(AKN) being the first, XLM, BTC, BNB and ETH following soon after. My portfolio wasn’t what you would call a “bag” but rather a small purse just to say I owned some crypto.
Big Changes in my life & firm believer in crypto
All this time I was still attending George Brown College, I had 3 semesters left to complete my Computer Systems Technician Diploma and I was doing well in all topics associated with networking and was struggling with the elective courses as I wasn’t interested whatsoever. I realized at this time that college wasn’t for me and I wanted the freedom to learn what I want, when I wanted. Yet, I still didn’t want to quit college, my ego wouldn’t let me walk away from something I started. But lo and behold, it was the year 2020 and we were in the month of February. We all knew what was about to happen the following month, the world came to a pause with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. I decided to quit college. I can be considered somewhat as a conspiracy theorist, but most of the conspiracies I entertained thus far have all come to pass. I had doubts about how it was possible for world leaders to simultaneously follow the same script in coordinating a global lock down. This gave me complete clarity on why the world needs crypto and freedom of choice. I packed my bags and flew to Tanzania, East Africa, a continent I never visited in my life. The only reason I made the decision to move here was, at that time the president of Tanzania John P. Magufuli instructed his officials to test the PCR kits sent to them from the west on a goat, papaya and jackfruit which all came back positive. He then declared that he wouldn’t lockdown his country or follow the guidelines from the WHO. My mind was made up, he was on the same page as me.
Onixcoin Blockchain
I made the move of my life when I made the decision to live in Tanzania. I was starting a new life, a new continent, a new language (Kiswahili) and new friends. For the first few months I was constantly online and this is when one of my friends on social media asked me to check out Onixcoin blockchain. It just happened to be a coincidence that at this time NFTs and NFT gaming which was most commonly known at that time were now hitting the scene and taking over the market. Interest was high in the tokenization of digital assets, especially in games and so was I. Onixcoin was a team of independent devs who developed their own layer 1 blockchain tailored for indie games. I decided to volunteer as a moderator for the team, as I saw the ad posted in the telegram community chat. I wanted the chance to get closer to a team who was working on a blockchain project with hopes that I can move up the ranks to learn as I go. I started to make content for the team such as social media posts, graphics for socials, videos, tutorials, whitepaper, correspondence and more. The CEO Tordan was impressed with the effort I was putting towards the project as a volunteer and offered me a job as the community manager.
I was thrilled that I was getting the opportunity to work closely with the dev team and get my chance to see the ins and outs of running a crypto project. Onixcoin was a hybrid blockchain in which it is a combination of bitcoin core security features and ethereum virtual machine (EVM), a hardfork of Qtum blockchain. I got to see both sides of the spectrum in terms of a fully decentralized payment system in Bitcoin and a decentralized software platform in Ethereum. I was forced to learn quickly as I was responsible for helping the community with any problems they faced while using any of the products we released at that time. Not to mention that my personal computer I use runs a linux distro (Manjaro), so every app I download has to be compatible with arch linux distros. I was thrown into the fire not knowing how it would go, but this was not the part of the job that became stressful, it was something a lot more coordinated.
Promotion to Operations Manager
As the senior members of the team saw my abilities and dedication to the Onixcoin Blockchain and supporting the first game that was set to launch on their chain, Army of Crypto, I was promoted to Operations Manager. I was to oversee the launch of the game and at the same time look for other indie devs who were interested in building web 3 games. I instantly made the decision to start networking with indie game devs in communities on discord and reddit. I came across several traditional indie dev communities and joined all that I found relevant to our business model. I socialized in the group for up to 4 weeks, sometimes longer to build a relationship with someone in the group and then plead my case to them. Every group I joined I did the same thing, stayed patient and tried to make friends. This is when I found out that 99% of the traditional indie devs don’t even want to entertain the idea of moving into the web 3 space. At first I thought it was just a few communities trying to protect the games that they had already built and launched on traditional platforms like steam or maybe the devs who were currently working on game projects, didn’t want to be part of a “casino industry” as they most commonly call it. I came across hate and bitterness everywhere I went in these dev communities. I was starting to think they all came together to plan to delay the progress of web 3 games by not supporting it on the development side. The number one group that blockchain gaming was mean to help, became the biggest skeptics of the technology. I was put in a difficult position as I was under the impression that indie devs would be eager to have full ownership and publishing rights to their work with the ability to host it on a decentralized network that ensures the game is fair and secure. Not to mention the ability to tokenize in-game assets to allow players to fully own their assets and trade on the NFT marketplace. It’s a win-win situation for them but yet they have this huge skepticism about adopting this technology.
Conclusion
I realize that this shift in technology would leave many people behind, similar to the internet boom when companies like Blockbuster failed to integrate onto the internet in the initial stages. They had faith in a business model that provided huge profits for them over the years by customers coming into stores to physically rent VCR tapes and DVDs which were new at the time. They weren’t expecting online companies to eventually take over by providing a more convenient way to rent and watch movies from the comfort of your home. Blockbuster lost more than 90% of its value and companies like youtube, online streaming sites and products such as the android box and firestick started to take over the consumer market.
This is how I feel about the indie devs and their outlook on blockchain technology. It’s becoming clear to me that the youth who embrace this tech along with the A.I revolution will reduce the need for many indie devs in the job market. The workload will be monopolized by a smaller group of highly skilled devs, who would utilize the processing power of A.I to complete way more tasks than previously. One man will be able to perform the job of ten men with the emergence of A.I and brain chip implants. I’m looking forward to a bright future for the entire blockchain space and especially Onixcoin and Army of Crypto game which i’m a part of. The journey so far has been exciting with many twists and turns and I will continue to write stories about my experiences. There are many more things I don’t have time to mention in this article that I will leave for another time where I can dedicate more time to a single topic.