About 2 - 3 months ago, I sent 
First, I met 
I reached out to fokusnow. It started with some pleasantries. I told him my intentions of being an onboarder of checkinwith.xyz. I also told him that Starkerz asked me to get someone to vouch for me by sending him a DM in discord.
Fokusnow requested that we meet up physically so that he would tell me some things before he vouched for me. The distance from where I live to his city is over 45km, but due to the fact that the hospital I work in is located there, and I really want to be an onboarder, I decided to meet up.
Before applying to be an onboarder in checkinwith.xyz, I already started meeting different schools. I got my promotional banner ready, my road map (which I shared with some hive oldies and they approved), and also, I started saving some funds in my community account (
Due to the fact that I was waiting for Fokusnow to vouch for me, I halted all my activities. For weeks, I waited. One time, when I came to Aba (the city he resides), I called him to see if we could meet up, but he said he was busy.
I shared my project plans with Fokusnow which is to onboard students in a large scale by going to their university campuses. This was the sole purpose of creating Hive Students Connect Community.
After sharing my project plans with Fokusnow on the 4th of November 2025, I saw his post on the 21st November 2025. In the post, he talked about how he went to a university to onboard students and he plans on onboarding some 18k students.
I talked to him about it, but he refused to acknowledge the fact that he hijacked my project. Instead of admitting it, he began to tell me how he started web 3 promotion in the legacy chain. He told me about the people he brought to the legacy chain. He talked about a Roadshow he hosted as the founder of steemAlive, and how he met students individually to talk to them about steemit.
However, in hive, except when I told him about my project of onboarding students in a large scale, he has never posted or probably thought of such projects. He promotes hive and onboards businesses through spendhbd. However, I promote hive and onboard students.
I'm onboarding people that will not just spendhbd, but I'm seeking for diverse types of people that will impact hive and add value to its utility.
I've been trying to make him understand, but he refused to see the fact that he plagiarized my project and is still not taking responsibility for it.
Due to how he bragged about being the brains behind Campus connect community in the legacy chain, I chatted one of the mods to enquire. However, the mods denied it. In Campus connect intro post, it did not state anywhere that Fokusnow is a team member. Again, in campus connect whatsapp group, Fokusnow is not an admin.
I even proposed that we team up since we shared the same goal of hive promotion, but he snubbed the idea.
According to him, "You have discredited my work enough and cleverly denied how long and how far I have gone in Blockchain promotion."
I don't know how I discredited his work when he openly plagiarized or should I say, hijacked my project.
I noticed one of his very close friends,
Here's a video of the entire chat. He asked me to bring it onchain and so I did.
After the entire drama with the project "hijacking" by one of spendhbd trusted guides, I became doubtful of the legitimacy of these businesses actually accepting HBD payments.
I remember once when I was encouraged by
I interviewed a lot of businesses. About 11 of them. These businesses are in diverse locations. It was hard to locate cause' I'm not very familiar with Aba even though I work in one of the biggest hospitals there, however, with their addresses, I was able to locate them.
I did these interviews in two separate days. The first one was on Monday 8th December 2025. The second was on Friday, 12th December, 2025.
Some of the business owners spoke igbo in the conversations. I will share these videos, and then, give a summary of what was discussed in the video.
In the videos I'm about to show, I did not show the faces of the business owners.
The Businesses I visited on Monday, 8th December 2025
- Crunchies and roots
- Orason group of companies
- Romey
- Grand options
- Ever prince
- Classic kitchen
- Kcee kcee supermarket
The Businesses I visited on Friday, 12th December 2025
- Emmylikes Game store
- Timjan
- Chicken Republic
- Sinless foods limited
So, Below is the details of my visit.
GRAND OPTIONS.
Business details: This business sells Cometics, snacks e.t.c
Guide:
Date of interview: 8th December 2025
Interview details:
The first thing I noticed about this business is the Mobile number.
Its not really a confluence to say that the business is not existing or something. The business owner may decide not to put their mobile details online.
This was the first business I interviewed. I met the business owner and we talked about the HBD project.
This business is owned by a Woman. I asked her if she knows how spendHBD works and she replied that its her sister that operates the app and her sister is not around. She added that unless i would call Fokusnow (Charles) to come do the transaction. She asked me to wait for Charles to come around. I asked if she can operate the app by her self, but she said "no."
This brought a thought to my head. "Unless i will call Charles." Does that mean that charles is the one operating the account?
When I asked her how it works, she told me that they scan the app and Charles will give them cash. Welp, for this business, I was not successful in paying HBD. I paid in NGN and went further to the next business.
ROMEY SUPERMARKET
Business details: Sales cosmetics, groceries, Wine e.t.c
Guide:
Date of Visit: 8th December 2025
Visit details:
The next business I interviewed was Romey. I met the business owner. He said he has an account with hive. He said that they do buy things from him and pay with HBD but the person that does it stopped coming.
Initially, he said he's the one operating the business account on hive. He said Charles told him that hive was doing a cash back promo, so, Charles brought his team to patronize him. However, after some time, they stopped coming. Up until when i visited, They have not
He said he still accepted HBD payments but when I tried to pay with HBD, he told me that the phone where he had the keychain app was not there with him (he was holding two phones at the moment). He later went further to ask if he can download the app and get back his account, which I said yes.
If he had the keychain app, why would he ask me to download it again? Welp, maybe it is because he wanted to receive funds for my purchase, or maybe, he don't have the app anywhere else. The last review from his business was a year ago.
I noticed something amidst, so I asked him again, "On your own, do you really know how to operate the account?"
He did not tell me a "yes" or a "no." His response was: "I was telling Charles to put me true but he asked me to pay him to teach me. Because of that, I asked him to forget about it." I told him that hive is free.
So, he wanted to download the app, but he could not find his keys. I asked him to check in his mail to see if they sent a master password but he didn't see any.
I asked who created the account, and he said that Charles did. Charles created the account for him and sent the keys to him. He told me that Charles has the key.
I asked him to hit Charles up again to send the keys.
I got his phone number though, and went to the next business.
Moving On...
EVER_PRINCE UNISEX SALOON.
Business details: Barbing saloon for both male and female hair cut.
Guide:
Date of Visit: 8th December 2025
Visit details:
This business is a barbing saloon. I visited there and I got a haircut. The owner of this business is accepted HBD payments.
The price for a haircut was about 0.4HBD but i shared 1HBB. Tipped him the rest.
Thats me, getting a haircut
He was able to independently operate hive keychain app to receive payments. According to him, the reason why he was able to do it was because he's an oldie in hive. He already knew about spendhbd before went to fokusnow to onboard his business.
He added that he wanted fokusnow to onboard another business for him, but he did not get any response up till the date I made the video.
CLASSIC KITCHEN.
Business details: This business is a restaurant that sales food.
Guide:
Date of Visit: 8th December 2025
Interview details:
I got water from the business and wanted to pay with HBD. The waiter don't know what HBD was. She directed me to her boss maybe her boss may know. I asked her boss but she also don't know what HBD is. I showed her the distriator website where her business was listed, but she also didn't know what HBD was or how her business for there. I paid for the water with naira and I left to the next business.
I saw some reviews under this business, and i'm kind of confused. How did they review a business that did not know what HBD is? Who received the payments in HBD?
Anyways, moving on...
KCEE KCEE SUPERMARKET
Business details: The business sales groceries e.t.c
Guide:
Date of interview: 8th December 2025
Interview details:
When I visited this business, I did not meet the business owner, but I met his brother. I proposed to pay with HBD for whatever I'm going to purchase but the guy said they don't accept HBD. I tried to make him recall by telling him details of HBD payments but he didn't. After showing him the distriator website, he remembered, he said that Charles come with some hivers, they buy things from the business. After the purchase, Charles will give them cash. The guy said its been a very long time they came last. Almost a year.
This was from the business owner's brother, and not the business owner.
CRUNCHIES AND ROOTS
Business details: Sales foods, drinks and other things.
Guide:
Date of visit: 8th December 2025
Details of visit:
Crunchies and roots are two different stores under one roof. Roots is like a branch of crunchies that sales majorly drinks. The also sale food.
I visited both crunchies and roots but none of them accept HBD payments. They didn't know what HBD is. I asked the waiter to call their supervisor (manager) and the manager did not know what HBD is. I showed them the distriator all where the business was listed but they were shocked at how the business got there. When I got home, I got an accountants number that works there. I asked the accountant whether or not they receive HBD payments, but he also don't know what HBD is.
The most confusing thing to me here is that, there are many reviews in this business, most of which came from 
Another thing I noticed is that this business have no mobile number. Maybe the onboarder forgot to add a mobile number or something. Anyways, moving on.
ORASON GROUP OF COMPANIES
Business details: Sales electric materials including light bulbs, chandelier etc.
Guide:
Date of visit: 8th December 2025
Visit details:
I got there and I began a market survey. I asked the price tags of some items and I was told. After that, I proposed to pay with HBD, but they guy that attended to me didn't know what HBD is. He pointed me to the business owner. I met the business owner and asked to pay with HBD but he too don't know what HBD is.
I showed him the distriator website but instead of making him remember, he was shocked and scared at how his business got there. He talked about the possibility of scammer putting his business there.
He was curious how spend HBD works, and I told him about it.
I checked his business review page but there was no review.
The next businesses were visited on Friday, 12th December 2025.
EMMYLIKE GAME STORE
Business details: Sale games and game accessories like gamepad (game console) e.t.c
Guide:
Date of visit: 12th December 2025
Visit Details:
I first went to this business in Monday, 8th December 2025 but they were not open. The neighbors told me that they don't open on Mondays.
The business owner was not around when I visited on the 12th December 2025, however, the person that manages the store was around.
For this visit, I went with another hiver. I would not want to mention his name to avoid issues between him and anybody.
So, I asked the business if they receive HBD payments but they don't know what HBD was. I showed them the distriator website of they can remember or something, but still, they don't know how their business got to distriator. I went further to call out the mobile number on the business, but they compared it with the business mobile number, and it was not a match.
The manager said they knew the business owner even before they became the manager, so, they knew his mobile numbers. The number in the website is not that of the business. Welp, I told them about hive and spendhbd and they googled it to check if its legit or not.
I got the managers mobile number, and I headed over to the next business. So, moving on.
TIMJAN BUSINESS
Business details: This business sales medicinal solutions.
Guide:
Date of visit: 12th December 2025
Visit details:
I could not add both videos in one. My capcut began to act up. It was not responding and my phone began to hang. I think it was a memory issue or something.
When I got to the business, the business owner was not around. I met her secretary who refused to give me her number probably because she has not seen me in the business before. I called out the number in the distriator website and she confirmed that it's her bosses number, so, I placed a call across. The business owner asked me to wait for her.
The boss came back and I talked to her about spendhbd. She did not know what it is, so, I had to show her the distriator website. When she saw a picture of one of the reviews, she identified the person that did the review. She went further to say that they told her that spendhbd is a cashback system.
She said she didn't know that her details were placed online, neither does she actually know what spendhbd is. She said she decided to sign up since the initiative will benefit the person that did the review.
I asked about what they purchased from her and her response was "he bought her product and gave her the exact price of the product in cash, not HBD." After that, she don't know anything else.
I explained how the initiative works to her, and she proposed that the previous account (which she has no access to) be closed. She said she wants to start a new with me. I should onboard her. Welp, I just collected her mobile number. I will have to get back to her later after I get information of whether or not its possible.
Moving on.
CHICKEN REPUBLIC
Business details: Sales foods, drinks, e.t.c
Guide:
Date of visit: 12th December 2025
Visit details:
I went to this business in company of the same hiver that escorted me to Emmylike business.
We got there and I got two bottles of coke. One for me, and one for him. I wanted to pay with HBD but they don't accept HBD payments.
I showed the waitress the distriator website but she don't know how the business got there, and did not accept HBD payments.
I asked to speak to their manager but I didn't know that the manager is the person that was beside the waitress. She was looking at me like a scammer trying to do fake transfer to their business.
Its kind of strange cause' there are quite a lot of reviews from this business. I wonder how payment was made. Anyways, moving on.
SINLESS FOODS LIMITED
Business details: Sales organic milk and other organic products.
Guide:
Date of visit: 8th December 2025
Details of visit:
When I got there, I noticed some renovation going on. The owner told me that he's changing his business from a place where he sales organic products to an event center.
He said he knows what HBD is, and he do accepts HBD payments. However, he don't actually have enough information and can not operate the account by himself.
He further mentioned that his guide's dad (Charles dad) taught him the business and did not actually throw more light on how the spendhbd works.
He said that he needs more information on how it works and handling his account. He said he don't have total access to his account and don't do transactions.
I asked him how the transactions works, whether people buys from him and give him cash. He respond that people pays into his account, but his guide will be the one to do the conversion in his account and give him cash. He said he can't remember vividly how much they give him per HBD converted but, he went further to add that they give him NGN500 per HBD. I Explained everything and tell him the actual range of HBD.
I discussed a little of how hive works with him, and shared some information with him. I exchanged contacts and left...
AFTER THE VISITS, MY THEORY IS AS FOLLOWS
He has the account keys of these businesses (maybe two or more, I dont know. But what I do know is that he controls the accounts of these businesses as seen in Grand Options, Romey, e.t.c).
When he tells people to patronize the businesses, he sends the HBD to his account (swaplane) and give the business cash (Naira) (As seen in Timjan and Sinless). This defeats the purpose of spendHBD which is to teach businesses about HBD and how to be independent when using spendHBD. In this case, Fokusnow is like a middleman between the business and the consumers (As seen when the owner of Grand Options asked me to wait for him to come).
Fokusnow and Bummblebee opens a spendhbd page for a business without the consent of the business owners, just as seen in Orason, Emmylike, Crunchies, and Classic Kitchen. Given the fact that he holds the keys to Romey business hive account, there is a high probability that he controls these accounts too. When users send HBD to these business hive accounts, he gives the business cash and holds the HBD without the business owners actually knowing what is going on in the background.
From the information I got from these businesses, these are my thoughts. Maybe there are things that I didn't add or something. Maybe someone can analyze the video and bring up a new theory or something.
Thank you.
