DeFi Diaries: Building Wealth Community and Resilience in Web3

Uh are we ready for this? I heard a lot of people have been robbed but uh I mean we have two folks here that is going to be doing justice to this topic. Uh once again my name is Olaba Miki and I'm here today this afternoon with um Zeus the great and also with Saki and they are going to be doing a bit of u deep diving into this topic uh building wealth community and resilience in uh in web 3. I mean when you hear defy what comes to mind? When you hear defy what comes to mind?

Money. Interesting. So wealth. Now there is this um I don't know if it's a misconception or just a general ideology that uh defy is almost like a double make money and let your money double, right? It makes your money double.

Okay. And we have seen a lot of people lost money, get robbed, get acted or whatever the case may be. But now we just want to talk mainly on how you can actually build that wealth and also uh after the community support while you're being um resilient in your defy journey. Right. So I'm going to start with um with my Zeus the great.

He's going to give us a little bit intro about himself quickly.

Okay. Um good afternoon everybody.

My name is Ola Samuel which means wealth as vast as the ocean. popularly known as the great founder Neana Academy convenor block first Africa founder TV hotels and tea foundation thank you

all a round of applause if your hands are all busy thank you so yes Casey over to you

hi guys um sir Casey oni popularly known as uh sir Casey founder of OPEC school of excellence and co-founder at the Rebet Odyssey, also the executive director. Having trained over 20,000 people, I'm very, very much happy at this crowd and I'm very sure they're going to learn something today. So, thank you for having me today. Yeah.

Amazing. Amazing. So, it's obvious that we have like such uh powerful voices at this panel this evening. And the first general question I want to ask the both of you is if you are going to like write a diary about you know your defy journey and your and your um how you acquire wealth what would it be?

Well first of all he's going to answer I want I want you to switch it from defy diary to web3 diary when you say defy it's just it's just like maybe 5% of the entire

Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. So,

uh I think in other words, you're saying something journey. So far, if I'm going to write a web three diary, my web three diary, I would say it's been nothing short of um freedom, information, and more of security for me. Three words.

Okay, cool. I'm sure the audience agree. Uh so uh Zeus

okay for me getting into web three as a lot of people would think was not what was not because I wanted to make money. I think I've shared this story. Can you guys hear me at the back?

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Um I did not get into web 3 because I wanted to make money. I was doing very very good as a 19year-old. Extremely good. I came into because of freedom you know and then one thing about me you know I just you know encounter new knowledge I encounter new platforms I just want to share I just want to share my knowledge to the world which made me build Nana academy but I would say from building Nana academy to you know where I am right now I would I would just call it freedom not just for myself for people I've trained and evolution so I think everything I'm doing right now It's just me evolving from the past year and evolving, you know, and building things that also make people evolve. So, it's that simple.

Interesting. Please, a round of applause. Thank you.

No, no. Uh, Zoo still holding the mic. Um, you are known for your bold narratives in this space like I've come across some of your tweets, right? So, uh, but this bold vision can sometimes feel distant from, you know, from the reality of things. So how do you take those big audacious ideas and translate them into practical wealth building because you just mentioned that as a 19 year old boy you were doing extremely great for yourself right so how do you take this audacious ideas and

turn them into practical thing that we can all see that is visible to the whole world right now

okay first of all how many people are developers here okay how How many people are traders? Okay. How many people are developers and traders? How many people work in the nontechnical space in web 3? Don't be shy.

Raise your hand. I think I think you know even from this small this small um what's the word conversation that we just had there's a major problem. It's a confidence problem. There's a there's a confidence problem and audacity problem in the art of every African when people talk about reality or um the question is um feel distant from reality. Which person's reality exactly?

The web 3 is a global industry but a lot of people are so bounded by what they see locally and as a result even when it comes to the nontechnical aspect you are doing work more excellently than your peers in the global space but you are afraid to ask for a pay befitting of your excellence because of the audacity. problem. So if I come on Twitter and I say there should be no reason why you with the kind of excellence you have you shouldn't be making as much as a million dollars in a year. Everybody just drags and it's not because it's not possible but people are afraid to ask you know for what they deserve. M

I've had I'm incubating a whole lot of people you know right now in Evana Academy you know people building products you know to go to market and everything and then they come and meet me oh somebody reached out to me they want to fund this and that and I'm telling them how much are you asking for you're saying $10,000 the people building the same thing you are building in the global sphere are they asking for the same thing you're asking for no so why exactly are you scared to ask for that

are you following so It's a major problem. You cannot even scale. A lot of people think that you as a developer, you are going to be an amazing developer and the money will come. There is your skill. Then there's business of the skill.

Then there's having the audacity to ask for what you want in the global space.

I have my friends that I have. I'm very close to him. I'm close to they did not burn any of my friends well to ask for lesser than their than you know their worth. I'm going to cut them off.

Yes. Because when you are excellent and you are asking for mediocre value for the value you are offering is going to affect me.

Yeah.

Because they will believe that a job of $100,000 if he's going to accept 20k and he's moving with me it means that me too I'm seeing myself lesser than that. God forbid, I will never move with mediocre people. My job is excellent. This is a global market and I will be paid for with global standard. That's just it.

And that's what makes me different. It's not like I'm smarter than you. I have more audacity than you. It's that simple.

Hey, amazing. Thank you so much. Now, do you s um you have mobilized strong grassroots movement, right? and you have built trust in the space where you uh where traditional f uh finance has often failed. Uh what do you think traditional finance could actually learn from how defy communities organize build trust and you know create shared resilience?

Okay. In other words, you're trying to ask um let's say thread five versus devices.

Yeah.

Before I move forward, there's something was mentioned thing about learning the business of a skill.

When you ask how many people are developers here, I was seeing it's almost like you were scared of raising your hands up or something. Look, I had a friend of mine. He built the very first. Are you guys aware? You know about this whole mass DM bot thing?

If you've heard of it, can I see your hands up, please? Massd, shilling bot, whatnot, replicative actions. Yeah. So, with the aid of Python and the rest, he built it. And when he told me about it, I asked him, "What are you doing about this thing?"

And he was like, "H, he's looking for who would probably buy it for $100 or something." I told him $100 for nights of hard work. Do you do you believe that we ended up making I I started marketing a product to people in my first year. We both ended up making over 200,000 from that particular but we're selling it teaching people about it also using it because we saw the need. Now listen, I didn't come from the aspect of being a Sheila at that point.

I saw the need of shilling and then I looked at it. I was like, Python helps replicate actions and then instead of getting multiple people and then they're getting the accounts banned, I can do it with the code and then I'm taking I've taken a job of a thousand people and then they're paying me because of I've taken the job of what a thousand people. So there's a difference between doing a job and learning a business from it. So coming back to that uh you you want to talk about trade fi defi I mean come on from what I've just said now you would always look at the defi side of things and if you want to if I want to give you two major points on this there's a whole lot but I'll probably give you two number one transparency and global access if you check my YouTube channel you see where I recently I started hitting on certain defi terms and the rest you know Um something happened of recent and I my phones got locked from a particular bank. I don't want to mention their name and I followed up all through last week and they kept on telling me that they would do it.

They would do it. I kept on calling cuz I didn't want to go to the bank and um after a week I said what was happening they said they will keep on looking at it. Now on a Monday this week I had to go to the bank and you know what they asked me to write a letter I was like why didn't people tell me from the support to come here why did I have to go through all those you understand and this is the issue

obvious

transparency and then if I want to quickly hit on global access though transparency is more than that because looking at the blockchain you're able to tell if your money is even there DT what not you understand talking of global Access Access Bank cannot allow you just do straight up transfer or transaction if you're in London. Do you understand? But if I want to send you something right now, you have a sibling in London or wherever, I'll be able to send it straight up. But I have to go through processes if I want to send it with a what system. So I feel like these guys have a whole lot to do.

They should just learn from the DeFi space. I mean, come on.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Now I have a a little bit controversial question for you a little bit. So criticis says that um African is just being used as a testing ground for web 3 uh experiment without the real infrastructure. I mean you already talked about the global space and how some Africans are actually selling themselves shorts right. So from your own experience building Navana, are we building sustainability or we are just playing catch up? Yeah, we're just going to catch up later.

I I came I came into this space like six years ago. It's a very dicey question.

I said it.

It's a very very dicey question. Yes, we are used for a testing ground. That's the truth. There are certain conversations I've had. There are monies which he knows or some of my friends know six figures dollars back to back to back that are about to reject for a lot of things.

We are being used as a testing ground. And when you look at it, you think that it's the outside people's fault. But it's our own fault. And is also even the fault of educators like me. And when I realized that mistake, everybody including OPEX, including Evana had to start switching up.

When I came into the space and then I started teaching. I was not teaching anybody how to build anything. I came into the space I got into web three via farming and staking and everything. Me as a 19year-old I was doing volume that in two or three banks that every every day I think I I eat my limit and then they have to call me that am I a fraudster and then if I don't remove my money from the bank they report me to the US and everything. I was just looking for where exactly can I now make my money and keep my money and everything and then nobody will start disturbing me.

I found defi

but finding defi in the you know aspect of farming and staking a system that allows you to be your own bank and your own banker

and then I created my academy. I wanted to teach people and you know share these things to people but the only thing everybody was looking at in this innovation was let me just make money.

True. So when educators actually start teaching on boarding people not necessarily to be integral parts of the system but just to wait for somebody to build a product. Let us look at the loopholes. Let us look at how we can maximize profit from this and make the most. We are constantly going to be used as a testing ground.

Does everybody understand me?

Yeah. So I started my academy in three months. People were making their first million. If you think I'm capping, the data is out there. People were making their first million in three months.

People were doing 10 million. People were doing 100 million in the same year that I taught them. Agny part I think when we use data for one bunk this thing for people that follow me. I think accumulatively we did about $2 million in like one week or two weeks of using that. But then at the end of the day, no matter how much money we make, we are still constantly going to rely on the outside world to build first and then we try to make money from it.

So I realized that no matter how much I try to shift the blame here or shift the blame there, I'm a major part of that problem.

Interesting.

And then I now started realizing that okay, I think I'm the major part of the problem. I'm teaching about decentralized finance. I'm teaching about everything and the only thing I'm talking about let's make money. Let's make money. Let's make money.

And then I switched over to the nontechnical part because I was already even doing it from the onset. Okay, as much as you are making money from this, I know some of you are graphic designers. I know some of you are developers. I know some of you are, you know, doing data blah blah blah. This is how you can now take those skills and even moving it into the web 3 space.

Even at that something has changed. But yet I still needed people to build products for people to come and work under them. But things have actually started changing and all of those things. And then right now I've shifted totally from just doing that. As much as I teach nontechnical people, we're now focused on encouraging people.

You don't even have to be a developer. You can be a founder, find the idea, find people to build for you and actually make sure that you make a mark, you know, in this um ecosystem. So education is part of the major problem. But before we were we were like a testing gun for everything. But now because of how education have evolved and more people are informed that they they are not just going to be onlookers of this emerging technology, they should also make sure that they build.

So a lot of things have changed.

So yeah, thank you.

Please is a good time to clap. So I I'd say that we are not playing catchup. We are actually trying to catch up.

We have we have caught up. We have caught up in my reality.

My reality, we have caught up. Okay.

My reality, what I'm seeing,

what he's saying.

Yeah. But you know, for other people reality, they might still be playing catchup, but yeah, we're dominating.

Okay. Okay.

You have to catch up with us.

All right. All right. All right. Thank you so much. So, moving on to you, which is the last question.

Um, some argue that defy in Africa is becoming like a get quick no scam. I just said that. and with more hype than real wealth. We we hear about a lot of some of the volumes he was talking about. Now is it is it that do you think the is truly a tool for generational change or we are just gambling with the new tech?

I feel like that question should be more of people think trading

is more of a getrichqu scheme. But there's something I will say. What you don't know sometimes is bigger than what you know. You only know one part which is what trading and then you're calling it a get-richqu whatever you're calling it or calling it gambling. I'll ask you a question now from someone like me that my niche or will I say um people know me well for um jobs as one of the biggest web three jobs pioneer.

I would say it's just like me asking this young lady here now in your normal web two activities if you're going to a bank like um access bank or you're going to an NPC to apply for a job would you call that gambling of course you won't call it gambling you're going to see like you're trying to what apply your what skills and then get paid for it this is still under web three you're literally applying your skills into this thing You might not even necessarily need to have gone to school to learn some of those skills when I started my journey. I didn't many of the things I was doing. I didn't learn it even I think um recently I I had a conference um a gathering at Dominion City and I told them something. And I said I gave an advice to a dev and he was like the way I opened his eyes to the space in terms of marketing because all he knew about was what the development aspect and the technical whatnot. I opened his eyes to what was happening in the space and just for a few minutes of my time this guy sent me $1,000.

Now that was what opened my eyes to advisory in the space. I started working as a web3 advisor. I got to understand that there was a problem that some of these founders they don't know what is happening in the space. Now tell me would you call me a gambler? No.

Please I need an answer. Would you say I'm gambling? Exactly. What you don't know is bigger than what what you know. And most times these arguments come from uh will I say the millennium guys, the guys that probably they've lost money to those crazy um um volatile ponies and whatnot.

They don't know that things are not like it used to be. Now the people probably call gamblers, permit me, I know some of you are here, is the memecoin guys or the dent guys. Those ones, they know that it's either it goes good or it was goes bad. So those ones, they know that they're just here to what? Play and make money.

If they make the money, come on. But you that you're looking at the staking, the farming, the web three jobs aspect, becoming an advisor, a community manager, an influencer, K, what not? Come on, you can't say you're gambling. So again, what you don't know is bigger than what what you know. Thank you.

Round of applause.

Okay. Um, lastly for the both of you now, it seems to be very like Yeah. Okay. So if we are like honest, most people enter web three.

Yes.

And now defy chasing tokens not transformation, right? So is it naive to believe that defi can actually build sustain sustainable wealth or is always like I risk and

it can build sustainable wealth. See how many people are developers here? How many people are developers here? Oh, they in the other room. So, they are not developers here.

So, I developers are back. Are you guys back? How many people have built a product or a tool not for anybody but to use for yourself? How many people how many of you are developers here? Again, I want to see your hands.

Okay. Now, how many of you have built tools to use for yourself? Let me tell you something. Let me bust your head. The most profitable traders are developers.

The most profitable degen people or memecoin traders are developers. I discovered this for coinophobia when I was teaching my last last cohort and then I realized that everything in this space is data. everything memecoin, futures, sports and all of those things. Even if you tell me you're using technical analysis and everything, the units the basic unit of everything is data and whoever understands data can outperform everybody. So one thing that we now started doing is that we have to teach everybody SQL.

How many of you write SQL here? We now have to start teaching people SQL. So what you are now going to do is to make sure that you build data um data set aggregate data create your own dashboard and you know look for opportunities and make the most out of it. A lot of people are using other people's tools but there are certain ways that you trade and then you are now going to have to build your tool to fit how you trade. And then when we started doing that trust me it feels like nobody's losing anymore.

the person that built course site, he was a student of mine then became um a tutor and he turned like $13,000 to $13,000 in a week. I think what was the name of this other guy? I think he he has been doing at least 20k or 25k weekly. So there is no I always feel like a lot of people think that oh you have to be a developer or a trader or a this or that. You can be a trader and because you are a developer, you can build your own tools to outperform everybody.

Are you following me? You can be a social media manager and build your own tools and outperform everybody. That is the beauty of what you guys are enjoying but you know you are not looking at it because everybody is just focused on that small let me be a dev and work on that somebody because you don't see yourself bigger than you know just learning and working on that people. So a lot of people are developers and you cannot you in the next 5 years I promise you you might not make as much as $100,000

because you're not even seeing the business side of this

because you are not an entrepreneur. So people like me I I don't know how to code one thing in my life but because I have ideas I will look for one or two people to you know code what I want and I will outperform every single developer combined in one year. But you are smarter than me.

The only thing I have over you is the audacity to look at my ideas and then execute.

Thank you. Thank you so much. So in one in just one minute

in just one minute time

there's something I would say. Solution creators would always what? Outperform problem solvers.

Okay. Now become a solution creator. Today there is a difference between being a solution creator and being a problem solver. Now take for instance you're talking about generational wealth. Yeah.

A footballer that is not in defi and the rest. They have what we call contracts. Am I right? I'm not a footballer. I don't know anything about football.

I know that they work based on what? Contract. Yeah.

Yeah.

And we all know that contracts have a timeline. It gets to a time when it expires. Now if you're not as good as someone like Mbappy or you're not as good as someone like Ronaldo, nobody will want to get you again. I don't know if you understand. So because of you able to build relationships, build show the world that you are very good.

He gives them reason to keep on retaining you. Now those people that were not able to show how good they were and the rest, it now comes down to how well they now manage the money they made from that what contract. So generational wealth, it depends on how you see it. Someone like me now, I'm always creating solutions, creating systems. So generational wealth is is not even a question for me.

Do you understand? Thank you.

Like you hear me? Please, a round of applause. Thank you. I mean, we are out of time, but if you would take one thing away from this session is that be audacious. Okay.

Please uh once again, a round of applause to our panelists as we take our pictures. Right.