This Man's Determination Will Leave You Speechless - Alumni Spotlight EP3: Casweeney Ojukwu

Web3 bridge was a hideout for me. So before I came to web three bridge something happened. I I lost huge sum of money. Oh yeah I I I was doing crypto trading and all. So coming to webidge was just ah I'm not bothering about food again.

I'm not woring about internet. I'll just stay here learn how to cook. They taking care of everything. This was like a do or die affair for me. like I I need to know this thing because there's nothing I'm going back to because I had to reside from a company I was working to come to work.

I built resolver CLA as a play thing like it wasn't meant to be something that serious. I was learning Rust. I was learning Rust and while learning I like like building something. One thing about the web space is that it's moving very fast, right? moving very fast and if you really want to stay ahead of the curve you have to keep learning and if you're going ahead you need to go to all those areas where people are running away from that's why we did zi guys welcome to another episode of the alumni spotlight and today we have big cast in the house say hi hi All right.

I am so happy to have you here today. You know my three names. Yeah, I know your your three names. Yeah, I think I like I I have to like make a research cuz I I just I've been hearing like a lot about Cass. So before we like get right into it.

I think I want everybody to meet Cass. I know you but they don't. So let's just tell us about um your life before Web Three Bridge. What was it like? H my life before a privilege.

Can I still remember my life before? You need me to remind you? Okay. So, um my name is Casio. Um I'm a blockchain engineer.

I'm working with Insomnia Labs. So, before Web3 bridge, um um I used to be in the web two ecosystem like I build softwares for companies and for myself. I like building stuffs. M so if I'm not working for a company and all of that basically it all right when I said ask tell me like a little bit about your life before you joined rep I was thinking of that you tell me oh you study human kinetics in school or you like to like play basketball and all of that oh yeah I'm very let's talk about that let's talk about How you study human kinetics in school then you play basketball but somehow you transition into tech. So what was it like why change?

Okay. So um me studying humanities wasn't like that wasn't the course I wanted to study actually. So um I wanted to um study medicine but as at um the year where I was um applying for admission because I had to go into university using precience. So at the where I was um applying for admission um there weren't admitting students for medicine department via Christian it was only pharmacy and all of that. So I now had to apply for pharmacy.

But when um when um we wrote our exams and my cut off wasn't up to the pharmacy cut off and I was now a floating student. Although my cut off was very high but I was a floating student. So they have to like consider people that applied for my second choice before me. So by the time they have considered everybody I was still floating. They just had to dash me any department that was available.

That was how I landed my second. Yeah. anyone can and I rejected it. I didn't want to accept it but my parents were like I should just do it then after my first um 100 level I can apply for change of course but that was how I did human kinetics and I graduated from it. Oh okay that's great.

I think about how your parents made you like as a human kinetics. So I know that you're like the first child of first of four right if I'm not mistaken. Am I right? Best of five. This is digging.

Awesome. All right. Best of five. So I was like I want to know and again you are from you're like Ebo from Annabra state and I think I'm like I'm the first child as well. So I understand well I think we call black taxes.

Yeah. So what was it like for you having to like cater for four younger siblings you know trying to like be the role model and all of that. What was it like? So, uh I don't know, but I think there's a way I I've heard this this um this statement like um if you're the first child, there's this there's this um gift you you come with. I don't know how I did it, but there's a way I've been able to like so in as much as I'm working and I'm making ends meet, I still like as I give my siblings money, I don't make it flow like um it's always available.

Okay. I still sometime it so that they know they understand the need of scarcity and how to work for themselves. And that is how I've been able to like put two of my brothers into the tech ecosystem and as I'm talking to you now I don't even bother about sending them money sometimes if I need money I just call them that's a really nice one that that's very great that's very lovely so now let's like talk about your tech journey and how like it all started so I learned that you love to do things that you love I think someone said oh cat loves to help people so speaking about loving to help people I heard that you learned how to fix phones how to repair laptop talk and all of that. Now, about your whole tech journey, I heard that for you to be able to like learn programming full-time, you have to sell your phone. How was that experience?

like please don't worry it doesn't even matter but what you like well so um how I got into tech was basically while I was um getting to graduate from university I started thinking about my life like how will I because I I was like how will I make ends meet studying human kinetics in Nigeria Yeah. So, I'll either be doing um antineta for pregnant women in the hospital. Yeah. Or I'll be a gym instructor. Mhm.

Or um um basketball coach. Basketball coach. Or I'll be teaching PH in in secondary school. So, you know that um that cliche statement they use to to advertise courses for you. They say this is a good cause.

It's just in Nigeria. if you travel outside Nigeria very good and all all of that. So while I was graduating I started thinking about all of this. I I was worried and I I fixed phones I fix laptops as a means of livelihood while I was in school. But you know I remember spending 5 hours trying to troubleshoot a laptop.

At the end of the day the the owner of when I figured out the problem the owner of the laptop said um they can't pay for it. So I have to give them their laptop. Now imagine spending 5 hours like 5 hours of your day and you didn't even get any money. So all of these were questionable and I need to think fast of what to do after school. So that was how I started attending tech events.

I think there was one event I attended tent in school. That was where I met a guy that told me about school portal where he he supplies scratch card to schools 100 naira per scratch card and based on the number of students in that school every term. So when I thought about it 100 naira let's say school of five 5,000 student that's 5 million per term. So in a year three terms you're making like 15 m. My adrenaline went up.

I was like wow this is good. So I was like how will I learn this whole tech and all of that. So it was like okay I can start with HTML and all of that. So I started reading HTML from one app on my phone. I was just writing it.

After all of that I knew HTML very well like the back of my hands but I didn't know how to bring everything together to build a website. And I went back to him to teach me and he was like okay this is the amount I'm going to pay and all of that. I didn't have money then as I then I've graduated. So my parents w sending me money. So I needed to like look for a way to to raise up that money and give to him.

So what I did was just look for somewhere to buy my um Samsung Galaxy traded. That was the money I paid him and taught me HTML. Like you sold your Samsung? Yeah, I sold my Samsung to Yeah. So, so Samsung, but um you know that Nokia, that small Nokia touch, that was the phone I started using.

So, I had to get a model because my phone served as my hotspot. But since it was no longer available, I got a model to to do all of that and all. That's a really crazy experience. Or was it like just selling your phone and building um fixing laptop that you were able to like fund your whole um tech journey or did you also like sheep pepper, camera, pepper and all of that? Wow.

is a I need I need people to understand that there were sacrifices and you know like before you got here there were like a lot of like you know so let's let's talk about that what was it like that just wow wow okay so um um before I got my laptop um so while I was in school I I see people like a lot people they have laptops but they didn't know what to do with it mostly watching movies downloading movies and all of that so and I needed a laptop I I'm I'm a tech guy like even if as then I didn't know I'll be coding I just like tech because fixing phones fixing laptop I don't even have a laptop but I fix laptops you understand so I needed a laptop and how do you get a laptop uh my dad buy a laptop for me. My mom buy a laptop for me. So I needed to look for a way to to like get my own laptop. So during that, so I think that was around uh my third year when I did uh my teaching practice. Uh after my teaching practice, I went back home.

When you say home, you mean like calaba, right? Yeah. Across state. Okay. So it come to be precise.

So my uncle ships um Pepe from Cameroon to Onicha and that was during that Ebola period where they locked the Cameroon gate. Okay. So they'll have to load it in boats, bring it to Nigeria to it come true river then offload it from the boat, load it into the trailer, then take it to Cameroon. So what um I now do is we we are the ones that load the Pepe in those trailers. So that was what I was at first.

We were the one that supply. So the guys that load the trailer come from Cameroon to Nigeria to load the trailer. So we're the ones that carry the pepper bags from the ground to give to them. So at some point those guys were charging outrageous money like to each person is 12,000 naira and my uncle will be the one to feed them, buy their drinks, buy their cigarettes, their smoke and all of that. So one day my uncle was like can you guys do this load this thing?

Me and one other guy were like yes we can. So we started loading the trailer. So I was the one that normally loads the down part of the trailer. So those guys if they load the down part it takes nine bags or eight bags of pepper but if I load it takes 11 bags. So I sit on the floor match it so that it can contain more bats.

So the my my uncle liked that we load that way because if we load one trailer carries like 900 box of but if those guys load one trailer carries like 700 or 750 bags and my uncle charges 1,000 naira per bag. So if we load more money for him definitely you understand because he pays the drivers. So that was how we started loading that stuff. And interesting he he used to pay those guys um 11k but he was paying us $7,000 naira. So that 7,000 naira was what I was saving saving for all those period of time and it got to a point we had to now go inside kon to lo so that was how I raised money for my life.

That is a lot. See, I I don't even know what to say. Well, that that's that if you're not crying right now, I don't know cuz I'm about to cry. So, you see like the B cast like become the B cast but like like a whole lot of backstory. Anyway, now let's talk about like how like it all started in Lagos.

How did you find your way to Lagos from you know Calaba to um Anra like to your school then Abuja where you serve? So, how did you like find your way to Lagos? I I didn't I didn't serve in Abuja. I served in um Kaduna Kaduna. Yeah.

So I've been in Lagos before before the whole in fact before the whole tech stuff. I've been in Lagos before. So my uncle um owned the business in Lagos somewhere around. I've been to Lagos. I've been to TJ show before it burnt and they rebuilt it.

That was when I came for holiday. That was around my J street. Then um I came to Lagos again around 2009 after secondary school. I came to Lagos, stayed with my uncle for a while and then he had um he had a boutique at um Leba bus store. So I was helping Oh my goodness.

I was helping him sell female and you know sometimes I order goods from China and help him sell and all of that. So um well I think we're living in so before now I've been to Lagos before but fast forward to the being to Lagos now that was basically web three bridge so like how did you hear about web3 bridge um so I heard about web three bridge on two occasions. Okay. So the the first time I heard about web bridge was uh through glory praise. Oh okay.

Yeah. So um so in my tech journey I used to teach Yeah. I used to teach HTML, Bootstrap, WordPress. You always had a thing for like helping other people. Yes.

So I used to teach. So I think um praise was um one of the students of in one of those training I was I was taking and she was asking a lot of questions. So we got very close and all so close that you know we talk chat outside on WhatsApp and all of that. So when if she wants to like do certain things she tells me okay I want to do this I want to do that all of that. So she was the one that told me that she registered for web three for web three web three bridge and all of that.

So when she said it didn't stick because at that time I I don't even know I wanted to do blockchain develop but she just said it I was like oh that makes sense good good and all of that. So I now found myself working on web three project. Oh I was struggling while working on it because it's web three. So while I was struggling and you know I don't like being a mediocre something. So I now asked the guy the the team lead that like how did you learn about all of this like this?

So because I started watching the videos about smart contract before so but while I was working on that project is now looking like everything I learned is not adding up. I was struggling. So I was like how did you learn about um this whole web tree? How did you learn web three? He now mentioned web three bridge again.

So he now connected to what glory praise said and I went back to glory praise. I was like okay I want to apply for this and all. She was the one that gave me the link. I applied and even the day of of my interview I forgot. She was the one that even reminded me.

So I was already 2 hours late into the interview before I started my test and all. So that was it. Nice. Nice. So now you came to web three bridge.

Now I want to understand what was like the whole um experience at web3 bridge like for you. Okay. You're an onsite student obviously. So what was it like for you? Web three bridge was another So Web 3 bridge was a hideout for me.

So before I came to web three something happened. I I lost um huge sum of money. Oh yeah. how I I was doing crypto trading and all. So I lost a huge sum of money that almost landed me in the hospital.

So um and you know trying to like so how will I live from here like I've lost almost everything and all. So coming to web bridge was just ah I'm not bothering about food again. I'm not woring about internet. I'll just stay here learn how to cook. They taking care of everything you get.

Yeah. So that was it and coming to web bridge was like this was like a do or die affair for me like I had to I need to know this thing because I need to know it know it there's nothing I'm going back to because I had to resign from a company I was working to come to web bridge I had already prepping for the web tree bridge I resigned the previous year you understand now because I've already saved enough right I resigned the previous year then the year where I was supposed to come for bridge and I lost all the money that I've saved right so I just had to I the money I even used to take flight I borrowed it bridge to commit to a privilege I needed to I needed to hit it like I needed to be good at it because as I'm going back I need to get something doing if not more I don't Of course. Oh my I didn't know story or this emotional. You guys kind of like don't cry. All right.

All right. So let's talk about resolver CLI. Okay. That you like built on your own like give it all. What was the idea behind it?

What's what's Resol CLI all about? So um resolver CLI is basically like um a CLI tool that helps you um scaffold projects and install a lot of um dependencies that software engineers need. So uh I built resolver CLA as a play thing like I it wasn't meant to be something that serious. I was learning Rust. I was learning Rust and while learning I like like building something.

So the way I know that I'm good at something is if I build up to like five different projects with a particular programming language that's where I can say okay I know this programming language. So I I learn by building. Yeah. So while learning ROSS uh I decided to build a CLI tool because there's a part of the Ross book that played around CLI. So after covering that chapter I decided to like try test it out to build something.

That was how I started building resolver. So and if I want to build something even if it's something I want to play around with I always think about an importance of that thing that's what motivates me to build. If that thing won't be used I don't get motiv motivation to build it. So I started building resolver CLI. While I was building it, I was telling people about it like my friends and all of that.

And at some point when I build it to an extent from the reactions I get from people now looks like this is really important. So I had to like tell some of my guys to contribute to it and all of that. And when I finished building it, I I um published it on crates.io so that people can install it and use it. So let me like break it come back to 001 what it actually does.

So yeah go on do you know how to scaffold a react project? No I don't know anything about all right so a lot of times um if it you know we have different the the programming or the tech ecosystem is very big. You can see someone that writes React, someone that writes VU, someone that writes NodeJ, someone that writes Solidity and all of that. Now, a lot of times the way you create a project for solidity, let's say hard hat is different from the way you create a project for React and it's also different from the way you create a project for NodeJS which means you need to remember a lot of commands. Okay, you need to like for MPX create react app let's say for Laravel you say Laravel new or create composer create new project for Laravel.

Now you see as I'm struggling to remember all of this. So resolver CLI is that CLI tool that brings all of this together. So you don't need to remember all those commands. All you just need to do is resolver scaffold laravel. You give the project name.

It does it for you. resolver create react project. So resolver just brings everything together in one place so you don't need to remember all those numerous commands. Oh wow. That's what it does.

That's nice. Can't solve any problem. That's honestly that's very good. So let's talk about like um what has it been like um after leaving the web space? What's what like what is the growth like?

Has it been slow? Has it been steady? Has it been very fast after leaving? Yes. like after like your after bridge.

Okay. So, um after when I left web bridge, I didn't get a web three job at first. Okay. So, uh why we so me and my friends we did this this uh we had a what do they call it? Um accountability group for applying for jobs.

So, we had like a spreadsheet. We apply for a job. We put it in that spreadsheet. if there so we know we have like green or red if this went through and all of that. So that's what we do.

We did that thing for like two months almost came in. So and I needed to get my hands into something and that was when um I saw an offer I so I had to go back to what I was doing before web three like backend engineering with Laravel and all of that. So I saw a role for a back end engineering stuff I I picked it up. So that was what I was doing before I started getting web three jobs and all of that. So the thing is you see the web three ecosystem it it's um it's not the same for everybody.

There are some people that have been with a particular company for 2 years and all. there are some persons that have been with a particular company and when beer market comes the company will lay off and all of that. So it's it's different and all of that. So sometimes you you work with the company let's say 6 months and that's it. But you should know how to save and and you know and the thing is one thing about the web space is that it's moving very fast, right?

Moving very fast. And if you really want to stay ahead of the curve, you have to keep learning because you see those ones that are coming. They are angry, right? They are angry. They are very very angry.

So you have to keep going ahead. Keep going ahead so that you stay more relevant. Mhm. So, and if you're going ahead, you need to go to all those areas where people are running away from. That's why we did Zik.

Yeah, that that's really good. So, now let's talk about your stack trade, but did I am I say that correctly? Yeah. All right. So, I hear that it's something that you're currently building with your your guys and your team.

Let's let's talk about that. Let's walk us through stock trade. What is it all about? Okay. Uh stack trade bot is um a telegram trading bot that um helps you trade seamlessly on the stacknet blockchain the stacknet ecosystem.

So and you know um a lot of times for the guys that comes from the web two do you have a wallet? Yes I do. You have a wallet? You know you know metamax? Yes I know metal.

You know trust wallet. Trust I know Metamax. But you don't know trustworthy. Okay. So now one of the reason why we have things like stock trade ber for people like you, you know, people like me.

Yeah. So the reason why I said that is because Yeah. The reason why I say that is because um you know sometimes you want to trade and you don't know you you have a wallet but you might not even know how to connect a wallet how to like perform a particular transaction on the blockchain right but with a telegram trading bot you don't even need to connect wallet you don't even need to have a wallet just come on telegram you click create wallet it will create the wallet for you. Wow. Right.

You fund it, right? You just send tokens to that address. Then you can like buy and sell any token you want just via Telegram. You don't need to go through the rigorous process of going to a decentralized exchange, connecting wallet, signing transaction. You don't need all of that.

Now and one of the reason why we decided to build stack trade board is because stacknet ecosystem is an amazing uh ecosystem with a lot of focus on developers. Devs are building amazing stuff but they are no users but users want to trade, users want to make money. So how do you bring these users to stacknet? You give them what they want. So which is trading.

So trading using stack trade board when they see how fast and swift the the blockchain is they can start diversifying into other decentralized applications. So that was Oh wow. I think I'm going to find it. I see why you said but people like me I'm not hurt guys. I promise I'm all right.

Okay. So like we are so let's talk about this from being a student to being a mentor at web three bridge. What is that feeling like? You know, I just what's it like? So, being a mental privilege is is a is a privilege and also an opportunity for you to give back.

M and um one of the the good things about being a mentor with privilege is that the things you teach the things you talk about stay with you forever because um all those smart contract I wrote while teaching those students even if I'm sleeping wake me up I'll write them you understand all the things I've spoken about because there's this reinforcement that happens when you're talking is coming back at Um it gives you the opportunity to give back to people and it gives you this positive reinforcement that okay you know this thing because you cannot give what you don't have. So if you can teach people and you see them grow it's a positive reinforcement for you that you you know your stuff. So that's it. That's yeah that's very great. So let's talk about your you said um it gives you visibility.

I think you like the visibility cuz you have like a YouTube channel. You write blog articles. What's like So your YouTube channel has how many how many subscribers? Uh my YouTube channel have over a,000 subscribers. That's awesome.

Yeah. Over,000 subscribers. Yeah. Okay. The name of like your YouTube channel.

Casuku. Just search C. Yeah. You see my guys and subscribe to his YouTube channel. Let's talk about something.

Let's like take let's take us back a little during your cohort. What was like the favorite person? Who was like your favorite person in your cohort? Why you struggling favorite person? No.

No. It's beloved. I need to speak. Okay. Who are you like closest to during your cohort and all of that?

A male, a female? Ch. So I'm trying to think of a right person. I think someone I could easily tell anything was um I think Dev Longs. I was close to Dev Longs.

And I was also close to Mitchy. Okay. Okay. Very very close to De Longs and Mr. like Yeah.

So from your call there was no like special girl but you're very close to that close to now. Special lady that you were very close to that you're still close to now. Okay. The lady I'm close to now. Hi.

So the lady I'm close to now w that very close during the court. Oh yeah. W that very close during the court. You guys are very close. but just more of um um okay there is a bug in my contract or and all of this okay we'll look at it this is where the problem is which is normal for everybody in like in the cohort so sometimes I have issues I reach out to um Kazim and um media and all of that so it happens all right but now you guys are very close especially close or anyway something else.

So would it for like your whole journey your growth currently like where you are right now do you think web privilege like had a role to play or has a role to play? Web privilege is the quarter at the middle of that road like so if it wasn't for web privilege my confidence in the web free ecosystem I don't think I would have so like I said I was already learning how to build smart contract but imagine str after why you have learned something but you're still struggling to build something like contributing to a project but after bridge we I could contribute to like any any smart contract. We we we we built a project for Nami, my team and like we built a project for Nami and we got paid. So imagine after Webbridge, you built a project for like a blockchain company and you got paid. That's I I I don't think there's any other positive reinforcement that tells you okay you know what you're doing.

So that's just it. That's great. So to like wrap up this session, what's like if I say oh give a piece of advice to like the next gen developers, what would it be? Piece of advice like uh please help me like because if you want if you say piece of advice nextg developers Yes. a lot of times like I don't even know what to say because but can you just direct me on the kind of advice?

Okay. So what would the advice be to those people who are looking to like transition into the tech space or people who are already like you know like already on like the tech two track but want to like transition into um web three. I say tech two web two but want to like transition into web three. So the advice I would give is um if you're already in the web two ecosystem and you want to go into the web three space um just get started but you need to have thick skin. Yeah, you need to have thick skin like really thick skin because it's not getting easier.

It's really not getting easier. For instance, there were times where you can just learn HTML and CSS and you get a job, right? But now you need to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript. Even with JavaScript, you can't get a job. You have to even learn React, learn TypeScript, and maybe VUJS, you understand?

And even the React, you can't get a job. You have to extend to NexJS. Correct. You understand? So it's now harder for that site during our time.

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, you're a front end developer. But now you need to know React and TypeScript and all that. So gone are the days when if you just learn solidity, you you're good. You're you're good. You just go out and start looking for job.

You do hack. You understand? So you have to grow this skin to like learn to catch up because after learning solidity you have to build a lot of things you have to so you have to like show proof of work which is when you mentioned about the YouTube channel and the blog what I'm basically using those to do is proof of work because if you if I'm telling you that I know this thing I have to show you me something that I've done. Yeah. Either a YouTube video I made breaking down something or an article I wrote about a concept I understand those are proof of work.

So you need to show proof of work. So you that's the thick skin I'm talking about and you have to keep learning because if you learn solidity and remain there or more. All right. So finally one last word for web three bridge. One last word for every bridge is doing amazingly well like and they should keep doing what they doing like they should like they doing very good.

I I've seen the growth of a lot of persons my two brothers now they doing their stuff without me all thanks all thanks to bridge and all of that. So yeah, so tree bridge is doing very well. They should keep doing what they are doing and thank you very much tree bridge for giving us giving us a part and you know and all of that. Thank you very much C. This was like a really emotional and educated section.

We're happy to have you. Thank you very much. Can I go now? All right guys, this has been an amazing session. I hope that you enjoy this series.

Do not forget to leave us a thumbs up and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven't. See you on the next episode.