Inkuba Hub - Weekly Meeting Date: May 31, 2025 Organizers: Laurentine Djatsa, Inkuba Hub Manager / Boaz, Goma Hub Manager Participants: Representatives from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (Goma) Meeting Recorded: Yes
Introduction and Blockchain Presentation
Laurentine Djatsa opened the session by recalling the objective of these meetings: to educate ourselves, understand, and bring concrete changes to Africa through blockchain technology. She emphasized that the group constituted “pillars” of the Cardano blockchain community in Francophone Africa, with interests that go beyond simple cryptocurrency investments.
A quick presentation of blockchain was made, defining it as “a digital ledger that everyone can consult, that no one can erase, and on which everyone agrees.” The use cases presented included finance, supply chains, governance, health, digital assets, and voting systems.
Experiences with Cardano and Governance Participation
Olivier (Goma, DRC) Olivier, an active member since 2021, shared his experience as a Project Catalyst community reviewer and trainer on Web3 and blockchain topics. He raised a major concern regarding Cardano governance: the problem of voting power based on ADA holdings. According to him, most African members do not possess enough ADA to have significant weight in decisions, which limits the democratization of governance.
Boaz (Goma, DRC) Boaz explained the role of the Goma community in the Cardano ecosystem. He specified that as a community, they participate in voting on proposals concerning protocol modifications and treasury. Personally, he delegates his ADA to Delegated Representatives (DRep), comparing this system to deputies who act on behalf of their voters.
Honoré (Goma, DRC) Discovering Cardano since 2021 during the Goma summit, Honoré has worked as a community reviewer since 2023 and is a member of Goma Hub and team lead of Goma Youth Startup. He joined Olivier’s concerns about the exclusion created by the ADA-based voting system, suggesting a “one person, one vote” system rather than “one ADA, one vote.”
John (Goma, DRC) New to the ecosystem (discovered this week), John is among the graduates of the latest training organized by Boaz. He was impressed by the training and available to participate more as his understanding of the functioning progresses.
Barthélémy (Burkina Faso) Participating in Cardano summits since 2022 in collaboration with Inkuba Hub, Barthélémy identified two main barriers for Africa:
- Linguistic barrier: Projects must be submitted in English, disadvantaging some francophone Africans who must translate their ideas
- Economic barrier: Access to ADA is more difficult with the CFA franc compared to the US dollar
Identified Issues
Marginalization of Africa in the Ecosystem Laurentine expressed concern about the marginalization of the African community. She noted that no African project was selected in the last funding process, and that Inkuba Hub has not received funding since fund 8 (currently at fund 14), except for funding from Intersect to organize a constitutional workshop in Burkina Faso.
Power Concentration The discussion revealed that 40% of ADA worldwide is held by Japanese, giving them considerable voting power. This concentration raises questions about the equity of the decentralized governance system.
Challenges of the New DRep System Laurentine expressed her confusion regarding the new Delegated Representatives system, noting that she only knows one of her delegators personally, which raises questions about effective representation.
Proposals and Future Perspectives
Rita Despite being new to the community, Rita made two important contributions:
- Suggestion to create a blockchain similar to Cardano for Africa, giving more decision-making power to Africans
- Importance of personal development in blockchain training to help participants understand their role and contribution
Improvement Interventions A participant emphasized the importance of understanding the type of democracy that Cardano seeks to establish and the need to improve project presentations in English.
Olivier proposed publishing reports and articles in English on various platforms to make the African community’s voice heard beyond these internal discussions.
Conclusions and Future Actions
Laurentine concluded by emphasizing that the goal is not to remain consumers forever, but to become solution creators. She announced that an agenda will be shared for the next session, which will address more concretely how to use blockchain to solve African problems.
Participants were encouraged to invite blockchain experts to enrich future discussions and develop practical solutions: games, applications, or even creating a blockchain dedicated to Africa.
Next meeting: Saturday, June 7, 2025 at 4 PM, with a focus on practical blockchain applications for Africa.
Discord: Laurentine F. Djatsa X: @InkubaA Instagram: