The Patricia Blog

This past weekend Oui Capital hosted the first-ever football tournament for Nigerian Tech innovators tagged the “Start up Cup” with the goal to bring together startups within the ecosystem in one space without a podium, moderators, panelists, mics, and everything else that suggests a "conference”.

This tournament held in Lekki, Lagos last Saturday, 25th of June, 2022 in ideal weather. anl event intended to unite the innovative startups in the Nigerian Tech-ecosystem.

As expected the “Patricia Soccer Stars” were in attendance to put their skills to the test against other innovative minds in the tech industry.

The first match kicked off at 11am between Eden Life and MVX began. Eden Life quickly dispatched MVX, outplaying them to a 4-0 score, and advanced to the semifinals.

The next matchup had the “Patricia Soccer Stars” playing against the Trade Depot team. The game kicked off cautiously with both sides trying to gain the upper hand. Soon enough Team Trade Depot took the lead, with the Patricia Soccer Stars increasing their efforts to save the match. Unfortunately, Patricia gave up two more goals, putting the final score at 3-0.

(Team Patricia entering the match against Team Trade Depot)

The so-called "El-cashico" game,in which Paystack defeated TeamApt 1–0 to qualify for the semifinals, was played between the two teams.

Economy and Cassava played the last match in the first round, anding up as the first match to proceed to penalties, with Herconomy emerging victorious

For a quick fun break after the first round, the fans were welcomed to the ground to participate in some side attraction games after the first round, and a dancing ensemble delighted the crowd.

Carrying on into the second round saw Eden Life and Paystack locked in a fierce play for a spot in the finals, which ended in victory for Eden Life, as they scored a last-minute goal.

This left Trade Depot playing against Herconomy to secure a spot in the finals. For which Herconomy will have to try in the next season as Trade Depot moved on to play against Eden Life in the finals.

The spectators were not left out in enjoying some competitive action as they slugged it out in sack races, egg races, and spoon races, where Patricia finished in second place.

For the finals. Trade Depot emerged the first Start-up Cup champions after defeating Eden Life, who was the fan's favourite to win it all at this time.

The 1st, 2nd & 3rd place teams left with trophies and medals respectively as did the other teams that competed in the tournament.

For us at Patricia Technologies, 2022 couldn’t have started on a better note. Our January is off to a great start as our chief do the most officer made the Avance Media list of Most Influential Young Africans of 2021.

Avance Media, Africa’s leading African PR & Rating firm, recently announced its 6th publication of the annual ranking of 100 Most Influential Young Africans, a list that celebrates the brightest and most successful young Africans across the continent.

The list features Africa’s brightest minds across tech, business, Finance and entertainment industries and it is a laudable recognition for us to see our CEO listed amongst the 21 Nigerians who make up the county’s representation on the list.

This year’s list throws a huge spotlight on personalities pursuing their dreams, creating magic and bent on putting Africa in the global spotlight!

It is worthy to note that the Criteria for selection for Avance Media’s 100 Most Influential Young Africans included in this list are; excellence in Leadership & Performance, Personal accomplishment, commitment to sharing knowledge, breaking the status quo and being an accomplished young African.

To say that our CEO more than fit the bill will be an understatement, but we do not like to toot our horn and this recognition goes far to commend the thriving crypto-powered ecosystem we are building via our super app.

Under his leadership, Patricia technologies have grown from a mere idea to a billion-dollar valuation company and we are still reaching for the stars.

With 52 males and 48 females representing 32 countries on the continent, this year’s
publication throws a huge spotlight on various talents and personalities pursuing their dreams
in pursuit of making the continent proud and setting an example for young people on the
Continent.

With individuals from industries such as technology, business, and entertainment, the MD of Avance
Media, Prince Akpah mentioned that the continent is blessed with a lot of inspiring young
people who have the power to prove the worth of the continent’s future. He also mentioned
that African leaders, must focus resources on training its youthful population to be ready to
compete with other young people from across the world.

Sometime in June this year, El Salvador made the headlines for being the first country in human history to consider using Crypto (Bitcoin) as a legal tender. Sept. 7, 2021, will see this history made as the North American Country becomes the first in the world to adopt cryptocurrency as a legal tender.

Fast forward to Aug. 31, 2021. The Finance Commission of the El Salvadoran Assembly has agreed to create a $150 million Bitcoin trust. To facilitate exchange between Bitcoin and U.S. Dollars, the national newspaper El Diario de Hoy reports. Since 2001, the U.S. dollar has been the official currency in El Salvador which bitcoin will join and not replace as legal tender.

With 64 votes in favour and 14 votes against, the funding got approval as El Salvador prepares to officially adopt bitcoin on Sept. 7, 2021.

María Luisa Hayém Brevé, the El Salvadoran Minister of Economy, reportedly said that there is a possibility of increasing the initial $150 million allocations. She also touched on the fear and doubt El Salvadorans have shown as regards adopting Bitcoin. To this end, the government is doing its best to onboard El Salvadorans on the Chivo wallet.

However, one thing is that the financial world will be watching El Salvador in the coming weeks as it becomes the first country to adopt decentralized digital currency.

Despite the uncertain mandated nature of the Bitcoin law, El Salvadorans can decide to either accept Bitcoin or take $30 worth of Bitcoin commission-free. The Bitcoin Trust will help aid continued trade in dollars for those wary of this ground-breaking financial technology.

The parliament also agreed to change this year’s General State Budget to repurpose a $500 million loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. To make provision for the Bitcoin trust to be managed by the Development Bank of El Salvador (Bandesal).

By Sept. 7, every El Salvadoran will have access to $30 in Bitcoin from the government through their Chivo wallet app. All bitcoins gotten or exchanged on the Chivo app will be commission-free, and citizens can begin to legally receive Bitcoin as payments without having to pay additional changing fees.

The purpose of this law is to financially support the alternatives that the state provides, without prejudice to private initiatives, that allow the user to carry out the automatic and instantaneous convertibility of bitcoin to the United States dollar.

Twitter is now testing the ability to tip users in Bitcoin through Jack Maller’s lightning network app Strike.
Reports indicate that the micro-blogging platform’s new feature will be facilitated through Jack Maller’s wallet service, Strike, which is powered by the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Earlier this year, Twitter had introduced the “Tip Jar” feature and now it is beta testing an update that allows content creators receive tips in Bitcoin. The report stated that Bitcoin is not yet available to select as a tip option in the release, but closer inspection of code suggests that Twitter is in the process of rolling it out to beta users and perhaps all users in the long run.

Mobile developer Alessandro Pa0luzzi also leaked an image of what the service looks like so far.

“We use Strike to generate Bitcoin Lightning invoices so you'll need to connect your account to accept Bitcoin tips,” the instructions read.

According to The Block, the new lightning service will be Strike enabled and also support Square’s forthcoming hardware wallet. The company also lists Blue Wallet and Wallet of Satoshi as examples of custodial wallets and Breez, Muun, Phoenix and Zap as examples of non-custodial wallets. Twitter will also use Strike to produce Bitcoin invoices. For now, Twitter users will need a Strike account to receive tips in Bitcoin.

The addition of a Bitcoin tipping option is in keeping with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s promise to investors in July that Bitcoin was important to the company and would be coming to the Tip Jar in the future. Currently, Twitter allows users to add Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal, and Venmo links to their Twitter profiles

Jack Dorsey has doubled down on his interest in all things Bitcoin lately, including increasing Square’s Bitcoin holdings, continued development on Square’s hardware wallet, his TBD venture into peer to peer exchanges, Bitcoin mining, and Bluesky, an open and decentralized standard for social media.

Sometime in June this year, El Salvador made the headlines for being the first country in human history to consider using Crypto (Bitcoin) as a legal tender. Sept. 7, 2021, will see this history made as the North American Country becomes the first in the world to adopt cryptocurrency as a legal tender.

Today, Sept. 7th. 2021, El Salvador become the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender. This is coming 20 years after adopting the US dollar as its national currency.

In a plan spearheaded by president Nayib Bukele, citizens can now shop, pay taxes and buy land using Bitcoin.
President Nayib Bukele hopes to cut the yearly remittance fees Salvadorans pay. Which is 1/4 of the country’s GDP & also promote financial inclusion for those without bank accounts and facilitate access to a potentially high-yielding asset.

El Salvador has just bought its first 200 coins. Our brokers will be buying a lot more as the deadline approaches. President Nayib tweeted on Monday night.

Across the country, Chivo ATMs will allow consumers to buy bitcoin or convert it into cash, with the government absorbing commission costs.

SOLANA, nicknamed the Ethereum killer, is the latest on the cryptocurrency bandwagon to mark a significant rise within days. The platform deals with blockchain-based smart contracts, for which demand has been on the rise lately.

Ever since Ethereum’s recent update last month, Solana stacked explosive gains and climbed up the crypto market ranks.

Riding on the Ethereum surge, Solana (SOL) has now overtaken Dogecoin to become the seventh-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market valuation. SOL’s recent price rally saw it flip the crypto market’s valuation charts and put itself on to its new position with a market cap of around $46 billion.

Why is the Solana price surging?
It is a fact that all cryptocurrencies have been performing well in the market lately, but Solana has been the best of them.
The “so-called” Ethereum Killer is indeed out-performing its competitors and is probably on the way to live up to its nickname. SOL is currently trading at $158, having rallied from $70 three weeks ago. It is no secret that Solana is currently the fastest cryptocurrency in the market, and its features keep getting improved by the makers.

Solana was founded in 2017 and deals on the Ethereum platform. Like Ethereum, SOL supports smart contracts and is gaining popularity with developers building DeFi apps and creating NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

Among the three, Solana is the fastest by supporting nearly 70,000 transactions per second and that too at a lower price. SOL, on its current trajectory, could even cross $175 in the coming months. Ethereum’s recent surge to cross the $4000 mark, since its big crash early this year, has played a major role in Solana’s rise.

A forthnight ago our COO, Mr Chris Izu Okafor bore our Crypto & blockchain education torch to Techpount Africa’s Blockchain Summit #TABS22. In a truly insightful impactful keynote speech delivered on “ Africa’s future in the Web3 era”. Mr Chris touched on the possibilities, opportunities and economic benefits that lie in Web3 for the African creatives, tech enthusiasts and the general public.

Moderating the Panel discussion on building a Career in the Blockchain space, was Patricia Technologies brand manager Rachael Akalia, this panel touched on the necessity of building a skillset when pivoting into the blockchain space, creating a value flow system and equally backing up one’s effort with solid networking. This is made achievable by joining communities.

Over the last ten years, Vanguard newspaper has celebrated outstanding achievers in the brand’s exclusive tradition of excellence with the “Vanguard Personality of the Year Award”.

Last Friday, May 22, 2022 the 10th edition of the award themed “ A decade of Excellence” was held at the prestigious Eko hotel & suites in Victoria Island Lagos. With notable members of the society on hand or duly represented to celebrate with the winners and in the case of the awardees or their representatives to receive their well-deserved recognitions.

It was at this gathering of distinguished excellent men & women, that our CEO & founder was awarded the “ Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award”. The event which carried on well into the evening was graced by several senators, media personalities, governors and the likes. Was dotted with colourful presentations and noteworthy entrances by some of the awardees.

Our CPO Chika Uluocha) and Brand manager (Rachael Akalia) was on hand to receive the award on behalf of the CEO and to also express his gratitude and appreciation to the Vanguard award body for the due diligence and recognition accorded to him.

Africa's pacesetter in the crypto-powered ecosystems is in the news again! This time, it is for being duly recognized as the “Most Outstanding Crypto Exchange for 2021” by Tech Point Africa at the recently held Tech Point Awards Dinner in Lagos Nigeria.

The award dinner was preceded by the TECHBUILD2021 event, the largest startup and tech gathering in WestAfrica aimed at connecting the key players in Africa’s startup community. Nominations were done publicly for outstanding startups in various categories across financial inclusion, mobility and logistics, tech, and electronic payment industries.

Being Nominated in the “ “Most Outstanding Crypto Exchange” category commends the tenacity, commitment and hard work of the entire Patricia team. Despite a ban on transacting cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, the sector has witnessed tremendous growth year on year. We are honoured to have been considered the most outstanding of outstanding crypto exchanges in 2021 by the judges of this category.

The award was received by our industrious Brand Manager, with a promise to keep growing and innovating for Africa and the world at large.

Our commitment to keep building refreshing products that will continue to redefine everyday transactions through the power of Blockchain Technology one Crypto transaction at a time holds true.