John Karanja (Kenya)

Founder and Consulting Lead at BitHub.Africa - Blockchain Accelerator

John Karanja is the Founder and Consulting Lead at BitHub.Africa – Blockchain Accelerator.
John is also a Director at Space Kenya Networks limited, which is a company he co-founded in 2008 that provides workspace for businesses and startups operating in Nairobi. Notably, John was also the founder of Whive.com a SMS based social media platform for Africa. Whive.com was a winner at the Pivot 25 Mobile technology competition in 2011. The Kenyan Government awarded the Vision2030 ICT Award 2011 to Whive for Innovation in youth and gender Sector. Today BitHub.Africa is implementing Whive project and is seeking to assist businesses scale their products and services using a decentralized social engine powered by Blockchain technology.

John has an MSc in Political Sociology from the University of Oxford, England (2010) and a Bachelor of Business and Information Technology from Strathmore University, Kenya (2006). Throughout his career, he has witnessed how African countries are leapfrogging legacy systems like banks and landline telephony through the adoption of mobile money platforms like M-Pesa and the Internet as well. John believes that Bitcoin and Blockchain technologies can provide much needed solutions like cross border money transfer or microloans.

John in recent articles has stated that Bitcoin is not a panacea to African problems but a technology that drives down costs with respect to transfer of value across all our Borders. It is opt-in and as such allows for open and permissionless innovation. As smartphone technology becomes more affordable we should expect the opportunity for Bitcoin and Blockchain solutions to disrupt incumbents to grow across Africa.

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