Ep 3 Building in web3 for Africa and the Global South w/Tony Olendo

In this episode, we meet Tony Olendo and learn about his journey into web3, and what he is currently building with Vifi - a stablecoin protocol for the global south. He also shares his thoughts on building an African L2, onboarding web2 developers, web3 hot takes and more.

Tony co-founded Vifi (Virtual Finance) and is a developer with over 10 years of industry experience. He has worked in web3 as a developer building DAO tooling at Coordinape and led Devrel at Polygon. He is also a co-founder of Protocol-Explorer.

Here's how to keep up with Tony and what he is building :
Tony's Twitter : https://x.com/tonyolendo

Vifi Twitter : https://x.com/vifi_cc
Vifi website : https://www.virtualfinance.xyz/
Vifi launch announcement : https://x.com/tonyolendo/status/1810519733688545378

Protocol explorer Twitter: https://x.com/protocolxplorer
Protocol Explorer website: https://www.protocolexplorer.com/

TIME STAMPS:
00:00 Intros and proof of Tony
01:06 Starting out in web3
02:45 Coolest thing he’s built onchain
04:03 Least favorite project he’s worked on
05:02 Getting rugged in Web3
07:15 Tony’s role in Protocol Explorer and what to expect from them
10:48 Current problems with onboarding African Developers
14:23 Is Tony building an African L2
18:48 Introducing Vifi, what they're building and why
23:30 Last thing Tony coded
24:00 Best part of building in web3
24:44 Worst part of building in web3
27:00 Tony’s web3 hot take he could get cancelled for
29:18 Favorite web3 meme
30:03 Favorite web3 pickup line?
30:44 Interesting web3 projects on his radar
32:00 Best advice he’s received
33:10 Worst advice he’s received
34:38 Someone he would like to see on the podcast