In this maiden Blockchain Beyond Buzz edition, Dr. Ken Alabi, Co-founder of TòròNet, is featured in this exclusive interview with CAB’s Founding Editor, Senator Ihenyen.
TòròNet is a layer-1 blockchain technology platform that enables developers and entrepreneurs to build homegrown solutions that solve real problems in Africa.
Dr. Alabi shares his experiences and insights about TòròNet blockchain and how it is enabling developers and entrepreneurs in Africa to build homegrown solutions that solve real problems and create opportunities in the community.
Dr Ken Alabi_Co-founder of TòròNet Blockchain
Introduction
In Africa, a quiet revolution is underway. Amidst the bustling streets and vibrant cultures, a new generation of innovators is harnessing the power of blockchain to solve some of the continent’s most pressing challenges. At the forefront of this movement is Dr. Ken Alabi, Co-Founder of TòròNet, the visionary behind one of Africa’s pioneering layer-1 blockchain platforms.
In this exclusive interview, Dr. Alabi, from his base in the United States, shared with me his inspiring vision for a blockchain-enabled Africa. As envisioned by Dr. Alabi, we need a blockchain platform where homegrown solutions are empowering communities, fostering economic growth, redefining the narrative of a continent on the rise and rearchitecting the future.
In my remote interview with Dr Alabi, the virtual room was filled with the hum of innovation as he painted a vivid picture of a future where African projects, built on TòròNet’s blockchain infrastructure, are reshaping the continent’s future.
Background
Senator Ihenyen: Dr. Alabi, I feel so delighted having the opportunity to get to know more about you and the blockchain platform that you have co-founded. Can you share with us your background and what inspired you to create a blockchain platform like TòròNet?
Dr. Ken Alabi: I have a background in engineering and computing, with over 20 years in the financial industry and payment systems. I have also worked with blockchains and published peer-reviewed research in the technology dating back to 2016.
The gap in available payment systems and financial services experienced in communities where I came from over 30 years ago inspired the development of TòròNet together with my co-founders.
Problem Statement and Differentiation
Senator Ihenyen: Speaking of gaps, what problems do TòròNet aim to solve, and how does it differentiate itself from other blockchain platforms?
Dr. Ken Alabi: TòròNet is a blockchain platform built with a focus on emerging economies; mostly communities in the global south. There are certain realities within these communities that necessitate development of such a platform. The traditional financial system has failed a lot of people within these communities, and many continue to fall further behind. Unemployment rate when analyzed over decades continues to rise, and access to financing is increasingly unavailable to young people, entrepreneurs, and small businesses at viable rates.
Many within the blockchain community do recognize that the technology has a potential to address the gap that exists between traditional finance and underbanked and unbanked communities, and many declare a focus on such communities. However, none of the existing blockchains were developed with an understanding of the challenges within these communities and thus have not been able to address the gap. Some have transaction fees that exceed the average transaction amount in such communities, have created a wild permissive environment for projects that exploits end users, and or require users to acquire unfamiliar new tokens to participate in the network. That last requirement creates an onerous demand on users that means many need to sign up to exchanges to access services or participate in projects built on the platform.
TòròNet is fee less, fast, and introduces stablecoins in the local economies removing a barrier that exists on most chains. This means users can access any service or product on the TòròNet chain about as easily as those built on the traditional financial system rails. To address the lack of consumer protection within such communities, projects are accepted on chain by community consensus utilizing the TòròNet governance tokens. This is also the mechanism for accepting participating nodes on the network.
Vision and Mission
Senator Ihenyen: Can you elaborate on TòròNet’s vision and mission?
Dr. Ken Alabi: TòròNet sees a future where technology serves as a bridge to prosperity, connecting aspirations with opportunities. Our mission, core values, and philosophy reflect a commitment to not just imagining this future, but actively building it, one project at a time.
This mission is to reimagine and rearchitect the future of finance and community empowerment across Africa and indeed communities with similar challenges.
We are driven by the vision of a continent where every individual has the opportunity to thrive, unhampered by the limitations of traditional financial systems. TòròNet is not just a platform; it’s a movement towards creating accessible, transparent, and equitable financial services for all, particularly focusing on the underserved and unbanked populations. In 2–5 years, we expect to see us expand from the current 30 projects already built on the mainnet in just a little over a year, to hundreds of similar projects across several continents each making positive changes within their communities.
TòròNet’s Core Values
Senator Ihenyen: With such powerful vision running on the wheels of your missionary zeal, I wonder what your core values are. Can you share your core values with us as a blockchain platform?
Dr. Ken Alabi: At TòròNet, we believe in four core values and this is reflected in the platform’s operations and decision process.
First, we are community-driven. The community knows best what the challenges are and can best participate in solutions. The platform is therefore owned by the community through the governance tokens, and makes most of the decisions via the same means. Externally imposed or directed processes have ultimately not worked in these communities.
Second, inclusiveness. Any member of the community can participate. We remove friction to participation by making the platform feeless, not requiring a native token that makes it necessary to first join an exchange or find a means to access the native tokens, establishing a stablecoin in the various communities, and providing tools for developers to easily participate and deploy smart contracts.
Third, sustainability is one of our values. Much of our operations and projects emphasize sustainability. The platform itself does not require consumption of much electricity or resources to operate, and the Association and the entire community prioritizes sustainable projects.
Lastly, decentralization. We believe decentralization and transparency are kryptonite to corruption. And this drives much of our operations and projects, including the Agrit project with the state government and with USAID. Overall, this will eventually contribute to lifting many up members of the community we operate in and resulting in reducing poverty rates, and shared prosperity.
Technology and Infrastructure
Senator Ihenyen: TòròNet’s architecture and technology stack will definitely be critical to your ability to realize and achieve your vision and mission, driven by your core values. Can you walk us through TòròNet’s architecture and technology?
Dr. Ken Alabi: To ensure a fast and scalable platform, the consensus system is delegated POS combined with credibility nodes voted in by the community that provides computing as a service to the community.
Our blockchain engine is written in GoLang, and our nodes are hosted in Linux on several independent nodes.
Also, our API stack is written in Web3 and Node JS and our wallet, explorer, analytic applications are written in React and NodeJs.
Lastly, our mobile DApps are written in Flutter.
Scalability, Security, and Decentralization
Senator Ihenyen: It’s great that you mentioned scalability. How does TòròNet ensure scalability, security, and decentralization?
Dr. Ken Alabi: Scalability is ensured by limiting the number of transaction validator nodes but ensuring there is no centralization by having the community select the validator nodes using delegated votes by holders of the governance tokens. Governance tokens are open to anyone to become a decision-maker on the platform.
As for security, we require staking by transaction nodes and community approval for reputational nodes.
Decentralization is ensured by having multiple nodes maintain the blockchain ledger, and introducing an unlimited number of observer nodes.
Governance and Community
Senator Ihenyen: How is TòròNet governed, and what role does the community play in decision-making processes?
Dr. Ken Alabi: TòròNet is governed by the community via the Governance tokens, TOROG. Holders of the governance token above a threshold can propose initiatives for community votes. Any holder of the governance tokens can vote on initiatives that become binding.
The Swiss-registered TòròNet Association assists in organizing and governing the process of proposals from projects, validators, and governance token holders. The TòròNet Association also receives a portion of all validator fees and with this budget makes grants to projects within communities served by the platform.
Senator Ihenyen: Can you tell us about TòròNet’s tokenomics and how the platform’s native token is used?
Dr. Ken Alabi: The platform has a governance token, described above, but no native token. The platform is feeless. Instead projects pays fees for accessing the platform and API. We believe asking end users to pay fees or purchase gas to use transactions creates unnecessary friction to financial activity. This model has been successful as it is one that saw credit and debit cards gain adoption—the fees are transparent to end users, and are instead borne by merchants who already are in the business of commercial activity.
Besides, we also do not believe having end users have to seek or buy gas in some token they are not familiar with or ultimately interested in, just to participate in some economic activity will lead to mass adoption in the communities we serve.
Senator Ihenyen: How does TòròNet engage with its community, and what initiatives are in place to promote adoption and awareness?
We are engaged in various community activities including AMAs, marketing efforts, public exchange integration, and other outreach to our community including AMAs and fostering developer engagement. We recently created a TòròNet Forge for local developers that is experiencing some growth.
Use Cases and Applications
Senator Ihenyen: What are some of the most promising use cases and applications for TòròNet’s blockchain platform?
Dr. Ken Alabi: At TòròNet, some of the use cases touch on various sectors, from decentralized financing to farmers to decentralized distribution of subsidies and agricultural inputs to agricultural farmers; decentralized financing for solar installations to community tokens for religious organizations. We also have use cases in decentralized health insurance to underserved communities as well as decentralized grant-based plastics recollection projects.
Specifically, on decentralized financing to farmers, we have the Agrifi-USAID project. On decentralized distribution of subsidies and agricultural inputs to agricultural farmers, we have the Agrifi-Katsina project. Also, decentralized financing for solar installations is powered by Groverse while Espees power a community token for a 20million-member religious organization. In the health sector, HealthGo offers decentralized health insurance to underserved communities and Plastokens is powering a decentralized grant-based plastics recollection project with UniLever and Coca-Cola.
Success Stories and Case Studies
Senator Ihenyen: That’s amazing. Can you share any success stories or case studies of projects or businesses that have leveraged TòròNet’s platform?
Dr. Ken Alabi: Several farmers in TòròNet’s program with USAID resulted in successful production of over 100 bags of rice.
Also, the collaboration with the Katsina State Government is currently experiencing one of the most transparent distributions of government subsidies in which all the input is accounted for.
The health insurance project, HelathGo, recently signed an agreement with a local national transportation union that has since seen over 200 new sign-ups. They also won an incubation award.
Senator Ihenyen: To have developers and entrepreneurs have success stories when they build on TòròNet, how does TòròNet support developers and entrepreneurs looking to build on the platform?
Dr. Ken Alabi: TòròNet has tools unique from other blockchains to assist developers. This includes decentralized APIs, a deployer tool, and an analytic tool.
First, our decentralized APIs enable developers to connect to the chain without needing to launch a peer node (note that blockchains are a peer-to-peer network).
Second, with TòròNet’s’ deployer tool, we simplify the process of deploying and making calls to smart contracts on the TòròNet blockchain.
Also, our analytic tool—similar to tools such as Power Bi in Web2—enable our developers conduct analytics for projects on the platform.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Senator Ihenyen: Considering the successful use cases that TòròNet is already enabling on its platform, are there any notable partnerships or collaborations that TòròNet has established so far?
Dr. Ken Alabi: TòròNet has been involved in partnerships that we believe can help us achieve our mission as a blockchain platform.
In the agricultural sector, we have worked with USAID on Agrifi, a blockchain project to provide financing to smallholder rice farmers in Africa. We have also signed a partnership with a state government in Nigeria, the Katsina State Government, to facilitate distribution of fertilizers and subsidized agricultural inputs to the state’s farmer. The transparency of the blockchain eliminates the possible corruption that typically accompanies the prior opaque process for completing such operations.
In the world of enabling real world assets with the power of our blockchain, we partnered with Alliance Block in on compliance processes applied to real world assets in 2024.
As a layer-1 blockchain platform committed to global standards in the application of blockchain technology, TòròNet also collaborated with Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) to publish the global blockchain standards in relation to agricultural operations.
Challenges and Future Outlook
Senator Ihenyen: What are some of the biggest challenges that TòròNet has faced, and how have you overcome them?
Dr. Ken Alabi: We continue to focus on regulations. We are a compliant blockchain with an MSB license and continue to ensure we seek and acquire the licenses and or partnership needed in every jurisdiction.
Senator Ihenyen: How do you see TòròNet evolving in response to changing market conditions and regulatory environments?
Dr. Ken Alabi: We expect to continue to seek licenses as we expand to more jurisdictions.
We also intended to continue to work not just within the community, but also with relevant financial authorities as well as strategic partners in the public sector such as our recent partnership with a state government in Africa.
We intend to continue to position as a partner for progress and a force for good that will provide us some leverage and protect the platform from regulatory enforcements through proactive engagements. We want to ensure that we continue to operate in a fully compliant way.
Senator Ihenyen: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs and developers looking to build blockchain-based projects?
Dr. Ken Alabi: Make sure you focus on solving some real problems and addressing real needs, and ensure there is a path to monetizing the solution you have built. Eschew non-value-added activity like meme coins or DeFi projects that are not based on any real economic activity or long-term benefit to its end-users.
Closing Words
Senator Ihenyen: That’s some great advice I believe entrepreneurs and developers out there will find very useful and instructive. Is there anything else you would like to share about TòròNet or its vision for the future? Lastly, how can our readers learn more about TòròNet and get involved with the community?
Dr. Ken Alabi: We believe it’s an opportunity to make a significant positive change in our various communities and invite everyone that shares that vision to participate in any form they can.
Regarding getting involved, there are several ways to get involved, directly with TòròNet or even through any of the 30 projects currently on the platform (provided at the bottom of this publication).
Senator Ihenyen: Thank you, Dr. Alabi, for sharing your insights and vision for TòròNet. It’s clear that your platform is poised to make a significant impact in Africa and beyond.
Dr. Ken Alabi: Thank you, Senator Ihenyen, for having me. It’s been a pleasure to share our story and vision with your readers.
Conclusion
As our conversation drew to a close, Dr Alabi smiled, his eyes gleaming with conviction. Clearly, Dr. Alabi with his team at TòròNet is not just building a blockchain platform, but building a movement. A movement that says Africa can solve its own problems, with its own solutions, on its own terms.
As I left the virtual interview room, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of excitement and hope. This is because in a world where the narrative is often written for us by others, TòròNet is boldly writing its own story—one that promises to be a game-changer for Africa, and the world. The future of blockchain in Africa has never looked brighter.
Until the next edition of Blockchain Beyond Buzz, keep building!
Connect with TòròNet
- Website: https://toronet.org/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/toronet
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TòròNet/
- Telegram: https://t.me/toronet
- Discord: https://discord.com/invite/ketmdW88Xy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ToronetInfo/
- Medium: https://TòròNet.medium.com/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Toronetblockchain
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TorinetPlatform/
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