Rising up in a family steeped in healthcare, Victoria Abiodun’s trail gave the impression predetermined: end her anatomy stage on the College of Ilorin, Kwara State, northcentral Nigeria, head out of the country for scientific college, and not glance again. As for cryptocurrency? She sought after not anything to do with it, satisfied it belonged firmly within the realm of web scams. But if an ASUU strike collided with the 2020 lockdowns, a chronic anatomy coursemate challenged her prejudice. To make sense of the dense, jargon-laden whitepapers, she started writing her personal explanations from scratch. That interest activate an sudden chain response: from ghost-writing technical primers as an undergraduate to co-founding a gaming startup, spearheading advertising for a Eu decentralised identification protocol, and bootstrapping a 100-strong Solana developer bankruptcy in Ilorin. Lately, whilst studying for an MBA at USC and researching high-density power call for, she is writing the open-access, plain-English blockchain e book she needs she had learn on day one. On this week’s My Existence in Tech, JOHN ADOYI sits down with Abiodun to track her unintentional adventure from anatomy labs to Web3 training.
Victoria Abiodun, a Web3 educator, is writing a e book that explains allotted era in undeniable language. Only some years in the past, she sought after not anything to do with it.
As an undergraduate on the College of Ilorin in north-central Nigeria, she seen cryptocurrency as indistinguishable from fraud; the individuals who evangelised it gave the impression both to be perpetrating scams or falling sufferer to them.
One particular person challenged that conviction: a relied on pal from her anatomy elegance who spoke frequently about blockchain. She struggled to reconcile his enthusiasm with the unfairness she held.
“In all honesty, the very first thing that piqued my interest used to be the cash he used to be making,” she says. “I used to be like, ‘What? That is loopy.’”
But economic interest used to be simply the access level. Coming from a natural science background, she struggled to clutch the underlying technical ideas, prompting her to put in writing about them to damage them down.
“The purpose used to be merely to show myself the core ideas,” she says.
That interest quickly propelled Abiodun past writing. She went directly to advise blockchain firms, co-found a gaming startup, and identify Superteam Ilorin—a regional group supporting builders and founders deploying at the Solana community. Via the ones stints, she zeroed in on a query that transcended technical mechanics: how may developers harness the era to resolve acute, real-world issues?
Her drawing close e book is one prong of that project. Throughout grassroots group development, technical writing, and her podcast, Abiodun is demystifying an ecosystem she as soon as disregarded.
A scientific family
Prior to encountering Web3, Abiodun had envisioned a healthcare occupation. Her mom used to be a nurse, and her elder sister pursued medication. As a kid, she in brief flirted with legislation as a result of an uncle used to be an lawyer and she or he concept it regarded “lovely cool”, however in a house steeped in medical apply, medication exerted the more potent pull.
“I thought I sought after to be a physician as neatly,” she says, “and I merely adopted that momentum.”
She enrolled on the College of Ilorin to learn anatomy, desiring to commute out of the country after commencement for scientific college or postgraduate coaching in public well being. Era didn’t characteristic within the plan.
“I by no means imagined I might cross into tech,” she says, “nor did I feel I used to be in particular fascinated about it.”
But an entrepreneurial streak used to be already obtrusive. From her first 12 months on campus, she introduced small ventures throughout other sectors. Some received traction, others collapsed, however the collective enjoy sharpened her business instincts.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. With lockdowns compounded through a protracted educational workforce strike that shuttered Nigerian universities, her research flooring to a halt.
Fairly than idling, she revealed an ebook on bodily wellness, shaped a web based health group, and explored virtual aspect tasks.
Cryptocurrency used to be nonetheless off her radar. Her anatomy classmate, then again, persisted to preach the sphere. As a result of he used to be already lively in era, common conversations with him continuously dismantled her scepticism.
“All the way through the lockdown, I immersed myself in studying and analysis,” she says, “and that used to be the turning level.”
A circle of relatives ordeal crystallised the era’s software: her elder sister used to be finding out medication in Ukraine when struggle erupted in 2014, leaving their oldsters in Nigeria not able to twine tuition or residing bills via severed world banking corridors.
When Abiodun recounted the ordeal, her pal defined how peer-to-peer blockchain agreement may have bypassed legacy banking infrastructure to transport capital in an instant.
“Seeing the real-world hole this era bridges made it in an instant compelling,” she says.
She started writing essays to synthesise her analysis. When her classmate reviewed her paintings, he requested whether or not she realised that businesses paid writers to supply technical blockchain content material.
She didn’t.
Pitching businesses and area of interest publications, she landed an early fee to creator a Q&A-style primer breaking down fundamental allotted ledger ideas. Between 2020 and 2021, whilst finishing her stage, Abiodun freelanced as a content material strategist throughout Web3 startups, company blogs, and industry shops.
The gaming undertaking
Blockchain gaming used to be one of the most first issues that hooked Abiodun. The common sense used to be easy when her pal defined it: gamers already spent genuine cash on in-game property, so why shouldn’t they have the ability to withdraw their income?
In 2021, she were given the risk to construct in that house. She met a co-founder who sought after to broaden a blockchain sport, and the speculation grew into Sportrex, a gaming ecosystem constructed round play-to-earn.
The ambition prolonged past a unmarried sport. Sportrex used to be designed to let gamers monitor their winnings and scores via a gaming pockets, whilst permitting different builders to carry their video games onto the platform. The broader imaginative and prescient additionally incorporated a aggressive league gadget, digital truth studies, and a token for the gaming ecosystem.
However Abiodun believed that creating wealth on my own would no longer stay gamers .
“Play-to-earn is good, but when the sport isn’t a laugh for folks to play, no one would need to play the sport,” she says.
Blockchain gaming used to be a number of the first sub-sectors to seize her consideration. The industrial rationale used to be intuitive: if gamers had been already spending laborious foreign money on virtual property, they must personal them outright and retain the facility to liquidate their income.
In 2021, she stepped into an operational position, partnering with a founder to ascertain Sportrex—a platform designed round play-to-earn dynamics.
The scope quickly outgrew a standalone name. Sportrex used to be architected as an aggregator: gamers may observe rewards and international leaderboards by way of a proprietary pockets, whilst impartial builders may combine their very own video games. The roadmap incorporated esports tournaments, digital truth modules, and a local software token.
But Abiodun remained clear-eyed in regards to the barriers of monetary incentives on my own.
“Play-to-earn is horny, but when the gameplay lacks substance, retention plummets,” she says. “No one desires to play a sport that isn’t stress-free.”
As advertising lead, she drafted the corporate’s whitepapers, drove emblem technique, controlled group acquisition, and negotiated strategic partnerships. She additionally spearheaded their presence on the Dubai Blockchain Summit, main discussions with potential institutional backers.
The undertaking crystallised her view that early-stage tech ventures should prioritise velocity over flawless execution.
“I imagine in hanging merchandise out early, allowing them to ruin, and iterating in public,” she says. “The business does no longer look ahead to you.”
She stepped down from Sportrex in December 2022, wearing that bias towards fast deployment into her subsequent engagement.
Development a expansion technique from scratch
After leaving Sportrex, Abiodun joined Matchain, an early-stage undertaking getting ready to take its AI-driven decentralised virtual identification platform to marketplace.
“Once I joined, there used to be no advertising group; there have been simply engineers and the founder in Lisbon, Portugal,” she says. “So it used to be simply me, the COO and the founder.”
She helped outline Matchain’s marketplace place, buyer acquisition technique, and partnership plans. She additionally advanced onboarding methods for Fit Hub, which introduced different firms into the ecosystem, and wrote the corporate’s website online content material.
The position drew on abilities she had advanced as an entrepreneur.
“Lots of the core abilities that you just practice to development your individual companies are abilities that individuals make use of others for,” she says.
She additionally needed to know how otherwise blockchain firms means expansion. In her enjoy, blockchain startups frequently want to construct a group prior to a product is able to release.
“If you don’t construct a group round your product prior to the product is able, you most likely should not have a group that might undertake the product,” she says.
Abiodun labored with Matchain till 2023. Even though she had deliberate to relocate to Lisbon, Portugal, visa interview availability for Nigerians avoided the transfer.
She says the corporate additionally sought after a group that might paintings extra carefully in combination; she ultimately moved on.
Discovering group out of doors Lagos
Her trajectory due to this fact pivoted from company advertising towards grassroots capability development. Having helped funded platforms scale, she sought after to mentor the engineers development baseline instrument.
In 2023, as the worldwide Solana developer community Superteam expanded its world achieve, Abiodun noticed a gap to anchor a bankruptcy in Ilorin, the place she maintained a place of abode.
She volunteered to ascertain the regional presence. Regardless that she had meant to take a sabbatical to commute and absorb golfing, she as a substitute convened Ilorin’s inaugural Superteam meetup in February 2024—in spite of no longer bearing in mind herself an insider in native engineering circles.
“I used to be shocked through the preliminary turnout,” she says. “From that first consultation, attendance scaled into loads each month.”
Her execution ended in her formal appointment as lead for Superteam’s Southwest Nigeria operations. But sheer attendance used to be secondary to her core goal: pushing native ability past educational workouts into transport useful instrument.
“Nigeria has an outstanding focus of technical ability,” she says. “Builders spend 1000’s of hours mastering complicated frameworks, but we hardly see that ability translated into answers for native structural bottlenecks.”
Bootstrapping the group required tactical agility. When a venue billing dispute severed ties with the non-public coding hub webhosting their preliminary classes, Abiodun restructured operations—securing selection halls, enticing campus hostels immediately, and tapping alumni networks.
She additionally made pastoral engagement central to her management, monitoring particular person undertaking milestones and offering non-public mentorship.
“When folks really feel really supported, enthusiasm compounds,” she notes. “Engineers saved returning with their friends as a result of they sought after them to enjoy that collaborative tradition.”
Regardless that the repayment used to be a fragment of her earlier business contracts, she considers it her maximum significant tenure. “It stays one of the vital impactful assignments I’ve undertaken,” she says. “It used to be deeply pleasing.”
Demystifying tech
That tutorial focal point now centres on an introductory e book aimed toward non-technical founders, scholars, and company pros.
“Once I entered the distance, the to be had literature used to be dense, forbidding, and cluttered with jargon,” she explains. “I sought after to put in writing one thing conversational—matching the cadence of the way I provide an explanation for those ideas throughout a desk.”
The manuscript covers core operational mechanics—allotted ledgers, community layering, consensus structure, and cryptography—whilst exploring non-financial primitives together with provide chain verification and verifiable identification credentials. She intends to post it as an open-access useful resource.
Her outreach additionally comprises Convergence, a podcast inspecting allotted techniques, undertaking workflows, and tokenised property. The collection originated from casual discussions with pros out of doors the crypto sphere having a look to know how decentralised protocols intersect with their local industries.
Abiodun’s horizons have since expanded towards core infrastructure. Lately studying for a Grasp of Industry Management (MBA) on the College of Southern California’s Marshall College of Industry, she additionally serves as a graduate analysis assistant with the varsity’s Zage Industry of Power Initiative. Her focal point on power used to be precipitated through the steep electric baseload calls for imposed through synthetic intelligence clusters and high-density knowledge centres.
The trade curriculum has supplemented her operational background with formal coaching in company valuation, asset pricing, and monetary modelling.
“Power techniques don’t seem to be one thing I might have prioritised had I stayed only inside of startup advertising,” she displays. “Maximising the risk to interrogate those structural demanding situations has been an outstanding privilege.”
Whether or not comparing allotted ledgers or power transition fashions, Abiodun stays clean that era is a mechanism slightly than an result in itself.
“Directing my occupation towards fixing issues that tangibly make stronger folks’s instances is what issues maximum,” she says. “Accolades and bull runs are fleeting; the genuine praise is understanding you helped clean a pathway for any individual else.”
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