Question: Can you tell me about yourself?

Julius: Hi, my name is Julius Olaleye Oluwanisola. I am a medical practitioner by profession and a Cryptocurrency zealot.

David: My name is David. I’m a lawyer by profession. I trade stocks, I trade crypto and I’m into real estate. Now, we’re building one of the biggest exchanges to come out of Africa; Vircap.

Question: Wow! Can you both tell me how cryptocurrency factors into your respective professions and personalities?

Julius: I’ve always been the curious type, maybe this is part of the reasons I got interested in creating a digital currency platform and also trying to invest my energy and time to learn and gain more experience and exposure about building, not just any Cryptocurrency trading platform, but one that solves problems.

David: I’ve always had a passion for tech. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a computer engineer. As fate would have it, I got myself into Law. Thankfully, Law has given me the gift of critical thinking, which has helped me understand technological systems; how they work, how they can improve our lives, and how we can use them in our day-to-day activities.

So, for me, the link between Law and Technology is the critical thinking aspect. It has shaped how I come about creative ideas. I’m not saying you cannot have creative ideas if you’re not into Law, but for me, Law has shaped my thinking in that way. Also, we have a link between Law and Technology in terms of regulations — which I’m very big on.

I’m pro regulations when it comes to cryptocurrencies because these sectors need to be regulated so as to mitigate incidences of criminals who want to misuse the technology for selfish aims.

Question: That’s amazing. It is refreshing to see that you are following the new regulations that are being put in place to ensure that the cryptocurrency world is safe, at least for Nigerians. Now, following what you said about being a lawyer and someone who is really passionate about tech, I can tell that you have a problem–solution approach to societal issues. Based on that premise, can you tell me about Vircap and why you chose to create that organization?

David: Back in 2015, I came in contact with Bitcoin. In 2016, I really observed it. I used it and interacted with it. This gave me a lot of insight and completely changed my perspective on how banks work, and how money flows from one end to another. The traditional banking system is limiting. It covers only an aspect of how we can transact with one another, but with the advent of Bitcoin, it really blew up the ceiling and the sky is now the view. There’s now no limit or barrier to where we can get to.

When you transact using your local bank, you have to wait an hour or two — sometimes days, before the transaction reflects in the receiver’s bank account. But with Bitcoin, it is instant. That was what inspired me to create my own exchange platform, where people can trade on it with low fees because the exchange platform I used, back then, was charging enormous transaction fees.

I understand why; there was a monopoly in the market. So, I thought that if I could create something like this, I could bring down the transaction fees and create liquidity in a way that people can transact freely, instantly, and at a low cost. I wanted to also bring peer-to-peer exchange into focus.

All these came together to form the vision for creating an exchange as Vircap. I also had a bad experience. At the time, I was trading at a high volume and someone took advantage of me. I made the mistake of trading outside the platform because I thought that the new guy was reliable.

There is something about how negative experiences can push you to do something positive. That bad experience formed my desire to create a trusted exchange platform that has low fees. It also inspired the escrow system we use on Vircap, which protects both the buyer and seller. Here, you can’t release the funds until you can confirm that the transaction is safe and secure. We also have a support system, so whenever there is any issue with your transaction, you can easily send a message and have your report instantly attended to.

Question: What about you, Julius?

Julius: He’s said it all, really. But I’m just going to briefly share what piqued my interest in building a cryptocurrency exchange platform. I invested in the model coin, Bitcoin back in 2017 and this is part of the motivation I got regarding creating a space like this. For many other people like me, I was one of the lucky people who benefited from the BTC folks split back in 2017 to BCH coin and I was like if I could get this benefit, I’d love to share it with the world.

This motivated me to make more research, which is why my brother and I founded Vircap, just to serve Africans better and make trading as seamless as possible.

Question: In your own words, how would you describe Vircap?

David: Vircap is a secure peer-to-peer exchange that leverages the use of escrow to secure transactions. We have low-cost transaction fees and low fees on peer-to-peer exchanges between the buyer and seller. This means that if you’re transacting using our escrow system, we won’t charge you any fee on that particular transaction.

Julius: At Vircap you can learn, you can earn, you can trade. When you come on board with us, we make things better and easier for you in the cryptocurrency market.

Question: Amazing. One of the things I picked up from how you’d had a bad experience is that if you really look at it, a lot of people have stories of scams. This is one of the things that prevent a lot of people from exploring the potential of the crypto market. So, what recent trends do you see in the crypto market and how do you think that Vircap can come in and make things better?

David: The trend I’ve noticed in the crypto market is that new coins are always coming out. Right now, we have over 12, 000 cryptocurrencies. If you ask me, it’s a lot. But at the same time, I’m not one who stands in the way of innovation. But the truth is out of the 12,000, some of them have no utility value. This is where we have meme coins — coins that are created just for the sake of it — and we have coins that also serve as a store of value, for example, Bitcoin. You can create smart contracts on them — like the Ethereum network.

At Vircap, we want to educate our community on how to spot the cryptocurrencies that have potential. We don’t want our community jumping on every cryptocurrency that comes out, just because they think it’s going to pump (go up) in order to make profit. People tend to be so consumed by the idea of it going up that they forget to take some profits. Then, all of a sudden, it comes crashing down — in seconds, sometimes.

Therefore, we want to educate our community and those joining us that you can actually build wealth with cryptocurrency, but it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. You have to put in the work. You have to do your own research. You have to have an eye for spotting real cryptocurrencies.

Another trend is the NFTs. We want to educate our community on the use cases of NFTs. They can be used in creating real estate contracts, and tokens for events. You can even create receipts using NFT. We want to teach our community to not jump on the hype of NFTs and forget about research.

So, those are the things we really want to be at the forefront of, educating members of our community so that they can be smart traders and investors in order to build wealth, not lose the wealth.

Question: More than Vircap being a money-making venture, it is about making a change in Africa. Why the fixation on Africa?

David: Well, I believe that Africa is the next civilization that will change how the world views itself because we have so many resources in Africa.

So, I’m really focused on Africa because I believe we have the talents, the resources, we have the people, we have the numbers to make Africa great. If we are able to change our mentality towards Africa, soon we are going to come out from being a third-world continent to a first-world continent. We’ll be Wakanda. We do have what it takes to make Africa great. So, if we focus on Africa, we can achieve great feats.

Question: Julius, do you agree? Because you’re a co-founder and I just need to double-check the unity of purpose here.

Julius: Yes. David speaks for all of us when he expresses Vircap’s passion for Africa. As a team, we are focused, we are inspired and we are passionate about the vast potential of this continent.

Personally, it’s like a fire burning in me, which has got me motivated to create something of ours in Africa. The aim is to help the less privileged, to help everybody including the common laymen, and to make cryptocurrency accessible and easy for everyone by providing more job opportunities and making trading much more accessible and easier for everyone.

You know, upon deciding to create the Vircap platform, I spoke to a team — a very skilful tech team — I was able to realize (upon doing my own research) that Cryptocurrency trading and cryptocurrencies have been really huge and can economically improve the continent. And it is not news that once we can get it right economically or financially, then there’s no stopping Africa. So, that really is the focus for all of us at Vircap.

Question: Let’s backtrack a bit. David, when you were talking about some of the trends in the cryptocurrency market and some of the things that Vircap is doing and hopes to do in that space, I couldn’t help but wonder about the people who will carry out the plan. Do you have a team? How is the team capable of executing the plans you have for both Africa and the crypto market?

David: Thank you. Right now, we have one of the best teams in the world, I would say. Every day, we are working on making the product better. Everyone is working. It’s a fantastic team.

We have a focused home-grown team, meaning they are all based in Nigeria. We see a lot of talent in our team. Everyone on the team, from the management department to the marketing department to the design department — they are all knowledgeable and equipped with the right resources to do their job and bring out the best in Vircap and also educate our community.

I must also add that everyone is learning on the job because one cannot be a monopoly on knowledge. Also, this is an evolving ecosystem. Cryptocurrency is a new technology that we are interacting with, and we want to use that to the best of our ability. So, the team is at the forefront of equipping themselves with new discoveries, putting them into practice, and putting in our best ability to steer our community well. So, yes. The team is fully functional and fully equipped.

Question: What would you say makes Vircap different and why should people choose it over other platforms?

David: We are focused on building a community. Our team is the first community. So, we are building a community around the team and around everyone that joins our platform. We are keen on using new technologies to bring out our services. We are proactive also.

Earlier, I spoke about regulations. So many people want to use cryptocurrency without regulation and to be honest, it’s just like having a country without a government. It will be a lawless system if we don’t have certain policies or rules and regulations.

Now, what makes Vircap different is that we embrace regulations, because whether people like it or not, the regulations are coming. So, we are at the forefront of embracing these new legislations and we are building our products around these regulations. Users of our platform will not be stifled by these regulations, rather it will enhance them. Also, our zero-transaction fee on peer-to-peer exchanges makes us stand out.

One reason I think people should join us and transact on our platform is that we are creating a platform whereby Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) can freely transact. Right now, Nigeria seems to be the first country to release its own CBDC. We don’t have so much infrastructure (even around the world) for CBDCs — but they are coming. So, we want to be pioneers in this regard, so that users around the world and across Africa can be able to use it efficiently.

Lastly, our escrow services have a robust structure in place that safeguards the buyers and sellers as well. These, among other things, are benefits of transacting on Vircap.

Question: That’s so good. Your responses have triggered two questions in my mind. As a fan of regulations for cryptocurrencies and CBDCs, what would you say about Government interference in the crypto market? Bear in mind that the Federal Government, at some point, banned cryptocurrency, therefore, is it reasonable to think that these regulations that are being made will not stifle Nigerians who are dealing in cryptocurrency?

David: Thank you for your questions. First of all, the Central Bank’s CBDC is a thing that I am for because we are in a digital age and as such, our currency system has evolved. So, it will make sense that our fiat currencies do the same. I see the CBDC as an evolution from the traditional money form into a more digitized form.

Some people might argue that we already have our currencies digitalized — making reference to the normal online bank transfer. In a sense, they are correct. But for the government to be at the forefront of cryptocurrencies and regulating it, I would say then that the CBDC becomes necessary. This means that it will give more value to our currency.

Others may argue that for every digital currency issued by the Federal Government, they are going to have private information about people’s financial footprints. I will argue back that all of that is already in place. Your private affairs are already being looked into, whether you want to agree with me or not. You may call commercial banks private institutions, but they are in fact registered under the government and as such, the Government has access to the records.

Question: What about the possibility of bans? We’ve heard stories of people’s bank accounts being banned, for example during the #EndSars protest and how it was the existence of cryptocurrency that enabled them to carry out their financial transactions. So, as an average African, I’m concerned about safety. How can we be sure that the Government will not prevent its citizens from transacting in the cryptocurrency market?

David: Okay, thank you. Firstly, let me establish the idea of cryptocurrency being a decentralized form of money, such that in situations whereby the traditional system wants to trample on your rights, then you have cryptocurrency to aid.

Let me say this, it sounds like a joke to hear that the Federal Government banned cryptocurrency meanwhile, there is such a thing called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). That means you are banning CBDCs as well because it has its own blockchain — which makes them a cryptocurrency. It only makes sense if the Government is banning a specific type of cryptocurrency. And that is where the regulations come in. It is better we are at the forefront; actively engaging with critical stakeholders and the regulatory board, having discussions with them so, we can influence these regulations. Because if we sit back and do nothing, they will just give us any regulation they want. It is through public opinion and interactions with the citizenry, that these regulations are made.

This is why at Vircap, we have made it our job to carry out advocacy functions that enable us to bring to the government our ideas and contributions. When we have these discussions — by giving feedback and opinion — we can nudge the government towards what we want these regulations to look like, such that it won’t stifle us when the regulations come out.

This is what will give our community an edge or advantage as regards how cryptocurrency is run in the country. Because if we do not engage them, then we can’t complain when the regulations are not favourable. All of these efforts are to ensure that our fundamental human rights are not tampered with and these regulations will make things easier and not worse. I hope I have answered your questions.

Question: Yes, you have answered so brilliantly well. I see how the Legal part of you keeps jumping out and aiding the Tech part of you. Now, you have said that Vircap’s engagement with its community goes beyond awareness, it is also advocacy. You’ve also established the importance of safety for the average African who is learning to deal in cryptocurrency, as one of the pillars of Vircap. Can you tell me how Vircap seeks to keep transactions and personal data safe?

David: Okay, we’ve talked about hikes and scams that surround various cryptocurrencies — the paramount evils in this ecosystem. To prevent that, we’ve put security at the core and at the forefront of our system. No matter how beautiful a building might be, what is important is its security. Or you might just wake up one day and find out that everything making the building beautiful has been stripped away because there is no security infrastructure in place. So, at the forefront of Vircap, we have our security to thank and our engineering team. We have made sure that security is the first and last thing we look out for.

At Vircap we are a centralized exchange, amongst other things, so people are trusting our platform that their money and transactions are safe. We have built and are still building a strong security system. This is why we even had to move our beta test period by one week, to make sure that our security is fully in place and we do not leave any stone unturned. We made sure that we reached out to external security experts to check our infrastructure. We sought out expert opinions and we’ve been given recommendations which we are working on, in order to make sure that transactions are safe and secured within the Vircap platform.

Question: You mentioned something about Beta Test. Can you please explain what that is?

David: Yes. The beta testing is more like a pre-launch. It’s an environment we’ve created for selected members of the public. You have to go to the website to join our public beta. We are inviting the general public to test our platform with us and point out any vulnerabilities or hiccups, so we can better improve the platform as a whole. The beta test will go on for a couple of weeks, after which we can get ready for the main launch. That is what our beta testing is all about.

Question: Seeing that you haven’t launched yet, do you have any products or services for the general public?

David: Yes. Members of the public can go to our website and download our eBook titled Cryptocurrency 101: From Beginner to pro in order to get started on cryptocurrency. The book will educate and help beginners understand crypto. This is aside from signing up for our beta testing, they can download our eBook. There, they can find information about how Vircap can help them in transactions with their digital assets.

Question: You just lead me to my next question. For someone who is new to crypto and wants to learn more, what resources do you recommend? Apart from the eBook, are there other resources you think others can learn from?

David: Vircap has a blog. We will be populating the blog channel with a lot of informative articles and journals every week. Newsletters will also be going out every week to our numerous readers, as long as they subscribe. Aside from that, the number one resource that has helped me in my crypto journey is YouTube. It can be cumbersome because there are tons and tons of resources to get through. That’s why you have Vircap. Vircap will help you break down these resources into digestible formats, so you don’t have to be overwhelmed with looking for informational materials on YouTube.

Question: What are some of the lessons you’ve learnt in your crypto journey?

Julius: First of all, from my experience as a professional forex and crypto trader, I would say it’s super smart to have a strategy for crypto trading as it isn’t easy to separate genuine cryptocurrency investment recommendations from scams. So, there are a lot of sharks out there waiting to take your investment and you know, when you’re confronted with a lot of information about a cryptocurrency, I would say a beginner should take a step back from the hype and do enough research.

Also, I’d like to talk about risk management, which is highly important. You know, cryptocurrency trading is a  high-risk business and more traders tend to lose money due to unhealthy leveraging and a lack of profound knowledge. Now, I am happy to tell you that our crypto 101 courses at Vircap, which we have provided for beginners would assist you during your journey.

I’d also advise you to diversify your crypto portfolio. It doesn’t pay to have too much invested in one single cryptocurrency. Or as they say, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. This means you don’t risk being overexposed, should one of them plummet in value, especially as the prices of some of these cryptocurrencies are highly volatile.

Personal research would also be super helpful before you consider investing in any cryptocurrency of your choice. Lastly, I would say one would be on it for a long time because prices can rise and fall dramatically from day to day and novice traders are often duped into panic-selling when the prices are low. There is this fear and grit index. We would also list that on the website as time goes on.

Cryptocurrencies are not going to go away, leaving your money in the crypto market for months or years at a time could offer you the best rewards. Thank you.

Question: Great. What are the products and services you are planning to add to the Vircap App?

David: Right now, we have developed an application for Vircap both for iOS and android. It will be available for download for the general public after the beta testing has been successfully completed.

Also, we will be introducing products like bill payments with cryptocurrency, which you can do right from the Vircap app. You can pay for your Netflix subscriptions, buy event tickets, and pay electricity bills right from the Vircap app. You can even have wallets. You will be able to put your crypto into a virtual card, which you can now use to shop on different stores like Amazon, eBay, and other eCommerce platforms.

You will be able to launch your crypto into virtual dollar cards and right after that, we’ll be launching the physical cards. Additionally, we’re going to expand our platform so it can accommodate CBDCs, for ease of transfer of money from one country to another right on the platform. So, you don’t have to withdraw dollars in cash. All that and more will be available on the Vircap platform within the next few years.

Question: This is all so exciting. How can I join the Vircap community, so it can launch me into the future of finance?

David: You can join the Vircap community on our various social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Medium). Follow us, and engage in our trivia questions. We have a lot in store. Giveaways will be coming up so that our community can win different prizes and increase their crypto portfolio.

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