Shalom Osiadi on future cryptocurrencies

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Despite a backdrop of inflation and financial insecurity, new money is being made – and in abundance. This series follows the journey of those who seek their place at the table.

New Money is a deep dive into the perceived “gold rushes” in once alternative, but now rapidly emerging industries that have been brought about by today’s youth culture, such as collector runners and cryptocurrency.

In 10 years, Bitcoin’s stock price has gone from $1 to its peak of $68,500 per bitcoin. Now the party is over and the cleanup has begun, with crypto technologists focusing their future at the heart of Web 3.0.

The third episode of New Money chronicles the recent reshuffle in crypto and explores the emotions and challenges of this world through the eyes of Shalom Osiadi, an Irish-Nigerian bitcoin entrepreneur who is making his mark in the industry.

We caught up with Shalom to find out more.

According to Larry Kehoe, founder of Blockchain Ireland, Bitcoin was originally meant to be a form of “digital gold”, with the assumption being that over time supply will decrease while demand increases, thus driving the price up.

Shalom Osiadi is a Bitcoin entrepreneur who brought his Dublin-based startup to Nigeria – a country that Fobes describes as “the most crypto-curious place on Earth.”

Although it has been in the “crypto-sphere” since 2017, Osiadi’s start-up Esca only started in May 2022. Initially, it was aimed at food vendors in Nigeria but since filming from the show, he pivoted and is currently working to help businesses increase their profit margin and retain customers by offering cash back on every product or service rendered.

“The Irish market is very small for the niche product we were developing at the time, so we thought about how to make it more sustainable and add more value to it for the people using the products.”

During the show, Osiadi took a trip to Nigeria which he says was eye-opening both personally and professionally.

“I had never been back to Nigeria in the ten years I had lived in Ireland, so it was really moving to see the environment and to experience the hustle and bustle again. It was a bit nostalgic. I was quite young leaving but home is a place you never really forget. It looked different but it was the same.”

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According to EuroNews, Europe lags behind the global average for cryptocurrency adoption. However, it looks like the tide is changing, as a 2022 survey found that Ireland had one of the highest numbers of “crypto-curious” consumers.

Osiadi says this reluctance by Europeans to get involved may be due to the “crypto winters” experienced in 2018 and 2022, which saw the value of major cryptocurrencies drop sharply.

“The value you would get from the West really comes from the potential for exponential growth rather than the intrinsic value of a more stable version of the currency,” he explained. “Bitcoin is 60 times more volatile than the Euro, whereas in a country like Nigeria where the local currency is almost more volatile than the cryptocurrency.”

“Being able to hold the value of your funds or your savings or whatever, your consumption habits in a higher value currency like BTC which also has an exponential growth opportunity is almost quite remarkable. The value is right best in this part of the world.”

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Going forward, Osiadi believes the biggest hurdles to running a crypto business will be regulations and how governments respond to the growing interest in digital currency.

“From a regulatory perspective, we’re certainly looking at ways to not only monitor, but also manage any changes that may occur in the ecosystem.”

Despite the growing pains, the young entrepreneur insists that cryptocurrencies aren’t going anywhere.

“The UK has announced its intention to develop its own digital currency, the pound sterling,” he said. “Nigeria as a country already has its own central bank digital currency. China is already working within a CBDC ecosystem.

“I don’t think digital currencies are going anywhere anytime soon.”

Watch New Money on RTÉ Player now.

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