Why are you participating for Based Africa?

I'm participating in Based Africa to harness blockchain’s transformative power for African art, culture, and economic inclusion. As a dedicated advocate for East African talent, I envision a platform where public art and immersive tech converge to amplify artist visibility and enable local vendors to thrive within the Base and USDC ecosystem. Driven by a deep connection to the region, I’m focused on bridging local artists to a global marketplace, fueling creativity, and showcasing African stories through new technologies and inclusive financial tools.

What challenges are you focusing on?

I'm addressing the challenge of limited visibility and financial support for East African artists and local vendors. In our community, talented creators and small businesses often lack access to platforms that offer both global reach and sustainable income streams. Traditional art spaces and marketplaces can be restrictive, while limited financial infrastructure prevents many vendors from participating in digital and global economies.

By using Base and USDC, this project aims to bridge these gaps. The goal is to create a phygital event that elevates public art and empowers artists to reach a wider audience through an eventual digital marketplace. Additionally, by onboarding vendors to the Base ecosystem, we’re introducing a new way for local businesses to conduct transactions securely and efficiently (cost-effective). This initiative seeks to demonstrate how blockchain can drive real-world impact, creating opportunities for economic inclusion and artistic empowerment in East Africa.

How does your submission address this challenge?

This project creates an immersive IRL event that merges public art with digital technology to uplift East African artists and small businesses. By featuring murals augmented with AR, we’re transforming public art into interactive experiences where attendees can explore the stories behind each piece, learn about the artists, and connect with their messages. Each mural will also have a digital version, eventually placed in a virtual marketplace, giving artists exposure beyond geographic limits.

This pop-up event goes beyond art: local vendors will be onboarded to trade in USDC, introducing them to secure, efficient digital payments and bridging the gap between local commerce and global financial systems. By integrating art, tech, and blockchain, the event empowers artists with new revenue channels and encourages local businesses to enter the Base ecosystem.

The project's impact lies in catalyzing sustainable digital pathways for East African creatives and businesses, ultimately strengthening local economies and expanding cultural exchange through innovative blockchain solutions

Challenges I ran into

One of the biggest hurdles we faced was securing the technical expertise needed to create an engaging, phygital experience. Building an augmented reality (AR) component to bring murals to life required skilled developers who understand both art and tech, a challenge given limited resources for onboarding blockchain developers, as well as front- and backend engineers, growth strategists, and product designers.

Another challenge involved introducing local vendors to the idea of using USDC. Many vendors in our community are unfamiliar with cryptocurrency, so initial hesitation and misunderstandings about digital payments and blockchain adoption were common. To overcome this, we organized small workshops and one-on-one sessions to introduce USDC benefits and educate vendors on its safe usage, helping to build trust and increase their confidence in blockchain-based payments.

Lastly, without full funding for these efforts, we faced limitations on equipment, AR implementation, and talent acquisition. Despite this, we pushed forward by leveraging community partnerships and in-kind support to make this project accessible.

Additional Features

We added the onboarding of local business vendors to USDC as a new component of the event.