Inside HederaCon: Kamal Yousefi on CLPR, Africa Hackathon, and What's Next for Hedera

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Kamal you Safi is president of the board of the Hashgraph Association. The Hashgraph Association has made huge strides just recently with the their membership program. So there are distinct levels from a retail community, community builders, all the way up to enterprise and institutional biggest entities in the world. Kamal, what are you excited about when you see an event like Hedera Hedera Hedera Con is one of the top events that we have within Hedera ecosystem. That's the event where we connect community builders, developers, entrepreneurs, innovators, investors with governing council member representatives talking about industry use cases. We get insights from Hashgraph about recent development when it comes to Hedera platform. It's just amazing first hand experience about what's being developed, what's being strategized and also getting the feedback from the community be it startups, individuals, enterprises that are building on Hedera Hashgraph so that we can prepare the road map for the next year, for the next Hedera Con. Now, you guys out of the Hashgraph Association have made huge announcements in the past handful of months too. I can think Teleport so I think that's the the largest air carrier out of Malaysia.

[00:01:03]There's a big announcement there. PWC, so many announcements. Merck, when you think over the past six months, past year, what stands out to you the most or is it a combination of everything?

[00:01:13]>> I think it's a combination of everything. That's that's basically the phase that we were expected to happen.

[00:01:18]We started building a few years ago and we knew it's going to be a one to two years journey from the moment you start the conversations with these enterprises to the moment where you start building and this year we have seen the floration of our engagements over the last years and we have seen for example McLaren joining the governing council, Accenture recently last week, FedEx and we have seen also top enterprises out of Europe building or deciding to build on Hedera because they believe in Hedera infrastructure, because they believe in the governance around Hedera and also they believe in the in the expertise and experience that the Hashgraph Association team and Hashgraph and other affiliated entities that are bringing to the Hedera ecosystem. So, uh in my view, it's basically everything coming together. And also thanks to Hedera community for raising their voice, giving us feedback on what's need to be built, what needs to be prioritized, what needs to be provided for the community in terms of SDKs, tools, funding, programs, all the way up to strategic programs across the world where we connect individuals with business. And I know and a part of that rollout with uh connecting individuals, connecting businesses is the Hashgraph Association's membership membership program. You've made very, very big strides recently. Um I've seen a lot of community members build. I know a lot of enterprises and institutions there as well. Talk a little bit about that just at a very high level. What's it What excites you with uh that that program?

[00:02:38]The membership program basically it's a program uh that's been designed to connect individuals with corporates within the Hedera ecosystem, but also individuals with their peers within the ecosystem. It provides mechanisms to connect individuals uh with each other, connect individuals with businesses, enhance business dynamics within Hedera ecosystem, and give an opportunity for Hedera Governing Council members to be connected with non-Hedera Governing Council members, to be connected with startups, entrepreneurs, pioneers that have been building on Hedera Hashgraph.

[00:03:06]And the membership program has two categories. There is individual membership path, and there is the corporate path. The membership for individuals basically you start as an explorer, and by being a member of the Hashgraph Association, you are part of that community, you are part of the Hedera of the Hashgraph nation, or basically the Hedera ecosystem. You can have access to trainings, to executive workshops, boot camps, webinars, events, training materials, and certification opportunities where you get trained and certified and prepared for job opportunities, be it within Hedera ecosystem or outside of Hedera ecosystem, and also connecting with new opportunities that are being seized within the Hashgraph Association. The next level is the active members, basically the ones that managed to complete the training and success in their certification exams. The next level is regional champs, basically individuals that are trusted by the Hedera Association to organize meetups, events, bootcamps, and coordinate the work with executives of the Hedera Association. And the fourth level is the mentor level, basically people like yourself that have proven track record when it comes to building solutions and applications on Hedera Hashgraph. And these are individuals that are being tasked or mandated by the Hedera Hashgraph Association to be either in the advisory board of certain startups or perhaps board members of these businesses that we have invested in so that we can coordinate the work with them. And the highest level is the ambassadors. Basically, these are individuals that have more than 3-4 years working either for Hedera Hashgraph directly or the Hashgraph Association or Hedera Foundation or Hashgraph. And they know exactly the strategic directions and the core values of Hedera Hashgraph, and they are basically engaged to represent Hedera projects in global events. On the other side, we have the corporate membership that's basically has different categories and clusters starting from startups, basically pioneers and innovators, moving up to SMEs, small and mid-sized enterprises, to large corporates, Web3 titans, basically likes of Binance, Kraken, Animoca Brands, and others that are part of the Hashgraph Association, engaging with us either in projects or engaging with us in use cases that are bringing value for Web3, for Hedera ecosystem, and for the wider Web3 business. And we have also other categories such as the academic institutions and universities because we believe in the next generation. So, it's not to have that vibrant ecosystem within Hedera, you need to fulfill or you need to have three criteria, main criteria. Number one is the the infrastructure, basically the technology and regulatory frameworks. Number two is funding, basically deploying capital or allocating capital for these innovators that are building on Hedera. And last but not least is the talent. And the source of the talent, as we speak today, mainly through universities, but also we try to connect or tap into these top talented students across top universities across the world and make sure that they have a smooth entry towards Hedera ecosystem. Awesome. And I know that people can learn more about the Hashgraph Association membership program at hashgraph.membership.swiss.

[00:06:01]And you guys also just as we kind of ramp down you guys just recently uh closed out and announced the winners of the Hedera Africa Hackathon. As it that was a monumental event that had some of the biggest enterprises throughout the MENA region participating as well. Talk to us briefly on what that was like.

[00:06:16]What solutions you saw come out of that as well?

[00:06:18]>> Yeah, absolutely. It was actually largest hackathon that's been organized on earth with roughly 50,000 participants across the world predominantly from Africa with a price pool that's been initially committed by the Hashgraph Association and ASF of roughly 1 million and the team managed to get more um investments from third parties that that believed in the vision and would like wanted to to contribute to it. And we have supported three different or four different verticals. One is sustainability, on-chain finance, loyalty and engagement programs. And last but not least is AI verticals basically use cases that are leveraging AI capabilities in conjunction with Hedera Hashgraph capabilities. We were excited about that and we do plan to organize a similar hackathon across the different continents and at some point of time the winners of the African Hackathon will compete against the winners of European Hackathon against American Hackathons and Asian Hackathons. And then that's how we would like to connect with the participants of these Hackathons in a journey of roughly three to four years. Basically keep the momentum, provide or empower the community by equipping them with the technical and functional knowledge to build and deploy on Hedera. And at the same time allocate funding for these activities be it through equity investments or sponsoring these activities all the way up to funding entrepreneurs that are building valuable solutions on Hedera. Awesome. And then as we close out here, what are you most excited about for the future of the Hashgraph Association?

[00:07:49]For the future of this ecosystem or the future of the space? I'm excited about the technological development and advancements that our colleagues at Hashgraph have been involved especially with the the recent solution that's been announced today, which is Clipper, a solution that is enabling cross-ledger transactions. That was a solution that was needed for web3 industry and Hedera as always has been pioneering here in the space. As for the Hashgraph Association, we are excited about the strategic programs and initiatives that we have prepared and deployed, which is including the digital capital fund that we have set up in Abu Dhabi. Basically preparing the continuity for the businesses and startups that have built on Hedera. Also, other strategic programs that are designed to enable and empower individuals, enable businesses, and make sure that we create a symbiotic ecosystem for Hedera where investors get connected with entrepreneurs, with enterprises, academic institutions, all the way up to governmental entities to build on Hedera or at least position Hedera Hashgraph as the underlying technology when it comes to web3 transition. Well, thank you so much, Kamal. Really appreciate your time today.