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Elisha discovered bitcoin at 14—now he’s inspiring a new generation of Africans to make a living with crypto

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Paxful Team
Paxful Team

You’re never too young to learn about crypto.

One evening in 2015, a young 14-year-old Ghanian teenage boy was watching news on the TV, and a clip about bitcoin caught his attention.

Bitcoin? A new digital currency? What’s going on???” thought Elisha Owusu Akyaw, a middle school student then.

Since middle school, Elisha has always known that tech is his thing. He spent hours teaching himself about social media, digital marketing, and PR, and kept a blog on the side.

When he graduated from high school in 2019, he started to write about crypto as he realized that not many people in Africa knew about this new technology.

Now a university student majoring in political science, Elisha founded blockxAfrica with a few of his crypto-loving buddies. Together, these five change-makers hope to educate more Africans about crypto through events, webinars, podcasts, and blogs.

BlockXAfrica

Although he’s the founder, Elisha is never too busy for anyone. In fact, during the week of his interview with Paxful, he was fully booked with one-on-one workshops with Ghanians who want to start using Paxful from 9 AM to 5 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!

“I didn’t even have time to eat!” Elisha laughed as he looked at his calendar.

Why crypto? 

Elisha knows first-hand how hard it is to find a job in Ghana. Pay is often not high enough, and commuting to work is often long and exhausting.

But working in crypto and technology is different.

Elisha writing on whiteboard

Elisha wants to make blockxAfrica a tech hub where people come and innovate. He believes that when tech literacy is improved, people’s standard of living will be improved, too.

“I know some African youths who don’t even know how to mute the microphone on a video call. Even basic things can be difficult for Africans, but the world runs very fast. There’s a clear gap there.”

Since June 2019, Elisha has organized four offline events through blockxAfrica, and has grown a Telegram community of more than 1,500 members!

Hard work does pay off. His relentless pursuit of spreading the gospel of crypto eventually led to him being featured on CoinDesk—a news channel that he’s followed since a young age—as one of the 10 bitcoiners building the future of crypto. This was a tell-tale sign that what Elisha’s doing is meaningful and is bringing about change.

Moving forward…

Like everyone, Elisha and blockxAfrica are still growing. Every time someone he talks to sees the value in bitcoin, he knows that there’s one fewer person that has to worry about their livelihood. To him, that’s the biggest reward of working in crypto. 

And that’s exactly why Paxful’s here. We’re here to make a different lifestyle possible for you. If you think your friends and family should get into the world of bitcoin as well, bring them in through our Affiliate Program!

You never know, you may be able to change someone’s life forever. 🙌

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Paxful Team

Paxful Team

Paxful is a marketplace where people can buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly with each other. You can get digital money instantly and pay with debit, credit, cash, and any currency.

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