My first time entering a flight is a moment I can never forget.
The first man who made me enter a flight was Aslan, a USA citizen staying in Miami.
Yes, I met him through the Vertcoin community.
At that time, Aslan was really out to build us up. He wasn't just someone who came into the community, said a few things and disappeared. He genuinely wanted to see people grow, especially those of us who were putting in the work and trying to contribute something meaningful to the Vertcoin ecosystem.
Who are the "we"?
I.
Omas.
Dave.
The three of us were the top three Nigerians advocating for Vertcoin at that time.
We brought a different kind of vibe to the community.
The energy was something else.
We were young, excited and full of ideas. We believed in what we were doing, and even though we didn't have much financially, we had something that was probably more important at that stage — the willingness to build.
We were always talking about Vertcoin.
We were trying to introduce people to it.
We were looking for opportunities to represent the project outside the crypto community.
We wanted people to understand Proof of Work, decentralization and why a project like Vertcoin mattered.
Aslan actually saw great potential in the three of us.
He saw the burning desire to build and support.
So he decided that he was going to work closely with the three of us and make us the face of Vertcoin in Nigeria.
That was a big deal for me.
At that point, I had never imagined that something I discovered online would eventually take me to another city by flight.
I had never entered a plane before.
I had never experienced that kind of thing.
Everything was new.
Coincidentally, Aslan was having a show in Abuja, Nigeria.
He was coming to speak about the biotech industry, and during that period, we were also looking for a Web2 event where we could attend and represent Vertcoin.
We wanted to take the opportunity to step outside the usual crypto space and introduce Vertcoin to people who probably had never heard about it.
We initially tried going to Blockfest Africa in Lagos, hosted by Samuel Xeus on Twitter.
But the cost of staying for three days for two people was just too much for us at that time.
Just Dave and I were meant to go.
We looked at the expenses and realized it wasn't going to be easy.
So we scrapped that plan.
We waited for another opportunity.
Then came the 10X Business Summit in Abuja by Theo Godson, backed by Grant Cardone.
Honestly, I didn't even know who Grant Cardone was at that time.
I only knew about him because Aslan told us about him.
That's another thing about that period of my life.
There were so many things I was discovering for the first time.
People.
Businesses.
Networking.
Events.
Entrepreneurship.
Crypto.
And now, flying.
On that faithful day, our flights had been booked and paid for.
I still remember the feeling.
This was my first time going to the airport for a flight.
My first time getting on a plane.
My first time flying.
There was excitement, but there was also this feeling of "Is this really happening?"
I landed in Abuja.
Luckily, my aunt, who is a reverend sister, stays in Abuja, so she assisted me in navigating around the place.
Thank God for her because Abuja was still a new environment for me.
I had to figure out where I was going, how to move around and all of that.
Eventually, I made my way to the hotel where Aslan was staying.
I was so excited.
I called him when I got there.
He came out.
And honestly, that feeling of seeing someone in real life for the first time was divine.
This was someone I had known online.
Someone I had been seeing through a screen.
Someone I had interacted with through messages and calls.
And suddenly, this person was standing right in front of me.
A white man I had only known through the internet.
Now we were physically together in Abuja.
We took endless pictures together.
At that point, I didn't care how many pictures we took.
I was just happy.
It was one of those moments where you know you're experiencing something that you will probably remember for a very long time.
And I was right.
I still remember it today.
I also met a lot of amazing people during that period.
One of them was Pender, who was the founder of HolyDigits101 and Manager of MprofyDAO.
I met Zabrang.
I met Omas and Dave in real life.
That was another memorable moment for me because, before then, most of the people I interacted with in the Vertcoin community were just usernames and profile pictures.
We were a community online.
But suddenly, some of us were standing in the same place.
We were taking pictures.
Talking.
Laughing.
Sharing ideas.
Representing something we believed in.
Looking back now, it was really a memorable and emotional moment.
Not just because it was my first flight.
Not just because I went to Abuja.
But because of the people who were there.
The crazy thing about life is that you can be very close to people at one point and years later, you don't even know what is happening in their lives anymore.
Looking at then and now, we are no longer together.
I don't know the whereabouts of Zabrang or Pender anymore.
Aslan has always been a busy man, focusing on his companies and his own businesses.
As of this day, I am only in touch with Dave and Omas.
That's life.
People come into your life.
You build together.
You share dreams.
You believe you are going somewhere together.
Then life happens.
People move in different directions.
Sometimes there is no fight.
No major argument.
No dramatic ending.
People just become busy.
Communication reduces.
And eventually, you realize that the people you once spoke with almost every day are now people you hardly hear from.
But that doesn't erase what happened.
Those moments were real.
That period was real.
And what we built together was real.
The 10X Business Summit itself was a success.
I applaud Aslan's courage to talk about Vertcoin and crypto in a Web2 event.
That wasn't something I took for granted.
He had to stand in front of people who probably came to hear about business and entrepreneurship and still find a way to introduce them to Vertcoin.
He even created a WhatsApp platform to onboard people who showed interest.
That showed me something.
You don't always have to wait for the perfect crypto conference before you talk about crypto.
Sometimes, you have to take the message to where the people are.
I also learnt a lot at the event.
I met lots of new people.
I collected new contacts.
I heard different business ideas.
I listened to people talk about businesses, opportunities and different ways of making things work.
And surprisingly, the event gave me an idea that I became very passionate about.
I wanted to create a decentralized e-commerce website.
The idea was simple.
A marketplace where Vertcoin and USDT would be the only means of payment.
I thought it could be something different.
Something that could bring real-world utility to Vertcoin.
Something where people could actually buy and sell products while using crypto as the means of payment.
I had the idea.
I had the excitement.
I had the vision.
And I believed that with the right support, we could actually make it happen.
I was hoping to get funding and support from Aslan for the completion of the website.
After all, he was one of the people pushing me to do it in the first place.
At some point, he even wanted to sell his Pokémon cards on the platform in exchange for Vertcoin.
That made the whole idea feel even more real to me.
It wasn't just an idea on paper.
We were actually discussing possible use cases.
We were thinking about how people could use the platform.
We were thinking about how Vertcoin could be part of everyday transactions.
But unfortunately, all those hopes of getting funding and support from Aslan for the completion of the website failed.
He became too busy.
Sometimes, he wouldn't even reply to my messages.
And honestly, I was confused about the sudden change in character then.
I kept wondering what happened.
This was someone who was previously pushing me to build this thing.
This was someone who had encouraged the idea.
This was someone who was telling me that it could work.
And suddenly, his attention had shifted.
At first, it was difficult for me to understand.
But as I grew older, I started understanding something about people.
People have their own lives.
People have their own responsibilities.
People have companies to run.
People have businesses to build.
People have problems you may know nothing about.
Sometimes, you may think someone has abandoned you when, in reality, they are simply dealing with their own priorities.
I don't know exactly what happened with Aslan during that period.
I only know what I experienced from my side.
And I have chosen not to hold it against him.
The website never became what I imagined it could become.
The dream slowly died when the support and attention disappeared.
But even though the project didn't happen, the experience itself was valuable.
The idea came from a real experience.
The connections came from a real event.
The knowledge came from a real opportunity.
And most importantly, the flight happened.
That first flight opened something in my mind.
It showed me that I could leave my city.
I could attend events.
I could meet people.
I could sit in rooms with entrepreneurs and builders.
I could represent something I believed in.
I could travel because of the work I was doing online.
And perhaps the most important lesson was that sometimes, one person's support can give you an experience that stays with you for years.
I don't know where everyone from that period is today.
I don't know what happened to some of the people I met.
I don't know whether some of the ideas we discussed back then will ever come back to life.
But I remember.
I remember Vertcoin.
I remember the community.
I remember Omas and Dave.
I remember Pender and Zabrang.
I remember meeting Aslan for the first time.
I remember taking those endless pictures.
I remember Abuja.
And I definitely remember my first flight.
So, regardless of how things turned out afterwards, I still want to say this:
Thank you, Aslan.
Thank you for being the person who sponsored my first flight.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to visit Abuja.
Thank you for believing in me, Omas and Dave at a time when we were just three Nigerians trying to make noise about Vertcoin.
The journey didn't turn out exactly the way we imagined it.
Some people disappeared from my life.
Some dreams didn't happen.
Some plans were abandoned.
But that doesn't mean the journey wasn't worth it.
It was.
And whenever I remember my first time entering a plane, I will always remember that it happened because of the Vertcoin community and because one man believed enough in what we were doing to give us that opportunity.
That is a story I will never forget.
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