On August 28, 2025, the Web3 Lagos Conference kicked off at The Zone, Gbagada, Lagos, drawing blockchain enthusiasts, developers, investors, and tech innovators from across Nigeria and beyond. Organized by Web3Bridge, this three-day hybrid event provided attendees with the opportunity to explore, learn, and network within Africa’s rapidly expanding Web3 ecosystem. Day 1 was particularly engaging, showcasing a blend of technical sessions, hands-on workshops, and thought leadership discussions.
Event Overview
The conference opened at 9:00 AM with registration, where attendees were welcomed and provided with access to both Hall 1 and Hall 2, ensuring seamless participation for in-person and hybrid audiences. At 10:00 AM, a welcome address set the tone for the day, followed by an introduction and an overview of the schedule at 10:15 AM.
The morning sessions in Hall 1 included foundational topics such as Introduction to Blockchain Technology by Hezekiah Suleman at 10:30 AM, followed by a session on building a successful Web3 career by Motunrayo Kareem at 11:15 AM. Hall 2 hosted one of the highlight sessions at 12:05 PM: From EOAs to Smart EOAs: How EIP-7702 is Redefining Web3 Accounts, delivered by Emmanuel Michael Ajayi, a renowned Web3 developer and researcher.
The halls were filled with an enthusiastic crowd, reflecting the growing interest in blockchain solutions in Africa. Participants actively engaged in discussions during breaks and networking sessions, demonstrating the collaborative spirit of the event.
Session Spotlight: From EOAs to Smart EOAs
Emmanuel Michael Ajayi’s session tackled one of the core challenges in the Ethereum ecosystem: the limitations of Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs). Traditional EOAs are simple accounts controlled by a private key, which allows users to sign transactions and interact with smart contracts. While EOAs are secure and straightforward, they have significant limitations: they lack flexibility, cannot natively support multi-signature transactions, batch processing, or advanced recovery mechanisms, and managing multiple transactions can be cumbersome.
Ajayi introduced EIP-7702, a protocol that enhances EOAs by enabling them to function as “smart EOAs” or smart contract-based accounts. With smart EOAs, users can leverage features like batch transactions, atomic execution, and social recovery mechanisms, significantly improving security and usability. This abstraction allows developers and users to interact with decentralized applications without worrying about managing multiple private keys or manually batching transactions. Additionally, smart EOAs can integrate multi-signature authentication and permission management, enhancing trust and reducing the risk of asset loss.
Ajayi also highlighted the practical implications of EIP-7702 for everyday users and developers. By enabling atomic transactions, EIP-7702 ensures that either all components of a transaction execute successfully or none do, reducing risk in complex operations such as decentralized finance (DeFi) trades or NFT batch transfers. Moreover, it addresses the challenge of gas inefficiency by allowing wallets to optimize execution, making Ethereum interactions more accessible to average users.
Security remained a key focus of the session. Ajayi emphasized the need for users to remain vigilant against social engineering attacks and malicious dApps, noting that smart EOAs introduce new responsibilities in terms of user education and secure key management.
Broader Day 1 Activities
The remainder of the day featured sessions across Hall 1 and Hall 2 covering diverse Web3 topics: from AI-driven DeFi solutions and decentralized identity to building public-facing blockchain applications. Attendees explored practical workshops, including content creation for blockchain projects, coding strategies, and scaling decentralized networks in Africa. Sessions concluded with a general Q&A and closing remarks, providing participants with actionable insights and further networking opportunities.
