A few years back, while helping a group of developers onboard into a blockchain community, Joshua Nwankwo watched the same pattern repeat itself: broken documentation, confusing onboarding flows, and developers who wanted to contribute but couldn’t even get past “Hello World”. It was the same story everywhere he turned, promising ideas lost to complexity.
“I kept thinking, this isn’t a talent problem,” he says. “Developers aren’t dropping off because they lack skill. They’re dropping off because ecosystems aren’t ready for them.” That moment of frustration became the beginning of a mission.
Joshua, now a senior Developer Relations Engineer, didn’t begin as a Web3 native. His early journey into tech was shaped by a drive to understand how systems work and how they can be scaled. By the time he joined the HNG Internship and later began exploring core engineering roles, he realised something. He didn’t just enjoy building tools but actually enjoyed helping people understand how to use them. “I saw the same issues everywhere,” he says. “Great products, poor pathways.”
Documentation was scattered. Community support was inconsistent. Developer journeys were an afterthought. Yet every protocol depended on developers to survive. If people couldn’t onboard, they couldn’t build. And if they couldn’t build, ecosystems wouldn’t grow.
Where technology meets people
The meeting point between technology and people was the real turning point for Joshua. Developer Relations wasn’t a career shift for him; it was a deliberate strategy. It brought together everything he cared about: education, communication, engineering, and community building. DevRel wasn’t simply about teaching developers; it was about addressing a structural weakness running through the entire Web3 ecosystem.
“Web3 is powerful, but power doesn’t matter if people cannot access it,” he says.
As he dug deeper into the space, Joshua realised that the growth of Web3 had very little to do with the technology’s level of advancement. It depended almost entirely on whether someone could make that technology understandable, usable, and accessible to real people.
The industry data only confirmed what he was experiencing firsthand. Most Web3 projects struggled to retain developers beyond the first three months, whereas ecosystems with mature Developer Relations (DevRel) strategies saw dramatically higher contribution rates. Complex onboarding remained the single, persistent barrier to adoption.
But Joshua wasn’t absorbing these insights from reports or dashboards. He encountered them in real time, through developers who churned, communities that stalled, and projects that failed to convert interest into activity.
Joshua Nwankwo is building developer adoption at scale
Today, Joshua continues to put his earliest passion into practice. Working across leading protocols, he has become one of the engineers shaping developer experience at an ecosystem scale. From writing clear, structured documentation, fixing onboarding bottlenecks, designing community engagement systems, and supporting partner integrations to running developer-facing campaigns that move metrics, not just impressions.
That effort paid off with more developers joining, more staying, more contributing and more products shipping. “I learnt that DevRel isn’t just about community,” he says. “It’s infrastructure. When you get it right, the whole ecosystem accelerates.”
His impact goes far beyond the companies he works with. As the founder of Buildspace Africa, Joshua created one of the continent’s most active developer pipelines into Web3, supporting thousands through mentorship, structured learning, and access to global opportunities.
For many African engineers, this was their first real doorway into blockchain development. “I wanted people to have the access I didn’t have,” he says. “Not just hype. Real pathways.”
In 2023, Joshua co-organised the TxE Summit, one of the largest emerging-tech gatherings Nigeria had ever seen. With 23,000+ registrations, backed by the Enugu State Government, the summit became a landmark event that connected new developers, founders, policymakers, and global Web3 companies.
Joshua led partner outreach, content programming, developer coordination, and post-event execution, positioning the summit as a model for how governments and ecosystems can collaborate at scale.
His career is proof that the future of Web3 will not be shaped solely by protocols, funding rounds, or breakthrough technologies but by the people who make those technologies usable. And in Africa, where developer advocacy is still emerging and high-quality technical documentation remains scarce, the need for builders like Joshua has never been more urgent.
Recent research from the Africa Developer Ecosystem Report shows that fewer than 3% of African software engineers specialise in blockchain, and an even smaller fraction work in developer relations. The gap is massive, but so is the opportunity.
The young engineer sees the continent not as a limitation, but as fertile ground, a place where the right systems, the right education, and the right structures can unlock tens of thousands of new builders who might otherwise remain on the sidelines. That belief drives everything he does, from supporting global Web3 protocols to running developer summits, mentoring young engineers, and building communities designed to outlive him.
It is also why he has become a sought-after speaker at major industry gatherings, including the Binance Web3 Developers Conference, ETH Enugu, and the Stable Africa Summit, where he continues to champion accessible developer pathways and the importance of inclusive ecosystem growth.
In a space often overwhelmed by noise and hype, Joshua’s work stands out for its clarity of purpose, removing friction, expanding access, and helping developers succeed. He is building the rails that allow ecosystems to grow sustainably, not by forcing adoption, but by making adoption possible. Just as he powerfully concludes, “Technology is only powerful when people can actually use it, and that’s what I’m here to solve.”
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