Bienvenue à Bitcoin,
Central African Republic!
On May 22nd, a diverse group of francophone Bitcoiners arrived in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic – a landlocked country in the heart of the African continent. As per Sebastien Gouspillou, one of the Bitcoiners in the delegation, the purpose of the trip was “to listen and to try to bring some solutions to the country to help them, so that it is not an obvious failure but a success for the population”. What he meant was the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in Central African Republic, announced a month earlier, adding CAR as the second country onto the world map to make this step after the pioneer El Salvador in 2021.
🇨🇫 Une délégation de Bitcoiners va se rendre à Bangui (Centrafrique)
— BFM Business (@bfmbusiness) May 23, 2022
“On y va pour écouter et pour tenter d’amener quelques solutions au pays pour les aider, afin que ce ne soit pas un échec patent mais une réussite pour les populations”
💬 @SebGouspillou pic.twitter.com/D4i0AJgIqt
Just last month, President Faustin Touaderá had declared April 21st 2022 a historic date for the Republic of Central Africa, announcing to Twitter that Bitcoin would be regulated as legal tender. Little was known where all of this would be going at that time.
L'instrument financier nommé: la crypto est dorénavant couvert de légalité.
— Faustin-Archange Touadéra (@FA_Touadera) April 21, 2022
Vive le peuple Centrafricain, vive le Centrafrique. 2/2#CryptoNews #cryptocurrency #LegalTender #Bitcoin
In a viral follow-up tweet shortly after, however, Touaderà connected Bitcoin to mathematics, where he holds two PhDs, that hinted at a deeper understanding of the subject and excited Bitcoiners worldwide.
Mathematics is the #language of the Universe.#Bitcoin is universal money.
— Faustin-Archange Touadéra (@FA_Touadera) April 27, 2022
It was around this time that the idea came up that CAR, similar to El Salvador, would need the support of Bitcoiners if this endeavour were to be successful, and a delegation of French-speaking Bitcoiners that would visit CAR started to form. Two weeks later, an official invitation was extended by the President and travel preparations started.
The delegation consisted of organizer and mining expert Sebastién Gouspillou, President of the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council of France JeanMarie Cambacérès, Journalist Richard Détente, SurfinBitcoin organizer Jean Christophe Brusnel, privacy activist David Oren as well as CEO Nicolas Burtey and Director of Partnerships Noor from the Galoy team. But where exactly were they heading to?
Décollage.
— Seb Gouspillou (@SebGouspillou) May 24, 2022
Bangui, on arrive! 😊 pic.twitter.com/3MbI12ykJq
CAR is one of the poorest countries in the world, heavily dependent on foreign aid, ranked 188th on the Human Development Index, second to last, only ahead of Niger. Only 15% of the population have access to electricity, and a meager 11% to internet, both mostly in the capital Bangui. How is the population supposed to use digital money when they barely have electricity? Sure, game theory dictates that outcasts, misfits and those left behind will find Bitcoin earlier than others, but how this theory will play out in practice is certainly one of the big questions that many are curious about and that will be addressed in the next episode of Adopting Bitcoin – A Conversation with Galoy (ABCG #23) on June 2nd at 6PM UTC, where we’ll be joined by the Bitcoiners that traveled to Bangui.
ABCG #23📽️ June 2, 6PM UTC 📅
— Adopting Bitcoin (@AdoptingBTC) May 27, 2022
Bitcoiners in Central African Republic 🇨🇫
Live talk with the Bitcoiner delegation that traveled to Bangui on invitation of the country's officials to learn about the plans of adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. https://t.co/m8UEkNXCGh pic.twitter.com/LT5TfN1sVI
What we know so far is that the delegation were welcomed cordially and with a lot of interest. A number of meetings with government officials as well as civil society representatives took place during the week. Orange pills were distributed. Sats were sent over Lightning. Minds were blown.
«Merci de votre implication à nos côtés. Bitcoiners du monde entier, vous êtes les bienvenus, vous êtes attendus, même.»
— Seb Gouspillou (@SebGouspillou) May 26, 2022
Merci @FA_Touadera pour cet échange riche et pour ce formidable espoir que vous insufflez.
Ensemble, nous ferons de cet espoir une réalité. #RCA🇨🇫#BTC pic.twitter.com/d3aPHBrt0H
@NuraElb minting new bitcoiners in Central Africa Republic pic.twitter.com/Xra1xJszc5
— Nicolas Burtey ⚡️🇸🇻🇨🇫⚡️ (@nicolasburtey) May 26, 2022

On Thursday, the delegation held a presentation and workshop for local merchants. All participants downloaded Bitcoin wallets and received $10 worth of sats each. According to Noor, the experience of instantly sending and receiving sats caused a lot of satisfaction and enthusiasm, quickly developing a dynamic of its own with merchants having fun sending money back and forth. A situation very familiar to any Bitcoiner showcasing Lightning.

Now to the exciting part: On Friday, the delegation held a presentation in the convention center of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), an international organisation made up of Central African Republic, Gabon, Cameroon, Chad, the Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea with the primary mission “to promote harmonised development in its member states in the framework of a common market.” The member states of CEMAC together have a total population of about 37 million and together, among others, seek to “strengthen competitiveness of economic and financial activities by harmonising regulations that govern them”. The event was attended by several ministers of the Central African Republic, among them were Minister Alfred Taïnga Poloko, President of the Economic and Social Council, Minister Daniel Kokouendo, Presidential Advisor on the Digital Economy, and Minister Pascal Bida Koyagbele, responsible for Strategic Investment.
Ready to orange pill Central Africa Republic pic.twitter.com/DYKP5zcUoR
— Nicolas Burtey ⚡️🇸🇻🇨🇫⚡️ (@nicolasburtey) May 27, 2022
In front of an audience of 400 listeners, Galoy’s own Nicolas Burtey held a presentation that emphasized the uniqueness of Bitcoin and how it is critically distinct from other cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, he outlined the benefits of Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador in the few months since the Bitcoin Law, from financial inclusion, over tourism and foreign investment to mining with renewable energy sources, before exploring the potential positive impact proper adoption could bring to the people of Central African Republic. If you want to see the full presentation, we’ve made it public in French and English.
🇫🇷 "Il y a bitcoin, puis les shitcoins". @nicolasburtey devant l'élite du RCA
— Jean « Unhosted » Christophe ⚡ (@jc_busnel) May 27, 2022
🇬🇧 "There's bitcoin, then there's shitcoins". @nicolasburtey in front of the Central African Republic's elite#noshitcoininside#Bitcoin #rca pic.twitter.com/tuaK88e0HA
After the presentation, Dr. Yamb Ntimba revealed a mind-boggling fact that illustrated the extent of CAR’s financial dependence on third parties. Bitcoin can fix this for CAR.
🤯
— Nicolas Burtey ⚡️🇸🇻🇨🇫⚡️ (@nicolasburtey) May 27, 2022
Dr Yamb Ntimba: up to 85% of export (ie: gold) made by Central African Republic are been kept in the treasury of France
You bet #bitcoin will be useful for this country pic.twitter.com/31s5h1RsVj
Of course, CAR’s announcement of Bitcoin adoption has triggered the usual international organizations to issue warnings. Yesterday, the World Bank was cited as “worried over use of BTC as legal tender” in CAR, and in a response to Bloomberg further: “We have concerns regarding transparency and the potential implications for financial inclusion, the financial sector and public finance at large, in addition to environmental shortcomings.” We’ve seen these kind of warning remarks from the legacy international financial institutions already in the case of El Salvador as well as recently towards Argentina. They are expected and don’t really come as a surprise as Bitcoin challenges the system of control that they have been guarding since the end of World War 2.

However, it would be welcome if the Bitcoin critique of these gentlemen could finally move away from obvious falsehoods and rigorous hostility towards free innovation, and evolve into a constructive dialogue that respects the sovereignty and right to self-determination of those peoples for whom the old financial system has not worked for decades. It can therefore be celebrated as a ray of hope that a representative of the IMF found his way to this historic meeting to listen to the presentation of the Bitcoin delegation and to participate in the discussion constructively and with interest.
✅ Life goal achieved: Orange pilling the IMF pic.twitter.com/u2MZo2BMZB
— Nicolas Burtey ⚡️🇸🇻🇨🇫⚡️ (@nicolasburtey) May 27, 2022
UPDATE, May 29 2022: In an earlier version, the article linked Minister Alfred Taïnga Poloko to a Twitter account, that turned out to be an imposter account. The link has been removed.