Galoy and Bitcoin Beach Delivered 42 Million Sats to Bitcoin Communities
Galoy launched #BitcoinForCommunities in December to bring awareness to ten communities and projects driving Bitcoin adoption around the world. Bitcoin Beach matched the donations, noting: “these sorts of grassroots efforts will be the revolution.” Read the recap on the Galoy blog and check out the feature in Bitcoinist.
Bitcoin Beach donated 2.1 million Sats to each of these projects this past week (21 million total) because we believe that it is these sorts of grassroots efforts that will be the revolution. We know firsthand the hard work it takes. Please check them out and support them! https://t.co/eYvKWmk9dS— Bitcoin Beach (@Bitcoinbeach) January 18, 2022
Support Tonga’s Recovery Efforts
Access to clean food and water is still a challenge nine days after the Hunga Tonga underwater volcano erupted. It could take weeks to get telecommunications restored to the area one journalist recently referred to as an “extremity of the internet.”
Lord Fusitu’a is directing donations to people who need support:
Follow incoming donations on mempool.space.
@SatoshiOps is working with Lord Fusitu’a to get communications equipment onto the islands. Follow along and support the mission:
View the project on GitHub.
Block Is on a Roll
Block (formerly Square) has been making impressive forward progress since Jack Dorsey left Twitter to focus on advancing Bitcoin full time. This month Cash App is rolling out Lightning payments to its users. And just this week, Jack shared that Block is building on an open source Bitcoin mining system. As if that wasn’t enough, Cash App also just announced a free service for filing taxes in the US. Sorry, TurboTax.
Jameson Lopp’s Bitcoin 2021 Annual Review
Check out the great rundown of news and metrics compiled by the Casa co-founder and CTO. According to Lopp, “The one theme that I’ve taken away from all of these metrics is that 2021 was a growth year for Bitcoin, though it was unlike previous cycles of retail hype and we persevered through some significant hiccoughs.”
ICYMI Lopp also shared a New Year’s Eve recap of Lightning:
Lightning Network News and Developments
Devs Push to Make Lightning Network More Accessible
Vivek and Kiara Bickers from Blockstream have launched Simplelightning.com – a newsletter dedicated to helping users and companies understand, follow, and integrate with Lightning.
The sixth Bitcoin Lightning Network Hackday will take place in Istanbul, Turkey from February 25th to 27th, 2022. The event will feature great speakers like Carla Kirk-Cohen, Rene Pickhardt, /rootz and Lightrider. Attendees may purchase and assemble a #RaspiBlitz node or a Lightning ATM – Pocket Edition as part of their hackday experience. Get tickets.
Strike has rolled out in Argentina, Jack Mallers announced on January 11, 2022. Mallers also published a tweet thread explaining additional detail and plans in response to initial confusion about the initial launch using USDT vs. Bitcoin.
Voltage just announced a $6 million seed round led by Trammell Venture Partners. The investment will fuel Voltage’s next phase of growth and hiring – enabling its ongoing development of modern tools and services needed to bring broad adoption to Lightning. Congratulations to the Voltage team!
Bitcoin Communities: Locally Focused and Globally Connected
Projects around the world are actively building, planning and scaling Bitcoin and Lightning adoption efforts. Last month, we featured Bitcoin Lake, Bitcoin Jungle, “Bitcoin Island” (Tonga) and Bitcoin Ekasi.
Check out the latest updates from South America and Africa:
- Praia Bitcoin (Bitcoin Beach Brasil): Praia Bitcoin recently published their roadmap to the crowdfunding campaign page. One milestone includes launching a replica of Bitcoin Smiles – a Salvadoran program using Bitcoin donations to provide free dental work to those in need. The Praia Bitcoin team also designed the “Bitcoin Boat” – a meeting point and place where local musicians and artists can share their work. Designers: help Praia Bitcoin create a new logo.
- Exonumia: Exonumia.africa is an open source platform to translate Bitcoin content to various native African languages. The South Africa-based project received 0.25 BTC from HRF Bitcoin Development Fund this month. They were also part of the Galoy #BitcoinForCommunities campaign and are actively working to make Bitcoin education more accessible to the African population. They recently translated the Bitcoin Banking for Communities guide into Zulu and Swahili.
- Kivéclair: Kivéclair is an educational and economical development program based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It initially launched as a Bitcoin fundraiser to support victims of the Nyiragongo volcano eruption. Now, the project is using Bitcoin and Lightning to bring financial inclusion to Goma. Check out Kivéclair’s article in TechCrunch.
Bitcoin Continues Its March Into the Mainstream Consciousness
Pomp summed up the state of mainstream Bitcoin adoption on “Crypto Night in America” this month, claiming it has gone “from a contrarian idea to a consensus idea.” The show airs on CNBC, a network available to 80% of American households with a Television. Michael Saylor also appeared (in a suit and tie, nonetheless), telling viewers “There are 8 billion people on the planet that need digital property, and Bitcoin is the dominant digital property.”
The political sphere is becoming more orange every month. Last week, Canadian Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre made an impassioned speech that felt like something out of The Bitcoin Standard. US Senator and vocal Bitcoiner Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming) welcomed fellow Senator Steve Daines (Montana) to the club after he posed with Saylor for a picture.
Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike shared “My first impressions of Web 3” in which he “sees through the decentralization LARP,” as Brad mills put it. Moxie writes: “So much work, energy, and time has gone into creating a trustless distributed consensus mechanism, but virtually all clients that wish to access it do so by simply trusting the outputs from these two companies without any further verification.” Amen.
Global enterprise businesses are also paying attention and taking action. In the 6th edition of Visa’s Global Back to Business study, 73% of small businesses surveyed said that “accepting new forms of digital payments is fundamental to growth in 2022.” 24% “plan to accept digital currencies such as the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.” And lastly, Intel plans to announce Bonanza Mine – an “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC” at the upcoming ISSCC conference. Probably nothing.
Join the Team: Galoy and Bitcoin Beach Wallet are Hiring!
Bitcoin Beach Wallet launched as a proof of concept built by Galoy. Now, it has evolved into a company with local leadership and a team based in El Salvador. Check out current openings:
Bitcoin Beach Wallet openings:
Galoy is also seeking to fill multiple engineering positions. View and apply at Bitcoiner Jobs.
See you next month!
Header photo credit: @BitcoinBeachBR
