Central African Republic delegation shares recommendations for Bitcoin adoption
A group of French-speaking Bitcoiners traveled to the Central African Republic to learn about the country’s adoption efforts and offer their expertise. Learn about the delegation’s recommendations in Bitcoin Magazine, listen to Nicolas Burtey on Stephan Livera Pod and check out the recap video below:
What was the motivation of President Touadéra to make Bitcoin legal tender in Central African Republic?
— Adopting Bitcoin (@AdoptingBTC) June 16, 2022
Watch Dr. Yamb Ntimba's explanations 👇
1/5 pic.twitter.com/6gCyvZjHxK
Bitcoin Beach Wallet’s new look!
The Bitcoin Beach Wallet has evolved from a localized proof of concept into the Lightning wallet of choice for communities from Guatemala to Peru. BBW is now a company with its own team, a new website and a fresh look:
We’ve rebranded!🔥
— Bitcoin Beach Wallet (@BTCBeachWallet) June 13, 2022
It's amazing to imagine that Bitcoin's first circular economy was born in El Salvador.
The Bitcoin-based economy of El Zonte has facilitated financial inclusion. That is why we want to take it a step further and spread our success across the country🇸🇻#Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/MTLdbu69v5
Adopting Bitcoin – speakers announced
The high-signal Lightning Summit is coming back to El Salvador in November. Tickets are available, call for participation is open and initial speaker lineup has been posted to the conference website.
One of our founding members @gersonmartinez is speaking @AdoptingBTC. A son of El Salvador - on fire for his country and #Bitcoin!
— Bitcoin Lake - Official 🇬🇹🍊💊⚡️ (@LakeBitcoin) June 15, 2022
Congrats!#Bitcoinlake pic.twitter.com/iNWAKQnclv
BTC++ hackathon recap
The Austin Bitcoin scene is continuing to drive FOMO across the states. This month, Pleb lab and Base 58 partnered to host btc++, a four-day conference and hackathon focused on Bitcoin and Lightning development. Andrew sat down with Kyle, Sam and Nick to recap the hackathon and hear about the Austin Bitcoin scene:
ABCG #25 btc++ hackathon retrospective@PlebLab co-founder @the_bitcoin_bum, @hosekiapp founder and hackathon juror @samabbassi and Galoy's @nicktheile talk about Austin's vibrant Bitcoin scene, cool projects at the hackathon and many other things. https://t.co/cZyIr82kRg pic.twitter.com/BEwsPJ5QMY
— Adopting Bitcoin (@AdoptingBTC) June 20, 2022
View the full hackathon recap on Thriller Bitcoin
The bear market is here – some quick reminders
The macro and crypto downturn over the past month has put the world on edge. Downstream effects from the LUNA collapse and 3AC financial troubles are still emerging and the Bank of Japan is struggling to keep a lid on interest rates. Multiple crypto companies are laying off up to 20% of staff, and BlockFi has received a lifeline from FTX. Apparently gold isn’t even scarce anymore.
We have little to say that hasn’t already been said, so we’ll resurfaces some reminders:
- Bitcoin is the only truly decentralized money
- Know when and how to self-custody
- Don’t lend bitcoin you can’t lose
- Bear markets are for building (PS: Bitcoin companies are hiring)
Galoy hires three recent grads from the Qala developer program
Qala is a program designed to train the next generation of African Bitcoin and Lightning developers. Thirteen fellows were chosen from 800 candidates to take part in the demanding program.
⚡️🌍 We’re thrilled to announce the addition of three new team members to Galoy who are coming to us from the @QalaAfrica Bitcoin developer program.
— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) June 22, 2022
👇 Help us welcome @engb_os, @Extheo and @_tvpeter!
Bitcoin communities driving bottom-up adoption
Price charts are noise on the path to hyperbitcoinization. For signal, turn your attention to the people making Bitcoin adoption happen one person at a time in all corners of the world:
Praia Bitcoin: Bitcoin fixes computer labs
Jericoacoara, Brazil is a remote destination named one of the Top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world by Washington Post. But despite being a popular destination for adventure seekers, the local economy is poor and disconnected from the financial system. Fernando, founder of Praia Bitcoin, recently found a new way to give back by helping rebuild a computer lab for a local school. Hear about the project and his vision to introduce Bitcoin education to 400 students in Jeri, and send sats to help fund the efforts.
Thanks to @bitcoinbeach, @GaloyMoney and the skills of @MotoleseOficial, the Brazilian kids are back to the computers lab.
— Praia Bitcoin Brasil ⚡ (@BitcoinBeachBR) June 22, 2022
This gesture brought knowledge, hope and freedom to our community using #Bitcoin as a social transformation tool.
Support us toohttps://t.co/NmmsROXfYy pic.twitter.com/pRXQpEiCzj
Bitcoin Lake: Building solutions for merchants
If you haven’t been following the Bitcoin Lake project, it’s time to start paying attention. Not only is the community onboarding merchants to the Bitcoin Beach Wallet day in and day out, they’ve also started developing software to solve friction points for local users. Currently, BBW doesn’t allow users to select their display currency. So FaBu helped create a simple POS app enabling customers to create Lightning invoices using any currency as unit of account. Try it: send some sats to FaBu: https://pagar.bitcoinlake.io/fabu
To help merchants who use @BTCBeachWallet in other countries I created this small POS: https://t.co/U5rLzzumOI
— Fä Bu (@fabu69420) June 6, 2022
It supports now all currencies. Rate conversion was a big pain point and I hope this helps. Love to get some feedback. @LakeBitcoin @GaloyMoney pic.twitter.com/4Q8hq3GG41
Bitcoin Ekasi publishes “What is Bitcoin?” explainer in multiple languages
The Bitcoin surf community in Mossel Bay, South Africa is continuing to make big moves. They have set up a Lightning Node, started building an education center, produced merch and now have released a video to help locals understand Bitcoin in their native languages.
#Bitcoin in Zulu - the most widely spoken language in #SouthAfrica 🧡⚡️🤩💥 https://t.co/Y8luyLDVt5
— Bitcoin Ekasi (@BitcoinEkasi) June 13, 2022
A playbook for hosting a pop-up Bitcoin event
When building new communities or introducing new folks to bitcoin, the question that pops up is always how best to do this. The challenge is usually that bitcoin isn’t as intuitive for the average person, and at times can even come across as intimidating for folks who have received a lot of mixed information in the past. The idea Galoy engineer Arvin came to was to throw a pop-up event where the draw would be a fun hangout with good food/drinks and interesting folks.
👀 Looking to host a pop-up #Bitcoin event? @vindaRd shares the playbook from the awesome Pizza Day event they held in Trinidad 🇹🇹
— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) June 23, 2022
“Pitch was: sats-only event, come hang out with us, if you don't have sats we'll help you get setup” 🔥https://t.co/RTrURGy5Z0
Government and country-level updates
Newly elected Colombian president Gustavo Petro rumored to look favorably on Bitcoin
In a 2017 tweet, Petro had stated “Bitcoin removes the power of emission from the states and the seigniorage of the currency from the banks.” During the beginning of the Covid crisis, however, Petro cited notorious Bitcoin critic Paul Krugman, pointing out that money printing had no impact on inflation. Time will tell how Colombia’s first leftist President in decades will approach Bitcoin.
JUST IN: Newly elected Colombian President supports #Bitcoin. "It removes power from the banks." 🇨🇴 pic.twitter.com/LuXOpZazVy
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 21, 2022
Brazilian congressman sees Bitcoin as a tool for freedom and prosperity
In contrast to Petro, Brazilian MP Fábio Ostermann’s comments on Bitcoin were less ambiguous, expressing his belief that “technology will set us free” at a recent episode of Brazilian Bitcoin podcast “bitcoinheiros”. Brazil has experienced severe inflation, and occasional moments of hyperinflation in the past. Brazilians are used to not trusting money issued by the government, which may be a major reason for bitcoin’s popularity in the country.
Join the conversation
Whether you’re an engineer, a community leader or a pleb looking to participate in open source projects, you are welcome to join us in building the future of open source Bitcoin banking. Find us on the following channels:
Look forward to hearing from you, and see you next month!
Header photo credit: @SebGouspillou