The Bitcoin And Cypherpunk Spirit Is Alive And Well In Africa
In the past two months, I’ve attended the Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town conference in South Africa and the African Bitcoin Conference in Kenya. I’ve also visited Bitcoin circular economies in both of these countries including Bitcoin Ekasi, Afribit Kibera and Bitcoin Witsand.
These experiences have opened my eyes to the fact that developers, community leaders and everyday plebs across Africa are harnessing the power of Bitcoin to catalyze change in their lives, and they’re doing so while carrying on the spirit of the early cypherpunks.
An African Bitcoiner’s Manifesto
In “A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto,” Eric Hughes wrote:
“Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can’t get privacy unless we all do, we’re going to write it. We publish our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don’t much care if you don’t approve of the software we write. We know that software can’t be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can’t be shut down.”
It’s with this attitude that the builders in Africa are building. And while not all of the builders on the continent are writing code, they’re all doing as much of their work as possible without asking permission.
So, based on what I saw in Africa during my recent two trips to the continent as well as to my trip to Ghana in late 2023, during which I attended the African Bitcoin Conference and visited Bitcoin Dua, I’d image an African Bitcoiner’s version of Hughes’ manifesto might read something like this:
“African Bitcoiners just build things with Bitcoin. We know that somebody has to step up to enact change, because all of the promises from the NGOs and governments have fallen short. We publish our proof of work online so that fellow African Bitcoiners can use it as a model and adapt it to their own unique context. Our proof of work and/or code is free to replicate across Africa, and beyond its borders. We aren’t looking for approval from authorities; however, we aren’t opposed to working with them if they see the value in our projects and visions. We know that our work harnesses the immutable and uncensorable nature of Bitcoin as well as the indefatigable nature of the human spirit and, therefore, can’t be stopped or shut down.”
The following are some examples of projects that embody such a spirit:
Bitcoin Ekasi
Bitcoin Ekasi is one of the most shining manifestations of the cypherpunk and Bitcoin ethos in Africa. The project, initiated in 2021 and based in Mossel Bay, South Africa, has become a model for Bitcoin circular economies across Africa.
The project, founded by Hermann Vivier (also one of the organizers for Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town) aimed to do two things: raise funds in bitcoin for The Surfer Kids non-profit, which Vivier also founded, and onboard shops in the community to Bitcoin. (Project Community Leader Luthando Ndabambi has done the latter masterfully over the years.)
The purpose of the second dimension of the mission was to enable community members to spend their bitcoin within the community, ideally raising the economic status of the community as a whole in the process.
The project now works with the local public primary school, which recently began accepting bitcoin for school fees, and has revamped the community centers for both Bitcoin Ekasi and The Surfer Kids (in part thanks to generous donations from Jack Dorsey and fundraising efforts by Aubrey Strobel.)
Unveiling the new sign at the main entrance of the local township primary school!https://t.co/ttBcG7X2nE pic.twitter.com/f6R2ryGC0P
— Bitcoin Ekasi (@BitcoinEkasi) January 17, 2025
Some politicians in the country, several of whom spoke at Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town this year, have taken notice of the project and are as a result starting to see the value of Bitcoin.
Tando
Tando is an app built by a team based in Kenya that lets Bitcoin Lightning wallets interface with Kenya’s mobile money system M-PESA.
The app, which doesn’t require KYC and is highly intuitive, is one of the greatest tools for financial inclusion in the country, as those who lack the proper ID-papers are excluded from making payments via M-PESA. Using Tando, they can make the payment via their Lightning wallet and transact digitally with their fellow Kenyans.
Tando is also a great option for Bitcoiners who visit Kenya. I used it multiple times during my stay in Kenya to pay Kenyan shilling-denominated tabs digitally.
Learn more about the app here.
Bitcoin Dua
Founded in 2023, Bitcoin Dua is located in Agbozume, Ghana, which is near the country’s border with Togo. It’s quickly established itself as one of the fastest-growing Bitcoin circular economies in Africa.
Not only does the project help to educate Ghanaians about Bitcoin, but it also provides coding and robotics classes to help its community members develop skills that can help them find employment that pays in bitcoin.
Lego Robot for preparation towards the 2025 #robotics competition in Ghana. We are able to improve on our equipment acquisition through the #AfricaBitcoinCircularEconomyGrant. Thanks to @Bitcoinbeach and @BitcoinEkasi pic.twitter.com/S6NIQmYqdL
— Bitcoin Dua (@bitcoin_dua) December 29, 2024
The project’s founder, Mawufemor Kofi Folivi and his team were awarded the Social Impact award at this year’s African Bitcoin Conference, and Jack Dorsey has committed funding to help build a sports complex in the community.
The team at Bitcoin Dua can’t stop and won’t stop.
Machankura
Founded in May 2022 by Kgothatso Ngako (KG) (also one of the organizers for Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town), Machankura enables Africans to use bitcoin over Lightning with feature phones (i.e., cell phones before smart phones).
The technology allows users to send bitcoin over USSD, the equivalent of SMS in Africa, giving some of the two-thirds of the population of Africa that doesn’t have access to the internet access to bitcoin.
KG is also currently working on technology that will store the private keys to bitcoin on chips embedded in feature phones, essentially enabling these phones in the six African countries in which the service is available to double as bitcoin hardware wallets.
CYPHERPUNK AF.
Afribit Kibera
Afribit Kibera, located in Kenya, is a Bitcoin circular economy located in the largest informal settlement in Africa.
The project’s co-founder, Ronnie Mdawida, is a long-time human rights advocate and community organizer, and he’s now using Bitcoin as a tool to help further bring the unbanked and the underbanked into the economy.
Mdawida and his team have onboarded 40 merchants to Bitcoin thus far and have set up a recycling program that rewards participants with sats for their work.
Meet our first-ever merchant in 2025—the journey continues! Soon, the entire Kibera will turn orange!@BitcoinEkasi @FBCEglobal @Bitcoinbeach @blinkbtc @geyserfund @thecore21m pic.twitter.com/rWhEzONN4v
— AFRIBIT KIBERA (@AfribitKibera) January 15, 2025
While many of the merchants and community members of Afribit Kibera were introduced to bitcoin primarily as a medium of exchange, many have started saving in it, feeling more hopeful about their future as a result.
Proceeding Together Apace
While each of the projects mentioned above are incredible in their own right, what makes the Bitcoin story in Africa really special is that the members of all these projects continue to learn from and build with one another.
This is the beauty of not only open-source software but also conferences like Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town and the African Bitcoin Conference where builders across the continent share their successes and challenges as well as offer support for each other.
If you’ve yet to attend one of these conferences, I highly recommend you do so, especially if you’d like to feel firsthand the spirit of the cypherpunks or those who embody the Bitcoin ethos.
African Bitcoiners aren’t waiting for permission to change both their lives and the lives of those around them. Bitcoin gives them the opportunity to build a brighter future — together.
