Btrust will now be publicly publishing annual reports on all our activities and grants to the public. Huge thank you to the Btrust team for an incredible 2024! ❤️ Here is our 2024 year-in-review 📌

Btrust Blog

Btrust 2024 In Review

A recap of Btrust's 2024 milestones in decentralizing Bitcoin development in Africa and the Global South.

TL;DR From training the first female African Bitcoin Core contributor to hosting our first Developer Day, 2024 was a landmark year in decentralizing Bitcoin open-source development in the Global South. Here’s some of what we achieved: • Graduated 17 developers from our Btrust Builders Cohort 3, focusing solely on open-source Bitcoin development • Supported 11 developers through grants; 5 now working on long-term projects like Bitcoin Core, BTCPay Server and Lightning Dev Kit (LDK) • Expanded BitDevs meetups to 5 African cities: Kaduna, Abuja, Lagos, Nairobi & Accra • Held the Annual Btrust Gathering to plan for 2025 • Hosted the first Developer Day in Nairobi: 250+ attendees The grind continues in 2025 🔥

Great convo 📌

For my last piece for Forbes Crypto of 2024, I covered the surge we experienced in Bitcoin mining in Africa in 2024, led by Ethiopia, where Africa now produces 3% of global hashrate (up from 1% just a year ago), and the outlook for Bitcoin mining in Africa in 2025 🌍🔥

Forbes

Africa Produces 3% Of Global Bitcoin Mining Hashrate Via Renewables

Africa now accounts for 3% of the total global Bitcoin mining hashrate, with Ethiopia alone producing ~2.5% via renewables energy.

Final Call: Applications for Btrust Builders’ 2025 ₿OSS Cohort Close Next Week 📌 "This [...] program is designed to identify and push passionate software developers in Africa to contribute to Bitcoin open-source software (₿OSS)."

Btrust Blog

Final Call: Applications for Btrust Builders’ 2025 ₿OSS Cohort Close Next Week

Btrust Builders, in collaboration with Chaincode Labs, is issuing a final call for applications to the 2025 Builders January Cohort. This part-time...

It warms my heart immensely to see African devs building highly impactful Bitcoin tech and significantly contributing to Bitcoin infrastructure. Thank you to all the builders! ❤️🌍 Africa will continue to shape and define the long term success of Bitcoin as a technology 🔥🚀

I highly recommend The Bitcoin Leap by @Charlene Fadirepo as your holiday read of choice! A great primer into how Africa is becoming the continent leading global Bitcoin development and innovation and the first book on the topic 🔥 Thank you Charlene ❤️ https://m.primal.net/Mwzi.bin https://m.primal.net/Mwzj.bin https://m.primal.net/Mwzk.bin

A good walkthrough on the insights from the classic—Marcus Aurelius' meditations

Btrust will be running a Developer Day on Dec 8, 2024 at this year's @Africa Bitcoin Conference in Nairobi 🇰🇪 🚀 It'll be a full day dedicated to open-source Bitcoin development, learning, and collaborating with Bitcoin devs 🔥 🔗 Read more about it here:

Btrust Blog

Announcing the Btrust Developer Day at the Africa Bitcoin Conference

GLOBAL, September 20, 2024 — Btrust, a non-profit organization focused on decentralizing the development of Bitcoin software, is partnering with ...

It's important to note that intelligence in one domain doesn't inherently translate to others. The shock comes when you assume an expert on topic X is somehow impervious to bias, propaganda, cognitive dissonance, and bad takes on topic Y. Know this and know peace.

Users don't care about Y, therefore we should reduce the focus on Y—or discard it entirely—shouldn't be a rule builders follow under the guise of pragmatism. Users may not care now, but the point of it all is to protect them & do things better.

Running Obscura VPN

Here is my talk, "A Bitcoinized Africa," from last week's @Hodl Hodl Baltic Honeybadger '24 conference #BH2024 This year, I decided to give a more concise presentation, based on a lot of feedback and requests, on why Africa will continue to play a significant role in Bitcoin's overall development and future success. Share this presentation with anyone curious about "what material benefits Bitcoin brings to humanity" or "what Africa's role is in the future of Bitcoin." "Africa will not only continue to show what Bitcoin can do but, more importantly, it is going to show what we can do with Bitcoin" 🔥 Full video 🎥 (15 mins)

I am honored and immensely appreciative of the trust placed in me to lead Btrust. Looking forward to all the great work ahead 💪🏾🔥

Bitcoin Magazine

Jay-Z And Jack Dorsey-Backed Non-Profit ₿trust Appoints Bitcoin Core Contributor As Interim CEO

The organization, which trains Bitcoin developers in Africa, LATAM and SE Asia, appoints one its inaugural board members, Abubakar Nur Khalil, as i...

Regarding the recent Proton Wallet, I respect their conscious effort to be transparent and open about the tradeoffs / threat model (especially in their recent blog posts; see below). I just tested out the wallet, great work. Though not perfect ATM, they seem to be on a good path so far in building a Bitcoin-only wallet to simplify sending and receiving Bitcoin for their 100 million Proton users. Presently, they appear to use the Bitcoin Dev Kit (BDK; see below) as a dependency, with coinjoin and the Lightning Dev Kit (LDK) on their radar. Hopefully, we will see silent payments integrated down the line, too. Nevertheless, as a Proton user, I look forward to seeing how the Proton Wallet evolves 🔥 - - - More Reading 📌 - Initial announcement:

Proton

Introducing Proton Wallet – a safer way to hold Bitcoin | Proton

Proton Wallet is an easy-to-use self-custodial wallet that makes financial freedom attainable for everyone.

- The wallet's security model:

Proton

Proton Wallet user experience and security model | Proton

This article reviews the key features and security architecture that make Proton Wallet a private and secure wallet that is as easy to use as email.

- Github repo:

GitHub

GitHub - ProtonWallet/andromeda: The andromeda libraries aims to provide logical blocks to build a privacy-focused, cross-platform, self-custody Bitcoin and Lightning wallet, integrated in Proton's ecosystem

The andromeda libraries aims to provide logical blocks to build a privacy-focused, cross-platform, self-custody Bitcoin and Lightning wallet, integ...

- Potential future dependencies:

GitHub

Update readme.md · ProtonWallet/andromeda@211dc5a

The andromeda libraries aims to provide logical blocks to build a privacy-focused, cross-platform, self-custody Bitcoin and Lightning wallet, integ...

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The African Bitcoin ecosystem will ONLY move forward when we have more builders and value creators than talkers and value extractors.

In my latest piece for Forbes Crypto, I highlight the whirlwind of events following the controversial finance bill, the protests and its success, the resilience of the youth and their view of Bitcoin's role in Kenya's future 🇰🇪 ❤️ Noelyne Sumba, a stellar Kenyan Bitcoiner and Machakura team member, put it best, "Many young Kenyans see Bitcoin as a way to escape the restrictive monetary policies imposed by international financial institutions, which have contributed to the country's economic challenges. Integrating Bitcoin into the financial system could reduce reliance on foreign debt and offer a way out from oppressive government policies that hinder economic and individual growth." Very proud of—and inspired by—the resilience shown by fellow Kenyan Bitcoiners and the youth on the ground in fighting against this bill and winning. Here's to amplifying the voices of those we've lost over the last week and those who continue to fight 🕊

Forbes

Kenyan Youth Embrace Bitcoin Amid Deadly Protests Over Finance Bill

Kenyan youth took to the streets to highlight Bitcoin as an economic hope amid the protests following Kenya's parliament's passage of the controver...

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Appreciate the recent Volt shoutout and kind words from @ODELL and @MartyBent on @RABBIT HOLE RECAP 🔥 Thank you for highlighting the Nigeria situation and Volt announcement @Ayelen 🧡

Insane collab 🔥