We’re happy to have @npub1lqn4...yrp7 joining us as a speaker at the upcoming #BtrustDeveloperDay! ⚡ Pins is a @npub13s0k...5g70 grantee currently contributing to LND (Lightning Network Daemon). His journey into Bitcoin development is a powerful example of passion meeting persistence. After starting his career as a software developer, Pins transitioned to commercial and sales roles in cybersecurity within major tech companies. Yet, his love for Bitcoin and open-source software reignited his drive to get back to hands-on coding. Over the past two years, Pins has dedicated himself to relearning programming and has been actively contributing to the LND codebase. At Developer Day, Pins will lead a hands-on workshop titled Taproot Lightning Channels from Scratch, designed for developers eager to dive deep into the Taproot transactions required to create and operate simple Taproot channels. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn directly from Pins and strengthen your understanding of how Bitcoin’s latest protocol upgrades expand the possibilities of the Lightning Network. RSVP now to secure your spot: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

@Abubakar Nur Khalil, Btrust CEO and Bitcoin Core contributor, joins the #BtrustDeveloperDay lineup to share insights on the future of Bitcoin development across Africa. Abubakar is one of the leading voices shaping the continent’s Bitcoin ecosystem, and also serves as CEO of @Recursive Capital, a bitcoin-focused venture fund fueling innovative projects across the global Bitcoin landscape. Through his leadership at Btrust, he drives initiatives that empower developers in the Global South with training and mentorship, helping cultivate the next generation of Bitcoin builders. Beyond his technical and community-building work, Abubakar contributes to Forbes Digital Assets, where he shares thoughtful analysis on Bitcoin’s evolution and highlights key developments within Africa’s growing Bitcoin space. Join Developer Day to hear Abubakar’s vision for a decentralized, sustainable Bitcoin ecosystem and the work being done to unlock Africa’s potential in global Bitcoin development. 👉 Secure your spot here: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

In July, we put out a call for a Chief Executive Officer, and after a long, thoughtful, and rigorous selection process, we’re excited to share that @Abubakar Nur Khalil has been appointed as the new CEO of Btrust. Abubakar will be stepping down from his position on the Board to take on this full-time role, where he will report directly to the Btrust Board. His appointment marks an important new chapter for Btrust as we continue our mission to strengthen and support open-source development across Africa and beyond. This is a three-year term, with the possibility of renewal by a subsequent board for one additional three-year period. Read more about the appointment, as featured on @Bitcoin Magazine:

Bitcoin Magazine

Btrust Names Abubakar Nur Khalil As New CEO

After a stint as interim CEO, Abubakar Nur Khalil is officially Btrust's new chief executive officer.

Join us in congratulating Abubakar on this new role and in looking forward to what’s ahead for us.

We’re excited to be sponsoring and taking part in #OSCAFest25, Africa’s largest open-source festival. 🎉 This gathering brings together developers, designers, students, and organizations from across the continent and beyond to learn from each other, spark new ideas, and strengthen the open-source movement. This year’s theme is "Beyond Borders", and it perfectly reflects what we believe in as an organization; building technology that connects people, communities, and opportunities across the world. 📅 August 15 – 16, 2025 📍 Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, Nigeria 🇳🇬 Grab your ticket at:

Tix Africa

and use the code OSF25BTRUST50 for 50% off. On Friday, our grantee Tobechi Chukwuleta will be hosting a workshop on Open Source Bitcoin Payment Infrastructure for African Businesses. Tobechi is a contributor to BTCPay Server, an open-source Bitcoin payment processor that gives businesses the power to accept Bitcoin without relying on third parties. In his session, he’ll walk participants through how to set up BTCPay Server 💚, use its merchant tools, integrate it with online stores, and explore its plugin ecosystem, including Lightning Network support. He’ll conclude with a live demo featuring a Naira-denominated checkout for local customers. On Saturday, our Engineering Lead, Kelvin Isievwore, will give a keynote on Building Out Africa’s Open Source Ecosystem. He’ll share our journey from an idea to a thriving community, funding developers, launching builder programs, and creating spaces where open-source collaboration can flourish. In the afternoon, Itoro Ukpong will share insights in his talk Opening Up Bitcoin: Empowering Developers Across Languages with BDK-FFI. Itoro’s work helps bridge Bitcoin Dev Kit’s core with widely-used programming languages like Python, Kotlin, and Swift. One of Saturday’s highlights will be the Women in Open Source Brunch, which we’re proud to sponsor. This is a space for women in open source to network, share, and support one another on their journey in tech. Attendance is limited, and you’ll need an OSCAFest ticket to join. You can RSVP here:

Women in Open Source (OSCAFest '25)

During the brunch: • Enigbe Ochekliye will give a lightning talk on Finding Your Place in Bitcoin Open Source, sharing stories and pathways for newcomers to get started with confidence. • Jennifer Ezeobi and Munirat Olayiwola will lead an interactive session on Building Your Career in Bitcoin, exploring how to contribute across different roles, overcome common challenges, and tap into mentorship and funding opportunities. Explore the full OSCAFest agenda here:

Open Source Festival | Speaker Schedule

A high profile event with series of talks, workshops, and awareness of open-sourced developer tools.

We’ll have around 40 members from the Btrust Builders and BitDevs Lagos communities, so you’ll definitely spot many familiar faces. We’ll also have a booth at the event. Come through to learn more about our work, and get some merch. See you in Lagos! 🇳🇬

This past week, our CEO, @Abubakar Nur Khalil, took the stage at the Baltic Honeybadger Conference in Latvia 🇱🇻 He gave a talk on The Global Majority: Bitcoin by the Billions 🌍. He reminded us why Bitcoin matters most to those who need it most, and why the people who rely on it must be the ones building it. He spoke about building for a sustainable future and how we at Btrust are committed to decentralizing Bitcoin development so it truly belongs to everyone. Abubakar also joined a panel on building communities alongside Mir Liponi, @keypleb, and Mike Peterson, moderated by @Efrat Fenigson. The discussion provided insights into the process of building bitcoin communities. Panelists shared their unique experiences from various parts of the world, highlighting efforts to build different communities. Our team members, Kelvin Isievwore and Sharon Murugi, were also present engaging with attendees and building connections within the global Bitcoin community. Catch the livestream recordings on @Hodl Hodl's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@hodlhodl?si=Ij9AiSiY6FqOFCFI #BH2025

We're hiring a part-time accountant at Btrust 📢 If you have experience with budgeting, financial reporting, and setting up accounting systems, especially in a non-profit setting, we’d love to hear from you. As our accountant, you’ll keep our financial records accurate, help us stay compliant, and support the team with financial advice as we grow. You’ll also play a key role in building efficient financial systems that can scale with our work. This is a remote, short-term role, with flexible working hours. We especially encourage people based in Africa to apply. 👉 Learn more about the role and apply here: https://btrust.homerun.co/accountant-part-time/en 🗓️ Applications close on August 15th, 2025.

We're excited to announce our partnership with the @Africa Bitcoin Conference to bring the #BtrustDeveloperDay back for 2025. 🚀 The event will take place on December 2nd at the Trianon Convention Centre, Mauritius 🇲🇺, serving as the official developer-focused kickoff for #ABC2025. Expect a full day of deep technical sessions, hands-on workshops, and networking, all focused on our theme: "Build Locally, Contribute Globally." This is a free event open to all builders. Register to attend: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY Apply to speak:

Btrust Developer Day

Btrust Developer Day

Learn more about the event on our blog:

Btrust Blog

Announcing the 2025 Btrust Developer Day in Mauritius

We are excited to share that Btrust is once again partnering with the Africa Bitcoin Conference (ABC) to present the 2025 Btrust Developer Day. Th...

We’re excited to announce that we are partnering with Open Source Community Africa (OSCA) to sponsor the 4th edition of OSCAFEST this August. 🚀 OSCAFEST is Africa’s largest open-source festival, bringing together developers, students, designers, and organizations to share knowledge, spark new ideas, and strengthen open-source communities. This year’s theme, Beyond Borders, is about pushing past traditional boundaries in technology and collaboration. It invites participants to work together across countries, industries, and areas of expertise, enabling bold innovation, inclusivity, and growth for Africa’s tech community. 📅 Save the date: August 14 – 16, 2025 📍 Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, Nigeria 🇳🇬 Secure your spot and be part of this exciting event:

Tix Africa

👉 Learn more about our partnership and what it means for Africa’s tech community in our blog:

Btrust Blog

Btrust Partners with the Open Source Community Africa to Sponsor OSCAFEST 2025

Lagos, Nigeria – 17th July 2025 We’re excited to share that we’re partnering with the Open Source Community Africa (OSCA) to sponsor the 4th...

📢 We're inviting applications for the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Btrust. Btrust is a non-profit organization working to decentralize the development of Bitcoin software by supporting open-source developers across Africa and the Global South. We’re seeking a principles-led leader to guide our next phase of growth; someone with a track record of impact, strong leadership, stakeholder engagement, and deep alignment with mission-driven or technical work. As CEO, you’ll shape and oversee strategy and execution across our core areas: identifying and supporting developers, delivering high-quality Bitcoin education, funding open-source work, and strengthening open-source infrastructure and community. Until the appointment of the new CEO, @Abubakar Nur Khalil will continue as interim CEO to ensure leadership continuity. 👉 Learn more about the role and apply here:

BTrust

We’re excited to share the Q2 2025 Btrust Developer Grant recipients. This round features three new Starter Grant and two renewed Long Term grantees, all driving open-source Bitcoin development. Check out the full list of grantees here:

Btrust Blog

Announcing Q2 2025 Btrust Developer Grant Recipients

Africa, July 2, 2025 — We are excited to present the recipients of our Q2 Starter Grants and welcome returning members to the Btrust Open-Source ...

Starter Grants empower talented engineers to contribute full-time to open-source Bitcoin development, giving them the flexibility and security to identify their specialty and deepen their community involvement. Sulaiman Aminu Barkindo is focusing his efforts on the Validating Lightning Signer (VLS) project. With the support of the Starter Grant, he’ll be working on enhancing HTLC security, advancing on-chain state enforcement and disaster recovery, optimizing signer performance for rapid synchronization, and ensuring robust data persistence. He’s also expanding system test coverage and implementing advanced tools to bring VLS closer to production-readiness, helping make non-custodial, secure Lightning solutions more reliable and accessible, especially where self-custody is essential. Peter Tyonum is making Bitcoin wallet development more approachable and powerful through the Bitcoin Dev Kit (BDK) libraries. He’s focused on releasing bdk-cli version 1.0.0, integrating new features like hardware wallet support, building advanced wallet templates, and improving compatibility with chain clients and RPC proxies. Peter will also be expanding documentation and contributing code reviews across the ecosystem. Jamal ERRAKIBI is dedicating himself to boosting the stability and usability of rust-bitcoin. His priorities include regular code reviews, expanding documentation, improving serialization consistency, and helping guide core rust-bitcoin libraries towards a stable release. This work will support both core developers and newcomers as Bitcoin’s open-source foundation continues to grow. The Btrust Long Term Grant helps experienced contributors continue making high-impact, sustainable advances in Bitcoin infrastructure. Both Long Term Grant renewals will provide two more years of dedicated support to each recipient. Duncan Dean is working on the Lightning Development Kit, particularly advancing dual-funded channels. He is enabling funding contributions from channel acceptors, introducing robust APIs for channel initiators, and developing interactive fee-bumping. Duncan’s future plans include pioneering simple taproot channels to enhance privacy and exploring the integration of Point Time Locked Contracts. Abubakar Sadiq Ismail is deepening his work on Bitcoin Core, focusing on fee estimation improvements and strengthening mempool infrastructure. He’s developing a cluster-aware fee estimator, contributing to multiprocess support and mining interface testing, and continuing to mentor new contributors, host review sessions, and advance his expertise in Bitcoin cryptography. At Btrust, we believe supporting developer talent is key to a stronger, more decentralized Bitcoin. Our grant applications are open year-round, and new grantees are announced every quarter. If you’re passionate about contributing to Bitcoin open-source, we encourage you to apply. Visit our website to learn more about our ongoing grant programs:

Grants

Get funding to work on Free and Open-Source Bitcoin projects

At this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum 🇳🇴, our CEO @Abubakar Nur Khalil took the stage during the Freedom Tech track to share the story of Btrust and our mission to decentralize open-source Bitcoin development across the Global South. Abubakar spoke about the work we’ve been doing to build an ecosystem of African Bitcoin developers, from the early days with just a few contributors to now reaching thousands through grants, education, and infrastructure support. His message was clear: those most affected by financial repression must be empowered to build the tools that safeguard financial freedom. That’s why Btrust exists, to educate developers, fund talent, and grow a developer base that reflects the communities Bitcoin was built to serve. It was also an honor to have our Engineering Lead Kelvin Isievwore, along with Theophilus Isah, Olutobi Adeyemi and Duncan Dean, representing Btrust at the conference. A huge thank you to the @HRF team for bringing together such a thoughtful, impactful group of individuals working at the intersection of technology and freedom.

We’re proud to announce that Btrust has awarded over $1 million in our first round of 2025 Developer Education and Event Grants, supporting 10 initiatives advancing open-source Bitcoin development across Africa, Latin America, and India. 🚀 This round includes four developer education programs shaping the future of Bitcoin contributors in the Global South. We’re supporting Summer of Bitcoin, Vinteum, Bitshala, and Bitcoin For Open Source (B4OS) by Librería de Satoshi. Both Bitshala and B4OS will also be receiving long-term support, allowing them to scale sustainably and focus on impact without the pressure of constant fundraising. We’re also backed four major Bitcoin conferences and events: Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town 🇿🇦, Bitcoin++ Florianópolis 🇧🇷, Dakar Bitcoin Days 🇸🇳, and the Africa Bitcoin Conference. Beyond conferences, we’re funding developer bootcamps and learning formats that reach developers where they are. Africa Free Routing’s Lightning Bootcamps are onboarding experienced devs from the tech and digital assets world into Lightning development, while Base58’s LARP Tutor Training in Mauritius is equipping leaders with tools to teach Bitcoin in a hands-on, engaging way. Each of these projects plays a unique role in strengthening the Bitcoin open-source pipeline, from discovery and onboarding to technical training and ecosystem growth. And together, they reflect our ongoing commitment to building long-term infrastructure for Bitcoin development in the Global South. Read the full blog and meet the grantees here:

Btrust Blog

Introducing the First Round of 2025 Btrust Event and Developer Education Grants

$1M+ awarded across 10 initiatives in the first round of 2025 Btrust grants, powering Bitcoin open-source development in the Global South.

Learn more and explore our grant programs:

Grants

Get funding to work on Free and Open-Source Bitcoin projects

Big thanks to the @HRF team for featuring us in this week’s Financial Freedom Report. Read this issue and subscribe here:

Human Rights Foundation

HRF's Weekly Financial Freedom Report #73

Good morning, readers! This week, we bring reports from Bangladesh, where the interim government instructed the central bank to halt the printing o...

We kick off activities this weekend in Kaduna 🇳🇬 with the Kaduna Bitcoin Seminar, followed by the Lightning Development Bootcamp. Cc @Africa Free Routing @African Bitcoiners

What does it take to go from juggling short-term startup gigs to becoming a full-time Bitcoin open-source contributor? In our latest Btrust Blog, Abdullahi Yunus walks us through his path from discovering Bitcoin in 2023, joining the Btrust Builders Fellowship, contributing to projects like LND and Polar, and finally being awarded the Btrust Starter Grant. This is a must-read for developers curious about Bitcoin open-source development and how Btrust supports that journey. Read his story here:

Btrust Blog

From Startups to Satoshis: My Bitcoin Journey

My journey from discovering Bitcoin to becoming a Btrust Builder and eventually a Btrust grantee.

We’re excited to welcome Brandon Odiwuor and Itoro Ukpong as the latest recipients of the Btrust Starter Grant 🚀 This grant allows recipients to explore different areas within Bitcoin development, identify a focus for long-term contributions, and engage deeply with the Bitcoin open-source community without financial constraints. These talented developers are making impactful contributions to open-source Bitcoin projects, strengthening the ecosystem and expanding Bitcoin’s accessibility. • Brandon is focused on improving Bitcoin Core’s testing infrastructure, build system, and developer tooling, while also engaging with the community through Nairobi BitDevs. • Itoro is enhancing Bitcoinj and BDK-FFI, improving wallet development, mobile privacy features, and Schnorr/PSBT support, and also driving Bitcoin education as an organizer for BitDevs Accra. At Btrust, we are committed to supporting open-source Bitcoin developers in the Global South, ensuring they have the resources to build, contribute, and grow. Btrust grants are open year-round. Learn more about the grants and apply here:

Grants

Get funding to work on Free and Open-Source Bitcoin projects

The @btcplusplus, Hacking Edition, has officially kicked off in Florianópolis, Brazil! 🇧🇷. This is where Bitcoin devs, builders, and hackers come together to collaborate, learn, and push open-source Bitcoin development forward. 🧑‍💻⚡ We’re proud to support this event, promoting innovation and empowering developers to build the future of Bitcoin. 📅 Happening today until February 22nd 📺 Catch the action LIVE here: https://youtube.com/@btcplusplus?si=5len0k4i84SYPGlv

We're excited to be on Nostr 🚀 Btrust is all about identifying, training, and supporting open-source Bitcoin developers from the Global South. Our mission is to empower builders and strengthen the Bitcoin ecosystem, one contribution at a time. 🛠️⚡ Excited to connect, share, and grow with the Nostr community! 🏗️ Follow us, say hi and learn more about what we do at btrust.tech