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)."
https://blog.btrust.tech/final-call-applications-for-btrust-builders-2025-oss-cohort-close-next-week
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 nostr:npub1tl8rspqy8karrzfwltql72c4rvz4mk2vt7d3jp6yxaxpchgdcx2s962v29 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 ❤️
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 nostr:npub1dtvscxrhj224un2yeqvca5y4tp8ly02u2ndpeggzl4xf63c5c6ws53wc6t 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:
https://blog.btrust.tech/announcing-the-africa-bitcoin-conference-dev-day-by-btrust/
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.
Awesome catching up with nostr:npub1sn0q3zptdcm8qh8ktyhwtrnr9htwpykav8qnryhusr9mcr9ustxqe4tr2x at #BH2024! Fascinating conversation about his VC fund nostr:npub153nmydpjenm5xmkxfj3r0rfptlqdrk4582m7jlgxm0s5zcm0jtas5rpl7v and other initiatives. Always inspiring to connect with innovative thinkers in the #bitcoin space.
It was great to finally connect Khush! Looking forward to all the great work ahead 🙏🏾
Here is my talk, "A Bitcoinized Africa," from last week's nostr:npub1yul83qxn35u607er3m7039t6rddj06qezfagfqlfw4qk5z5slrfqu8ncdu 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 💪🏾🔥
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: https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-launch
- The wallet's security model: https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-security-model
- Github repo: https://github.com/ProtonWallet/andromeda
- Potential future dependencies: https://github.com/ProtonWallet/andromeda/commit/211dc5a86f20455cdba99e0a51a37a61ef70577c
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 🕊
Appreciate the recent Volt shoutout and kind words from nostr:npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx and nostr:npub1guh5grefa7vkay4ps6udxg8lrqxg2kgr3qh9n4gduxut64nfxq0q9y6hjy on nostr:npub10uthwp4ddc9w5adfuv69m8la4enkwma07fymuetmt93htcww6wgs55xdlq 🔥
Thank you for highlighting the Nigeria situation and Volt announcement nostr:npub1rscuek38p87xeawmpg9ssump8cjkgmz2j3rhnha4artvh0xjacwq9upeqk 🧡