Hi Siggy! :-)

People who really sticked to Bitcoin and put in the work to educate themselves and others too, definitely have made huge personal progress. Either just by having a goal, something to work towards into the future or because their savings have grown. You can really see it as some of the people have gone physically bigger ;-) from thin to big, which is a sign of wealth. We have been working with more and more groups https://bffbtc.org/mission/impact/ - not all of them are on this page... and it has been great to see the changes over the last 5 years. In 2020 when I first was in Zimbabwe, I knew of 1 initiative on the whole continent. And now they are too much to know them all. And we were fortunate to support many of them from the start. Now they are totally self-reliant. Have received their own grants for educational projects. that was always our goal, to support during the "startup" phase and then let go.

Ndesa from Bitcoin Zambia https://x.com/BitcoinZambia, Marcel Lorraine from Bitcoin Dada, Farida Nabourema founder of African Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin Babies, Sabina from Tando, Daniel Taju from Mozambique, KG from Machankura, Carel van Wyk Moneybadger, Jodom from Bitsacco

No. In all of these countries BTC has a relative bad reputation. Countries that have industries that are more technical innovative like Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa lead in BTC adoption, because of their openness to new technologies. Adoption is definitely growing, but for my taste it's still not there where it could be just from the need and utility that BTC brings. But for most people USDT is giving them what they need: a clear fee structure, cheap cross-border transactions and it works without a bank and permissionless. That it might be censored or frozen is not of concern for them. this I saw in all of the countries I worked in.

Remittances via Mobile Money - purchasing airtime in South Africa for someone in Malawi with bitrefill and the recipient of airtime in Malawi can sell it to their friends or neighbours for cash - I demo-ed that and people were in disbelief

Tando in Kenya - pay in bitcoin (LN) and 98% of Kenyans using MPESA (mobile money) will receive Kenyan shillings. You can basically pay for everything in Kenya with bitcoin.

(a) well, I only wanted to teach and onboard people to self-custodial wallets. and since many people are low income and prices for things are far lower it had to be done with LN. But then something like Phoenix can incur high fees if there is a congestion on the chain. Now there is something like Misty Breez or Aqua, where you can estimate the fees much better, but it's not 100% self custodial - I trust it though, but it's difficult to explain things like this to beginners, who only want to use bitcoin, not need to understand everything. So with wallets we are still not there. Still waiting for a wallet that has one balance and does everything else in the background (but not like Muun). Wallet of Satoshi is much easier - but that's not how I want people to adopt BTC.

(b) Bitcoin has a very bad reputation, that is a real obstacle. People often don't have the means (time and money) to educate themselves, they think they can make money quick or they wait for their government to "legalize" bitcoin. Also there is a lot of anxiousness around bitcoin - it's new, you can't touch it, the volatility... that's why 90% of crypto users use USDT

Thank you!

First because of language - I speak English and German, no Spanish or Portuguese....secondly I always had this urge to get to know Africa and travel there...third one of my best friends lived in Zimbabwe in the 90ies and then again since 2015, and I heard so much about how btw can help in countries with high inflation for instance a lot of talk about Venezuela and Zimbabwe. But none of the people talking had ever been to Zimbabwe. So I wanted to take that chance, to go where no Bitcoiner had gone and learn from the ground and start sharing knowledge.

I say it that way: Bitcoin being uncensorable, permissionless and not changeable by governments makes it so special - it's the only form of money that gives us these properties with which we can bring down authoritarians. That's why it is so important. There is no other tool like it.

Hi, renting a car - I did that with fiat. But you can pay for fuel with Bitrefill vouchers. You need a Total Petrol station and then you ask them if they accept "WICODE" vouchers, if they do, you purchase the voucher on bitrefill for exact the amount of the price of your fuel and then tell the cashier the code. Doesn't work in in Total stations. So ask before buying the voucher.

You can look up BTC Map, there are many coffeshops that accept btc. We stayed at a lot of Africamps sites...glamping...Addo Elephant Park is very nice

Hi Anon,

be more flexible, think more "Ubuntu" - meaning caring about your community - not so much about individuality and how we can satisfy our ego. Not trusting the government or banks, being self-reliant (because you simply have to). People in general are more open and friendly - to foreigners too.

The sad thing in a way is, that consumer capitalism is coming to Zimbabwe, Zambia and many other countries too. KFC, McDonalds, shopping malls, all that status bullshit that people see on anti-social media - everyone wants this. Of course they want the same lifestyle, but it's sad that local traditions are being lost along the way and the same mistakes are being made.

fab question

If you are commenting on my Garden Route trip, I wish it had been longer - more time at each place.

It was great to see that the personnel in the coffeeshops that are accepting bitcoin, where not at all surprised when I announced that I want to pay in btc. Very often they are listed on BTCMap but then no one spends sats there and so they forget or stop accepting. That was positively surprising. Talking about South Africa now.

Pizza and tacos!

Hi! yes, that one is really excellent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeRQgpIckzg

There are some diamonds along the way, he is one of them.

Not much. I think people wo are really into Bitcoin and follow developments are already on Nostr. Bitcoin adoption is small, Nostr is much smaller.

Hello! :-)