This episode is a recording of my appearance at “In Conversation With Trevor“. Trevor Ncube is a Zimbabwean media entrepreneur who is influential and well respected throughout Southern Africa.
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Today I’m speaking with Mr. Mulos in Lusaka the capital of Zambia. Mr. Mulos has a YouTube channel, where he shares his insights on how one can exchange Kwacha to bitcoin with different payment methods. He has been helping people with their e-payments for a couple of years now and is a real expert on how to save fees and send money in and out of African countries. Recently he opened his own shop in Lusaka, where people can come by to get help with cryptocurrency and payments.
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Insights from a Bitcoin Enthusiast in Africa
Oct 13, 2022
Today I’m speaking with Joseph a Bitcoin enthusiast from Africa. Because of his long time interest in Bitcoin he has a lot of experience on how cryptocurrencies are being used within the continent. He has been traveling a lot and as a business owner himself he has made connections with Bitcoin traders and convicted holders. I invited him to get more insights on how cryptocurrency adoption will gain momentum in Africa.
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This episode is a recording of the conversation I had on the Cryptovoices podcast with Matthew Mezinskis from Eastern Europe and Alec Harris from Eastern US. It was recorded in July 2022.
We’re talking about my human rights journey which has taken me around the world, from Africa to South America. I’m explaining how Bitcoin helps those in need and why they use it. We also talk about the differences in Bitcoin usage compared to how it’s used in more liberal democracies.
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Fedi - bringing simple, safe, and private access to Bitcoin
Sep 12, 2022
Today I’m speaking with Obi Nwosu and Pete Winn from Fedi, a new company that is building a community wallet on the Fedimint protocol. This is an exciting project because it opens a new form of shared custody for Bitcoin. The best custody is still self custody where you hold the keys to your Bitcoin, but for many people self custody is hard because they live in difficult circumstances, or can’t afford a signing device. With Fedi you trust your friends and trusted members of your community, who hold the keys collaboratively.
Fedi is looking for the most motivated communities in the world to hyperbitcoinise in 2023. If this is your community apply now.
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Advocating for Human Rights through Bitcoin - Anita Posch
Aug 18, 2022
This episode is a recording of the conversation I had on the Cryptopulse podcast with Kevin and Ben from the UK. It was recorded in late June 2022.
We’re talking about my journey into Bitcoin, about writing my book, my work in Africa with Bitcoin for Fairness, EU regulation on crypto and my drive to educate.
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Blueberries for Bitcoin in Zimbabwe | Dr. Edwin Moyo
Aug 04, 2022
My guest is Dr. Edwin Moyo, Chairman of Nhimbe Fresh one of Africa’s premier exporters of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and peas. Nhimbe Fresh is located in Zimbabwe and became famous in some Bitcoiner circles because they did a crowdfund for a solar power plant together with the Sun Exchange from South Africa. In this funding one could buy solar cells with traditional currency and with bitcoin. This fundraise turned out to be the biggest crowdfunding in Africa so far.
In March 22 I visited Nhimbe Fresh’s farm in Marondera to see the solar power plant, the blueberry planting and met with Dr. Moyo to discuss Nimbe’s plans. Today we re discussing the outcome of these ideas: the new Nhimbe blueberry crowdfund, where supporters form all over the world can buy single blueberry plants via bitcoin and lightning helping to create 5,000 jobs. In return they will receive a yield of the harvest for the next 5 years. The crowdfunding platform Zigurat is built on Liquid, a Bitcoin sidechain.
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Bitcoin Is BOOMING In South Africa | Ricki Allardice
Jul 21, 2022
My guest is Ricki Allardice, co-founder of Bitvice a South African bitcoin broker in Cape Town. A former financial advisor he turned away from the legacy industry to foster Bitcoin adoption and self-custody in his home country. We’re discussing the reasons why South Africa is one of the countries with the highest adoption rate and at the same time a low number of full nodes, the importance of self-custody, the Lightning Network and the situation in the Central African Republic.
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My guest is the first person to mine Bitcoin in Zimbabwe with ASIC machines powered by solar. Zimbabwe’s monetary system is broken. After decades of mismanagement and corruption the country is running into another hyper-inflation period with 400% inflation in April 2022. Now the first Bitcoin miners arrived! Learn how my guest got into Bitcoin, what he thinks about the use of Bitcoin for Zimbabweans and his thoughts and experiences from mining.
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Bitcoin Privacy: Human Rights & Coinjoins with Sparrow | Craig Raw
Jun 23, 2022
My guest is Craig Raw founder and developer of Sparrow a Bitcoin desktop wallet with a focus on multi-signatures for distributed self-custody and privacy. In 2020 he started Sparrow out of the desire to build something with and for Bitcoin which can fill the gaps he saw within the existing wallets. I started to use Sparrow recently and asked specific questions related to Coinjoins and for his recommendations for human rights activists on how to use Bitcoin with a maximum of privacy.
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Unleashing Bitcoin's Full Potential | Carel van Wyk
Jun 09, 2022
My guest is Carel van Wyk a Bitcoin pioneer from South Africa. He found out about Bitcoin in 2010 and being a technically skilled entrepreneur he realized Bitcoin’s potential to change the world very early on. As a co-founder of Luno, one of the largest exchanges in the world he has a lot to say about Bitcoin, ideas where he sees it unleashing its full potential and also some critical views towards some strong opinions in the space.
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Building a Bitcoin Economy in a South African Township | Hermann Vivier
May 26, 2022
My guest is Hermann Vivier, initiator of Bitcoin Ekasi and co-founder of The Surfer Kids, a non-profit social enterprise working for a better world. The two projects are located around the JCC township and Diaz Beach in Mossel Bay, South Africa. In an environment of poverty, violence and hopelessness the educational efforts of Hermann and his team of coaches and volunteers teach the children fundamental life skills through surfing.
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Zambia Bitcoin Adoption & Stablecoins Use | Daniel Simwaba
May 12, 2022
My guest is Daniel Simwaba country manager for Yellowcard, the first Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in Zambia. Joining us is Ndesanjo Macha a Bitcoin blogger, journalist. We’re discussing the state of adoption, how to buy bitcoin with kwatcha via Yellowcard and the use of USDT stablecoins. The day of the recording was the 2nd year anniversary of Yellowcard in Zambia and 6th year anniversary of Yellowcard itself.
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The Challenges Of Using Bitcoin In Zimbabwe | Alexandria
Apr 28, 2022
My guest is Alexandria a Bitcoin Maximalist from Bulawayo, the second biggest city of Zimbabwe. We’re talking about the political and living situation in his home country and how Bitcoin can be an instrument for a brighter future. Alexandria is keen on learning and he wants to setup the first Bitcoin and Lightning full-node in Zimbabwe. He needs the funds for a Raspberry Pi and a computer, please send some bitcoin, directly into his wallet, at https://bffbtc.org/nodedonation
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Funding A School With Bitcoin in Zimbabwe | Miss Aurra
Apr 14, 2022
My guest is Miss Aurra headmistress at St. Anne’s school, a visionary and entrepreneur from Harare. She has been using bitcoin since 2020, when we first met and installed a BTC wallet on her phone. We’re talking about how she was able to re-open the school with the help of bitcoin donations and about the successful opening of a second premise. We also discuss the hardships of money inflation, what people think about Bitcoin and where much of the USD liquidity comes from.
Donate for St. Anne’s School
St. Anne’s school is in need of sports equipment, library books and computers. BFF donated 250 USD for one (2nd hand) computer in March 2022, which is now their second device of ten. Our goal is to get them to ten computers (~ 2,500 USD), which will be used by 120 students from the age of 5 to 15. Ms. Aurra is also working with BFF on easy to understand Bitcoin infographics, that will be used to educate kids and adults in emerging countries about Bitcoin.
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Bullish On Bitcoin in Zimbabwe with Kuda
Mar 31, 2022
My guest is Kudakwashe Sape Tshuma an online entrepreneur from Harare. He has been earning bitcoin for his marketing work from international companies since 2014. We’re talking about his experiences as a member of a local P2P community, where he is helping people to exchange cryptocurrencies to USD or the local Zimbabwean Dollar.
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DeFi & Smart Contracts On The Bitcoin Network?! - Gabriel Kurman
Mar 17, 2022
My guest is Gabriel Kurman, Co-founder of the Rootstock protocol “RSK”, which is a merge-mined Bitcoin sidechain enabling smart contracts. Smart contracts on Bitcoin, won’t this make many Altcoins obsolete? I’m asking Gabriel about this too. We’re also discussing Money on Chain a decentralized stablecoin on Bitcoin.
00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:00 – Brief Introduction to Gabriel 00:01:52 – Anita welcomes Gabriel 00:02:19 – The next LaBitconf conference in Argentina 00:03:49 – Who is Gabriel and how did he become a Bitcoiner? 00:07:25 – How Rootstock started 00:13:20 – Will Altcoins become obsolete? 00:15:13 – How secure is Rootstock since it works with Ethereum virtual machine? 00:21:54 – Use cases of stablecoins 00:22:25 – Gabriel explains how stablecoins aren’t really stable 00:30:55 – How to send Dollar On Chain anywhere in the world via Rootstock using smart contracts 00:36:44 – How to convert Dollar on Chain to cash, for example USD in Africa. 00:46:55 – Is Stacks a Bitcoin project? 00:50:51 – Using Bitcoin as native currency 00:56:51 – How Bitcoin changed Gabriel’s life 01:19:00 – How to get in touch with Gabriel
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Bitcoin Adoption In Brazil - Carol Souza
Mar 03, 2022
This week I am speaking with Carol Souza, co-founder of the Brazilian YouTube channel “usecripto” with 138,000 subscribers. I saw the work of Carol and her co-host Kaka on Instagram first and after being interviewed by them and meeting in El Salvador in November, we decided to do more content together. The main focus of this conversation is Bitcoin adoption in Brazil.
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Building Bitcoin Beach Wallet - Nicolas Burtey
Feb 17, 2022
My guest is Nicolas Burtey, Co-founder and CEO of Galoy Money the company behind the BitcoinBeach wallet that has been used since 2020 and was thrust into the spotlight, when La Ley Bitcoin (the “Bitcoin Law”) was passed in El Salvador in June 2021. We’re discussing the possibilities for communities to use bitcoin with a focus on shared custody and the learnings from starting BitcoinBeach.
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Building Homes With Bitcoin - Josh Young
Feb 03, 2022
Josh Young, Chief of Staff at New Story, a non-profit organization pioneering solutions to end global homelessness. Since its founding New Story has built over 30 holistic communities impacting over 3,500 families/homes in Haiti, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Mexico and they built the first 3D-printed community. Now they are partnering with Galoy Money, the builders of the Bitcoin Beach wallet and Bitcoin Beach to setup a community in El Salvador.
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Esteban de la Peña: Bitcoin in Guatemala
Jan 20, 2022
My guest is Esteban de la Peña founding partner at IBEXmercado a Bitcoin brokerage and payment service provider in Guatemala. We talk about use cases for Bitcoin in Central and South America, his thoughts on the Bitcoin law in El Salvador and Bitcoin’s advantages over the current financial system.
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Anita Posch: The Art of (L)earning Bitcoin - a Starter's guide
Jan 06, 2022
This is Anita Posch’s talk at LaBitconf 2021 in El Salvador, the longest running Bitcoin conference in Latin America. If you’re interested in learning and using Bitcoin, this is your guide to start. With an explanation of the most important properties of Bitcoin, why they are important, the best Bitcoin wallets and recommendations for Spanish and English learning material.
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Lightning and the Creator Economy - Adopting Bitcoin Panel
Dec 30, 2021
This is a recording of the panel discussion “Lightning and the Creator Economy: How the Lightning Network Will Power New Revenue Models for Artists and Creators” at the Adopting Bitcoin conference in San Salvador in November 2021. The panelists were Desiree Dickerson – CEO and co-founder of THRDgames, Colin Harper – Journalist and Content creator at Luxor Technologies, Roy Sheinfeld – Co-founder and CEO of Breez Technology and Michael Tidwell – Head of System Operations at Zebedee. I had the honor to moderate the discussion.
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Elizabeth Stark: Bringing Bitcoin to Billions with Lightning at LaBitconf 2021
Dec 23, 2021
This is a recording of a fireside chat with Elizabeth Stark at LaBitconf, the first Latin American Bitcoin conference which took place in San Salvador in November 2021. Stark is CEO and co-founder of Lightning Labs, a company that’s building a financial infrastructure on top of Bitcoin called the Lightning Network. I’m asking her about the possibilities to bring Bitcoin to billions of people, why Bitcoin is the most valuable internet money, how we will be able to earn bitcoin via the Lightning Network and much more.
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Anita Posch: Impressions from Bitcoin in El Salvador
Dec 16, 2021
In November 2021 I visited El Salvador to research the use of Bitcoin, that has been legal tender there since early September. I was attending Bitcoin week in San Salvador, speaking at Adopting Bitcoin and LaBitconf, two Bitcoin conferences. Afterwards I moved to El Zonte at the Pacific Ocean, the village where Bitcoin Beach started in early 2020. I also visited “Bitcoin City SV” a cooperative in Sonzacate, that is educating their ~2,000 members about Bitcoin even longer than the folks at Bitcoin Beach.
In this episode I talk about my thoughts about Bitcoin City, the government’s plans, Bitcoin Bonds and the state of adoption on the ground.
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Mike Peterson: Bitcoin for Communities in El Salvador
Dec 09, 2021
While I was visiting El Salvador in November 2021 I met with Mike Peterson, the initiator of Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte. Over 40 businesses are accepting bitcoin as payment and the locals use it to pay for their daily needs. We’re discussing the effects of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador, the Chivo wallet, it’s problems and how the community is using Bitcoin in a multisig shared custody model with the Bitcoin Beach Wallet.
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This is a conversation about my experiences in the Bitcoin space and in emerging countries, that I had with Svein Ølnes, a researcher and teacher at a Bitcoin course at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Svein started teaching the course in 2018 and this year there is a record interest with more than 200 students enrolled.
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Rodolfo Andragnes: From Bitcoins.com to LaBitconf
Nov 16, 2021
My guest is Rodolfo Andragnes, co-founder and executive director of the non-profit organization Bitcoin Argentina and main organizer of the Latin American Bitcoin Conference LaBitconf. We’re talking about Rodolfo’s creation of the word Bitcoin in the year 2000, cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America and LaBitconf the first Bitcoin conference in Latin America, which is taking place in El Salvador this week.
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Hong Fang: From China Via Wall Street to Bitcoin
Nov 11, 2021
My guest is Hong Fang, CEO of OKCoin, a global, US-licensed cryptocurrency platform serving 190+ countries – the largest reach of any US-based exchange. Hong was born and raised in China, holds an MBA in Finance, Accounting and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. After that she worked at Goldman Sachs and left Wall Street for cryptocurrency after realizing digital assets offer the financial inclusion that traditional finance only claims to.
Topics: – Hong Fang: from Wall Street to Bitcoin – Free markets vs. central planning – Wealth inequality – Her view on China’s Bitcoin bans – CBDC’s and Bitcoin – El Salvador’s Bitcoin law – OKcoin’s trading data in different regions – Use cases Western and emerging countries – A danger for Bitcoin – Experiences from their Lightning integration – “Earn” product, STX and MiamiCoin – Bitcoin in 2022
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Johannes Zweng: Lightning - The Future of Payments
Nov 04, 2021
My guest is Johannes Zweng, software developer and backend engineer at Coinfinity, Austria’s first bitcoin broker. Johannes and I are walking through new techniques enabling future use cases of Bitcoin. How Taproot upgrades our privacy, how lightning invoices will allow us to walk through a retail store and get everything we buy delivered just by scanning QR codes.
– Johannes Zweng’s Bitcoin story – How Bitcoin changed his thinking – new features enabled by Taproot – Schnorr signatures – Taproot’s Lightning improvements – Lightning optimizations – new possibilities static QR codes, refunds, sending text via LN – Lightning Address – proof of payer, recurring payments, payment flows – examples how friction less we’ll pay in the future
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Alyse Killeen: Insights of a Bitcoin Venture Capitalist
Oct 28, 2021
Today’s guest is Alyse Killeen founding managing partner at StillMark, the Bitcoin Venture Capital Firm. Alyse has been in the Bitcoin space since 2013 and she is the Independent Director on Blockstream’s board of directors. StillMark’s portfolio includes companies such as CASA, Lightning Labs, lastbit and Sphinx.
– Introduction Alyse Killeen – Alyse’s Bitcoin story – Why Bitcoin and not Altcoins? – KYC and regulations conflicting financial inclusion? – Will the suits take over? – How Bitcoin VC Alyse Killeen’s estimates future developments – Earning bitcoin – fintech for poor people – Bitcoin founders, startups in emerging countries – Stillmark’s portfolio companies
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Jörg Platzer: Insights of the World's First Bitcoin Merchant
Oct 21, 2021
Meet Jörg Platzer, co-founder of Room77 in Berlin, the very first bar in the world to accept bitcoin for beer and burgers in 2011. Bitcoiners from around the world met in the Room, and their discussions sparked dozens of projects and ideas. Jörg’s stories and views about Bitcoin and privacy are refreshing and motivating, he says “The future of Bitcoin is so bright, we’ll need sunglasses” and “Freedom of transaction is a meta human right.”
“I wanted to have Bitcoin, I failed at mining, so why not just put on a sign and accept it.” – Jörg Platzer
“The development of Bitcoin in Germany is a disaster.” – Jörg Platzer
“Altcoins are valuable testnets.” – Jörg Platzer
“Freedom of transaction is a meta human right.” – Jörg Platzer
Topics: – Jörg Platzer’s Bitcoin story – how he realized that Bitcoin is unstoppable – the search for digital cash – how the early Bitcoin community saw Bitcoin – why he closed the Room77 – why Peter Todd was the only one who understood the purpose of Room77 – 2011 you knew everyone who used Bitcoin on the planet – Bitcoin in Germany – no Bitcoin ATM and no exchange in Germany – why Bitcoin start-ups are not incorporating in Germany – Central Bank Digital Currencies are the dystopian surveillance and control nightmare – the beauty of adopting Bitcoin in formerly colonized countries – the poor people have much higher pressure to adopt bitcoin and therefore they will have a bigger advantage – the economic power drives adoption, not privacy – freedom of transaction is a meta human right – atomic swaps between Bitcoin and Monero – the Lightning Network – Bitcoin in El Salvador – Hyperbitcoinization – Bitcoin mining from excess energy – selling energy as exporting goods in form of bitcoin – Black Rock in mining – what defines a crypto anarchist – the vision for Bitcoin – using a Blockstream satellite dish
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Joshua Scigala: Bitcoin and Decentralized Stablecoins
Oct 14, 2021
My guest is a real Bitcoin OG, Joshua Scigala, co-founder of Vaultoro a bitcoin and physical gold trading platform established in 2015. We are talking about the future and current state of Bitcoin, how to hedge against bitcoin’s volatility using gold and his new project the Standard Euro.
Topics: – insights of a Bitcoin OG – current state of Bitcoin – Bitcoin in El Salvador – Lightning Network and other interesting developments – how to hedge between Gold and Bitcoin – future of stablecoins – the Standard Euro and DeFi
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Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar: Bitcoin in Latin America and Rootstock
Oct 07, 2021
My guest is Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar one of the first people to foster and develop Bitcoin and blockchain technology in Latin America starting 2012. He is the CEO of IOV Labs, co-founder of LaBitconf, the first Bitcoin conference in Latin America and the co-founder of Bitcoin Iberoamérica an NGO devoted to Bitcoin education. His goal is to build a more decentralized world for a freer and fairer financial future. Rootstock, a sidechain of Bitcoin that enables smart contracts, is one of these building blocks.
Our topics: – Introduction Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar – Why Bitcoin is needed in Latin America – Uses cases in different regions – El Salvador legal tender law – Rootstock, goals, projects and future – Bitcoin DeFi, NFTs – LaBitconf in November 2021 in El Salvador
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Christian Decker: The Lightning Network and Greenlight Nodes
Sep 30, 2021
My guest is Christian Decker one of the architects of the Lightning Network, a Bitcoin OG and a Core Tech engineer at Blockstream. He wrote the world’s first PhD dissertation about Bitcoin and has been involved in the community since 2009.
Topics: – Introduction Christian Decker – The first eleven years – Growth of the Lightning Network – Privacy on the Lightning Network, Taproot – Hurdles for the adoption of Lightning – Purpose and goals of “Greenlight” – The future of Lightning and Bitcoin
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Jeff Gallas & Rootz: RaspiBlitz and the Speed of Lightning
Sep 23, 2021
My guests are Jeff Gallas and Rootz of Fulmo, an open source company dedicated to the research and development of the Lightning Network. They are the organizers of the Lightning Hackdays and the first Lightning Conference that took place in Berlin in 2019 and are supporters of the RaspiBlitz project, a Lightning and Bitcoin full node.
“If you run a Lightning node you’re a part of replacing the VISA and Mastercard networks.” – Rootz
Topics: 03:17 Introduction Fulmo 11:30 Development of the Lightning Network and the RaspiBlitz 15:00 Adoption rate of the Lightning Network 22:18 Accessibility improvements 27:20 How many payments will be possible on the Lightning Network 33:38 Most exciting Lightning projects 39:39 Why it’s important to run your own node RaspiBlitz integrations, LND and c-lightning 52:10 Resources and RaspiBlitz communities
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Adam Back: Future of Bitcoin and Blockstream
Sep 16, 2021
My guest is Adam Back the inventor of Hashcash, that was used as the proof-of-work method in Bitcoin. His work is cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper as well as in the Tor Browser whitepaper. Adam is a seasoned cryptographer with a PhD in computer science and distributed systems. As co-founder and CEO of Blockstream he is building the infrastructure for the internet of the future.
Topics: – Blockstream’s funding and future plans – Decentralization of mining – Greenlight: Lightning nodes for everyone – how Bitcoin supports green energy – Starlink vs. Blockstream satellites – Bitcoin R & D and innovations in Altcoins – Inflation bug in Bitcoin – Simplicity: Bitcoin smart contracts – Strategies to de-risk ETFs dangers to Bitcoin – How to make more bitcoin out of your bitcoin – DeFi on Bitcoin – What Adam Back is doing in his spare time – The Future of Blockstream and Bitcoin – How Bitcoin has changed Adam Back
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Andreas M. Antonopoulos: Lightning Unleashes Bitcoin
Sep 09, 2021
My guest is Andreas M. Antonopoulos one of the worlds foremost experts on Bitcoin and open blockchains. Andreas is an educator, author of five books and an excellent speaker. His new co-authored book “Mastering the Lightning Network” will be published at the end of 2021. I was especially excited to be able to speak with him in person while we both visited Berlin.
Our topics:
– the state of Bitcoin in 2021 – Taproot and why it’s important for Bitcoin – the battle between regulators and DeFi – staircase of financial sovereignty – future of the Lightning Network – immutability of Bitcoin – what is sound money? Ethereum or Bitcoin – will he write another Altcoin book?
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Team Satoshi: Sports and the Road to Bitcoin
Sep 02, 2021
My guests today are Vitus Zeller and Richard Taylor my team mates at Team Satoshi, a decentralized sports team. We’re talking about the interconnections between Bitcoin and sports and how you can participate in this movement.
– Introduction Vitus and Richard – What is Bitcoin for you? – Why are you active in the Bitcoin space? – What is Team Satoshi and its goal – Bitcoin and sports – where is the connection – How do you stay healthy? Mental fitness – First adventure of Vitus, Satoshi Freeathlon – Road to Bitcoin – Icebathing
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Lyn Alden: Bitcoin for Billions, Not Billionaires
Jul 01, 2021
Lyn Alden is one of the sharpest minds in the bitcoin space, an investment strategist with a background in engineering and finance, Lyn started investing at a young age and made equity research and investing her primary business. She is focusing on value investing with a global macro overlay. Recently she shared the stage at the Bitcoin2021 conference in Miami with Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark on the topic of Bitcoin for billions, not billionaires, which is the core of my work in the Bitcoin space too. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did.
Macro-economic situation 1.5 years into pandemic
Deflation and its effects
Impact of El Salvador’s legal tender bill
Risks and chances for countries following
Emerging countries: debt trap and dependence on USD
Possible solutions for emerging countries
Merits of self-custodied assets for individuals
Thoughts on Bitcoin bans
The Elon Musk effect and bitcoin’s price development
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Meron Estefanos from Eritrea: Bitcoin Can Take Down Dictators
Jun 24, 2021
Meron Estefanos is a Swedish-based Eritrean human rights activist and journalist, who works tirelessly to aid and raise awareness about the plight of Eritrean refugees, who have been kidnapped, tortured, raped and held for ransom in the Sudan and the Sinai. In her efforts to rise up against the dictatorship in Eritrea she is engaging researchers in Ethiopia, who she has been paying with bitcoin. We’re also discussing the fact that Bitcoin can take down dictators and many human rights activists use bitcoin discreetly.
“Bitcoin helps people on the ground as a money transferring method, as an investment and even to topple a dictatorship. In Eritrea 36% of the population survive because of remittances. Banking is controlled by the government, the Hawala system is controlled by the government. The people that give out the money in Eritrea are part of the government and they need the hard currency sent from abroad. If we Eritreans and other African regions fighting dictatorships would start using Bitcoin, we’d take away the power of the government, because without money, they are nothing.” – Meron Estefanos, Human rights activist
Background of Meron Estefanos
General situation in Eritrea
Human rights, living standards
Military service and women’s situation
Journeys and hardships of refugees
Traffickers taking hostages
How Meron got involved
Using bitcoin as a means of payment
Bitcoin compared to Western Union and Hawala
Is there a solution to this horrible situation?
How Meron copes with the depressing stories
How the audience can support refugees and Meron’s work
Donate bitcoin to help Eritrean refugees: bc1qr8v9s5elndezh6r9ff6g20f5kz99pq5hfemfwl
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Bitcoin the last 12 years, bullish signs, trading volume in the last year, reactions towards El Salvador’s decision to make bitcoin legal tender, fake hardware wallets, Blockstream’s Bitcoin strategy.
Read here ▶ https://anitaposch.com/weekly-33 📧️ Subscribe for free ▶ https://anita.link/weekly/ ———- Anita Posch is author of the book (L)earn Bitcoin (July 2021), host of the Anita Posch show 🎧 https://bitcoinundco.com/en/ and Bitcoin advocate and solopreneur. She is a member of the board at Bitcoin Austria – an educational non-profit organization.
Anita translated two volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to German. Her research and activities around Bitcoin are discussed in media all over the world: Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk, What Bitcoin Did podcast, Bayern2, Deutschlandfunk, Radio FM4, and ARD television amongst others. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SUPPORT MY WORK ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ I am an independent content creator, my work is open and free to use. If you value my work and would like to send me a tip, they are always appreciated! 💸 DONATE BITCOIN: https://tallyco.in/AnitaPosch/ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE WITH LIGHTNING: https://tippin.me/@AnitaPosch 😇 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/anitaposch ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RECOMMENDATIONS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔒 BITBOX02 Hardware Wallet: * https://anita.link/bitbox02/ 💳 CARD WALLET – get 20% off with this link: * https://anita.link/cardwallet/ 🔁 BUY BITCOIN: * https://anita.link/coinfinity/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RELATED CONTENT ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▶️ How to get a secure Bitcoin wallet: Blockstream Green Wallet Tutorial https://youtu.be/pP2Q90Jh8_s ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SOCIALS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🐦 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anitaposch 🖼️ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/anitaposch 💼️ LINKEDIN: http://at.linkedin.com/in/anitaposch 🌎 WEBSITE: https://anitaposch.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► The Rest ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Thanks for watching and if you liked this video please leave a 👍🏻 Subscribe to my channel and click the 🔔 icon for notifications when I post a new video.
This video is not financial advice. Do your own research! Links with a * are affiliate links where I earn a small commission. The price for you stays the same!
If you read this far put a 🦡 in the comments! (That’s a honey badger, search for Bitcoin honey badger 😉) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► Tags ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ #Bitcoin #News #ScamAlert
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Samson Mow: Blockstream's Bitcoin Strategy
Jun 17, 2021
In this episode I talk with Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow about Blockstream’s Cypherpunk origins and their far stretching engagement in the Bitcoin space – from their Green and Aqua wallet, to their mining business, the Liquid sidechain and the Blockstream satellites, which enable receiving Bitcoin without the Internet.
Samson Mow’s Bitcoin story
Why Bitcoin is important
Blockstream’s Cypherpunk background
What is Liquid?
Lightning Network and c-lightning
Blockstream Green vs. Aqua wallet
Bitcoin works without the internet – satellites
Blockstream’s mining operations – future of mining
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
A New Bitcoin Epoch - Legal Tender in El Salvador
Jun 11, 2021
What does it mean, that Bitcoin will be legal tender in El Salvador? Taproot will be locked in successfully.
Read here ▶ https://anitaposch.com/weekly-32 📧️ Subscribe for free ▶ https://anita.link/weekly/ ———- Anita Posch is author of the book (L)earn Bitcoin (July 2021), host of the Anita Posch show 🎧 https://bitcoinundco.com/en/ and Bitcoin advocate and solopreneur. She is a member of the board at Bitcoin Austria – an educational non-profit organization.
Anita translated two volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to German. Her research and activities around Bitcoin are discussed in media all over the world: Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk, What Bitcoin Did podcast, Bayern2, Deutschlandfunk, Radio FM4, and ARD television amongst others. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SUPPORT MY WORK ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ I am an independent content creator, my work is open and free to use. If you value my work and would like to send me a tip, they are always appreciated! 💸 DONATE BITCOIN: https://tallyco.in/AnitaPosch/ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE WITH LIGHTNING: https://tippin.me/@AnitaPosch 😇 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/anitaposch ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RECOMMENDATIONS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔒 BITBOX02 Hardware Wallet: * https://anita.link/bitbox02/ 💳 CARD WALLET – get 20% off with this link: * https://anita.link/cardwallet/ 🔁 BUY BITCOIN: * https://anita.link/coinfinity/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RELATED CONTENT ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▶️ How to get a secure Bitcoin wallet: Blockstream Green Wallet Tutorial https://youtu.be/pP2Q90Jh8_s ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SOCIALS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🐦 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anitaposch 🖼️ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/anitaposch 💼️ LINKEDIN: http://at.linkedin.com/in/anitaposch 🌎 WEBSITE: https://anitaposch.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► The Rest ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Thanks for watching and if you liked this video please leave a 👍🏻 Subscribe to my channel and click the 🔔 icon for notifications when I post a new video.
This video is not financial advice. Do your own research! Links with a * are affiliate links where I earn a small commission. The price for you stays the same!
If you read this far put a 🦡 in the comments! (That’s a honey badger, search for Bitcoin honey badger 😉) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► Tags ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ #Bitcoin #News #ElSalvador
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
El Salvador First Country to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender - Bitcoin Beach Improving Lives
Jun 09, 2021
June 9, 2021 a historical moment for Bitcoin. The first country of the world, El Salvador, made Bitcoin officially legal tender. Michael Peterson initiated Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte and started this whole development. I spoke with him two weeks before, he said, he is expecting a country to adopt Bitcoin, but we didn’t know, that it will happen so soon. Listen to the story of Bitcoin Beach and the people of El Salvador.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Bitcoin on the Moon - Last Week in Bitcoin
Jun 04, 2021
So many news this week…
_Taproot on the way _Bitcoin adoption in Zimbabwe _Inflation hits new records _News from China and India _Bitcoin was on the moon _building a permissionless future
Read here ▶ https://anitaposch.com/weekly-31 📧️ Subscribe for free ▶ https://anita.link/weekly/ ———- Anita Posch is author of the book (L)earn Bitcoin (published in July 2021), host of the Anita Posch show 🎧 https://bitcoinundco.com/en/ and Bitcoin advocate and solopreneur. She is a member of the board at Bitcoin Austria – an educational non-profit organization.
Anita translated two volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to German. Her research and activities around Bitcoin are discussed in media all over the world: Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk, What Bitcoin Did podcast, Bayern2, Deutschlandfunk, Radio FM4, and ARD television amongst others. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SUPPORT MY WORK ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ I am an independent content creator, my work is open and free to use. If you value my work and would like to send me a tip, they are always appreciated! 💸 DONATE BITCOIN: https://tallyco.in/AnitaPosch/ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE WITH LIGHTNING: https://tippin.me/@AnitaPosch 😇 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/anitaposch ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RECOMMENDATIONS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔒 BITBOX02 Hardware Wallet: * https://anita.link/bitbox02/ 💳 CARD WALLET – get 20% off with this link: * https://anita.link/cardwallet/ 🔁 BUY BITCOIN: * https://anita.link/coinfinity/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RELATED CONTENT ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▶️ How to get a secure Bitcoin wallet: Blockstream Green Wallet Tutorial https://youtu.be/pP2Q90Jh8_s ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SOCIALS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🐦 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anitaposch 🖼️ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/anitaposch 💼️ LINKEDIN: http://at.linkedin.com/in/anitaposch 🌎 WEBSITE: https://anitaposch.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► The Rest ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Thanks for watching and if you liked this video please leave a 👍🏻 Subscribe to my channel and click the 🔔 icon for notifications when I post a new video.
This video is not financial advice. Do your own research! Links with a * are affiliate links where I earn a small commission. The price for you stays the same!
If you read this far put a 🦡 in the comments! (That’s a honey badger, search for Bitcoin honey badger 😉) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► Tags ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ #Bitcoin #News #Education
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Exiledsurfer: Building a Permissionless Future with Sovryn
Jun 03, 2021
Exiledsurfer is an early Bitcoiner, a Co-founder of Parallele Polis and now part of the communications team of Sovryn a Bitcoin-native DeFi platform. We’re talking about the historical developments and the roots of Bitcoin as a Hippie activists Utopia coming true, the community discussions around the differences between Ethereum and Bitcoin, and who the real enemies of Bitcoin are. Tldr: it’s companies like Coinbase.
exiledsurfer’s Bitcoin story
The Bitcoin Foundation
Early history and different mindsets of the Bitcoin community
Original promises of Bitcoin
Nation state actors coming into mining
21st century paradigm: Government identity vs. cryptographic identities not tied to personal data
Bitcoin’s USP has been confirmed
Bitcoin a Hippie activists utopia
Cypherpunk ethos
Companies like Coinbase are a threat to Bitcoin, not governments
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Last Week in Bitcoin: Keep Calm and Carry On
May 28, 2021
This week’s learnings:
_Bitcoin privacy improvements with Taproot _mining developments in China _solar power is bad? _hodlers hodl _state of the Lightning Network _Bitcoin and new art forms
———- Anita Posch is author of the book (L)earn Bitcoin (published in July 2021), host of the Anita Posch show 🎧 https://bitcoinundco.com/en/ and Bitcoin advocate and solopreneur. She is a member of the board at Bitcoin Austria – an educational non-profit organization.
Anita translated two volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to German. Her research and activities around Bitcoin are discussed in media all over the world: Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk, What Bitcoin Did podcast, Bayern2, Deutschlandfunk, Radio FM4, and ARD television amongst others. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SUPPORT MY WORK ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ I am an independent content creator, my work is open and free to use. If you value my work and would like to send me a tip, they are always appreciated! 💸 DONATE BITCOIN: https://tallyco.in/AnitaPosch/ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE WITH LIGHTNING: https://tippin.me/@AnitaPosch 😇 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/anitaposch ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RECOMMENDATIONS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔒 BITBOX02 Hardware Wallet: * https://anita.link/bitbox02/ 💳 CARD WALLET – get 20% off with this link: * https://anita.link/cardwallet/ 🔁 BUY BITCOIN: * https://anita.link/coinfinity/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RELATED CONTENT ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▶️ How to get a secure Bitcoin wallet: Blockstream Green Wallet Tutorial https://youtu.be/pP2Q90Jh8_s ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SOCIALS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🐦 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anitaposch 🖼️ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/anitaposch 💼️ LINKEDIN: http://at.linkedin.com/in/anitaposch 🌎 WEBSITE: https://anitaposch.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► The Rest ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Thanks for watching and if you liked this video please leave a 👍🏻 Subscribe to my channel and click the 🔔 icon for notifications when I post a new video.
This video is not financial advice. Do your own research! Links with a * are affiliate links where I earn a small commission. The price for you stays the same!
If you read this far put a 🦡 in the comments! (That’s a honey badger, search for Bitcoin honey badger 😉) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► Tags ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ #Bitcoin #News #Education
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Rarescrilla: Bitcoin Enables New Art Forms
May 27, 2021
Rarescrilla is a hip-hop musician and producer, who joined the cryptomusic journey in 2014 and created DJ PEPE in 2016 with a first of its kind access token based on the Counterparty platform, which is extending Bitcoin’s functionality. In 2020 he dropped the “Sound Money” album, a niche hip hop themed bitcoin album. Now he is into programmable music, where the owners of music layers control the output, which makes it living art and music.
Rarescrilla’s Bitcoin journey
First NFTs in 2014? Early days and now?
Impact of current NFT “craze” on the art and music space
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Last Week in Bitcoin: Bitcoin Is on Sale and That's Good
May 21, 2021
This week’s learnings: buy and earn bitcoin now.
_Bitcoin dipping, what’s next? _volatility is good _where Bitcoin is needed the most _Sub-Saharan Africa’s trading volume up in 2021 _Bitcoin, NFTS and the arts _US regulatory crackdown will spur decentralization
———- Anita Posch is author of the book (L)earn Bitcoin (published in July 2021), host of the Anita Posch show 🎧 https://bitcoinundco.com/en/ and Bitcoin advocate and solopreneur. She is a member of the board at Bitcoin Austria – an educational non-profit organization.
Anita translated two volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to German. Her research and activities around Bitcoin are discussed in media all over the world: Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk, What Bitcoin Did podcast, Bayern2, Deutschlandfunk, Radio FM4, and ARD television amongst others. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SUPPORT MY WORK ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ I am an independent content creator, my work is open and free to use. If you value my work and would like to send me a tip, they are always appreciated! 💸 DONATE BITCOIN: https://tallyco.in/AnitaPosch/ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE WITH LIGHTNING: https://tippin.me/@AnitaPosch 😇 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/anitaposch ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RECOMMENDATIONS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔒 BITBOX02 Hardware Wallet: * https://anita.link/bitbox02/ 💳 CARD WALLET – get 20% off with this link: * https://anita.link/cardwallet/ 🔁 BUY BITCOIN: * https://anita.link/coinfinity/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RELATED CONTENT ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▶️ How to get a secure Bitcoin wallet: Blockstream Green Wallet Tutorial https://youtu.be/pP2Q90Jh8_s ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SOCIALS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🐦 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anitaposch 🖼️ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/anitaposch 💼️ LINKEDIN: http://at.linkedin.com/in/anitaposch 🌎 WEBSITE: https://anitaposch.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► The Rest ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Thanks for watching and if you liked this video please leave a 👍🏻 Subscribe to my channel and click the 🔔 icon for notifications when I post a new video.
This video is not financial advice. Do your own research! Links with a * are affiliate links where I earn a small commission. The price for you stays the same!
If you read this far put a 🦡 in the comments! (That’s a honey badger, search for Bitcoin honey badger 😉) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► Tags ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ #Bitcoin #News #Education
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Adam B. Levine: Bitcoin, NFTs and the Arts
May 20, 2021
My guest is Adam B. Levine the managing editor for podcasts at Coindesk, and host of the longest-running English language talk show about Bitcoin called “Speaking of Bitcoin” (formerly known as Let’s Talk Bitcoin). I appreciate Adam’s work a lot, I have been an avid listener of his podcast for many years. Adam is also the CEO of tokenly.com, has minted some NFTs and had Metakovan on his show, who bought Beeple’s NFT for $ 69 million – the most expensive NFT sold at an auction so far. Our topic is NFTs and how they are going to shape the art world of the future.
“The value of the key is not how it looks like, it’s what it does.” – Adam B. Levine about NFTs
Adam B. Levine’s podcasting and Bitcoin story
Why Metakovan paid $69 Mio. for Beeple’s NFT
Advantages and responsibility of being your own bank
Technology adoption
Democratization of art and gatekeepers
Technological problems to be solved
How to mint a NFT
Tezos, Mintable, Rarible, Nifty gateway
Artists revenue split and rewards
The new renaissance and the Medici patronage model
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Last Week in Bitcoin: The Eco-Narrative Against Bitcoin and Why It Doesn't Use Proof-of-Stake
May 14, 2021
With this week’s Tesla dismissing Bitcoin for its energy use and at the same time Elon Musk pumping the joke currency Doge another level of hypocrisy has been reached. We’re looking into why Elon Musk suddenly dismisses Bitcoin, how Tesla’s income relying on renewable energy credits, Elon Musk pumping Doge, and why Bitcoin doesn’t change to proof-of-stake?
Read here ▶ https://anitaposch.com/weekly-28 📧️ Subscribe for free ▶ https://anita.link/weekly/ ———- Anita Posch is author of the book (L)earn Bitcoin (published in July 2021), host of the Anita Posch show 🎧 https://bitcoinundco.com/en/ and Bitcoin advocate and solopreneur. She is a member of the board at Bitcoin Austria – an educational non-profit organization.
Anita translated two volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to German. Her research and activities around Bitcoin are discussed in media all over the world: Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk, What Bitcoin Did podcast, Bayern2, Deutschlandfunk, Radio FM4, and ARD television amongst others. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SUPPORT MY WORK ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ I am an independent content creator, my work is open and free to use. If you value my work and would like to send me a tip, they are always appreciated! 💸 DONATE BITCOIN: https://tallyco.in/AnitaPosch/ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE WITH LIGHTNING: https://tippin.me/@AnitaPosch 😇 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/anitaposch ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RECOMMENDATIONS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔒 BITBOX02 Hardware Wallet: * https://anita.link/bitbox02/ 💳 CARD WALLET – get 20% off with this link: * https://anita.link/cardwallet/ 🔁 BUY BITCOIN: * https://anita.link/coinfinity/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RELATED CONTENT ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▶️ How to get a secure Bitcoin wallet: Blockstream Green Wallet Tutorial https://youtu.be/pP2Q90Jh8_s ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SOCIALS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🐦 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anitaposch 🖼️ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/anitaposch 💼️ LINKEDIN: http://at.linkedin.com/in/anitaposch 🌎 WEBSITE: https://anitaposch.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► The Rest ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Thanks for watching and if you liked this video please leave a 👍🏻 Subscribe to my channel and click the 🔔 icon for notifications when I post a new video.
This video is not financial advice. Do your own research! Links with a * are affiliate links where I earn a small commission. The price for you stays the same!
If you read this far put a 🦡 in the comments! (That’s a honey badger, search for Bitcoin honey badger 😉) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► Tags ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ #Bitcoin #News #Dogecoin
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Gabriel Shipton: Defend Julian Assange, Defend Free Internet
May 13, 2021
This episode was recorded on World Press Freedom Day 2021, the perfect date for a conversation with Gabriel Shipton, half-brother of Julian Assange. We are talking about the current state of Julian, who is the first publisher charged under the US espionage act and is awaiting further trials locked up in Belmarsh high security prison, the connections between WikiLeaks, journalism and Bitcoin and why and how Bitcoiners can support Julian’s case.
The current state of Julian Assange
WikiLeaks and the history of the charges
The US against Julian Assange
No extradition from the UK, but Belmarsh prison
WikiLeaks achievements
The blocking of WikiLeaks bank connections
Bitcoin and WikiLeaks
Press Freedom, quo vadis?
No free internet without WikiLeaks and Bitcoin
Call for support and donations
The prosecution of Julian Assange can be stopped, but we need your help. An easy way you can do something is by donating as much bitcoin as you can afford through our portal at the below link. Our goal is to raise 40 bitcoin to pay for the appeal and associated campaigning. Donations are totally legal/tax deductible and are made through the Germany-based not-for-profit Wau Holland Foundation.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Last Week in Bitcoin: Don't Mess with Bitcoin
May 07, 2021
Don’t mess with Bitcoin, the most interesting stories in Bitcoin: _Bitcoin empowers Zimbabweans _Buckminster Fullers’ energy and wealth vision _Iran trying to regulate mining _censored mining _mining more decentralized _Taproot activation _Buffett and Munger yelling at Bitcoin _DeFi on Bitcoin _global adoption of Bitcoin
Read here ▶ https://anitaposch.com/weekly-27 📧️ Subscribe for free ▶ https://anita.link/weekly/ ———- Anita Posch is author of the book (L)earn Bitcoin (will be published in July 2021), host of the Anita Posch show 🎧 https://bitcoinundco.com/en/ and Bitcoin advocate and solopreneur. She is a member of the board at Bitcoin Austria – an educational non-profit organization.
Anita translated two volumes of “The Internet of Money” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to German. Her research and activities around Bitcoin are discussed in media all over the world: Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk, Bayern2, Deutschlandfunk, Radio FM4, and ARD television amongst others. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SUPPORT MY WORK ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ I am an independent content creator, my work is open and free to use. If you value my work and would like to send me a tip, they are always appreciated! 💸 DONATE BITCOIN: https://tallyco.in/AnitaPosch/ ☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE WITH LIGHTNING: https://tippin.me/@AnitaPosch 😇 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/anitaposch ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RECOMMENDATIONS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔒 BITBOX02 Hardware Wallet: * https://anita.link/bitbox02/ 💳 CARD WALLET – get 20% off with this link: * https://anita.link/cardwallet/ 🔁 BUY BITCOIN: * https://anita.link/coinfinity/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► RELATED CONTENT ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▶️ How to get a secure Bitcoin wallet: Blockstream Green Wallet Tutorial https://youtu.be/pP2Q90Jh8_s ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► SOCIALS ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🐦 TWITTER: https://twitter.com/anitaposch 🖼️ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/anitaposch 💼️ LINKEDIN: http://at.linkedin.com/in/anitaposch 🌎 WEBSITE: https://anitaposch.com ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► The Rest ◀︎▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Thanks for watching and if you liked this video please leave a 👍🏻 Subscribe to my channel and click the 🔔 icon for notifications when I post a new video.
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Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Miss Aurra: Bitcoin Empowers Zimbabweans
May 06, 2021
My guest is Miss Aurra from Harare, Zimbabwe. I got to know her at the beginning of 2020, when I visited Zimbabwe to research the possibilities and the use of Bitcoin in the country. In May 2020 we started a donation campaign for the school that Miss Aurra is leading. It had to be closed down due to Covid and the school lost its building. We are discussing the difficult living situation in Zimbabwe and how Bitcoin has been helping through your donations.
Who is Miss Aurra?
Living conditions
Economical situation in Zimbabwe
Problems in getting money in and out of the country
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Anita Posch: How Bitcoin Supports Democracy
Apr 29, 2021
The Central European Affairs podcast featured Anita Posch in an interview by Balasz Csekö about different aspects of Bitcoin, how blockchain is revolutionizing the global financial system, how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can help overcome Big Brother, and why every regulatory plan makes Bitcoin stronger.
Civitas Institute is a European knowledge center created for the purpose of promoting European democracy and European integration through analyses and debates in the widest possible societal groups, without ideological bias but with a firm belief in pluralistic democracy and freedom.
Topics:
Anita Posch’s Bitcoin story
How Bitcoin can promote democracy
Blockchain revolutionizing the global financial system
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Alex Gladstein: Bitcoin a Trojan Horse for Freedom
Apr 22, 2021
My guest is Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded it 2005. We talk about how Bitcoin helps to defend human rights and promote liberal democracy. Alex is also the Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009 and a co-author of “The Little Bitcoin Book”.
Topics:
Alex Gladstein’s Bitcoin story
Bitcoin’s importance as a human rights tool
Mainstream media causing damage
Savings instrument and unstoppable payment network
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
My guest is Franco Amati, founder of Bitcoin Argentina and member of laBitconf – the biggest Bitcoin conference in Latin America, the Bitcoin embassy Buenos Aires, and Bitcoin Iberoamérica foundation. We are discussing the importance of Bitcoin for the people of Argentina, who have to deal with harsh capital controls that allow them to only buy foreign currency up to 200 USD per month with 65% tax and an inflation of 50%.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Shermin Voshmgir: The Web 3 and Token Revolution
Apr 08, 2021
I sat down with Shermin Voshmgir, a researcher and author of “Token Economy” to discuss the hype around NFTs and how in the future every part of the economy will be merged into crypto. Shermin is the founder of Token Kitchen and BlockchainHub Berlin. On a personal sidenote: in early 2017 Shermin’s keynote about Bitcoin and open blockchains spurred my attention and deepened my interest to work in that field.
“You can’t run a decentralized network like a centralized company.” – Shermin Voshmgir
Topics:
Token definition
Potential use-cases
Identity and Web 3.0
Thoughts on regulation of DeFi
Why the real economy and financial markets will merge
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Jonathan Chester: Get Paid in Bitcoin
Apr 01, 2021
My guest is Jonathan Chester, he is the CEO and Founder of Bitwage, a company that enables employees and remote workers worldwide to get paid in Bitcoin. We discuss how individuals can earn their wage in bitcoin, what the advantages are, the details of their 401k retirement plans, and when public adoption of Bitcoin could feasibly take place.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Edan Yago: Sovereignty Through Bitcoin
Mar 25, 2021
Edan Yago is a neuroscientist and entrepreneur who turned his career around to focus on Bitcoin. He has been pivotal in establishing Sovryn one of the first Bitcoin-native DeFi platforms. We’re talking about how a decentralized bitcoin trading and lending platform like Sovryn will create a new, open economic system that empowers individuals globally.
Topics:
Why Edan Yago lived in a closet
Why Bitcoin matters
Advantages of Bitcoin DeFi to other blockchains
NFTs are silly, but…
The future of finance and self-sovereignty
How decentralized lending works
Sovryn’s mission and innovations
Governance without company structures
“The people that Bitcoiners hate the most are, shitcoiners, altcoiners, that’s not really the enemy they are basically a gateway into the crypto space and in particular into the Bitcoin space. The real enemies I think, are going to be the centralized intermediaries to whom we give up our power. It’s going to be the large exchanges, the lending platforms, the custodian platforms, because what their regulators are going help them is to persuade you that for convenience or for security, you should give up your Bitcoin. So that the only interesting property of Bitcoin, which is the sovereignty or self control is something you’d give up. And then if you’re distracted by the price gains, you won’t even notice.” – Edan Yago
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Abe Cambridge: Invest in Solar Powered Bitcoin
Mar 18, 2021
My guest is Abe Cambridge, the founder and CEO of Sun Exchange, the world’s first peer-to-peer solar leasing platform. We’re discussing how to transition the world away from fossil fuels and towards solar power, the most deployable, affordable and accessible type of renewable energy. In combination with a decentralized money like Bitcoin it is possible to open up owning solar cells and earning from it to anyone for as little as 5 USD. Abraham Cambridge has an academic background in climate change science. Through his studies, it became alarmingly clear that climate change presents the most imminent threat to humanity.
“Sun Exchange allows micro ownership of the solar panels. And there were children in the Stellenbosch Waldorf school who were purchased solar panels by their parents. And they’re earning Bitcoin once per month from them. So you’ve got kids who are growing up, earning Bitcoin, powering their own school and know that solar energy works.” – Abe Cambridge
2. The #Bitcoin network mines 900 BTC per day from 0.213 TWh of energy. 900 BTC can finance 70MW of solar power plant. 70MW of solar will generate 2.651 TWh of electricity. That's 12 times as much energy as it took to mine the BTC in the first place, which still exists. #Magic.
3. Spend 0.5% of the #bitcoin market cap on 51.85 GWp of solar power, and you'll meet the annual 77.782 TWh energy needs of the #bitcoin mining network. #letsdoitalready
Sun Exchange – peer-to-peer solar leasing platform
How it works, achievements
Future of solar power, costs, efficiency
Bitcoin mining – an ecological problem?
Nhimbe Fresh, the biggest crowdfunding in Africa so far
“The fact is that solar panels are silicon chips that produce electricity, which can be sold for money. And Bitcoin is just a silicon chip that produces money when it’s fed with electricity. So they’re really very parallel things. And the fact that the solar energy network is decentralized, it’s embedded, anybody can become a solar power generator or producer, and likewise, anyone can join a Bitcoin mining pool and start to create their own currency will hold a Bitcoin wallet and be their own bank. These two worlds are really parallel with each other. They are symbols off of the 21st century. As we see it.” – Abe Cambridge
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Sébastien Gouspillou: Bitcoin Mining Funds Green Energy
Mar 11, 2021
My guest is Sébastien Gouspillou, he is the Co-Founder and CEO of BigBlock Datacenter a Bitcoin mining company based in France. BigBlock Datacenter is running several mining farms in Russia, Central Asia, and Africa. His mission is to qualify France in the world competition of proof-of-work. We are going deep into the business and the ecological effects of Bitcoin mining.
“Since bitcoin responds to a major need and is there to last, it seems more relevant to take advantage of this new electrical demand than to be afraid with catastrophic studies or to wait for a miracle protocol supposed to replace the proven principle of proof of work.” – Sébastien Gouspillou
“Each country with big not carbonated electricity resources will mine and have an economical advantage over other countries.” – Sébastien Gouspillou
Topics:
How Sébastien Gouspillou became a Bitcoin miner
Addressing climate change
Debunking myths around Bitcoin mining
Myth 1: One transaction produces X CO2
Myth 2: Bitcoin is an ecological disaster
Myth 3: Bitcoin is mined mainly with coal in China
Myth 4: Bitcoin is not useful
Mining in the Virunga National Park, Kongo
Mining in Kazakhstan
Bitcoin hash rate follows the price
Abstract / Transcript
There are some climate change deniers in the Bitcoin space. What is your opinion on climate change?
Climate change is indisputable, we can already clearly see its effects in certain countries where we work. In Tajikistan, Kazakhstan or Russia. In Tajikistan, the whole ecosystem is disrupted, many storms are following one another. In Kazakhstan, temperatures are rising twice as fast as in the rest of the world. We have very high temperatures during the longer and longer summer. In Siberia, we had several hot months in 2020. Those Bitcoin guys who deny climate change seem to have never visited these countries.
How did you find out about Bitcoin? When did you hear about it first?
My associate, Jen François, who is a geek and also my oldest friend, told me about it in 2010 or 2011, at the very beginning. He has tried unsuccessfully to get my attention to the subject for years. I really started to realize what bitcoin was in 2015. In 2016 we installed the first rigs.
What attracted you to work in the Bitcoin space?
I had the chance to visit mining farms in Asia at the end of 2015, it really impressed me, and I knew that was what I wanted to do …
What is the most interesting property or characteristic of Bitcoin in your opinion, that sets it apart from all other monies or payment systems?
It’s just the best monetary system mankind could dream of. We are very close to a perfect currency, we touch the ideal of many monetarists Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, or Maurice Allais, not only from the Austrian school of economics.
You were invited to speak in front of the Cryptocurrencies Information Commission of the French national assembly on 22 May 2018 to speak about the importance of cryptocurrencies and especially of mining in France. You were there to discuss these very common myths or false assumptions about mining
Myth #1: A single bitcoin transaction produces X amount of CO2?
This tale of consumption per transaction is irrelevant. We agree that the great performance of the Bitcoin blockchain is the immutability of its data. Bitcoin is consuming energy to enable exactly this functionality. Bitcoin mining secures the blockchain, independently from the number of transactions. Bitcoin is not only a payment system.
If I pay you with a gold coin, a Louis, for example, it’s a peer to peer transaction, no middleman. The transaction itself does not directly spend energy. But there is a lot of energy spent in extracting, transporting, storing and securing gold stocks in banks and central banks. If we include it in the calculation, this payment with a louis d’or will have cost more than the consumption of electricity for an American family for 6 months. I can do the same reasoning with the Visa credit card: if I pay you in EURO with my Visa card, it is not only the energy requested by Visa that is taken into account to calculate the energy expenditure of this transaction, but the whole Euro monetary system. That is to say the salaries of central bankers and private bank bosses, their cost of printing money by credit, with all the energy spent to repay this loan and its interest. The environmental cost of this monetary system is obviously not proportional to the number of Visa transactions. It’s the same for bitcoin and I can prove it: during large transaction peaks on the Bitcoin network, there is not more consumption than the day before or the next day. To talk about energy cost per transaction on bitcoin, is not relevant.
Myth #2 Bitcoin power consumption is an ecological disaster
For people who do not see the how Bitcoin makes sense, it is totally useless and therefore, they say it consumes too much. But it doesn’t make it an ecological disaster. Who ever said Christmas lights were an ecological disaster? Electronic devices on standby consume more than bitcoin, they are useless, it’s pure waste, we know, we take offense, but who qualifies it as an ecological disaster? Searching a little, I find tons of examples of unnecessary activity for me consuming as much or more than bitcoin. So, no, disaster, I refute, obviously. But the important thing is not so much how much energy consumed, but which energy is consumed? Today, Bitcoin farms are where there is excess capacity to generate electricity; this production may or may not be carbonated. But tomorrow, bitcoin mining will be done mostly from clean sources, that’s for sure, because renewable energy producers can sell their surplus at a very low price, because it’s just a surplus. Hydrocarbon power plants can have the capacity to produce more, but they have no surplus, unlike renewable energies. If they want to sell energy to miners, they have to produce it and buy coal to do so. But renewables have a decisive competitive advantage, they do not have to pay for their raw material. The price of hydrocarbons is increasing, the only miners who will use them in the long term will be the countries producing coal and oil.
Myth #3 Bitcoin is mined mainly with coal in China
It’s a tale: China is the biggest mining country, yes; China’s energy mix is 65% carbon, yes. But it is not on coal plants that mining is mainly done, it is on hydroelectric stations. In Sichuan alone, there are more than 500 hydroelectric dams; it is also tens of thousands of small run-of-river power plants. Their surplus would be enough to power 4 additional bitcoin networks. So, no, Bitcoin is not charcoal black.
Myth #4 Bitcoin is not useful, but what about the Petrodollar, the cost of military defense and war?
Bitcoin is not only useful, it is essential: it is already a counter-power against States tempted to do total surveillance of populations by currency (CBDC); it is a way to escape the yoke of dictators (35% of the world population lives under an authoritarian government) and to offer financial services to 40% of the world population that the banking system ignores.
How will mining participate in the transition to green energy transition?
It’s simple; today, all renewable projects are subsidized. Despite these efforts by the States, the profitability of these factories is not obvious, it often takes a long time to find an economic balance. Mining offers another form of subsidy to green producers. With crypto-mining, sustainable productions reduce energy waste. It should be understood that the creation of a sustainable power plant has an environmental costs. But once built, having them run at 100% rather than 50% is neutral …
Today, the bitcoin mining becomes a regulator of the electricity of a country, of a region, it will soon be an optimizer of global production-distribution. Imagine the paradigm shift for “green” electricity producers, when miners tell them: whatever your production, there is now a customer of last resort: at any time be it cold or hot, summer or winter, I will buy from you the part of your production that until then you have not been able to value. Help the renewable energy sector is the way that governments have chosen; Bitcoin mining does exactly the same…
What about the halvings and the reduction of mined coins…Nic Carter thinks that the hashpower will get lower, when no more new bitcoin are left to mine and mining is financed by transaction fees only, and therefore the electricity consumption will fall.
This part of Nic Carter’s speech is not clear to me. In my opinion, the hashrate will continue to rise and will only stabilize when the price of bitcoin is stabilized. But that does not necessarily imply an increase in electricity consumption, the energy improvement of equipment also comes into play.
Where are BigBlockDatacenter’s mining facilities?
Russia, Central Asia, Africa
Mining somewhere in Africa
In the Kongo you are mining in Virunga National Park, what is this project about?
Virunga National Park plays an important role in offsetting carbon emissions. The park and plantations in the province are second only to the Amazon in terms of total forest area, according to the W.W.F.
In 2014 a small hydroelectric power plant was built with an investment from the European Union. Another hydroelectric plant — funded largely by Howard Buffett, a son of the billionaire businessman Warren Buffett — began operating 2015 on the southern edge of Virunga.
The battle of the park director is gigantic: 5 million people live around the park; the primary energy is charcoal, the demand for wood is enormous. In fact, poaching in the park is systematic. The only way to curb this deforestation is to offer the people an alternative. Creating power plants to be able to bring electricity to the population is just essential… We are mining there to help this project as long as we are useful. We have this kind of operation in 5 African countries. The only way to provide electricity to people who do not have it is to create new small decentralized networks. These networks can be helped by mining, which subsidizes the power stations, a lot. The farm has been in operation since September 2020.
Is it not too hot in the Kongo to mine?
On the equator, the climate is mild and the temperature, stable, rarely reaches 30 degrees. That is ok. We have more problems when it is too cold. At -20 degrees the mining rigs freeze, when they come to a halt.
Irkutsk (Russia) On Irkutsk, we work with Baikal Mining, it’s not our farm. We are just lodged.
Kazhakhstan
We arrived in Kazakhstan in 2018, mining was still confidential there. Interestingly, the government now prefers to sell the overcapacity to miners rather than to the Russian state; in fact, huge farms were created in this country in 2019-2020, with the approval of the authorities. We are still present there, but our developments are elsewhere, now.
Why are you mining bitcoin only?
Why does the gold miner not mine for copper? We believe in bitcoin, we mine bitcoin, that’s it.
Can I as a private person participate in mining? Or only companies?
Investing in mining is not recommended for beginners; I see that a lot of people, crypto connoisseurs, don’t understand anything about mining, so imagine the level of understanding among new entrants … beyond this knowledge aspect, anyone can become a customer, individual or company. To mine, you must want to participate in securing the Bitcoin network, to become an active player. If the only goal is to make money, just buy Bitcoin and keep it 5 years.
How are you selling your bitcoin? By Kraken or other Bitcoin marketplaces.
What is the impact of a halving on miners? A lot of them need to shut down, because they are not profitable anymore. Same in a bear market.
A often raised question is: is the bitcoin price following the hash rate or hash rate following the price?
The hashrate follows the price; the contrary is absolutely not true, it is a fundamental error from many analysts. The price of Bitcoin is based on supply and demand, that’s all. Mining does not make the price, in any case. If the price falls and falls, the cost of mining is also falling, because miners need to stay profitable. Hashing difficulty would fall, meaning less electricity is needed to mine.
The geopolitical impact of mining? Each country with big not carbonated electricity resources will mine and have an economical advantage over other countries.
How did the use and your explorations of bitcoin change your behavior or your perspective of life?
Above all it gave me a lot of hope; Before I got to Bitcoin, I thought a lot about how the world works, about this fast growing economy for decades that was unable to lift the masses out of great poverty, while shamelessly enriching the few privileged. I came to the conclusion that the problem was monetary. From then on, Bitcoin is carrying a lot of hope, it is a promise of a better world.
What do most people overlook, when they talk about bitcoin? What are you missing in the public discourse about it?
People in Europe, in the West in general, forget that they have banks, they have democratic and benevolent governments, this is not the case everywhere around the world, and it also may not last here.
If I were to buy an ad on all social media platforms and you can decide on the short message that we are pushing into the world, what would it say? What do you want people to know?
Do you want to resist? Give yourself the means to leave the system, ask to be paid in Bitcoin.
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Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert: The 220k Bitcoin Orange Pill
Mar 03, 2021
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert are preaching Bitcoin in the Keiser Report since 2011. The Report is broadcasted on RT to a global audience. The YouTube channel has 4.1 million subscribers. In 2020 the dynamic couple started their own show, the Orange Pill Podcast. Max Keiser has made a bold price prediction for Bitcoin in 2021, he says it will reach 220,000 USD. I am asking him, why he thinks that this will be the case and how to assess the value of Bitcoin. We are talking about Stacy and Max’s background and why Max left Wall Street to become a financial anarchist.
“Bitcoin will eat all capital markets.” – Max Keiser
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Philippe Bekhazi: Bitcoin Mining in Practice
Feb 25, 2021
My guest is Philippe Bekhazi, he is the CEO of XBTO Group a company active in market-making, OTC trading, venture capital, and Bitcoin and Ethereum mining. Our main topic is Bitcoin mining. XBTO Group is runnning a mining facility that is powered by electricity generated from Niagara Falls. Philippe Bekhazi is also the CEO of Stablehouse a regulated market-leading stablecoin platform bridging centralized and decentralized finance enabling payments, foreign exchange, trading and treasury for people and institutions.
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Jameson Lopp: Bitcoin Mining and Censorship
Feb 18, 2021
My guest is Jameson Lopp, he calls himself a professional cypherpunk. His mission is to use his skills as a technologist to build tools that empower individuals. Our topic is nicely called “clean” mining or to say it in a more distinct way: censored mining. Is this an attack on Bitcoin and what are the possible strategies and outcomes? Jameson is the Co-founder & CTO of Casa a company dedicated to helping you to secure your bitcoin. It’s the second time that Jameson is my guest, listen to our previous interview here.
Topics:
Government friendly mining or an attack on Bitcoin?
Geo-political aspects, US hegemony
Bitcoin mining explainer and definition of miners
Tools used: KYC-ing miners and censoring transactions
Possible outcomes? Worst case scenario
Counteracting: Game theory, economics, technical aspects
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Ben Arc: Building Bitcoin DIY Hardware and Software
Feb 11, 2021
My guest is Ben Arc from Wales. He is a FOSS hobbyist, advocate, and educator. FOSS stands for Free Open Source Software. Ben has been building hardware and software for Bitcoin and the Lightning Network since around 2014. We are talking about the Welsh Bitcoin scene and his projects like Bowser, a DIY Hardware Wallet, lnbits or the Nostr messaging client, which could enable completely decentralized markets and social media apps.
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My guest is Farooq Ahmed, President of the Bitcoin Association Pakistan. Pakistan is a country of over 200 million people, between Afghanistan and India. I recently released interviews with Fereshteh Forough and Sunny Ray about those countries as well. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading is banned in Pakistan at the moment, nonetheless the use of Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining is rising.
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Sunny Ray: Bitcoin's Win vs. India's Central Bank
Jan 28, 2021
My guest is Sunny Ray, he is a co-founder at Unocoin which is the first and leading bitcoin platform in India serving 1.5 million people. Sunny’s family stems from India and while he is spending most of the time living in Toronto, Canada he learned a lot about different cultures and their special ways to approach money and Bitcoin.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
0:01:00 Introduction 0:03:40 If you had to specify your options for preferred exchange, cold storage wallet, hardware wallet, software wallet, multi sig wallet – which would you choose and why? 0:09:21 Software wallets 0:12:15 Counter arguments to custodial wallets 0:16:50 Cold storage/paper wallets 0:24:10 Finding a buyer for your Bitcoin: When I want to sell Bitcoins which I have in my wallet. Do I have to find a buyer or can I just exchange them anytime without any issue? Thanks 0:29:45 What kind of price behavior of bitcoin do you expect in this bull run – how high will it go, how much will it fall given the new players entering the market. 0:34:50 At what price level in this bull run will you start to reduce BTC exposure and to what percentage of your investment portfolio. 0:40:44 Which other cryptocurrencies do you own/trade. Which projects do you believe in? 0:43:35 Ledger breach: Your recommendations regarding ledger breach: how to set up a burner phone and a burner e-mail address? 0:50:45 Which exchange do you trust. Which online Crypto-Broker is viable? I checked some experience reports for Bitpanda, etoro and Swissquote and there was a lot of negative statements. 0:54:33 Can I buy Ethereum with the green wallet too? If not, what can I use? 0:56:17 What if the wallet software company closes down? 0:57:30 In the news
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Fereshteh Forough: Bitcoin in Afghanistan
Jan 21, 2021
My guest is Fereshteh Forough, she is the founder of “Code to Inspire”, which is the first coding school for women in Afghanistan. We will be talking about her journey and her learning’s from being a refugee, the general situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which is one of the least developed nations in the world and of course about Bitcoin in Afghanistan and how it is used to support the female students of “Code to Inspire”.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Derek Muhney: The Business of Bitcoin ATMs
Jan 14, 2021
My guest is Derek Muhney, Director of Marketing & Strategy at CoinSource the largest Bitcoin ATM network in the world. We are discussing the impact the 2020 pandemic is having on their business, about how Bitcoin ATMs work, and Bitcoin’s future from his perspective.
Topics:
Derek’s personal Bitcoin story
Coinsource’s company development
Impact of the pandemic
Volume of transactions and users
How does a Bitcoin ATM work from the user perspective
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Desiree Dickerson, Ryan Gentry: Lightning is Bitcoin
Jan 07, 2021
My guests are Desiree Dickerson and Ryan Gentry. They are working for one of the – in my eyes – hottest companies in the Bitcoin space. Lightning Labs was founded in 2016 by Elizabeth Stark and Olaoluwa Osuntokun. The Lightning Network is a second layer protocol on top of the Bitcoin network. We will be talking about the Lightning Network, what it is and what it is enabling, their most interesting products and about their outlook for the Lightning Network in 2021.
Our topics:
Their personal Bitcoin stories
Areas where Bitcoin is important today
What is LND (Lightning Network Daemon)?
The development of the Lightning Network since its start
Building through quarantine
Growing number of apps and Lightning services
Lightning Pool, Lightning Loop
Streaming money and Podcasting 2.0
Lightning Network in 2021
Atomic multipath payments
Kraken integrating Lightning
Does Lightning Labs hold Bitcoin as company asset
“The Lightning gaming community or Bitcoin gaming community, it’s actually a bunch of people who’ve never, ever owned Bitcoin, or don’t really know much about Bitcoin at all, are coming to these games. Cause they’re like, Oh, Hey, I can have fun. And I can earn this asset that everybody’s talking about. And so we’re actually onboarding a ton of new users to Bitcoin directly through these Lightning games. The growth is incredible. Just at the last e-sports tournament that we hosted there was, I think there were almost up to 15,000 transactions just during two hours.” – Desiree Dickerson
“A Lightning balance and a Bitcoin balance, will be viewed in the future as like having a checking account and a savings account. It’s just that your money that’s in your lightning balance is much easier and more accessible to be sent and paid for stuff. And it’s very cheap. It’s very quick. It works really well. And you don’t have to ask permission or wait for the bank to be open.” – Ryan Gentry
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Andreas M. Antonopoulos: Bitcoin Outlook 2021
Dec 31, 2020
My guest is Andreas M. Antonopoulos, who has been one of my biggest inspirations on my Bitcoin journey. We are discussing Bitcoin, the ultimate fairness system, why we need to strengthen privacy now, and his outlook for 2021. His talks have been inspiring and ensuring that is the space where my personal values and ethics find a place to work on something that is bigger than me, where I can contribute to changing the world to become a better place. Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a bitcoin and open blockchains educator, he coined the terms “Not your keys, not your coins” and “streaming money” and is the author of Mastering Bitcoin, the Internet of Money series and is currently working on the book Mastering the Lightning Network.
Our topics:
Bitcoin, the fairness protocol
The danger of changes to the consensus protocol
Good bitcoin addresses, bad bitcoin addresses
The propaganda of self-hosted wallets
Fight for privacy
Taproot activation, Schnorr signatures
Doing Coinjoins, Wasabi, Samourai wallet
Outlook for the Lightning Network 2021
Kraken implementing Lightning
Phoenix, Breeze, Strike wallets
Macro-outlook for Bitcoin in 2021
“Resisting isn’t something that you do by breaking the law. Resisting is something you do by innovating to make the law irrelevant, obsolete, and ridiculous. Right. So how do you do that? By implementing consensus changes to the protocol, that strengthen privacy faster than they make changes. We need to strengthen privacy now, and fight back.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“If you see too much drama happening around the price, switch your focus. It always works for me. Go back into the technology. Focus on education. There’s billionaires on Twitter and on TV going: blahblahblahblahblah. Turn them off.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
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Chris Tramount: Bitcoin Art, A New Renaissance
Dec 24, 2020
My guest is Chris Tramount. He is the co-founder of Scarce.City an online marketplace for Bitcoin-related art and collectibles. We are discussing the possibilities to auction and verify digital art with Bitcoin and Lightning, and how this can enable a new Renaissance and completely new art forms.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Jukka Blomberg: LocalBitcoins in Latin America
Dec 17, 2020
My guest is Jukka Blomberg, Chief Marketing Officer at LocalBitcoins, the biggest peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace in the world. With 6 million customers and operations in 189 countries LocalBitcoins is a global company with insights into the development of the Bitcoin space for every continent. We discuss the trading volume of Bitcoin in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and the different use-cases for Bitcoin in different regions of the world.
Topics:
Investing in stocks in China compared to Bitcoin
What makes Bitcoin special
Bitcoin in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina
LocalBitcoins’ trading volumes 2020
What are the important trends that are emerging in the world of cryptocurrency?
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Nicolas Dorier: Be Your Own Bank with BTCPay
Dec 10, 2020
Nicolas Dorier is a decentralized systems software developer and open-source advocate. He has been active in the Bitcoin community since 2014 and has contributed to several Bitcoin projects, including Bitcoin Core, before founding BTCPayServer, an open-source payment processor used by thousands of merchants globally. He is also the co-founder of METACO, a provider of security-critical infrastructure for financial institutions.
Topics:
Nicolas’ background as a Bitcoin and open-source advocate
Why he founded BTCPayserver
The features for merchants using BTCPay
BTCPay as a donation tool
Business model of BTCPay, paying developers
His learnings while developing BTCPay
Life and Bitcoin in Japan
Bitcoin replacing cash?
Streaming money with Sphinx chat and integration of podcasts
How to convert Bitcoin to Fiat without selling
Discreet log contracts
METACO working with central banks and altcoins
This is lies, my trust in you is broken, I will make you obsolete
“This is lies, my trust in you is broken, I will make you obsolete.” Nicolas’ famous words towards the centralized services of BitPay that were the beginning of working on BTCPayServer.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Nigerian Feminist Coalition: Bitcoin Is Power
Dec 03, 2020
I am thrilled to have Damilola Odufuwa and Ire Aderinokun Co-Founders of the Nigerian Feminist Coalition as my guests today.
If you are following the developments in Africa, then you have heard of the #EndSARS movement. A protest movement against police brutality in Nigeria. When the central bank banned the Nigerian Feminist Coalition from using the traditional financial infrastructure to collect donations, they started using Bitcoin to fund their activities. Let’s hear from Dami and Ire how they did that and how the current situation looks like.
“One thing I realized in our lockdown in Lagos was a lot of people were like, ‘I’d rather die of Covid than die of hunger’ and that really put things in perspective there is a lot of poverty and sometimes for ta poor person they’d rather risk catching this disease than not have any food for my family.” – Damilola Odufuwa
“[During the protests] We had previously spoken about how Bitcoin is good because your government may shut your bank account down but it was all sort of theoretical but in the last month we were actually living through this. All this stuff we have been saying is actually true and we should be putting a lot of our money or at least enough where you can survive and control it.” – Ire Aderinokun
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
After covering Zimbabwe, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria, I have the honor to host a guest from Kenya. Roselyne Wanjiru is the Director of Growth & User Acquisition at Pesabase and an advocate for the digital economy in Kenya.
“Bitcoin does not require an ID, does not require your tax ID, does not require any other major documentation. It just requires you to have an email address and that’s it. And that’s really huge.” – Roselyne Wanjiru
Topics:
Roselyne’s Bitcoin story
Her educational efforts regarding cryptocurrencies
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
In this episode I am talking with Philip Agyei Asare from Ghana. He is the Co-founder and CEO of BTC Ghana and the Blockchain Foundation Africa. Philip hosted the first Bitcoin conference in Ghana in 2014. We are talking about Bitcoin adoption, about the fact that Chinese people in Ghana prefer to send Bitcoin home and why he believes that Africa is the future of bitcoin.
“Most people in Ghana use bitcoin as a form of payment.” – Philip Agyei Asare
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
This time I am talking about Bitcoin in South Africa with Grey Jabesi the founder of Crypto University and the Hardc0re Crypt0 YouTube channel. In the first segment, you will hear a message from Miss Aurra. She is talking about the result of our call for bitcoin donations at St. Anne’s school in Harare. The school had to be closed down due to the corona pandemic and a lack of funding. It is positive news. Don’t let that hold you back. The school needs permanent funding!
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
In this episode I am exploring the situation in Senegal with Fodé Diop, the founder of the Bitcoin developers meetup in Dakar. You will learn about his personal bitcoin story, the characteristics of his home country Senegal, the influence of French politics in Senegal and why Bitcoin matters, the state of bitcoin adoption and more. I have never been to Senegal nor have I studied it in any way. That’s why I found it especially interesting to hear Fodé‘s stories. I hope you like it, too!
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Miss Aurra, Zimbabwe: Bitcoin Changed My Whole Life
Oct 29, 2020
Today’s episode is the start of a new series about Bitcoin in Africa. I have been traveling to Zimbabwe and Botswana in February 2020 to find out if and how Bitcoin is known and used there. When I left the African continent at the beginning of March it was unclear how the pandemic is going to change the economical situation of countries that were already in a deep crisis like Zimbabwe or Nigeria and how it would affect the adoption of bitcoin in Subsaharan countries. With the upcoming episodes I want to give you insights into African nations such as Senegal, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. This episodes topic is Zimbabwe. My guest is Miss Aurra Kawanzaruwa. She is a digipreneur and the principal of St. Anne’s school in the country’s capital Harare.
The #Bitcoin community bought us a printer-copier-scanner as an investment in our distance learning initiative. Not all our students have access to the internet and so we will be printing weekly educational packs so they don’t miss out! Thank you @AnitaPosch@cdtswa & all donors! pic.twitter.com/DF9z0W3snV
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Gloria Zhao: A College Student's Journey to Bitcoin Core Development
Oct 22, 2020
Todays guest is Gloria Zhao, she is a Bitcoin Core developer, former president of “Blockchain at Berkeley” and will finish her Computer Science studies at the end of 2020. We discuss how Bitcoin and blockchain technologies are seen by her fellow college students, why she chose to work on Bitcoin only instead of all the other Silicon Valley stuff and blockchain projects that are around.
“Privacy and censorship resistance should be the default. We can’t keep measuring technologies or applications based on how convenient they are or how cheap they are. We need to start thinking about how private they are.” – Gloria Zhao
Topics:
Career expectations for college students in Silicon Valley
Blockchain education at the college
Why Bitcoin, not blockchain
How she escaped the mindset of Silicon Valley
How to become a Bitcoin Core developer
Her Chinese roots
Why privacy is so important in the digital era
With Gloria’s recommended learning resources in the shownotes.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Elyse Petersen: From Ancient Tea Currency To Using Bitcoin For Wholesale
Oct 15, 2020
Elyse Petersen is a food scientist and the founder of Tealet, a wholesale tea supply chain network. Tealet’s business model is based on cutting out unnecessary middlemen between tea growers and buyers, same like in Bitcoin. Since 2013 Tealet is using Bitcoin for payments, which eliminates the inefficiencies of global financial systems and saves a lot of transaction costs. Tealet was one of the first companies worldwide to use Bitcoin.
Topics:
History of tea as an international commodity
Traditional tea supply chain absorbs 85% of the growers profit
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Zachary Kelman: Bitcoin an Alternative to the Current Unfair Financial System
Oct 08, 2020
Zachary Kelman is a New York-based attorney specializing in political, legal, and regulatory issues in and around Bitcoin, crypto and blockchain technology. Prior to this he was working in banking, monitoring international money transactions, looking for suspicious activities. Coming out of this environment he was introduced to Bitcoin by his brother Daniel Kelman, who was the architect of the civil rehabilitation plan for Mt. Gox creditors and Zachary afterwards left banking for crypto projects in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.
Topics:
The correspondent banking system
How all worldwide transactions are monitored
The history of the US centered global financial system
What happened in 1971
The consequences for “high-risk” countries and their citizens
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Nic Carter: Bitcoin Disrupts Our Politicized Financial Infrastructure
Oct 01, 2020
Nic Carter is a Bitcoiner with a financial and philosophical background. I wanted to have him on the show for a long time. He is thoughtful and interesting to talk to as you will hear. We touch on some of his favourite topics like Bitcoin metaphysics, crypto-dollarization, historical references to free banking and the future of privacy and surveillance in the digital era.
“Bitcoin is no one’s liability. There’s no one that guarantees the value of that Bitcoin. People say that’s a weakness. That’s actually a strength. That means there’s no situation where the backer of that Bitcoin could withdraw their backing. The backing of Bitcoin comes from the fact that the market, as this collective view, the Bitcoin is worth whatever it’s worth. I would put Bitcoin in the category of liability-free collateral. Which is similar to gold or another monetary commodity.” – Nic Carter
Topics:
His personal Bitcoin story
Bitcoin metaphysics
The genuine Bitcoin?
Consciousness and persistence
Cash and Bitcoin privacy
The global financial surveillance apparatus created by the US
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Is Bitcoin a Ponzi Scheme? The Story of Charles Ponzi
Sep 24, 2020
Wondering what a Ponzi scheme is? Somebody told you Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme? Listen to this episode of “The Context” where I tell the story of Italian born confidence trickster Carlo Ponzi. In 1920 it took him only nine months to defraud thirty thousand investors, who believed in getting rich quick, collecting 20 million USD in total. Ponzi promised 50% return on their investment in three months. His arrest in August 1920 brought down six banks and Ponzi’s investors were practically wiped out. In 1957, the Encyclopedia Britannica – the Wikipedia of it’s time – formally acknowledged that Ponzi’s name had become synonymous with swindle. The “Ponzi scheme” officially had a name. In this podcast episode you will also learn, why Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Douglas Bakkum: Building Bitcoin Hardware Wallets to Empower Individuals
Sep 17, 2020
My guest is Douglas Bakkum. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Swiss hardware wallet manufacturer Shift Crypto. Douglas holds a Phd in neuroscience and shifted his career from starting a scientific research lab in academia to building a hardware wallet manufacturer at a time, when no hardware wallets existed on the market. Douglas saw a problem and the need for a solution and started the company together with bitcoin core maintainer Jonas Schnelli in 2015.
Shift Crypto is one of my sponsors, and after this conversation I have to say I am even more impressed with their work. The BitBox02 has some additional features that set it apart from the other hardware wallets in the market. Like the dual-chip approach. I did not know how that works before and as I want to have a general understanding of the concepts, his explanations strengthened my trust in this new technology even more.
Topics:
Robotics and artificial intelligence
Parallels between academia and the start-up world
Neuroscience, the brain and artificial intelligence
Stress and routines to stay stable
Launching SHIFT Crypto
Trusting new technologies
Bitcoin self-reliance, privacy and freedom
How SHIFT handles user-data
Gaining privacy with your hardware wallet
Apple as tollgate
What is more secure: using a hardware wallet on the desktop or on a mobile?
How are hardware wallets more secure than software wallets?
Paper wallets
What is the dual-chip approach of the BitBox02 and how does it compare with Trezor and Ledger?
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Today I am talking with Liam Ball a real estate broker on Maui, who tells us his story of how he got into Bitcoin, why it is interesting to him, the parallels of Bitcoin to his personal journey and also my journey, his real life use cases with Bitcoin and why Bitcoin is real.
Bitcoin can allow person to person generosity over the entire planet. I think that’s an incredible thing. You’re taking these charitable organizations out of the middle and you’re just saying, I feel like being generous, here’s somebody who needs something and in 10 minutes they have it and it’s going right there. I think that’s amazing. – Liam Ball
I do like some of the the ethical changes or ideological changes that one tends to feel when you dive into the Bitcoin space. Things like responsibility and not entrusting third parties or governments. I like that aspect of encouraging humans to take responsibility for their situations in a self sovereign way but also in a community way. I think at the community level, where you live and helping people around you is really the best way to offer that kind of help. – Liam Ball
Topics:
Bitcoin and Buddhism
Being a Bitcoiner and coming out of the closet
Use cases: supporting HIV outreach team for sex workers in Uganda
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
THE CONTEXT: BCH, BSV, BTG, BTC, BTC2, BTCV...What to Invest In?
Sep 07, 2020
“The Context” is, where I release stories that put bitcoin in broader context with historical or current developments and short form educational pieces for bitcoin beginners. This time I am answering questions by a listener named Thamzin:
What is the difference between Bitcoin Vault and LocalBitcoins?
What are all those different Bitcoin versions that can be found on exchanges or Coinmarketcap?
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Dale Bewan: Using Bitcoin Only Since 2017
Sep 03, 2020
Todays guest is Dale Bewan. He is a married father of two, living in Germany. Since 2017 Bitcoin is the only money Dale is using. He does not own or hold any Fiat currency like Euros or US Dollars. We will talk about his motivation for doing so, how his wife and children deal with it, why he is using different identities, what LSD has to do with it, his Silkroad experiences, if he gets paid in Bitcoin and much more….
Topics:
Therapeutical benefits of using LSD
Was Satoshi on LSD?
Pseudonyms and identity on the internet
Discovering Bitcoin
His silliest bitcoin mistake
Buying bitcoin to buy LSD on Silkroad
Spend and replace tactic
Tools he is using for going bitcoin only
The Lightning Network and wallet analogies
Basic privacy tools and tactics
Linking Bitcoin to political ideas
Bitcoin adoption in Germany, Australia, Tokyo
“2010, that’s very early in the Bitcoin world, I discovered Bitcoin on a mailing list. It was probably one of the cypherpunk mailing lists, I downloaded it, I played with it, I mined some Bitcoin as far as I recall, I mined four blocks and then I made, what was probably the silliest mistake of my life, I said this isn’t as interesting as “SETI@Home” so I deleted it. I thought why use my computing power to create these virtual coins I’ve got two hundred of them already [Laughter].” – Dale Bewan
“My daughter especially loves explaining it, so last year she was in third grade and she did a presentation to her class about Bitcoin and after that her teacher was a Bitcoiner. So she did a good job.” – Dale Bewan
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Guy Swann: Bitcoin Is a Revolution With Historical Impact
Aug 27, 2020
Guy Swann is the host of the Bitcoin Audible podcast, where he is reading Bitcoin articles and essays by different authors. In 2011 he found out about Bitcoin. Back then Guy used money he did not have to buy Bitcoin, just to watch it loosing it’s value in the following bear market. For him, this was not the moment for an exit, it was the moment, when he really started to investigate and learn what Bitcoin is.
Topics:
Why he started his podcast Bitcoin Audible
His Bitcoin story
The real value proposition of Bitcoin
Digital scarcity
The Bitcoin Reformation by Tuur Demeester
Lightning as a global payments network
The Bitcoin renaissance
The agricultural revolution
From decentralization to monopolies back to decentralization
Bitcoin will change internet business models
Coping with bull and bear markets
What he would put inside an ad
Filtering through Bitcoin information
I truly think that what we saw as changes from the printing press and the oil revolution may very well be an understatement of the potential impact that Bitcoin could have on the world when you’re looking out 30 to 50 years. And like you said earlier, it’s about having patience because we need to make sure that we don’t lose what makes this thing so revolutionary. – Guy Swann
Now that we finally have real value in the digital space and we can build open source permissionless payment systems and contract systems and ownership systems on top of this, I think it is going to change all of the models that we’re used to on the internet and open up access to so many things that just didn’t quite work before. – Guy Swann
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Kai Kremser: Coinfinity - Pushing Bitcoin Adoption in Austria Since 2014
Aug 20, 2020
Today I am talking with Kai Kremser a fellow Austrian working for Coinfinity, Austria’s first Bitcoin broker founded in 2014. Kai, a former software developer, is the product manager for the Card Wallet, that is produced by Coinfinity and the Austrian State Printinghouse. Coinfinity and Card Wallet are my longest standing loyal sponsors. I am very thankful for their support, but this did not change the questions I was asking. We are talking about their products, but also touch more general questions for instance bitcoin adoption in Austria and changes in the perception and trading volumes of bitcoin in the last months.
Topics:
How he missed out on investing in bitcoin in 2011
The strong properties of Bitcoin
The obstacles for newbies to use Bitcoin
Security strategies
The production process behind the Card Wallet
How Coinfinity takes care of customer data
Bitcoin adoption in Austria
The network of Bitcoin ATMs in Austria
Changes in the bitcoin sales volume
“There’s definitely way more interest in Bitcoin. It started with the Corona virus situation where everything was kind of insecure. People didn’t know what will happen. And there lots of people that never talk to me about Bitcoin suddenly get interested in it when the economy started to crumble and stuff. So there were way more people inquiring it, not as a speculative asset, but, as a store of value or as a possibility to diversify their investments and their money, basically.” – Kai Kremser
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Anita Posch: Interviewed by Japanese Crypto-Exchange BTCBOX
Aug 13, 2020
Lina Kather from the crypto-exchange BTCBOX Japan in Tokyo invited Anita Posch to do an interview about her Bitcoin experiences in Africa, the reasons why she is doing the work she does, her takes on Altcoins, privacy, the importance of the Lightning Network and why she believes that Bitcoin will stay the world’s dominant cryptocurrency in the future.
“Bitcoin is here for 11 years now and it runs very reliable and it’s very secure in itself. The other system, the banking system, we have this for two or 300 years. We have gold for thousands of years. And, so people have also to see that they can trust in new technologies and new forms of money, like Bitcoin.” – Anita Posch
“I think that Bitcoin will stay the most dominant cryptocurrency in the world, because its roots are like grassroots, its networking effect, it has grown from some nerds who used it at the beginning, to a worldwide known money, this is huge without having a company behind it or any marketing money or something like that.” – Anita Posch
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Lyn Alden: Bullish on Bitcoin - a Strategic Value Investors View
Aug 06, 2020
Lyn Alden wrote a longform article about the 3 reasons why she is investing in Bitcoin. Lyn Alden is an investment strategist with a background in engineering and finance. She focusses on value investing with a global macro overlay.
What are the main reasons why you are bullish on Bitcoin?
“The first reason is, that, Bitcoin has demonstrated that it has a pretty strong network effect over time. The second reason is the halving, most of the bullish price action of Bitcoin tends to happen in the first year or two after a halving. And then the final reason was the macro backdrop, it pretty much, couldn’t be better for Bitcoin and also for things like silver and that’s because with so much money printing with so much bailouts happening, if you look at it historically, just whenever debt levels reach this high, there’s usually some sort of a macro economic event like a currency devaluation that happens over the subsequent decade.” – Lyn Alden
When I first heard Lyn Alden speaking I immediately knew, that I wanted to have her on my show, because her insights are smart, concise and I learned a lot about the global and US specific economical situation. I think it is one of the best interviews so far on my show. I hope you can take as much away from it, as I did.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Andy Edstrom: Why Buy Bitcoin? Investing Today in the Money of Tomorrow
Jul 30, 2020
My guest today is Andy Edstrom from Los Angeles. Andy spent 17 years in the investment world on Wall Street, working for Goldman Sachs and is now a wealth manager at his familiy’s firm West Cap Group. In the course of his consulting work, more and more people asked him about Bitcoin, that’s why he wrote a book about it called “Why Buy Bitcoin – Investing Today in the Money of Tomorrow“. Andy Edstrom recently took on the role of “Head of Institutional at Swan Bitcoin” and as always this interview is no financial advice, please do your own research.
“The banking industry has paid more penalties to regulators than any other industry and by a wide margin, right? It’s I think the figure in the book I have is something like $300 billion in fines paid within the last, I don’t know, a couple of decades, this is a staggering number.” – Andy Edstrom
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Elena Tonoyan, LocalBitcoins COO: Bitcoin Provides Financial Inclusion and Will Grow
Jul 23, 2020
Joining me is Elena Tonoyan, she is the Chief Operating Officer at LocalBitcoins, the peer to peer bitcoin exchange that was founded as early as in 2012. We are looking into the history of LocalBitcoins, it’s growth, and optimistic outlook for the years to come. You will also learn about the values and usecases of Bitcoin that Elena finds important, because they solve real problems and have a positive impact on peoples lives.
Our topics:
history and growth of LocalBitcoins
financial inclusion esp. for women
bitcoin demand in Africa, India, Latin America
supporting altcoins
fraud in trading
integration of the Lightning network
the future of Bitcoin
Expanding business
P2P exchanges vs. centralized exchanges
“Bitcoin provides financial inclusion. It is solving real world problems for many under-banked people across the globe, people who have limited access to a modern economy and empowering women is another big aspect for me. There are unfortunately still countries where women don’t have free access they are not allowed to open bank accounts without permission of, for example, a family member. And Bitcoin is obviously solving that problem. And I’m personally very happy about that.” – Elena Tonoyan
“I’m sure that during the coming years and decades, we will see several booms and busts in Bitcoin. However, what is important and what we believe is that the Bitcoin usage and adoption will continue to increase til unforeseeable future.” – Elena Tonoyan
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Gigi: Bitcoin From Speculative Asset to Savings Technology
Jul 16, 2020
My guest today is Gigi a software developer and computer scientist. Gigi wrote “21Lessons”, a book in which he shares his learnings from falling down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. Two years ago he quit his job and started to work solely in the Bitcoin space.
“Bitcoin already has all three functions of money. It is a store of value, medium of exchange and unit of account. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” – Gigi
“As I see Bitcoin evolve, I think it will be a global settlement layer for something approximating central banks. And since it’s obviously superior to gold and every other form of money we had, like Bitcoin is by far the best money we ever had.” – Gigi
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Chimezie Chuta: Light Up Africa With Bitcoin Nodes
Jul 09, 2020
“A lot of Nigerians are using Bitcoin. Majorly among the young population. Those between the age of 22 and 35-40 are deeply using Bitcoin”, says Chimezie Chuta. He is a software developer, founder of blockchaingroup Nigeria and a Bitcoin user since 2015. With his “Spacebox” project he aims to put Africa on the map of Bitcoin and Lightning Network fullnodes.
“Every week bitcoin worth 18 Million USD are exchanged in Nigeria.” – Chimezie Chuta
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Rahim Taghizadegan: Money Is a Spontaneous Order Measuring the Cooperation of People
Jul 02, 2020
Rahim Taghizadegan is an economist, book author and principal of the Scholarium, an independent learning enterprise based in Vienna, Austria. He studied physics, sociology and economy and is an expert on the Austrian School of Economics. His recent book is called “The Zero Interest Trap”.
We discuss:
Differences in tackling COVID-19 in Singapore and Austria
How to be prepared for crisis
Loss of trust in politics
Privacy aspects of health data usage
Social unrest and wealth inequality
The Worgl experiment and regional cryptocurrencies
Demurrage and velocity of money
The correlation of Bitcoin to other financial assets
Universal Basic Income
Socio-economic consequences of the current crises
“According to the view of the Austrian School of Economics, money is a spontaneous order, which is really linked in bottom up cooperation of people. The only thing for sure is that today’s kind of rigged game with complex interventions doesn’t make sense as a kind of spontaneous order it doesn’t make sense that it really be measure for cooperation, voluntary cooperation between people.” – Rahim Taghizadegan
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Moritz Wietersheim: Why Bitcoin Is Superior to Altcoins or Stock Nonsense Like Wirecard
Jun 25, 2020
Today’s guest is Moritz Wietersheim. Moritz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Crypto Advance a company that focusses on security improvements and the secure management of private keys in the Bitcoin space. Together with CTO Stepan Snigirev the Specter wallet is developed, which allows you to have an air gapped and watch only wallet that runs together with your Bitcoin core node. That way you protect your privacy. Preparing for the interview I found out that Moritz and I we both, started to work full time in the bitcoin space in 2017. Moritz is working and living in Germany and Austria.
Our Topics:
His time in Argentina and Brazil, where he learned about hyperinflation
The difference between Bitcoin as sound money and easy money
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Tim Akinbo: Bitcoin is a Store of Value for the African People
Jun 18, 2020
My guest in this episode is Tim Akinbo. He comes from Nigeria and is involved in the Bitcoin space since 2014. I got to know Tim when I asked for bitcoin donations for a school in Harare, Zimbabwe. He contacted me on Twitter and offered to setup a BTCpayserver so that we can receive lightning payments, too. That was of great help. I looked him up and realized that Tim is also a Bitcoin Core contributor, Software developer and has a lot of experience with e-commerce and international payments.
“I think from an individual perspective, Bitcoin will make it possible for people to really, really save, on the African continent.” – Tim Akinbo
“I really have not been able to figure out, if any other Altcoin really has any use case, besides probably providing some avenue for a speculation, but in terms of real world use cases, I don’t think that any of the so-called limitations of Bitcoin are strong enough to actually kind of overcome it’s network effects and liquidity.” – Tim Akinbo
Our topics:
How he learned about Bitcoin
His contribution to Bitcoin Core
The use-cases for Bitcoin in Nigeria and Ghana
Methods of payments in Nigeria
How Bitcoin is traded in Africa
Why the trading volume in Africa increased during the Corona pandemic
His perspective on zimbo.cash
Use-cases for Altcoins
The deprecation of the Naira and other African currencies
Bitcoin as a store of value for African people
His new project to make full nodes in Africa visible
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Amiti Uttarwar: Developing Bitcoin - The Only Crypto Project With a Very Clear Goal
Jun 11, 2020
In this week’s episode I had the pleasure to interview Amiti Uttarwar. She is one of the first female engineers contributing to the Bitcoin Core software. Amiti is working full time as a Core developer, focusing on the peer to peer aspect of the protocol. Her latest contribution is a pull request that improves wallet privacy. I enjoyed our chat a lot, because Amiti has a clear and concise way to communicate which had even a calming effect on me. Maybe her daily meditation practice is the reason for that.
“I definitely hope that we move towards a Bitcoin ecosystem that involves more women. I think it’s kind of absurd how few there currently are that I know about, in Bitcoin Core specifically. When I made my first contributions I didn’t know of any women contributors. And I just think that that’s ridiculous.” – Amiti Uttarwar
“I definitely don’t think right now, a particular group of people or a particular business entity has the ability to really have a disproportionate amount of influence on Bitcoin Core. But I also think, it would take a really big change that I can’t really imagine how it would happen in order for that to be occurring in the future.” – Amiti Uttarwar
We talk about
How different forms of money form expectations
The gift economy
Why she chose bitcoin and not another “crypto” project
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Chris Maurice: Chances and Challenges of Running a Bitcoin Exchange in Africa
Jun 04, 2020
In this episode I talk with Chris Maurice, the CEO and Founder of Yellow Card Financial, a Nigeria based bitcoin and crypto exchange. Chris started his entrepreneurial endeavors as a SEO consultant at the age of 16 after that he sold bitcoin on eBay and in the backrooms of Taco Bell restaurants. Chris tells us how he came up with founding an exchange and why he did that in Africa.
“Dollar can be extremely difficult to access in most countries, Dollar is a complete pain to handle whether you’re in the US or in any other country in the world. Dollar accounts are no fun. Bitcoin just really makes it so much easier to move value across the world.” – Chris Maurice
Topics
How he found out about Bitcoin while managing his business in Pakistan
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Carla Kirk-Cohen: Bitcoin Is the Ability to Take Back Control Over Your Financial Situation
May 28, 2020
Today’s guest is Carla Kirk-Cohen she is a developer at Lightning Labs and is living in Cape Town in South Africa. Carla is building infrastructure around lightning nodes that makes it easier for people to run their own nodes at home.
“I was really drawn to the security model of Bitcoin, really interested and thinking, oh, this can’t possibly work. There must be some way that it breaks. And then going back and learning a bit more and realizing how incredible the entire system actually is. For me Bitcoin is really about self determination. I think the ability to take back control over your financial situation is a really powerful thing and it’s a really interesting thing because it’s something that’s never been possible until Bitcoin existed.” – Carla Kirk-Cohen
“That 21 million that will never change and is finite really does ensure value of Bitcoin through scarcity and that I think is the most important feature and just fundamental to the entire system.” – Carla Kirk-Cohen
Our topics:
Her career in the Bitcoin space
What Bitcoin means to her
The 21 million hard cap
The Lightning Network
Lightning infrastructure projects
Loop, Faraday, Multipath payments
Privacy in the Lightning Network
The Bitcoin community in South Africa
Lightning Wallets
How to become a (female) Bitcoin and Lightning developer
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Ray Youssef: Bringing Bitcoin Into Africa With Gift Cards Is Solving Real Problems
May 21, 2020
On today’s episode I talk with Ray Youssef, Co-Founder and CEO of Paxful, a peer-to-peer marketplace for money transfers serving about 4 million people in every country of the world. He says that in the next five years Africa with its tremendous growth in trading volume is going to become the leading crypto continent.
“Africa is leading all of our volume right now, and it’s growing tremendously. And every time a new country comes online, we start to see exponential growth. So you know this, these next five years are going to see Africa become the crypto continent in a way.” – Ray Youssef
“If you’re from America or Europe and you want to go to Africa and start a business, great. Find your African co-founder, you’re not going to go in there and do this without the Africans. In fact, the Africans are going to lead it. You know, we from the West are kind of guests here, you have to have the right mindset about Africa. This is essential to success.” – Ray Youssef
“I think women can definitely lead the future in Africa. The truth is, women lead most financial revolutions, right? Like especially products. They find something that works. They introduce it to the family first. They’re the ones that have to circulate the flow of money.” – Ray Youssef
Topics:
His start-up failures and learnings
Why he was an MMA fighter and actor
His couchsurfing time in New York and what it taught him
Making money with gift cards
The founding idea for Paxful
Payment networks in Africa
Privacy
Africas growing trading volume
How Covid-19 impacted trading
Social justice and #BuiltWithBitcoin
Paxfuls vision for Africa
How to prevent scams and rippers
The Africans should lead your business
Women controlling the majority of the worlds money
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Leo Wandersleb: Bitcoin Wallet Security to Avoid Exit Scams
May 14, 2020
Our topic today is all about Bitcoin wallets and their security. I am talking with Leo Wandersleb a german developer living in Chile, who is the founder of a project called Wallet Scrutiny. The goal of his project is to avoid exit scams through the verifiability of the wallet source code.
“The goal of Wallet Scrutiny is to avoid exit scams and to avoid major flaws that would make all the users of a certain wallet vulnerable to some back doors that get injected by the provider or by somebody who has a means to add an attack through maybe some libraries that are used in that wallet, et cetera.” – Leo Wandersleb
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Tuur Demeester: The Bitcoin Reformation in Times of COVID-19
May 07, 2020
Today I am talking with Tuur Demeester, who recommended Bitcoin as an investment to his readers at $5 back in 2012. I would say Tuur is a philosopher with a greater perspective and an historical approach to today’s developments. We discuss his findings in his paper “The Bitcoin Reformation”. Published that at the end of 2019 he is drawing comparisons between the Dutch reformation in the 16th century and the emergence of Bitcoin in this century. This bring us to discuss COVID-19 and Tuur’s thoughts on the impact of this crisis on the Bitcoin reformation and he tells us which assets will stay liquid and accessible.
A Crash Course on Economics, Interest Rates, Debt and Inflation
“I think that the long tail of cryptocurrencies is going to be small. I think that the Bitcoin market cap is always going to be 80 or 90% of total.” – Tuur Demeester
“If you really think about what interest rate is, it’s just the price of money, like the price of liquid capital in the economy. Now when we’re talking about 0% interest rates, it means that the money is incredibly cheap. But that’s not natural because this interest rate is set by the central bank.” – Tuur Demeester
“It’s kind of a great excuse for governments and economists to blame everything on the pandemic, like people are losing their jobs because, because of the lockdown. But like if you look at the 1918 Spanish flu, there was no mass unemployment like there is today. It wasn’t as bad at all because people had actual savings and they could weather things like this. It’s kind of making everything happen that was already going to happen, but it’s just making it happen faster.” – Tuur Demeester
“What assets are going to be liquid and accessible? My analysis so far: I ended up with gold and bitcoin, I think those are the two likely assets that will still retain their value. And be actually usable.” – Tuur Demeester
The similarities between the Dutch reformation and Bitcoin
Who is profiting from the current financial system
The Catholic church and Central Banks as rent-seeking monopolies
Differences between the schools of Keynes and Austrian Economics
Bitcoin lending
Attacks on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash
Money as a language
The growing risk of hyperinflation
Interest rate is the price of money
His take on liquid and accessible assets in the future
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos: Bitcoin Removes Power From the Few and Gives It to the Many
Apr 30, 2020
Today’s guest is one of my favourite people in the space Andreas M. Antonopoulos. We are going to talk about the adoption of Bitcoin, censorship and fake news, the use of Bitcoin in Zimbabwe, corporate and nation state digital currencies, why he does not believe in Austrian economics, why the so-called “left” does not embrace Bitcoin and more.
“When freedom is banned, only outlaws have freedom.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“Bitcoin, this system of open currency removes power from the few and gives it to the many.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a best-selling author, speaker, educator, and highly sought after expert in Bitcoin and open blockchain technologies. He is known for making complex subjects easy to understand and highlighting both the positive and negative impacts these technologies can have on our global societies. As an educator, his mission is to educate as many people as possible, in as many places as possible, in as many languages as possible, about Bitcoin and open blockchains.
Andreas has also written two best-selling technical books for programmers, “Mastering Bitcoin” and “Mastering Ethereum”. He has published “The Internet of Money” series of books, which focus on the social, political, and economic importance and implications of these technologies. At the moment he is writing a new book called “Mastering the Lightning Network”.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Part 6: The Future of Bitcoin Is Big in Africa - With Alakanani Itireleng
Apr 23, 2020
In this episode I talk with Alakanani Itireleng, who founded the Satoshicentre in Botswana in 2014 and single-handedly built a growing Bitcoin community. She is the heart and center of Bitcoin education there, even the government is relying on her consultancy. We recorded this interview in February 2020, only days before the Covid-19 lockdowns went into effect. Her greatest ambition, the organization of a Bitcoin conference in Southern Africa will not come true soon. If you like to support her work and the Satoshicentre – please do so, you can find her on Twitter. If you have a question, feel free to scroll down, press the appropriate button and record your question.
“Bitcoin is for everyone, Bitcoin is the currency of love.” – Alakanani Itireleng
“Bitcoin is allowing me to use and receive money from anyone and to send it to anyone around the world without discriminating. That’s the most excellent thing about Bitcoin. It’s money for everyone, regardless of where you are coming from, your race or creed or whatever. So it’s the best.” – Alakanani Itireleng
We talk about:
How her sons illness and death lead to the first meetup
The internet as “white people’s problem”
The high unemployment rate in Botswana
The cost of internet connections
Ponzi schemes and how they are disturbing bitcoin adoption
Bitcoin usecases and regulation in Botswana
Exchanging the local currency Pula to Bitcoin
African countries on the forefront of adoption
Her opinion about Libra and Lightning
Mobile Money in Botswana
The Future of Bitcoin in Botswana
This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters. I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and the Card Wallet, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware wallet BitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network.
This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work.
Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world.
Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work.
Anita Posch Hello, Alakanani. I’m happy that I’m here. Finally, I found my way from Europe to Botswana. Thanks for the invitation, we are just setting up a Bitcoin and Lightning node. How and when did you find out about Bitcoin?
Alakanani Itireleng Okay, Um, my journey with Bitcoin started in 2012, on the personal level when I started trying to find ways in which I can, like, make money online to help my son. That’s my son, right on the wall. Yeah, he was, he was sick and was having ah, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, which is, like a heart disease kind of. So he got, like, really, really sick, and he was having an issue with the lungs and all that. So I wanted to find ways in which I can, like, work and get extra money, to take him out of Botswana to get medical help. So that’s when I came across this Bitcoin thing in 2012. And that was, like, early 2012 maybe January or so, because I know a few months back a few months later, my son passed away. So and, uh, then I stopped doing Bitcoin.
Anita Posch You had enough stress and yeah.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, I had enough stress and stuff. So I paused the Bitcoin thing. And then in 2013 I was like, you know, there’s something about that thing that I learned, so I should, like, go back to it and study, it a little bit more. See how I can help other people. At that moment, the idea was to set up a nonprofit to help kids who were like my kid, so I went back, and started doing a lot of reading. I wasn’t, like, very, very good at understanding what it was. But I have a drive to set up a community. So I remember I had, like, 10 friends or so and I called a Meetup my first, Bitcoin Meetup in 2013.
Anita Posch Wow. In 2013, cool.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, so then I called my friends and I told them the little knowledge that I had about Bitcoin and I told them the possibilities in Bitcoin about you making your own money and stuff and how it would have been better than the Pula. You know, it was all about that.
Anita Posch Did people here understand it? And follow your path from the beginning on did they say I don’t understand it?
Alakanani Itireleng You know, a lot of people have got issues with anything that has to do with the Internet. You know, a lot of people have got issues, you know, anything that has to do with the Internet is a scam, or it’s there to steal their money. Or it’s white people’s problem.
Anita Posch White people’s problem. Okay. Anything with the internet?
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, yeah, they always have. A lot of people have that mentality. We say ……… meaning it’s a white people’s issues, kind off, it’s white peoples thing. Yeah, you know, in the beginning people had that kind of thing. When using the Internet……….., things for the white people. So when you introduce something like Bitcoin, so it was kind of difficult in the beginning. People do not understand what I was on about. How can there be money that can be on the Internet and stuff like. They’re used to paper money and all that. So I have, like, do a lot of reading and in the beginning it was so tough I didn’t have all the answers, though I must say I have not all the answers now, but I’m better. So at that moment I didn’t have, like, all the answers, like lot of answers. So I had to go through a lot of reading so that I can empower the people that are following me. So that’s how it started.
Anita Posch Can we get a little back to the general situation here in Botswana? I’ve been to Zimbabwe in the last 2.5 weeks. And the situation there is really, really bad with the economic situation And people are lining in for petrol for hours for nights they are waiting for the fuel and then they don’t get it maybe. People have nothing to eat, No work. How is the situation in Botswana?
Alakanani Itireleng I won’t say we are bad, bad. No. People can still go to the bank and get money. People can still get petrol. The only thing is now unemployment rate is high. I think it has doubled to 18.97% around 20% and it’s growing. It’s growing like, you know. Ah, that is like the statistics for 2019 I think, and a lot of graduates who are graduating every year from the universities. So it keeps on piling adding cause we have got universities and colleges. We’ve got all that way. Students are graduating every year.
Anita Posch Is this a free education here?
Alakanani Itireleng So you get kind of. It’s kind of a student loan or kind of you create a loan or a grant. The government pays for you and then when you’re done with school and you’re like pay back the money if you don’t have a job, then you don’t pay. Nobody has been arrested yet. Yeah, so that kind of situation is the issue of jobs, you know, like there’s so many so many people were, um, industry with no jobs. I remember. I think it was 2019, if it’s not 2018 when some graduates, you know, went on a peaceful demonstration or whatever they called a riot or whatever then, because they were beaten for that. So they were beaten by the police, they were not allowed to demonstrate. So you could see it’s because people were crying like we have graduated. Where we go from here. Sorbet.So there are no jobs. Yeah, that’s the big thing. That was the big challenge we are having right now, in Botswana, every year we’re piling maybe 5000 or more or graduates on the IT field, for example, like 5000 or more. But think off others also, we were not IT. How many do we have every year who are graduating and no jobs?
Anita Posch Can you get anything in the supermarkets? And then the other question is, can people afford it?
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah. I mean, like, we’ve got shops off different standards. Yeah, we were, like, expensive shops, like Woolworths. You know who the Whos and whos will go there going buy stuff. And then we have got, you know, middle class kind of shops, and then we have got, like low class kind of shops.
Anita Posch But are there many people that are suffering from hunger? Like in Zimbabwe, I think.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, definitely there are. That’s why we have, like, social workers. So what happens is we have got kind of poverty eradication schemes and the staff, like for example, if there’s offen there is given a card, there’s a card, which you can use they put money in it, and then they can like $80 all $90 or so. So then they can go and get food, even though there is also a destitute program kind of. Yeah, they can register as destitutes and the government can give them money on a monthly basis for basics.
Anita Posch And do you think that the pessimism against the Internet or that you could earn money over the Internet, is this going away? Or is this I mean, with the young people coming out off university?
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, young people are changing the whole dynamics, that is changing the whole culture. They are not stubborn. They’re open to possibilities and different cultures, different opinions. They’re not like our parents who were like, don’t do this. You don’t go there. You don’t go there. So nowadays, in towns, for example, that’s where we have a lot of young people in towns. So that’s where you see that. Dynamics have changed with people using so many smartphones laptops, you know.
Anita Posch How good is the Internet connection here? And how much do you have to pay for it?
Alakanani Itireleng I think my Internet is not that good, ah, compared to like when I was in Kenya I could see how quick it was when I was in South Africa it’s quick, but I hear it’s expensive, so here I think the Internet is not that good, like the one that I’m using. It’s not that good. And also I’ll think it’s expensive.
Anita Posch How much do you pay for a month?
Alakanani Itireleng Mine is like 2 MB. But it’s never 2 MB bandwith. It’s always one point something. So I pay, yeah it’s very slow. So I pay like 40 dollars.
Anita Posch 40 USD?
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, a month it’s unlimited, but very slow. It’s expensive. Yeah, so if you need a good, good one, you’ll have to pay, like $150 dollars.
Anita Posch And on the smartphone? Do you also have these social media bundles?
Alakanani Itireleng Yes, we do have, they may have WhatsApp or Facebook bundles. It is called social media bundles, and then they can have the full one. So, for example, with the network that I’m using called Orange, they’ll give you for a day, one day Internet. Also, you will pay like a dollar for a day or so, and then after a day it expires.
Anita Posch How could people use Bitcoin here when the Internet connections are so expensive? Do you have an idea?
Alakanani Itireleng If, for example, they can use their Internet that they’re using the small internet they’re using to earn bitcoin, for example, then they can be able to pay for the Internet and then use bitcoin. People still pay, even if it’s expensive. They paid to download movies to stream videos, which actually is not giving them any money. It’s making them to lose more money. So if for to use my Internet, my data, why not use it to earn bitcoin so that I can pay for my data and earn more bitcoin.
Anita Posch So what are the properties about Bitcoin that interests you the most?
Alakanani Itireleng I mean, like, it’s easy to send money to receive money from anywhere. No restrictions like PayPal have restrictions for other countries. I think Nigerians are not using PayPal, so Bitcoin allows me to use and receive money from anyone and send it to anyone around the world without discriminating. So that’s the most excellent thing about Bitcoin. So it’s for everyone. It’s money for everyone, regardless of where you come from, your race or creed or whatever, so it’s like, yeah it is the best.
Anita Posch And do you think that the people here can connect with it and realize that, or do they still think it’s, ah, white Internet?
Alakanani Itireleng No, no, no. I think now as young people, especially are like into it some for whatever reasons like, for example, some. They’re doing it because they join some scheme. Whatever somebody has promised them, we can make money very quick. If you put $10 today, tomorrow you will have $20,000 they believe, and some they’re using it for that. But young people are like, really embracing them. Like I believe when you come to my meet up tomorrow, you’re gonna see a lot of young people. They’re the ones who are like they like a lot of them. Were like they So we’re like they’re into the Internet there into trying to find ways to make money. Because they are unemployed? It’s painful to be unemployed. That’s what you know. You will see. Like a lot of young people, embracing the Internet. It is no longer, it is not a white people thing. Now they are also the government is trying, for example, to introduce computers in primary school level. So we see the introduction of computers slowly, slowly by giving I students tablets. Eventually people will understand we’ll know the generation that is coming is gonna be better than the one that is before us. Yeah.
Anita Posch You just mentioned the government. How is regulation here with Bitcoin?
Alakanani Itireleng Quiet. Nothing. Last year in November, we were called to like some kind of consultative meeting? So we went there as Satoshicentre. And they were asking us a lot of questions, so we told them. They said, no. We want to know what is happening so that if there is anything that we need to know, like told, tell us what is happening. So for me, I think the way like they are open even though that’s the like not yet there. But they’re open for discussions. So I think if there is, it’s just up to us to like, make sure that we we keep on showing them what is happening and in Bitcoin and what not. You can even see there’s a Bitcoin ATM in Gaborone at airport junction. Yeah, there’s a Bitcoin ATM. So it’s there. It’s been used. Yeah, as long as you just go and declare what you’re doing. I think that’s why they want you to declare what you are doing and think, even even when it comes to the issues off tax, you can still pay your taxes.
Anita Posch I mean, you only have to cash out in Pula then and pay the taxes.
Alakanani Itireleng Then you pay the taxes. Yeah. So I think I think they’re open for that. They have not been like shown any resistance for us, they are only against the Ponzi schemes.
Anita Posch Yeah, because I think the Golix exchange in Zimbabwe has been shut down. Maybe because of the many Ponzi schemes and and MLM things because people were ripped off their Bitcoin and they bought Bitcoin on Golix. So was that the reason? Do you know something?
Alakanani Itireleng I don’t really know what was the issue with Golix, because it was one of the best exchanges in Zimbabwe I even went there. I saw their Bitcoin ATM. It was a beautiful Bitcoin ATM and they were doing good. So I don’t know, maybe it’s because people now they don’t know how to differentiate between what Bitcoin is and what Ponzi schemes are. Somebody calls and says, “Hey, I want to join Bitcoin.” You can see even the way they say, …
Anita Posch Join Bitcoin!
Alakanani Itireleng Then you see, people are still confused. They don’t know, is Bitcoin something that you can join? How can I say, I want to join Dollar.
Anita Posch Yeah. Thank you. What do you think are the hurdles here in Botswana for Bitcoin adoption.
Alakanani Itireleng Ponzi schemes. They are really disturbing us. They’re disturbing us, you know, because it is so confusing. Like some people will even call me and say “hello is that Satoshicentre like yeah, like Okay, I’m joining this and this whatever, whatever – can you help me?” I say no, I can’t help you. But they said no, but I heard you are the Bitcoin person here. That’s the thing that is, you know, making it so hard because now people know that the Satoshicentre is for Bitcoin. So now people who are joining whatever they think well, Satoshicentre is Bitcoin it is a misunderstanding is what they’re doing. So we have to like have we have, like, a lot of work to, like tell people that there is Satoshicentre Bitcoin and then there is those things that they’re doing, which are like the total different thing. So I think that’s the greatest hurdle, people should understand what Bitcoin is, what the opportunities are and avoid Ponzi schemes? I know people like they want money. I mean, if I would have joined the schemes, I could be rich. I’m telling you, everybody who comes with a scheme they start calling me first, because they’re going to the Internet Bitcoin they get to me, they get my name and then they call me.
Anita Posch And in a Ponzi or in a pyramid, if you’re the 1st one then you’re good off.
Alakanani Itireleng I didn’t do it. So I decided, like I have to focus on what is true. So the one thing that is like, really disturbing is that. I one of the things that I really want to do is one that I’ve been trying and trying, but it’s so hard to get sponsorship. Number one I wanted to do a hackathon. That was the first thing that I wanted to do to create a hackathon. So that people where, like I wasn’t getting like, good responses in terms of sponsorship for me to be able to pay for the venue because it’s expensive for the venue. The one that I wanted to use was, like very expensive. Didn’t have the money for tthe veneu. I only got somebody was going to sponsor the winners then there was no point for me to like do a meet up where I don’t even have a venue. I don’t have the resources, you know, to be able to carry that Hackathon. The whole idea for my hackathon was for people now, and the young people especially who are my target to understand Bitcoin more by becoming hands on. And then the other thing that I’ve been like wishing to do so much was to have a Bitcoin conference where I can call anybody, everybody, even those in governments, to come and attend the conference. I think if I can be able to do those two things. I’m telling you, people will have like a switch. Because meetups they come, chat we chat, we go. Then we meet again in another meet up, you know, but if we can… and sometimes always the same people who are coming and very few new are coming. But imagine a Bitcoin conference. Where we calling people like you guys from Austria we call you, you come different people come. And then we teach people the government because there’s those are the people that we really have to like reach. So if I can be able to do that then I know there’s gonna be a shift. But it has been so tough I’ve been trying.
Anita Posch So what was the problem then, the companies from, like outside of Botswana that don’t sponsor you?
Alakanani Itireleng They haven’t like responded. I’ve been writing but people are not responding. Even if the conference is coming by someone from outside. I’ll still like embrace it if, let’s say, for example, Blockchain Bitcoin Foundation, Austria.They want to do a Bitcoin conference in Botswana I will embrace it because what I want is for the information to reach the people that I want it to reach. If the Bitcoin foundation in Austria have got sponsors and all know that they can sponsor of the conference in Botswana, we can set it up.
Anita Posch How do people here in Botswana get Bitcoin?
Alakanani Itireleng I think number one is because of these schemes that they join. And then there are those who came online and then those who are doing forex trading yeah, that traders. I know there are a group of young traders called the company called Afritrade (?). They do forex trading and crypto trading. It’s also like a bunch of guys who are into trading and those who are into sports betting they are doing crypto because there’s a company called PlayBettr which they’re doing betting sports and life sports betting. So I introduced the company in Botswana, they have got people who are also betting, …
Anita Posch They should hold Bitcoin instead.
Alakanani Itireleng I think they shall bet responsibly. And they also hold Bitcoins and yeah, I think it’s that online work and Ponzi schemes, of course. Yeah.
Anita Posch How do people install their wallets? And then how do they exchange Pula to Bitcoin or something?
Alakanani Itireleng A lot of them they are using mobile, what you call… the downloads, the one that the downloads on their phones. And one thing that I have realized is, I was interacting with a lot of people. Like, maybe they’ll be calling me to say they’re looking for Bitcoins and a lot of them they don’t have recovery phrases for their wallets.
Anita Posch Wow. So they don’t do backups?
Alakanani Itireleng When I call them. I say, like before I send you money – Is your wallet backed up. What is that, then? I have to, like, take them through the process of backing up their wallet so that their money is safe and all that. So that’s also we need a conference where people can hold that Bitcoins and still be safe, because some they have lost their wallet. I can remember, there was a lady who called me and said he lost his wallet can you recover the password. I said no. Unless you have done the Bitcoin backup. But what is that? You see the problem with the Ponzi schemes is they’ll make you to download your wallet very quick. No information whatsoever. You don’t understand what is happening, and they don’t even have the recovery. No seed. You don’t have anything. So you lose your money.Once you lose your phone, you lost your money and all that. So that’s one thing. Yeah. So most of them hold it on their phones or on their web wallets.
Anita Posch It’s really criminal. I mean, really, Yeah. I mean that those Ponzi schemes they don’t tell them. I mean, they have no interest in educating people. Of course.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, they are. I don’t like them. I don’t like them. Some they pretend to be educating, there are those who were saying when they when they advertise their whatever they are like come and learn about Blockchain.
Anita Posch Yeah. Blockchain.
Alakanani Itireleng I’m like, you’re not teaching people anything you say come, learn about Blockchain and then after they have learned, they say give us $50 or whatever to join our scheme. So at the end of the day.
Anita Posch How many people are coming to your meetups?
Alakanani Itireleng It was that those moments where we have close to 100 then there are those moments when you have 20. I never have less than 20. Yeah.
Anita Posch And yesterday you told me that you’ve been to many African countries doing meet ups. Where and when was that happening?
Alakanani Itireleng Kenya. So many times, Kenya is like my second home , so Kenya so many times. And I’ve been to Uganda to teach, I went to Zimbabwe to teach. I’ve been to South Africa to teach. So those are like my countries where, like, I’ve been there to, like teach. And so I have been invited to other countries, some I felt to go, you know? Yeah, but I’ve been invited so many. I think I’ve become like this African Bitcoin person. So yeah, I love it. I mean, I love teaching to empower people. If I can do that all my life, it will be and protect people from Ponzi schemes. I’ll be so happy.
Anita Posch Which countries in Africa do you think are the most forward in Bitcoin education and using Bitcoin and people who are in this space?
Alakanani Itireleng South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana that are the top three like the forefront of this. They’re like, I mean, like when I say I mean like, we see a lot of development coming in. You know, people we have got wallets, people are doing wallets and there is this and that there is development, you know? You see that? That doing something they’ve understood, you know, they’re looking for solutions. You know all that. So you can tell by what is happening there. Yeah, and you can tell. Also by a lot of people being interested in going to those countries than other countries.
Anita Posch What do you think? Which things have to be in place that countries or people in different countries see the positive sides of Bitcoin and want to adopt it? You know what you just said? South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria.
Alakanani Itireleng I mean, like, sending money remittance, Yeah, sending money. I mean, we have to, like, find a lot of fintech solutions on Bitcoin. We should go to see that it shows that people are really embracing that, you know, having businesses that are focusing on Bitcoin having education centers which are established, like in Botswana are not established. We’re struggling to establish ourselves because people are looking at maybe the population, maybe the population of Ghana is good they can be able to sponsor. You know, certain businesses. We only have 2,4 million so it is a small market for a lot of people. So people that the market is not…
Anita Posch But Bitcoin is a global market. So actually it should also work here.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, but at the end of the day, you know, what drives people to go to people is money, you know, so profits some way.
Anita Posch Here to profit somewhere.
Alakanani Itireleng So some countries are not that much profitable for people, you know? Yeah.
Anita Posch A little bit left out.
Alakanani Itireleng Even if you try, you know, you still get a little bit left out. Likewise, given example of how much are struggling with the hackathon. And I pushed it to August with the hope that maybe some people will come in and help. I’m still waiting to see. But if I was to set the same in Nigeria, in South Africa, it would be so fast because the population is good. So here the population is so small, so it’s kind of a struggle.
Anita Posch So since you’re into Bitcoin since 2012/2013 you’ve seen a lot of development around it. Like other hard forks, other cryptocurrencies and such. Are you still a Bitcoiner?
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, Bitcoin is king. No matter what, I can develop or whatever, like, solution that can come. To me: Bitcoin is king. I don’t think there is such brilliance as can be seen in Bitcoin. You know, Bitcoin is brilliant thinking, you know, the whole, the whole ecosystem of Bitcoin. If you read the whitepaper, it has a lot of brilliant ideas. You know, the eliminating third parties, the miners, you know, the work has been done. Everything is so systematic. And it’s so beautiful, so beautiful, that I still believe Bitcoin is king, there might be maybe in the future, other developments that will come. But Bitcoin will still remain king. Yeah, it is the foundation of everything. Okay. You can beat your mom in terms of knowledge, but she is still your mom?
Anita Posch That’s a nice comparison. Yeah.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, she’s still your mom. I mean, like you, you have got good knowledge. Maybe you’re more more advanced than she is. But at the end of the day, if you have a problem. You go to mom.
Anita Posch Do you see any usability, or accessibility problems here or hurdles for Bitcoin in the African countries?
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah. There are a lot of issues with power cuts. Yeah.
Anita Posch So that you couldn’t use Bitcoin because you don’t have electricity on your phone and the same with Internet, I guess.
Alakanani Itireleng Same with internet because it is expensive. So I think if you can put more money into making accessibility easier and making it easy for people in Africa to have resources like electricity. We have got a lot of sun. So if you can use it and find a way in which can use electricity to, you know, I mean the sun to convert it into electricity and so that people can have access to electricity 24 7 will be better. And, also to make internet cheap, it’s expensive.
Anita Posch That are exterior effects that Bitcoin cannot change in a way.
Alakanani Itireleng Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anita Posch But like using wallets or stuff like that, maybe there should be a way to use Bitcoin in WhatsApp or in Telegram maybe, because the people have those bundles.
Alakanani Itireleng As long as ah, those applications are decentralized and they don’t have— if they are still like the person at the end controlling WhatsApp and what not, how do we trust? You know with Bitcoin is, don’t trust, but verify. So we’re not sure if you will be safe to use it.
Anita Posch What do you think about Facebook’s Libra?
Alakanani Itireleng For me it is another Ripple.
Anita Posch But I think many people will use it because they don’t realize what the difference is between Ripple or Libra or Bitcoin, huh?
Alakanani Itireleng I think that’s the thing that did wonders for me off course, maybe and sometimes it’s also be like I remember the words from Max Keiser. I think he’s the one who says it’s Bitcoin little bitch, sort of , but yeah, it will help, Bitcoin to be even adopted even more.
Anita Posch Ah, ok.
Alakanani Itireleng It’s because it’s authenticates Bitcoin. Yeah, but it’s another Ripple.
Anita Posch What is the latest development in Bitcoin that got you interested in say, yeah, that’s a great development.
Alakanani Itireleng Lightning, Yeah. I think if you can like it, it can grow and develop more. It’s gonna help with all those issues that Bitcoin has, the scalability, issues of like sending micropayments, making everybody everywhere to use it for for whatever that they want. I mean, it’s making Bitcoin easy to use? So I think lightning I still believe there might be even more improvement on the lightning that we don’t know. In my mind, I keep on thinking is gonna even improve more. It is going, maybe it has own issues. I don’t know, but I’m telling you, lightning is gonna make Bitcoin beautiful Yeah, that’s my thought anyway. Yeah, I like it, though.
Anita Posch Do you see – I mean, besides of you,- people here using Bitcoin or lightning?
Alakanani Itireleng Bitcoin on lightning. Yes, it will have to, like, teach people people have to be taught. Like, for example, I was able to go to a doctor and convince him to accept Bitcoin in his clinic. So if I can be able to do that, if I am able to like, go anyway and educate people, I think we’ll see people you know, having those lighnting nodes you know, to make them making their own payment channels and stuff, you know? Well, well, yeah, if I can have workshops on that, not only where I am, like, right now, if you if you if you can follow my meet ups and that based only here in Gaborone, because I don’t have the resources to be able to travel. My my dream is to travel the whole of Botswana and cover the whole of Botswana every littlesingle place. And if I can have, like, Lightning nodes in every single place set that will make me feel like I’ve achieved, you know, I’ve achieved and like I was, I was telling someone that if I can have someone who’s like me in Botswana also, it’ll make me feel like, Yeah, I’ve done my my work real good. Yeah. So I’m still if I can find that sponsor that says hey travel the whole of Botswana and do what you have to do, I will gladly do it. Yeah.
Anita Posch I brought a RaspiBlitz with me. My sponsors were so kind to pay for it. So we just try to download the Blockchain. Is this then the 1st one in Botswana?
Alakanani Itireleng We had the Casa Nodes, which were set up by the Satoshicentre with the lightning nodes. But was this one of this kind is the 1st one. Yeah, and it’s, I love the way it is. Like it’s built beautifully, and I like it that it’s synching quick so I can see it is already already see it on the 99%. So it didn’t take a day or two. I think having things like this like lightning nodes, Bitcoin nodes not only in Gaborone but all over Botswana, I mean it will make the whole sense. It’ll make people to be interested. They want to see such things.
Anita Posch And people are their own banks then.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, so maybe one day I’ll be able to have the tour. Botswana tour. I want to do that to go around Botswana and setup such things nodes and all that. You can see I still have my lightning node, some of them are still in the box, so I haven’t like, used them. So I want to set them somewhere you know where people can, like, embrace them and use them. Yeah.
Anita Posch If there is somebody in Botswana who doesn’t know you yet or you don’t know him or her yet and he’s interested in setting up a node.
Alakanani Itireleng I’m ready, I’m ready. I mean, like, I’m here for them. I mean, I’m like a Bitcoin preacher. The information that I’m learning it’s not for me, but it’s for people. So I want to, they should not be afraid to contact me and I’m easy. I talk a lot.
Anita Posch What would you like to tell the world? Um, about Bitcoin or Botswana or how we could support you?
Alakanani Itireleng I mean, I’ve been here faithfully, in faithful love of Bitcoin for so many years. I mean, like I remain faithful to my calling in Bitcoin. But I want to have talks with people around the world and share, uh, with mentors around Botswana and share the people’s thoughts. The people’s beliefs on Bitcoin. And I want people to be able to also know Bitcoin in depth and not schemes, not Ponzi schemes, not what not. I want people to be able to have the knowledge and route to use it and to see the beauty of Bitcoin and I can only do that if I’m able to, like, get out of Gaborone and go to the whole of Botswana and I want to do that. I even have a plan on one of my laptops where I have drawn that I want to go to this place with this place, to this place, to this place. And all I needed was like brochures. If somebody somewhere they globally have got brochures I can share with people, I can be sure in those brochures I can be doing more activation exercises, for people who don’t have WiFi, we can be giving them paper wallets and teach them how to use them. You know, it’s there is still like a lot that I need to do.
Anita Posch Yeah. I mean, you know, I think you also need devices and stuff. I mean, nobody has hardware wallets here or something like that.
Alakanani Itireleng Yes, devices and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, people don’t have. Yeah, I remember I was so excited when I bought a hardware wallet in the U. S.
Anita Posch I can imagine that. Yeah.
Alakanani Itireleng I was excited, so I brought a Trezor, when I was in the US.
Anita Posch I hope tomorrow when we have the Bitcoin meetup and we will give away the SHIFT BitBoxes and also I’ve got some Card Wallets here.
Alakanani Itireleng I think they will be stoked. They will be so excited.
Anita Posch Is there something like EcoCash or M-Pesa here?
Alakanani Itireleng Mobile money. Yeah, we’ve got Orange money. And then we got MyZaka. Yeah. So there are different mobile companies providing mobile money solutions like Orange is providing Orange money. Mascom is providing MyZaka. And then there’s mobile, I forgot what it’s called. They have got their own mobile money kind of, but it is not as huge as M-Pesa. Yeah, M-Pesa is big, you go to the shops you can just pay with M-Pesa and all that. Yeah, but with Orange also, they’re trying. You can buy electricity with the Orange money. You can go and they’ve got even a card. You know like that visa card, where you can go and just swipe your food and what not with the mobile money.
Anita Posch And all those food stands or the little shops?
Alakanani Itireleng The little shops. Oh, you pay with paper money, the ones outside you pay with paper money.
Anita Posch Yeah, because in Zimbabwe, you also pay with EcoCash. Yeah, because you only need an old smartphone or a Nokia one, you know these older phones and you don’t have to pay for the Internet useage or somehting.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah. Oh, wow
Anita Posch You only have to have a sim card and then you can pay.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even here you can use your orange money to pay for your electricity, for example, even to pay for your data and stuff. But for those small businesses, they haven’t yet embraced the culture of people coming with orange money and using it. So maybe if maybe the mobile money market can improve in Botswana people start using QR codes. Just have to scan your code and pay, then, yeah, maybe they will be, like a lot of adoption of Mobile Money.
Anita Posch Maybe they leapfrog and use Bitcoin.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, that would be so cool. Yeah, because, yeah, I think that will be so cool.
Anita Posch Yeah, we will see. How do you see the future of Bitcoin in Botswana?
Alakanani Itireleng I think it’s gonna be big! For me somehow in my head, I believe some of this is, this is the original home of the honey badger.
Anita Posch Talk about that. The honey badger is from here?
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, I mean, somehow I do believe so much young people are gonna be the agent of change that so I’m, like, target them so much. Even they can understand and run with this vision, we gonna be able to use Bitcoin like a lot. We are already using it, you know? We just need to have more places using bitcoin not only one doctor, we need more businesses using bitcoin. We’ve got people from Zimbabwe here, who are buying bitcoin to send home, so you can see it’s already there. It might not be a formal market, that informal market exists. So we just need to make everything formal.
Anita Posch Do you have exchanges here that you use, online exchanges? Do you use something like LocalBitcoins?
Alakanani Itireleng No peer to peer. No. They left. They’ve closed us, LocalBitcoins closed us, we were one of the countries that were moved from localbitcoins. But yeah, I never understood why. Because Botswana is so cool.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah. We were one of the countries which were listed on LocalBitcoins. So Yeah. I think at Paxful, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So but normally here people just call us. Like yesterday there was obviously a lot of calls when I was with you, people were looking for Bitcoins, so I received a lot of calls, people looking for Bitcoins and then I will have to, like, connect them with somebody in the US. To send me bitcoin.
Anita Posch And you’ve got everything in your head, all the connections because I think or are they do you have, like, WhatsApp groups or Telegram groups? Where the people connect the peer to peer people who want to exchange?
Alakanani Itireleng No, we don’t haven’t yet formed peer to peer WhatsApp groups. Just the Satoshicentre has been the like, the center where people just call the center and say Hey, and then I’m connecting everybody. I never thought off doing a WhatsApp group because people tend to take people’s numbers and use them for own things.
Anita Posch You’re connecting everybody.
Alakanani Itireleng So I always, like, try. Uh, yeah, yeah, maybe telegram, if maybe, can introduce the culture of telegram.
Anita Posch That’s why I prefer telegram because you do not have to show your number.
Alakanani Itireleng Because here it is a lot of WhatsApp and Facebook.
Anita Posch Yeah, which is bad anyhow, because everything is centralized at Facebook.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, so. And I don’t like, uh, WhatsApp groups. Because people take your number. And then the next thing you’ll be called by someone from wherever is starting, you know, selling some phone and scams and stuff, so I don’t like that.
Anita Posch I think that was a nice interview. I hope you think so, too. Is there anything we left out to say?
Alakanani Itireleng No, I think, we want to build. I mean, like, for me. I just want people to understand that I want to build, I want to build the Bitcoin economy. If I have to go down in history, I have to go down in history as one of the people who were like faithfully educating people about Bitcoin without wavering. So it’s my passion and I want to push it. But sometimes it’s hard because I’m broke without the money, I am not yet rich. So, uh, I want to help people get into the Bitcoin ecosystem and set the ecosystem to make it like work for Africa, not only for Botswana to make it work for Africa. You know, we are the very people that need Bitcoin. We are the people. Yeah, we are. Yeah. This is the place where it is needed the most.
Anita Posch
I think so, too. That actually, this is the place where it’s needed the most.
Alakanani Itireleng Like I was shocked when I was in the U. S. In Orange County. I saw a drive through bank. I was like, what you guys have got drive hrough banks? You don’t need Bitcoin. So we need Bitcoin. We don’t own anything anyway, so we can all the only thing that we can own and feel it’s ours is Bitcoin.
Anita Posch Since you’re in since 2013. How did this change to now? Like the adoption here or the interest of people.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah. Now people know Bitcoin I mean, like, a lot of people know Bitcoin.
Anita Posch Back then, you were the first one.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, I was the formal one. I don’t know if there were others, who were hiding. Yeah. So I was the formal one, I was the one who, like, came out and say, Hey, come, let’s get together and do this I did that single handedly with the help of God and some friends in the US. You know, who are still my friends up to today. So I was the person who felt like this is not something to be selfish about. It is something that you can share with other people. Yeah, so and I still continue doing that.
Anita Posch Would you say Bitcoin is community money or something like that? How would you brand Bitcoin?
Alakanani Itireleng Bitcoin is a family. It’s money with swag. You know? It’s beautiful. I mean, like, you can, it makes you to socialize with anyone without fear. I mean, like, I cannot socialize with ah, some millionaires right here in Botswana I cannot even sit down on the table with them or anything. But with Bitcoin, I sit with anyone. It doesn’t give labels. That’s the beauty about it, when you’re sitting with someone, you don’t feel labeled. You don’t feel you’re broke or you don’t feel your rich, you feel like you’re in this community of family, your are a family like it big. That’s why I talk about Twitter like my Bitcoin family because it feels like family, it feels like you’ve got people. You have got brothers, sisters, cousins, whatever. Whatever. Yeah, worldwide. So it’s: Bitcoin is a currency of love.
Anita Posch That’s nice. Yeah.
Alakanani Itireleng Yeah, it’s the currency of love. Yeah, it’s the currency of love. Yeah.
Anita Posch Perfect. I think that’s the perfect ending for this interview. So thank you very much, Alakanani. See you soon again.
Alakanani Itireleng Oh, perfect. I’d definitely would love to see you again.
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Credits: Edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor: Adam B. Levine Idea, content and production: Anita Posch Music: “Start with yes” by Delicate beats
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Part 5: Afriblocks, Lightning Network, COVID-19 & Answering Questions - Bitcoin in Africa - The Ubuntu Way
Apr 16, 2020
In this episode you will get to know a young man from Zimbabwe, Tongayi Choto, who is a software developer, entrepreneur and a bitcoin maximalist. He has founded Afriblocks, a Global Pan-African Freelance platform that connects professionals across the world. We talk about the problems young Zimbabweans are facing and his approach to make lives better. In the second part of this episode, I will answer listeners questions about the current use of bitcoin and other methods of payment in Zimbabwe. If you have a question, feel free to scroll down, press the appropriate button and record your question.
We talk about:
Africa: high potential, but not enough opportunities
Pan-African Freelance network
Payments in cryptocurrencies
The use of smart contracts for releasing funds
Scams like MMM, Onecoin, bitclub
The Volatility of bitcoin being a huge problem for poor people
The impact of the Lightning Network in Africa
Internet bundles
After the interview I answer these questions from my listeners:
What is preventing widespread usage of bitcoin? Tech? Awareness? Laws? Working, cheap alternatives (Ecocash)? Fees?
Are there bitcoin OGs in the community and if so are they still actively supporting the newcomers?
Not sure if M-Pesa is available in Zimbabwe/Botswana. But if so, why would anybody use Bitcoin instead of already available digital payment solutions such as M-Pesa?
Did you hear anything about http://beforward.jp and Bitcoin?
I am interested how well people understand, if their own governments money is good money for them (in terms of purchasing power, inflation etc). What share of people in your impression are asking themselves this question in these countries?
Are Zimbabweans living overseas using bitcoin for remittances? If so, how does this channel work? How do bitcoin remittances compare to alternatives like Western Union?
This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters. I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and the Card Wallet, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware wallet BitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network.
This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work.
Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world.
Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work.
Tongayi Choto Hello Anita, and thank you for having me.
Anita Posch Yeah, thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me. At first, please introduce yourself to our listeners. Who are you? What are you doing? What’s your education?
Tongayi Choto Okay, well my name is Tongayi Choto. I am from Zimbabwe. That’s where I am right now in Harare.
I’m a software developer and an entrepreneur. I graduated 2015 from the University of Zimbabwe, and I was doing computer science and maths. So since then that’s when I just found a found out about blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. And I was in a stage where I was trying to figure out what do I do next with my career with my education then I found out about Bitcoin and it just made sense for me to work, to use this technology. It was so amazing. I remember that night I didn’t go to bed and read and read and read and it was so amazing to me. And since then, that’s the space I’ve been working developing different projects, different use cases for cryptocurrency. So right now, my latest startup is called Afriblocks. Afriblocks is a global pan African freelance network. And it’s one of the projects that I’m doing to try to use technology, emerging technologies to use blockchain and cryptocurrency to solve problems that we see every single day.
Anita Posch Okay, let’s talk about these problems you see every day. Can you tell us a little bit about it? And how could blockchain or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies solve that?
Tongayi Choto I would like to talk about the problem that I’m trying to solve at the moment. In Zimbabwe, basically, we have a population of about 16 million people and in Africa is all about 1.3 billion people. And from that 1.3 billion about 60% is under the age of 25. And Africa is seen as the youngest continent in the world. When I look at this, I see so much potential that is not being given enough opportunities, enough resources, enough jobs, because, for example, in Zimbabwe have about in 98, 95 to 98% literacy rate, and where people work hard with people who have skills, graphics designers, software developers, and all that, but we do not have enough opportunities and that the formal job, jobs are not available. So a lot of people are an unemployed formely. So I say to myself, why can we not create a global pan African freelance network, and that the goal of this platform is to, to, to firstly, we, we vet people, we look for freelancers, we read them, we train them, how to communicate internationally, meeting deadlines, all that. And we place them on our platform. The idea being if you Anita need a website done, we can get you someone to do it if you need graphics, design, all that we can give you people who can do that. And people actually paid for services. So we’re not saying just give us money for no reason at all. We’re seeing where people are qualified, skilled and talented. And all we need is these jobs or we need opportunities, and we get on with it. So yeah, that’s the major problem I was trying to solve because what it does, is it gives people jobs gives people foreign currency and if we look at the world right now, there are a lot of different platforms, freelance platforms. And if we look at the world like people are actually moving from day jobs, to actually working from home. I see I mean, we’re seeing right now it’s crazy, but the the Coronavirus has got all of us working from home. So I saw this as an opportunity to create a global platform for Africans for people who live and work outside Africa, the African diaspora, even African Americans, because most of our clients we’ve been having are out from America, they were saying, you know, this is amazing. We want to support this and we get the job done for them. So that’s, that’s the problem that I was trying to solve. And basically, because I’ve been in the cryptocurrency space, in the blockchain space, we are looking to use the blockchain as well. Things like smart contracts, payment systems to make this is true global success.
Anita Posch So you’ve built a marketplace in a way where people from abroad can work together with African freelancers. People who do like programming or writing or graphic design and is the connection to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, the one that people from abroad then can pay people in Africa with cryptocurrencies?
Tongayi Choto What was going on is we had issues with payments, because locally for example, in Zimbabwe and actually I checked Russia as well, a lot of countries that PayPal is not available in and most clients in the US would pay using PayPal. So it will bring a challenge for me to be able to pay people here on this site. Cryptocurrency is one of the ways that our clients would say I have cryptocurrency can I pay you using that. And because I’ve been in this place, I would say not. It’s okay. Since the money is on the US side, for example, and in Zimbabwe again, just to pay people in US dollars, because that’s what’s legal in Zimbabwe. We do not we, as a as a platform with we try to follow rules and regulations in each and every country. Because right now we have about seven countries, African countries, people raised as freelancers on our platform. So for example, in Namibia, or South Africa, Botswana, Uganda, we use the regulations that are stated in that country. So yeah, payments, were one of the things that we still are solving, to make sure that everything makes sense.
Anita Posch You started to talk about smart contracts before. What, in which context do smart contracts stand with Afriblocks.
Tongayi Choto With Afriblocks, right now we did a pilot for a one year period to try to prove the business model like to see does this work and to try to identify issues that we might need to solve and all that. And one of the things – that’s the lowest hanging fruit everyone understands a freelancer, everyone understands a client in the job everyone is clear what they’re paying for and what they are being paid for. – the bigger vision that I have, the bigger vision that I have is to create to eventually start to decentralize bit by bit. This will take time because I’ve been in this space for a while. I don’t want to create hype. I want to build the product first, then start to add on components being Artificial intelligence to make this platform may work more efficiently. So smart contracts is something that I’ve been personally interested in. And if you look at it this model is a client, there’s a freelancer, they agree on the job that’s being done. They agree on the time is going to take, they agree on the payments that need to be made. So it’s one of the things that we’re looking into, not now. But we have an r&d research department that’s looking into it to see how can we integrate all these components to make the platform more efficient. And if it’s the contract that says the job is done, then the funds are released funds are in in escrow. First if the client is not happy funds may return to them. All of those issues by smart contracts do take time to make sure that you you have solved digital If he issue because, you know, once a contract is done, it’s done. Yeah. So those are some of the things that we’re thinking about.
Anita Posch So you’re basically in the research phase at the moment for these things. But clients could already engage freelancers to work with them. That’s a great opportunity for people and companies from abroad to, like support African entrepreneurs, Zimbabwean entrepreneurs to earn some money. What are the obstacles you see for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in Zimbabwe, because I have heard that the government has outlawed the use of Bitcoin. What’s your opinion on that?
Tongayi Choto I do understand how it happened. Because one of the things that people need to realize is, we are a country with actual rules and regulations. We have an RBZ just like the United States. They have the SEC, the Federal Reserve and all that. So for me what happened was there was this scam was going on are calling it triple M. And a lot of people are losing money. And of course when you lose money, that’s when you reach out to the regulator to say to the police, I’ve lost my money. So the regulator kept having these complaints, and also as Bitcoin was new at that time, right now it’s too new. It’s fairly new as a technology. It’s something that you really need to understand before you see everyone can use it. So as a regulator, in my opinion, I saw them as trying to protect people because I was, I’m a techie person. I know how Bitcoin works. I’m actually a software developer, I know how blockchain all that works. But for someone to just start to use it today, and mistakes to happen. Like for example, if you just lose your seed words, you lose all your money, and there’s the volatility issue. So those things are only because the technology is too young. And it needs to be learned, it needs to be developed in such a way that it becomes scalable. It becomes a technology that everyone can use without the worry of, of the fact that they don’t know. So one of the things that we are doing right now is we’re creating our recording a freelancer training series, which includes this content training people on how to use cryptocurrencies, besides them just learning how to become a freelancer and handle international jobs. We are working on a Hub here in Harare. It’s almost done. We are opening I think, if this after this COVID crisis if it goes away, we’ll be opening to teach people on how to use these technologies.
Anita Posch Would you say maybe that, if people have enough education and so that they can decide for themselves or estimate, you know, like say, okay, now I understand that this Bitcoin, it’s unforgeable and it’s not a scheme and I can differentiate it from like triple M or Onecoin, that then it would be a good possibility for people in Zimbabwe and other countries to really own their, their money and it can’t be censored or taken away. Do you see that as a positive?
Tongayi Choto Yeah, it’s definitely a positive. Like what I was seeing blockchain and cryptocurrencies, is they’ve gone through a bad phase. I remember there was the time with a lot of ICO’s there was a time there were a lot of Bitclub Bitcoin Club this then there was a time where people creating a lot of currencies. A lot of other currencies and people were trading, mining farms and people we were told to pay this and that so that you become part of the mining. So, then the volatility itself I mean, we’ve seen it go up to 20.000 to 18.000 or so then back down to three they now recently it’s going back up. So for someone who has say $100 a month, you cannot afford to place money in Bitcoin because you can wake up and do have lost 50% of its value. So that alone makes it difficult in the sense of Zimbabwe unless you’re able to say you receive it and it’s logged into USD and it’s logged into, into another currency. So there’s a learning curve. And I do think people need to learn about it to know exactly what’s going on if someone decides to use it. I mean, it’s all online,if you get the best wallets and if you understand that you need to keep your seed, does give a bit of a bit of freedom on your money, which is which is something that’s needed but they have to be aware of all the risks that are included in this is as regulators have seen about in January RBZ released a statement that they are learning about blockchain and want to see how they can use it? So, again, these are institutions, things take time, they don’t just move in, allow everyone to, to use something that they know will come back to them because now people are losing money which, which they do not have. So those are some of the issues that I think.
And now a short word from my sponsors:
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Anita Posch Do you think that the lightning network could be a solution in a way because then you could have smaller payments like micro payments, that also could be used by people who earn only like 10 USD or 20 USD per month?
Tongayi Choto Lightning is really interesting. I experimented with a node here in Zimbabwe connected with one in Nigeria. The whole goal was to learn to see how lightning works, I think I was one of the first people use it like very early stages. In some of them, it was only $2. But it was lost in one of the hops. And it was to those to developing a but it is really a technology that you can start to use for example, um, sometimes we have freelancers in Nigeria, and freelancers in South Africa, and if you can use that, that lightning network to just send payments, that will be really helpful as well. Again, all of it is really new technology and part of we’re really trying to, to make sure it’s airtight before recommended to our freelancers because you gotta know that. Like what I was saying people here, probably website is about $150 and if you send that to them and it wakes up tomorrow is $140. That’s not a good picture, even if everyone understands that Bitcoin is volatile. So all of those issues, some of the things that we try to protect both our freelancers and our clients, but lightning network is really something that I think especially in terms of payments within Africa, because if we want to make it transfer to say Mozambique or Namibia, Botswana, all countries next to Zimbabwe. You do a wire transfer. And this wire transfer goes through what they call the swift system. I’m sure everyone knows the swift international swift system. And the funny thing that I realized as those transactions get approved, in USA, and then that transaction goes to to the country next to Zimbabwe, which to me is like in this day in 2020 we still get transactions approved all the way in the United States you know so some of those things that’s why I am a Bitcoin maximalist I’m pro blockchain because I think eventually this is the future especially for situations like this where we still have the legacy monetary systems that are really old and problematic.
Anita Posch Did you say before that you set up a lightning node?
Tongayi Choto Oh yeah, in the beginning of last year, I set up a lightning node. It was just an experiment to see how it works got some funds sent from, from Nigeria they went through and it was really a learning curve you know to setup one in that time it really wasn’t that easy, right now it’s easier because there are now preset nodes. nodes are already set up. But there’s a way to do it from scratch. Like it’s set up, you download the blockchain you, you sync, you connect to an API and all that. But now it’s, it’s a bit easier. I think I’ll actually try to do it again. Then there was the time then people will purchase passing the torch. That was also something interesting.
Anita Posch Did you also get the torch?
Tongayi Choto I did not. I did not, I was too slow so it passed.
Anita Posch I was also too slow. So you said before it’s important for people also to exchange money to US dollar to have currency to buy stuff and to pay your rent and to pay food. Do you know Bitrefill? Because with Bitrefill, you can take your lightning Bitcoin and pay for airtime in Zimbabwe with it. Do you know that?
Tongayi Choto Yes, I do. Bitrefill is one of the oldest blockchain Bitcoin startups and use cases. Like I’ve used it before to buy airtime. Localbitcoins, is another platform that has been there for a while yeah because we’ve seen a lot of blockchain Bitcoin cryptocurrency startups come and go. But yeah, Bitrefill has been here for a while.
Anita Posch What I have observed or I learned when I was in Zimbabwe is that people exchange Bitcoin to US dollars in WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups. Is this a thing? I mean, is this a way to cash out money?
Tongayi Choto Yeah, I’ve seen people do that in groups, peer to peer WhatsApp groups, but I cannot say I’m an expert or know much about that.
Anita Posch Another question I have, you seem to have a good internet connection because otherwise I think you couldn’t download the initial blockchain. I think internet connections and packages are very expensive in your country. Is that true?
Tongayi Choto Yes, they are expensive like they are more expensive as compared to other countries. I think it’s something as a country that we need to fix, because I don’t think data should be that expensive. The thing I mentioned about blockchain or the blockchain was about 15 gig 15 gigabytes in that time and, you know, to wait and wait until end up While connection is, is a bit expensive, so Yeah, that’s true. So people tend to use data bundles. That’s why WhatsApp is really popular. A bit of Facebook, because it’s a bit cheaper than say for example going on YouTube and watching Netflix that becomes more expensive.
Anita Posch You said it before you also are in lockdown now because of the coronavirus. Is that true?
Tongayi Choto Yes. Correct. The President gave us a 21 day period to just stay indoors, to try to not get the virus, because although we have about nine announced or recorded cases in Zimbabwe, it’s it’s precautions that the government took to say, you know what, just stay home. Let’s be safe. I will be indoors until the 16th of April. So yeah, this is the second week now that we’ve been. We’ve been home, we are trying to stay home.
Anita Posch And how is it affecting people? I mean, most of the people are living hand to mouth, they have to work, they have to earn money for everyday. Can you say anything about the situation at the moment.
Tongayi Choto It’s really difficult if you are someone who works..I mean, most people are in the informal sector. So you wake up, you’re still really close. So it’s really difficult that you have to stay home. Because two weeks, two weeks is just half a month. I mean, it’s a long time for you to not do business and this is affecting the entire world in Zimbabwe is not an exception, and I really do hope this whole situation calms down because yeah, If you if you if you’re someone with day in day out, it’s so close to daily sell food today and as the money that you’re using to buy things next week or next day, yeah, it’s extremely difficult.
Anita Posch Let’s get back to our topic, blockchains and Bitcoin. What are your plans for Afriblocks in the next months?
Tongayi Choto We are planning to open a hub here in Harare, this hub is dedicated to giving freelancers space to work from. It’s also dedicated to helping because we’ve had local clients as well can meet up to having workshops to have basically to create a community of people that were saying let’s help each other professionally and grow this global network. If this works locally, we grow into at least one more country this year. But the major thing that we need right now in the short term is jobs. It’s people who want to get things done. And can recommend our platform to reach out to more clients. As I was saying graphics design, software development, web development, marketing, digital marketing, social media, and all those skills, are all on the platform.
Anita Posch Please tell us where people can find your website.
Tongayi Choto The website is www.afriblocks.com. So that’s afriblocks with an s dot com and our email if you want to reach out to us it’s: info at afriblocks.com
Anita Posch Super, thank you, Tongayi. Thank you very much for your time and for this interview and I wish you all the best and stay safe.
Tongayi Choto Thank you Anita.
Shortly after I was talking with Tongayi about Bitcoin in Zimbabwe and the regulations by the Reserve Bank, the government published a new plan to set up a cryptocurrency, that should be gold and US dollar backed to stabilize their own RTGS local currency. They engaged with the private American company Apollo to build this infrastructure. Important to know is that this is a private, permissioned project. That means, it is not open, uncensorable and permissionless like Bitcoin is. I guess the money supply is also not capped as it is in bitcoin. This will not prevent the money printing of the Reserve Bank. Basically this is just old wine in new bottles. The local currency is called RTGS – real time gross settlement. It is already digital. The project by Apollo and the government is just a move to show – we the Zimbabwean government are on the forefront of technology – and to keep on extorting the country and the people of Zimbabwe.
In the 2nd part of the episode I will answer questions from my Twitter followers about the usage of bitcoin in Africa.
Before that, a short word from my sponsors:
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So here we go, here come the questions from my listeners:
Ndeet is asking: What is preventing widespread bitcoin usage? Tech? Awareness? Laws? Working, cheap alternatives (Ecocash)? Fees?
It’s a mix of everything. As mentioned in part 4 by my guest Zimbabwe is lagging behind in terms of tech and digitalization. The affiliate marketer in part 3 told me he has to work for companies abroad, because Zimbabwean companies do not have the tools for affiliate marketing, so as much as he would like to work for Zimbabwean businesses, he can’t.
The other obstacle thing is internet availability. Although I have seen more people with smartphones than I expected, which would allow for using bitcoin wallets, most of the people do not have access to the World Wide Web. They buy cheaper internet bundles like a social media bundle, so they can only use WhatsApp and / or Facebook. So they can not download a wallet. Also the cost of a full internet bundle is higher than in Austria for instance, with an average income of 300 USD per month, you cannot afford a bundle for 80 USD per month. And here I am not even speaking of all the people who have to live on 10 USD per month or less. EcoCash is so successful and widely used, because it is free to use with no fees or subscriptions upfront. Accepting mobile money with EcoCash is frictionless, you only need a SIM card. No monthly fees, just the transaction fees. When EcoCash is down, which happens time and time again, everybody suffers. There are 2 other mobile money providers but they are tiny compared to EcoCash. Not only EcoCash is down sometimes, also swiping your bank card is not always working. At the toll station we could not pay our toll per swipe, because the bank was offline. So nothing is really reliable.
For the biggest part of the population the fees on the bitcoin baselayer would be too high, too. They will never be able to pay current transaction fees, even more assuming that these will increase in the coming years. The Lightning Network is crucial for the usage of bitcoin for the impoverished.
Awareness: yes, this is a problem, too. On the one hand many people have never heard of bitcoin and the other big part of the population heard that it is bad and dangerous, because many people have been scammed by MMM, Onecoin – I even heard about bitclub being active here. So bitcoin has a massive branding problem. Also somebody told me the internet is a “white thing” – which is true, if we think of it from the perspective of Africans. Owning or using bitcoin seems like a luxury, I was also told. It is too expensive and through it’s volatility still too risky for most. Using it as a store of value is also a thing that only better off people can do. The others live from hand to mouth, from day to day, they cannot afford saving.
I also have no solution to the topic of key management. Although one could memorize 24 english words, I personally would not want to rely on that. Hardware wallets are too expensive, storing a sheet of paper in a high-density living area or a mud hut seems also difficult to me.
Much educational effort is needed, to show the good sides of bitcoin and also for people to be able to distinguish between scams and legit ways of using cryptocurrencies.
I can imagine that also the outlawing of cryptocurrency use by the government is a reason to not use it. On the other hand everybody wants to get hold of USD, although the use was outlawed in the last years, too.
Richard asks: Are there bitcoin OGs in the community and if so are they still actively supporting the newcomers?
I am not sure, what the definition of a Bitcoin OG really is, but if it is someone who educates a broader community since before 2015, then I would say yes in Botswana Alakanani Itireleng is definitely an OG. She founded the Satoshicentre in 2014 and is organizing meetups since then. She is the center of Botswanas peer to peer exchange. When someone wants to change Botswana Pula or USD to Bitcoin, they call her. When I was there and we did a bitcoin meetup together, we installed wallets on peoples phones and she sent bitcoin to the new users. Her twitter handle is “bitcoinlady”, feel free to donate bitcoin to her, she is doing good things with it.
In Zimbabwe I talked to an early adopter. It seems to be a thing to have a mentor and being a mentee, there. So he is supporting his mentees, too. But I am not sure, how engaged he is in building a community.
Petersen asks: Not sure if M-Pesa is available in Zimbabwe/Botswana. But if so, why would anybody use Bitcoin instead of already available digital payment solutions such as M-Pesa?
Good question. M-Pesa is not available there. Zimbabwe and Botswana have their own solutions. Not sure about Botswana, but for Zimbabwe I know that EcoCash is a real big thing. A private company called Econet is the provider. They do 99.8% of all digital transactions in Zimbabwe. In general – for payments inside the country – you would not use bitcoin instead of EcoCash today. Only very few people accept bitcoin and as I said before: EcoCash works frictionless.
Use-cases I see: being paid for work from abroad, remittances, permissionless transactions – for instance for imported goods – sending and exchanging money outside the country with the bank takes days, is a big hustle, very expensive and due to currency controls every transaction needs to be approved by the government. More privacy, although if you are poor you do not have time to care about privacy.
Matt asks: Did you hear anything about http://beforward.jp and Bitcoin? Because I heard Bitcoin was being used to purchase cars on beforward to avoid cap controls and I would like to hear corroborating evidence and any further context.
Yes, I heard about “beforward” the online marketplace for used japanese cars, too. I was told that leaders of pyramid schemes used their stolen bitcoins to buy cars there. Or they exchanged it through Golix. Golix even had a bitcoin ATM in Harare, where you could exchange bitcoin in USD cash. When people, who got scammed, reported that to the government, the government shut down Golix. I saw that beforward is still accepting bitcoin payments, but I do not know if buying cars with bitcoin there is still a big thing.
Vitus asks: I am interested how well people understand, if their own governments money is good money for them (in terms of purchasing power, inflation etc). What share of people in your impression are asking themselves this question in these countries?
People have seen many currencies come and go since 1980. They have been stripped of their money several times in the last say 20 years. They lived through hyper-inflation. New currencies have been introduced and bank accounts have been frozen or changed from USD to Zimdollar without a possibility to dispute. So everybody knows that USD are hard-currency and everybody wants to get USD. People do not trust their own currency. I of course do not know, what the majority of people think, but the ones I spoke with and explained the properties of bitcoin to, were all interested and they even knew about bitcoin before. I – and this is just a guess, the majority of people know that the elites are ripping them off, at least one vegetable seller told me that.
And the last question comes from JP Koning: Are Zimbabweans living overseas using bitcoin for remittances? If so, how does this channel work? How do bitcoin remittances compare to alternatives like Western Union?
From the people I talked with, nobody said something about remittances. But I am sure that this is a use-case, too. I talked with some people about them using bitcoin for being paid for their digital services. They get bitcoin sent directly into their wallets. Then if they want to exchange it to USD or RTGS the local currency, there are several possibilities: either and that is the complex and expensive way, they send their bitcoin to a Skrill account, from there into their FCA accounts at the bank. Or and that is the preferred way, because it is cheaper and easier, they exchange it peer-to-peer in WhatsApp or Facebook groups.
So, that’s it for today. I hope you’ll join me again next week.
If you like my show please write a recommendation in your favourite podcast player.
If you are a german speaker and want to start using bitcoin, then I recommend my book to you – it gives you a comprehensive jump start into becoming a bitcoin user, with recommendations and safety tips. You can buy it on Amazon or if you prefer to pay with bitcoin and lightning drop me a message at hello (at) anitaposch.com.
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Thanks for listening.
Credits: Image by: Martina Gruber Photography Edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor: Adam B. Levine Idea, content and production: Anita Posch Music: “Start with yes” by Delicate beats
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Part 4: If Bitcoin Works in Zimbabwe, It Works Everywhere - Bitcoin in Africa: The Ubuntu Way
Apr 09, 2020
The fourth part of the six-part series about Bitcoin in Africa is an interview with a young woman from Harare. She calls herself a Digipreneur and is working as a teacher, too. With her organization that is focused on the digitalization of Africa, she aims to bring Zimbabwe forward. As the use of Bitcoin is outlawed and the state of human rights and free speech is rather poor in Zimbabwe, we agreed to not mention her name. We are talking about:
The opportunities for bitcoin adoption
Shutdown of Golix, the only Zimbabwean crypto exchange
The philosophy of Ubuntu and how it relates to bitcoin
Hyper-inflation
Future of Bitcoin in Africa
How cryptocurrency feels like luxury in Zimbabwe
How to design bitcoin for use in Africa
Libra, a game changer
Most used social media tools
The need for even more accessibility and ease of use
“If I have a Bitcoin, I can send money to my relatives, who are in Malawi or in Namibia or in Ghana. Currently I can’t with our own currency. I can’t send money out freely and quickly, but if we can sit down as a community and say okay, we need to buy a new borehole and we can do that just by using our phone. That’s an amazing thing. You know, if we look at it from a place of development, if you look at it from a place of helping the community and taking care of each other, if it allows us to take care of each other without having to create so many barriers and so much red tape to get stuff done with money, I feel like when you change that narrative, you speak to something very deep within an African.” – Teacher and Digipreneur, Zimbabwe
“Cryptocurrency feels almost like luxury. It’s sad because I don’t think that’s what it’s supposed to be, but it was also bearing in mind cryptocurrency was designed in a functioning environment. It was designed by people who maybe haven’t spent 12 hours in a fuel queue?” – Teacher and Digipreneur, Zimbabwe
“We need to start having more conversations about the future with the people who are actually affected by the future. Hold workshops under a tree in Binga and have someone who is there who can translate into the local language and have a conversation.” – Teacher and Digipreneur, Zimbabwe
This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters. I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and the Card Wallet, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware wallet BitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network.
This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work.
Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world.
Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work.
TRANSCRIPT Today’s guest is a young woman from Harare. She calls herself a Digipreneur and is working as a teacher, too. With her organization that is focused on the digitalization of Africa, she aims to bring Zimbabwe forward. As the use of Bitcoin is outlawed and the state of human rights and free speech is rather poor in Zimbabwe, we agreed to not mention her name. Thank you anonymous friend and I also thank all the other people in Zimbabwe who have been so kind to dedicate their time to support my work. And thanks to you, my listener for following.
If you want to ask a question, feel free to visit the episode page at https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa4 and press the appropriate button. I will answer your question in one of the next episodes.
Teacher and Digipreneur I am an entrepreneur or what we would call a digipreneur. I’m an educator and I’m also creative. My main interaction with Bitcoin has come through my organization – we basically focus on furthering the dialogue and development of the fourth industrial revolution and its impact on African economies and communities. And so we look across all sectors, from finance, to agriculture, to education, arts, to governance, mining, etc. So, my research into bitcoin and everything else related to FinTech and cryptocurrencies came through my organization.
Anita Posch And what is your current opinion on Bitcoin or how do you see Bitcoin in Zimbabwe?
Teacher and Digipreneur I think Bitcoin in Zimbabwe is going to be a challenge to try and establish, also considering like our tech infrastructure is not that great. It could be a lot better. But I think Bitcoin as a way to, you know, fight the system and you know, the usual narrative that comes with Bitcoin, I don’t think would be successful in this country.
Anita Posch That’s interesting. But the properties of Bitcoin, like being permissionless cannot be inflated, cannot be censored, will be or is maybe more stable than your local money here. Isn’t that enough? Like, isn’t that a good thing to do, to be?
Teacher and Digipreneur It’s incredibly attractive. It is the right thing to do. I mean, it would be the right thing it would make so much sense. But I think where we’re coming from culturally, as a nation, our belief systems, also our lack of trust, generally in whatever is new, or different, I think would make it really hard to justify why we would adopt something like Bitcoin especially since it cannot really be controlled or taxed per se.
Anita Posch So you are talking about the government at the moment? Yeah. So yeah, okay. Yeah. So that’s this side? Yeah. At the moment, I think it’s not really regulated. But there was a platform called Golix.
Teacher and Digipreneur Yes, there was a platform. I believe they’ve since shut down. It’s because it was new and it was different. And the government had no way of controlling people where they had an ATM which is actually what got them shut down. They had an ATM which you could cash out your Bitcoin in hard currency, in US dollars and that obviously, you know, obviously caused a bit of a stir, and I’m not sure what regulations they hadn’t followed, etc. But it was very soon. Initially, it was just the ATM that was removed. And then I think a couple of months later, the entire institution had shut down. I’m not sure whether you can still trade on Golix but yeah, as far as I know, that was shut down very quickly, which for me was very eye opening and indicative of how cryptocurrency is viewed generally in this country and how it’s mistrusted a lot.
Anita Posch Yeah. Because the government cannot control it. And they do not want to have people exchange their money, the local money into bitcoin or the USD into bitcoin, they want to control it because they use it by themselves. I mean, yeah, they want the money here.
Anita Posch What’s about Ubuntu?
Teacher and Digipreneur Ubuntu is basically stands for I am because you are the health of your community, the health of the people around you will determine your own personal well being. So I’ll give you an example on how we greet each other. So when we say good morning, it’s typically Mamukase which is just asking, how did you wake up? The response to that is Tamuka Mamumokau which means we woke up well, only if you woke up well, so it’s ingrained in our very language it’s, it’s basically putting an emphasis on those around you in order to improve your own social standing your own your own well being as a person, so I feel like if we shift cryptocurrency for what it stands for aside, there’s a one sideways yeah it’s against the system it’s like this activist. It’s almost taken on the shade of activism. But if you look at it, then the benefit that I can if I use if I have Bitcoin is just choose Bitcoin, right? I can send money to my relatives who are in Malawi or in Namibia or in Ghana. Currently I can’t with our own currency, I can’t send money out freely and quickly. It’s usually a bit of a process and you have to get all sorts of approvals. But if cryptocurrency if Bitcoin allows me to quickly take care of the people around me if we can sit down as a community and say, okay, we need to buy a new borehole for our community because we don’t have water, we haven’t had water for years. And we need a communal borehole. If Bitcoin allows us to buy and ship that a borehole was they want the equipment or they want to bring it in from America or China or Europe. And we can do that without just by using our phones and not having to go through like, that’s an amazing thing. You know, if we look at it from a place of development, if we look at it from a place of helping the community and taking care of each other for allows us to take care of each other without having to create so many barriers and so much red tape to get stuff done with money. I feel like when you change that narrative, you speak to something very deep within an African.
Even in the midst of our selfishness, I will be selfish about something because in my mind, I know I’ve got my mother, my father, my brother, my grandmother, my aunt, my daughter, my husband, I’ve got my whole family to take care of, if this thing allows me to take care of everybody around me and those outside of the country, as well, that’s amazing. You know, that’s fantastic. And instead of focusing on fighting the system, because that doesn’t work, you know, especially in such a politically volatile country and an economically volatile country as ours. The narrative won’t be well received and will most likely be met with a lot of resistance from the government, from people as well, who are already in positions of power. I think I feel like we put a lot on the government. Yes, the government is responsible for a lot, but it’s at the end of the day, it’s the market, its people and how we use the resources that we have as a country. And so sometimes it’s people who will resist new changes, because then it affects their own under dealings and their own corruption dealing. So when you sell it from a place, almost like CSR, corporate social responsibility, you know, we’re being responsible, and that Bitcoin is a tool for responsibility. It’s a tool for community development. And if we started off at that level, I feel like we’ll be a bit more open to learning about it and understanding how it works and realizing that it can be a solution. Sometimes it’s scary, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad.
Anita Posch Yeah, so changing the narrative from Bitcoin and money of freedom, freedom for yourself to Bitcoin is community money maybe? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Then Yeah, understand. So because, outside of Africa, in Europe and in the US, the narrative around Bitcoin is very much this self sovereignity and independence and freedom. And I understand that that would not be the right way to communicate that here.
Teacher and Digipreneur No, it’s not. It’s not we’re not selfish people. Africa, Africa as a continent has always been built on your neighbors, on being neighborly, on building communities, we work, we’re about kingdoms, you know, and that’s sort of nature. It was always the wealth of the community, the well being of the community. We even this culture of, for example, just an example to illustrate culture, putting our elderly in homes that was like our ancestors right now are turning in their graves like what are you doing? That’s not what we do. It’s as soon as the person gets past a certain age where they struggle to do things for themselves, you bring them into the family. And what would happen is the grandmothers or the grandfathers would be the ones who would then impart wisdom on to the children because you got children in the house so they would almost become like your nannies, may be there to look after the children and but you know, pass on knowledge and that sort of thing. And so, independence like self sovereignty. It’s important but not as important as the health of your community.
Anita Posch Yeah, I think self sovereignty is also meant in a way against or in opposite to the government or to the state, to the nation. You know, it’s the nation state independent yeah exactly. Because you were speaking of elderly people, now, I realized that here in Zimbabwe elderly people are very well respected, yes there’s even – we don’t have that – there’s a line in the supermarket where it says elderly people, that’s a line especially for them yes we don’t have that.
Teacher and Digipreneur Really? wow that is I’m sorry, I’m sorry, if you’re old and listening to this podcast come to Zimbabwe we’ll take care of you if we can find the fuel to pick you up from the airport.
Anita Posch In the last weeks, I think the government decided on the minimum wage for workers. Like for gardeners or maids, something like that. And I think it’s like eight USD a month. Yes. I mean, imagine that, yes. How can they live? And then they have to get home with, with the mini buses public transport, which costs like maybe 50 us cents or something like that, you know? So. So basically, people cannot go home to their family because they can’t afford because they only earn like 10 USD a month. Exactly. And then you have children at home. Exactly. And elderly people and your whole family. I mean, actually, this is this actually I’ve that slavery in a way.
Teacher and Digipreneur It is and then you have people who are desperate. So for example, then we start to borrow behaviors that aren’t ours, and I hope I can speak candidly. So, when you talked about slavery, I thought a story came to mind. Yes. So I like a lot of people who work – I am fortunate that I work – so I have someone who works who stays at home with my child and who takes her to school. So I have a nanny, I have a live-in nanny reason she has to live-in because I can’t afford to pay her enough to pay her rent every month. Because if she really wants to live in a place every month, it’s gonna cost her at least 30 US dollars a month in addition to her, she has two children that she has to put in school. They need school uniforms. She has to feed herself so she’s a live-in, which is cheaper for me, in that I know everything is covered for you, you have food 24/7, there’s electricity, there’s water. And for her it’s actually more favorable to be live-in because to stay in, in this you know, for example, in .. that’s where she’s based to go and live there all the time you’ve either got no power all the time, we’ve got no water and you have to walk long distances with a bucket. So she opted to stay in because we stay in a neighborhood where there’s always water there’s always electricity and its borehole water so it’s clean. But you’ll have a scenario where I have someone ask me, how much do you pay your maid? And then I’ll say, Oh, well, you know, 800 Bond, basically, and then I take care of everything else. And you’ll have a lot of people say it is far too much, far too much, has too much and like, but, you know, because of the winner, I mean, you know, you can’t you can’t pay someone that much only because then they would have to pay more. Yes. And I am but, why not? Because she’s a mother. She’s a single mother with two children. And I know that’s not even enough. That’s not even enough to fill up a trolley. Right now. 40 Bond is the new 1. What is the new $1 . 40 bond, right like not as an rate not rated per se. I mean, like, so when you walk into a shop, things like to buy anything basically, that’s not your bread or milk. Usually the cheapest price you’ll see is 39,99.
So that’s become like what will then call us the new dollar basically, that’s the new $1, the new five, watch what used to cost $1 or $2 is now 40 bond. So if you have 100 bond, you can come out with two things. Right? If you have 500 bonds, you can come up with five things. So now, you’re constantly looking at different ways to supplement right. So we’ve managed to get her to a place where now she’s able to afford to rent one room. So on the weekends, he has some way to go home so she’s now got a place that she’s calling her own. But you have to supplement that because that 800 today by the end of the month, it’s not going to be worth much because everything has gone up. And she’s affected by everything she’s affected by the fuel increase because that means the price of combis and the public transport goes up. That means the price of food will then go up. Every time fuel goes up, food in the shops goes up, everything goes up once fuel goes up, so you can’t say oh, well you know, she’s got no you know, it’s not like she’s driving it’s like well, it’s she’s still affected because the cost of fuel, so you’ll have to supplement so it’s like okay, here’s your salary, I know it’s not enough. And then maybe you’ll top up with some groceries for home, buy school uniforms, you know, for the kids because she can’t afford to, school uniform bill for her alone for one uniform one uniform set for each of her child came up to 80 US dollars. That’s a shirt, short, socks and a jersey to 40 US for each child 80 where, where is you’re going to get that money from, so you have to do it and people like no but you shouldn’t. And it’s become our culture where you want to pay someone as little as possible because it’s like a well, you know, but survival. What about me? And what about my kids? That same money, it just means, okay, this month you’re not maybe you know, buying takeout, that same amount of money that you would have paid for takeout in a month. If you add it all out. All up. If you go out every weekend, and you add up how much money you’ve spent every time you go up, I am sure it will actually hit that 80 US dollar mark. So instead of going out every weekend, take care of the person who’s taking care of your household because if that person’s not there, who’s going to look after you who’s going to look after your children, who’s going to make sure your house is clean when you’re out at work? And there’s a sense of those who are employed have a way of oppressing others. It’s almost like we’ve gone back to the way our colonialists, you know, operated. That’s how they operated. Yeah, when they came and colonized us, that’s exactly what they did. And now when you come into good fortune, you go right back to that weird cycle. I’ll pay you the bare minimum, the bare bare minimum. So that you know because you are lower than me and you just clean the floors. Well, and it’s become a cultures. It’s disgusting to see really because that’s not who we are as a people, we look after each other, that’s what you should do. 8 US dollars is nothing and if you’re paying that and you’re feeling proud of yourself because of that, and that, you know, it’s not something to be proud of. It’s not, it’s unfair. It’s, as you know, Hunhu that’s what we say Hunhu that’s the Shona word for Ubuntu, it has got no no culture in it. It’s uncultured. It’s uncouth, it’s almost savage behavior. That’s not how we operate as a people, you know, if you have wealth, you are supposed to build a bigger table not a higher wall.
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Anita Posch So let’s talk a little bit about the positive sides. You’ve got a great country and I think the rain I think is a problem at the moment. There’s not enough water.
Teacher and Digipreneur Yeah, it’s the rainy season came late. Very late. Yeah.
Anita Posch Do you see any chances that I mean Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket exporting food to other countries and now you’re importing everything basically. Do you think there is a way back?
Teacher and Digipreneur Absolutely I, I believe very strongly in that. Our biggest and most valuable resource right now actually is our people. I think it’s fair to say Zimbabweans are some of the most resilient people in the world. Put a Zimbabwean anywhere, and they are most likely to be very successful or to make a big impact on whatever community that they have joined. The current people that we have the current brain power that exists, I don’t think we’ve actually had a stronger generation intellectually than we currently have right now. Our millennials, for lack of a better term are very, very bright and passionate. But I feel like it’s currently, the slightly younger than the born frees have so much going for them. And I would accredit a big chunk of that to that we have more access to information than any other generation before us. The digital age, this fourth industrial revolution has allowed us to be a lot smarter. I mean, we’ve got our children are all already know how to use tablets and cell phones. And we have access to information at our fingertips and we know how to use the tech. And so because we know how to use the tech and we’ve grown up in the space, we’re very eager to see change and so we can grow, but only by doing things differently. This is where we’re struggling. Right now as a country, because I feel like there’s this huge generational gap. It’s it’s a gap where we have a group of people, right the baby boomers. I don’t know the group after baby boomers I always forget. Yeah. Sorry, group after baby boomers,
Anita Posch that’s my group.
Teacher and Digipreneur Wow, I’m sorry.
Anita Posch I’m not a baby boomer.
Teacher and Digipreneur Yeah, so after the boomer Yeah. Basically 50 and above, basically, sorry,
Anita Posch No not above yet.
Teacher and Digipreneur Okay, good space to be in. They, they’re so used to doing things a certain way. And the adoption of new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things, even utilizing things like tech, but also just new ways of thinking. It’s very hard to get them to sort of adopt that. But then you have this crop that’s like 50 and below basically almost 40 and below actually pegged at 40 and below. Because like 40 and 50 is a bit of a grey area here in Zimbabwe, like use goes up to like what 45? Nuts? I think until 50. Yes, young here still very youthful here. But like you, you have this group that’s key on doing things differently. And that’s got the tools and the know how, and that are trying to infiltrate. That sounds very dark, this could get me followed at night. But like trying to assist in improving the way we do things, but we’re very stuck in an archaic way of functioning. I mean, we’d like to talk of E-governance but go as far as even just the National Archives, for example, it’s paper. You know, even if you go into the computer, it’s not much that’s been posted in a lot of it is still hard copy. A lot of companies function like that, where they’ve got piles and piles and rooms and rooms full of paper. And that’s where our information our data is stored. I feel like the key to Zimbabwe turnaround is actually in data. I asked a question to the Ministry of Energy and I said, with our energy crisis, we obviously need to harness alternate sources of power. But does the ministry know right now, how many people own generators? Do we know that figure? How many people own generators and how many people own inverters? Because just that little number alone, those figures alone can help us figure out how to create an alternate power source that feeds back into the grid. But how do you know how much power we can generate? If we don’t know how many people have alternate sources? How many people have solar? How many people have? We don’t you don’t have this information. I feel like if we just took time to gather data, data is what is required to turn Zimbabwe around. I deeply believe this. And I feel like I will be proven right, maybe many years from now. But I feel like if you just have the right information, quality data, you know, not like, knowing how many generators or how many solar packages are imported into the country is not useful. Knowing how many people have actually acquired those things, and how many how much power we can generate. If all your excess power feeded it back to the grid, you’ll find that we might even have a surplus where we start paying people you know, to produce power because it’s too much when we now have to start sharing our power with everybody else with South Africa …., why not with our own alternate energy? So I feel like little things applies everywhere.
You know, like, how many Zimbabweans have medical aid. How many Zimbabweans have ever been in hospital like, little bits of information like that can feed so much into solutions because a lot of the current solutions are very data heavy. You need knowledge in order to turn things around. I feel like it is quite possible, especially things like agriculture agriculture sector has always held our economy. Basically, agriculture has always been a cornerstone of our economy. Mining as well but agriculture more than mining even. We’re now trying to put a lot of emphasis on mining things like our lithium belts, and because lithium is required in the special batteries, we shouldn’t even be thinking that far. How do we utilize the gold that we have? Zimbabwe hasn’t run out of gold, gold is still very valuable. How do we, how do we utilize the resources we currently have before we’re trying to find the new buzzword, the new, the new, next best mineral, because they’ll always be a new next best, you know, but at the end of the day, gold often backs up a currency, the currency is backed by bullion, right?
Anita Posch There are no more currencies that are backed by gold worldwide.
Teacher and Digipreneur But I’m saying if we go back, you see this
Anita Posch That is what Bitcoin is about.
Teacher and Digipreneur This is true. I now have nothing left to say. Thank you so much for this interview. It was great.
We are currently in hyperinflation, I believe so maybe an economist will tell me I’m wrong. But from the conversations I’ve been in both formal and informal around our economic forecast. I mean, we were told in I think it was in December, I had a, very well known economics professor, who did basically an assessment of our budget, our national budget, as well as what it implies and what this means for our economy going forward. And he basically was like, oh, look, this budget really is actually useless. Sorry, government. Yeah, because inflation is going to make these figures irrelevant. So we’re running against this clock where, we we can’t seem to control inflation. And the moment you can’t control inflation, it doesn’t matter what other measures you put in place. Look at how we’re taxed. We have regressive taxation. Regressive taxation is when you tax spending, the moment you start taxing spending, everyone spends so you’re constantly taxing people that that is a sign of a failing economy, regressive taxation is not positive. And so once you do that, you you already put yourself in this tight spot. So now it’s like, I feel like we’re living hand to mouth as a country. Like whatever money we get in that day from taxing everybody on what they’ve spent. You tax regressively meaning that all the prices then go up, meaning that you have to spend more, but then now you can afford to spend more and as dangerous cycle of prices constantly going up because the shops have to be prices up because they’re getting taxed. So me as a shopper, I get taxed when I bought purchase, the shop gets taxed. So they then have to put tax upon tax, and then they put their tax. So when you swipe, you get taxed by the shop, then you get taxed by the bank. We get taxed by the country, right, then you get taxed by the bank. Three sets of taxes that hit you when you pay.
Anita Posch Do you think that if the narrative of Bitcoin would change, could it be of any help you know, supporting the country or the people, the community. Do you think there is a way I mean, I imagine one problem is liquidity so you don’t have much Bitcoin here. Nobody takes it. People want it maybe to hold it or because you can exchange it to USD
Teacher and Digipreneur Yes.
Anita Posch What’s your opinion on the future of Bitcoin here?
Teacher and Digipreneur The future of Bitcoin in Zimbabwe, my question always becomes, can I pay my rent with my Bitcoin? Can I go into a shop and buy my food with a Bitcoin? And those are the really basic needs of any person. Can I get on to public transport and be able to get from point A to point B? With my bitcoin. These are the questions that I asked even when we had an event focused on FinTech. And we had a really long discussion, like we stuck on to the topic of cryptocurrency for a long time. And of the people who had attended and these are just ordinary people. Those were the questions that cryptocurrency is great as an idea in a functioning economy where people can afford to choose that. It’s, it feels almost like a luxury. And it’s sad because I don’t think that’s what it’s supposed to be – no, but it was also bearing in mind cryptocurrency was designed in a functioning environment. It was designed by people who maybe haven’t spent 12 hours in a fuel queue?
Anita Posch I guess so, yeah.
Teacher and Digipreneur Oh, yeah, you know it.
Anita Posch I think the basic problem I mean, the the problem of I can’t pay my rent in Bitcoin it’s the same in Europe, because people still don’t want to use it. They don’t trust it. It’s just digital. What is it? You know? So there’s no trust in this trustless system? Yeah. So I think the first thing that has to happen is that people gain trust and they can educate themselves and gain knowledge and there is a way to cash out. I mean, I’ve heard that if you have Bitcoin in Zimbabwe, you always find someone who buys it from you for USD. Really, yeah. And there’s also a possibility online for instance, there are platforms like bitrefill.com for instance, where you can send your bitcoin and they pay you out in airtime for Econet, or Telecel and Netone
Teacher and Digipreneur Netone yes.
Anita Posch One AND and OR you can buy gift cards, you know, we see. So I think there are ways around the system. So you could basically be if you’re a freelancer, for instance, and you’re doing web design, you could be paid from abroad in Bitcoin. And then if you want to hold it as an asset, you can hold it and on the other hand, you can cash it out here to USD. So there is a way we tried it.
Teacher and Digipreneur There is a..Wow, really? I think making the process easier because it’s only going to benefit and I’m sorry to put it this way. And it’s really strange coming from me because I am all things tech and digital. But I feel like if it’s going to only be going to benefit those of us who live in cities, where in Harare and in Bulawayo if you live in a capital city where you know, you can get access to money and I, my parents, for example, live in a small town called small mining town called Chegutu. And if I send it to them, can they also find someone who’s in that small town who will buy it for them? Give it to them at all? It’s usually happens in the hubs, the state the capital,
Anita Posch Yeah, but that’s the basic thing of this open source community money, because it’s not owned by anyone it has, it’s like a grassroot development and it has to go there first. So it’s, that’s the problem or not a problem. But yeah, in the challenge, the challenge in the adoption is that Bitcoin is not marketed by anyone. It has to find its way. So people have to realize its value, as a medium of exchange or as a store of value. And I think then they start using it. If it’s also easy to use and to understand. Yes, that’s, I think, also a main part, I have a friend and I see how even even though she’s so close to me, and I talked so much about Bitcoin for three years now, she still has never said, I want to set up a bitcoin wallet, because she says, it just has to get into my head before I want to understand it. And then I realize how difficult it is actually, again, yeah. And so I think basically, it will need time.
Teacher and Digipreneur It needs time. I think it’s long term. I don’t think it can’t work. If at any point have suggested that it will never work in Zimbabwe. I stand to correct that. It will work and it can work. But I feel like there’s so many fundamentals that need to be fixed first, the cost of airtime to be able to log onto the cost of data alone, to be able to log on people. Just buy a WhatsApp bundle if I can set up if people can find a way to make Bitcoin work with WhatsApp so that I don’t have to have a whole new data bundle that I can afford to you know, or or to find a way to piggyback it in such a way that it doesn’t become an extra cost.
Anita Posch What is a WhatsApp bundle?
Teacher and Digipreneur Our data is packaged into bundles. Yeah, our mobile data even right now even our Wi Fi you buy bundles as well you can buy a bundle as well and your Wi Fi, although its general internet access, yeah. Okay, maybe I don’t certainly want to watch YouTube whatever, I will buy data that is specific that will only allow me to use WhatsApp. Or you have a social media bundle where you can access Facebook either like so they bundled, so WhatsApp is usually just WhatsApp on its own. You can then buy social media bundle. So sometimes it’s Facebook and Twitter, or Facebook and Instagram. Or Twitter only. And then you can buy WhatsApp or any and you’ll find most people’s use buying of data as always social media bundles its just for communication. The cost of normal data, which gives you general access to the internet is very expensive.
Anita Posch We don’t have these bundles.
Teacher and Digipreneur Now this is a culture here.
Anita Posch Yeah, it’s interesting. Do people use the internet also, like www websites? Because I’ve heard in many countries people think that Facebook is the internet.
Teacher and Digipreneur I mean for some. Yes. For some. I think I think here generally we do know the internet is you know, the World Wide Web. But what’s more affordable to just buy your social media bundle, communication bundle. So my own parents will not buy a standard data bundle, they will buy a social media bundle, they’ll buy a WhatsApp bundle. So if I send them a YouTube link, they can’t open it because I don’t have those bundles. They just have social media, which is WhatsApp bundles. It’s just to allow me to be able to talk to people, so people rely heavily on that. So that’s what I’m saying that if you don’t fully understand the way the country operates, and the people use data or internet trying to introduce something that means I’m going to have to spend how much on data in order to use this or there’s not just like a whatsapp group where like if someone can learn how to create a bot or a group whatever that allows you to set up a wallet through whatsapp – using the platforms that exist.
That’s why Libra was so interesting. I know Libra is not going to be coming to Zimbabwe. But Libra was a game changer.
Anita Posch Yeah, I think Libra is also not coming to Europe or something. Because the governments, of course, don’t want it.
Teacher and Digipreneur Yeah, no one wants it. You know, he’s fighting. He’s facing so much resistance. Libra is a game changer. Because especially in Africa, where you have things like social, we have limited data, we have limited access to the internet. Everybody has a Facebook account. And setting up a Facebook account is really easy. And every country has created especially in Africa, Southern Africa is create allowed you to be able to at least very least be able to access social media and WhatsApp.
Anita Posch Short question, do you use Telegram here?
Teacher and Digipreneur Yes. It’s not as popular.
Anita Posch It’s not in a Social Media bundle.
Teacher and Digipreneur No, it’s not, you’d need actual normal data.
Anita Posch Okay, so if you want to reach many people, you have to use WhatsApp or Facebook?
Teacher and Digipreneur Yeah. WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Yeah,
Anita Posch Twitter is another company.
Teacher and Digipreneur Okay, Snapchat for the younger guys. Tik Tok. That’s a very young ones. Yeah. So.
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Anita Posch So you said Facebook Libra is a game changer.
Teacher and Digipreneur I thought it was going to be a game changer. Like if it was gonna come here. When I heard about it, I got so excited. I was like, wow, that will change my life. But then I was like, so coming to Zimbabwe was like, okay, of course not. It’s not going to a lot of countries, of course not. And when you see the amount of resistance that Libra has faced, as when you realize that giving power back to the people I think is a global leadership concern. There is no government. I wouldn’t just say Zimbabwe
Anita Posch I think it’s a difference between Facebook and Libra and Bitcoin is that Bitcoin is common good. And Facebook is facebook, facebook and these other corporations. Yeah. So, I mean, do you want to have all of your money owned basically by a private company?
Teacher and Digipreneur No, of course not. Yeah, no one really and also so the privacy implications the privacy implications as well an issue I think what is attractive to it? Because there’s a lot of cons to it. The pros to it was accessibility. You just made access to money easier. It just makes it easier. You know, it’s like okay, I can say like, if Worldremit was a bank, basically, you know, like an online bank it’s like a PayPal I guess so of sorts. It being cryptocurrency. I think also the fact that people could maybe use the Bitcoin I think the one of the conversations I had with a group of geeks if I can call them that we call each other that geeks would sit down and say okay, well, if I can use my Bitcoin or what is it was at Onecoin all these other…
Anita Posch Onecoin is a scam.
Teacher and Digipreneur This is a scam no not onecoin. I’m sorry I watched a documentary about Onecoin. Yeah, very interesting but all these other cryptocurrencies and if I can transfer that and transfer it to Libra and I can get to, you know Venezuela or Yemen or wherever it needs to get to that’ll be you know cool was like yeah we’ll be cool yeah the Facebook is the big demon of stealing your privacy and it’s basically Facebook is like you know, huge pervert basically that’s just constantly spying on you and you know they know everything is creepy if I have a conversation with you right now you’ll probably see on Facebook I’ll start seeing ads about cryptocurrency and as you know this, you creepy people like so. I mean, it is kind of scary, but I think the interest comes from a place of alternatives. We don’t really have freedom of choice. Yeah, in terms of how what money to use and How to use it here. It’s really USD or Zim dollar. That’s all that really has power here. Rand, if you’re going in the south, they don’t even really want to see US dollar they would rather have Rands. This is such a difficult conversation. It’s exciting, but it’s difficult because yeah, accessibility, accessibility, ease of use – half the time you don’t have power. This is why I always keep saying like, how do I get that Bitcoin out? Which is what everyone wants, like, if you come here will say, but okay, how do I touch it? How do I use it for something? You know, and will it cost me more to use that Bitcoin? And if you look at it, it will because one, you need a normal data bundle. That’s the thing. Yeah. Which is a lot of money and not everyone can afford a normal data bundle?
Anita Posch So there should be basically an integration into Telegram or WhatsApp for instance. Yes. Or in Facebook. That’s an interesting question, because I’m sure there are developers who can think a way around that maybe.
Teacher and Digipreneur How do you get it to the people through their avenues? Okay, you want to bring it here? Great. But you need to learn how we function.
Anita Posch Yes. Do you when you use ecocash? For instance, you need to have a phone? Yes. And what is the minimum plan that you are required? Do you need internet or airtime?
Teacher and Digipreneur None? None? None. You just need a SIM card.
Anita Posch Okay, that’s the way how it works, because people wouldn’t be able to afford that. Yes.
Teacher and Digipreneur Okay. So as long as you have a phone and your phone doesn’t even have to have access to the internet, you don’t even have to have air time in order to set up an EcoCash or to receive money through EcoCash the only you just need your phone just needs to be on. Understand. That’s it.
Anita Posch Okay, so that’s a small hurdle. Yeah. Yeah, that can be taken by everybody. But yeah, basically, as soon as you have an old mobile phone, because you don’t even need a new one on a smartphone, No, you don’t.
Teacher and Digipreneur This is why it was so successful. And this is why it’s also sort of become a little bit of a demon as well because when EcoCash goes down, everybody suffers for it.
Anita Posch So basically, you would need free internet here.
Teacher and Digipreneur Yes. Which we are very far away from.
Anita Posch I’m not sure I mean, Elon Musk is working on this Starlink project. And it would be great if he would bring internet here, free internet.
Teacher and Digipreneur It would be amazing. It would be a game changer. It would change everything. If something like that could happen. Goodness me. It would, a lot of the problems we are talking about right now, like we would have smartphones all over the place, like everything would change. If that was, you know, the case. It’s also difficult, you know, to see how that would work. How do you access it? Is there a way for the country to decide we don’t like this thing?
Anita Posch I don’t think that I’m not sure if they can shut it down. I don’t think so.
Teacher and Digipreneur Block access to, we don’t like this free internet thing. So we’re gonna, is there a way to create a cover over the country where no phone can catch this network? Like, you know, it’s people and you have to think about these things. Because like, that’s how governments think across the world. For every positive thing that comes out. How do we control this?
Anita Posch Basically, Zimbabwe would be a great country for these developers to live in for a time to get to learn the hurdles here, because then you can overcome any hurdle in every country. I think yes, I think so, actually a good idea –
Teacher and Digipreneur it’s Zim or Venezuela one of those two. But yeah, I feel like it’s, and I say this again, with all due respect, and candidly, it’s great to want to, to come up with an idea and hope that it will revolutionize the world and save the world. But you can’t apply a global north mindset to a global south problem or a global south mindset. The way things function down here is very different from how things will function in the US or in Europe or in the UK, wherever you are in the world. So there has to be a conscious thinking I know there’s no like one person that particularly owns or, you know, like, directs how Bitcoin is going to function. But if you’re a Bitcoin developer, if you’re a developer, whatever, to take time to contextualize, and it’s not a one size fits all, it could work, but it may not work the way you think it will. The same way I always say the fourth industrial revolution in Africa is going to be, it’s going to look very different from what it looks like, in the US, for example, the way we do things and the way we think and our cultural values will, will shape our future differently. We might not have flying cars. Maybe our entire system, maybe our futures underground, we don’t know because our values are different. Did that I mean, like, our climate is different. Did I mean like, everything is different. So Western, a Western, so or a foreign solution to any nation and African solution. If I come up with a solution like I’m gonna go to save Australia, you know, it might not work there I have to spend time that I have to understand that climate I have to understand that market and I have to design it according to the needs of the people. Do we really need flying cars? No. Maybe we need , maybe we need roads that move on their own and just get us from point A to point we you know, you don’t you don’t know that until you’ve lived you know, a life I could call you an honorary Zimbabwean now only because you’ve lived you know what it’s like to drive and have to avoid. You know, they say drunk people in Zimbabwe if you want to tell if a person’s drunk, they drive straight.
Anita Posch That’s great because the last time we were driving at night, and only in town and I thought to myself, it looks like drunk driving, but actually it’s exactly the way people drive straight they are drunk Yes. So under everything yeah, I see what you mean. Yeah. And there has been awful lots and lots and lots of money from abroad that has been sunken here because people thought we do it like we do it in Europe, or in the US. And we are more clever than the people here. Yes. Yeah. We’re more advanced. Yeah, be more advanced. If we show them how it works. Yes,
Teacher and Digipreneur yes. But then it would not trying to explain that to my elders. They’re like, no. And then you wonder why and you’ve sunk so much money. You wonder why it didn’t work. For this, that’s because there needs to be a culture of collaboration. I think. I think I can I can push that again. Which brings us back to: Ubuntu. we have to work together. Yeah, it can’t come from the Savior complex. can’t save us. You have to help us save ourselves.
Anita Posch Yeah, but how could we do that? What would you expect or What would you say to bitcoiners in the world? That could make a difference? What should we do? How could we support you?
Teacher and Digipreneur Collaborate.
Anita Posch So come here seek out developers or, or people who know things, learn from them economists Yes. and accessibility, like, come here and design a wallet with you together, for instance, yes. Because you know, it only works with WhatsApp or Telegram or
Teacher and Digipreneur Take time to like, and it’s an excellent solutions, a brilliant product, but it might not work the way you think it will or you would even like it to maybe even think that way. I think there has to be, you know, less assumption. You know, don’t assume you all have, you know, normal access to the internet. We only have social media. You know, like this social media bundles Really? Yes. How many people use normal internet? How many people have access to Wi Fi? How many people use have Wi Fi in their homes? Cost of Wi Fi is ridiculous. A lot of people, but it’ll Okay. How many of those people like actually buy like an unlimited bundle? A lot of us are limited on limited packages. You need 1000 bond 1000 Zim dollars or some, it’s not called bond anymore. A thousands of dollars for that’s not even unlimited. There’s like 150 gigabyte package for the average person who’s maybe earning 2.5 or three grand for still a lot of money. So there needs to be run away from assumption if you are a person and you like I can come and save you. Thank you for wanting to come and save us. Come and come and help us think for ourselves. Show us options. Zimbabweans, we love to learn. We’ve lost our culture of learning. We’re very educated. But we love to learn, you know, and we catch on things very quickly. But it’s also like have the same way I won’t walk into your house and assume that you cook the same way or that you have the same diet as me, the same sensitivity you have towards veganism. And all this stuff is the same sensitivity you need to have towards solving any kind of world problem or social economic problems, the same sensitivity, never assume that things work the same, or people think the same.
Anita Posch And that’s the point where you need diversity in people, you know, like, have different sets of people if I can say it that way, with different experiences from different countries, continents with different living life backgrounds and stuff, to work together on these things. I mean, to be honest Bitcoin is a very white, very male space.
Teacher and Digipreneur Hmm, that just that just turned me off.
Anita Posch I completely understand that I completely understand that. And I hope that more and meet more people come in. And also, the black community in the US, for instance is very small into bitcoin. So there’s the first book written now by a guy about black America, Bitcoin, black America, something like that. Yeah. And I would wish for more people from different aspects and ethnic backgrounds and everything here that also be a part of this community. Because it’s a community. It should be one. Yeah, yeah. And I like this community. And but I want to grow. Yeah. Yeah, for the sake of the possibilities you have with it to have permissionless uncensored, uninflated, open source, platform money. Yeah,
Teacher and Digipreneur That sounds exciting, just because of you or I started like, like I said, I watched the documentary about Onecoin. I think I’m going to take. I’ve had so many conversations about Bitcoin in this country, but yours has been the most enlightening. It’s been very enlightening. And it’s the first time I’ve been curious. I google searched bitcoin wallet for the first time ever, ever since hearing about it, like, so how do I do it? You know, like, it’s, it’s, it’s triggered a thought, and I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful for the conversation. I think if I can add another thing as to what people can do, increase the conversation, at least at the very least, even if you can’t create a solution immediately. Find a way to get us to stop talking about it, whether it’s holding workshops, and I don’t mean in Harare or in Bulawayo, in the in the capitals where we have all the facilities go and do it under a tree in Binga and have someone who is there who can translate into the local language and have a conversation. We need to start having more conversations about the future with the people who are actually affected by the future.
Anita Posch Yes, thank you very much. That was also for me very, very interesting and very grateful. I’ve learned so much here in this time here in this country. Thank you because I also had had so many assumptions of course, no, because you only learn when you’re really here.
Teacher and Digipreneur Yeah. You experience it and yeah, exactly. Okay.
Anita Posch It’s a difference to understand and know that you have water shortages, no electricity. It’s a difference to be here and to feel it. Yeah. Yeah.
Teacher and Digipreneur Can I just say, please visit Zimbabwe. If you’re listening to this, like, don’t let this conversation scare you. We’re really awesome. And our country is beautiful. Definitely. And we have so much work to do. Like we have all these terrible things. But there’s a really young group of people. There’s a movement right now. There’s a very strong movement right now if you can tap into it, of young Zimbabweans who are desperately trying to find the good like you said, like, there’s all these bad we’re desperately trying to find the good and to build on it and who are genuinely trying to do their best to create an experience that’s not only just honest and that okay, hey, we’re gonna have a candlelit dinner because there’s actually no power but who, who have the values of Zimbabwe at heart. Zimbabwe is not our government. So, you know, Zimbabwe is the people that live in it. And we have a lot to give. It may not be much in the greater scheme of the world, but you know, we wanna – come and have a braii with us, you know, and let’s cook on the fire because it’s nosy to cook on the stove. You know, like whoever’s listening, please visit Zim. If I can just be an ambassador. If you don’t mind me, just marketing my country, we are beautiful. We have more than the Victoria Falls. We have way more than the Victoria Falls. It’s like, very awesome. And our people are funny. And we like to laugh. And we’re awesome.
Anita Posch And you’re so kind and open here. That’s great. Really. Yeah. Thank you. So thank you very much. All the best to you. Same to you. Bye bye
That was today’s episode. If you like my show please subscribe to it in your favorite podcast player and share the episode on social media.
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Credits: Image by: Martina Gruber Photography Edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor: Adam B. Levine Idea, content and production: Anita Posch Music: “Start with yes” by Delicate beats
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Part 3: Using Bitcoin in Zimbabwe - Bitcoin in Africa: The Ubuntu Way
Apr 02, 2020
In the third part of the six-part series about Bitcoin in Africa you will hear from two early bitcoin adopters based in Harare. We speak about
the different use-cases for bitcoin,
how it can be exchanged to US Dollar and RTGS,
what the obstacles and pros are,
about regulation and
what the two online entrepreneurs want to tell people outside of Africa.
After the two interviews I will answer a listener’s question about the possibilities for rural communities to use bitcoin.
“Do you think that Bitcoin can help the communities in Zimbabwe?” “Yes, it can, as an innovation, I think it helps the community. I think, if there is investment in Bitcoin knowledge, there is investment in awareness, there is investment in the like, free knowledge about it, then people can can really come through to invest in Bitcoin, they can come through to even use it. Bitcoin is a good thing, but there is need for us to preach the good about it.”
This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters. I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and the Card Wallet, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware wallet BitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network.
This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work.
Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world.
Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work.
Hello again my dear listener, whether you are a regular subscriber of my show or a new listener, it does not matter, I am glad that you are here. If you are new, please take some seconds of your time to subscribe to the Bitcoin & Co. podcast on your podcast player now. If you are a fan already please consider writing a recommendation on Apple or Google podcast or wherever you’re listening to help other people to find my show.
In the first and second part of this six-part series you heard about the difficult living situation, the hyper-inflation and about the multi-currency world that Zimbabweans have to live with since many years. In this – the third part – you will hear from two early bitcoin adopters based in Harare. We speak about the different usecases for bitcoin, how it can be exchanged to US Dollar and RTGS, what the obstacles and pros are, about regulation and what the two online entrepreneurs want to tell people outside of Africa.
After the interviews I will answer a listener’s question about the possibilities for rural communities to use bitcoin. If you, too have a question, feel free to visit the episode page at https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa3 – there you will find an audio recorder to record your question.
Internet Marketer and Trader “I am an internet marketer. I’m also an online entrepreneur. So I do affiliate marketing, as well I do trade Bitcoin, as all trade other currencies. So I’m also formally employed but for now, I enjoy doing online business that is trading Bitcoin as well as other currencies.”
Anita Posch “How did you start that business? I mean, have you been in school and studied that or did you learn everything by yourself?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “No, I learned everything by myself just from peers. I think back in 2015 when there were Bitcoin hypes mainly in Zimbabwe, currently in Zimbabwe at that time, we could trade using USD. So that’s when I got to know about Bitcoin, but it was not educational. It was not formally education. Yeah. “
Anita Posch “Somebody told you about Bitcoin or did you research it by yourself and find it? ”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Actually, there was somebody who told me about it. Then I went on and research more about it. And how what is it, how it was started, the history of Bitcoin, the history of crypto currencies and so on.”
Anita Posch “Yes. Okay. And when did you start trading with Bitcoin?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “I can say I started trading big in 2016/17. That’s when I started trading, like online trading.”
Anita Posch “Do you have platforms here in Zimbabwe to do that? Or do you do this on other platforms?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “No, not in Zimbabwe? Yes, there was one company in Zimbabwe that whereby you can withdraw USD when you have Bitcoin, but it wasn’t supported. It’s not like there was support like government support or there was no support. So they come and closed because of other things. Mainly regulation.”
Anita Posch “Yeah. But how do you do it then?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Okay. In Zimbabwe like we do have peers down in South Africa, in the UK in every in every way. So how it said Bitcoin is when you do have Bitcoin say in your BTC wallet you can then give somebody who wants to trade in Bitcoin we exchange like peer to peer you send to each other then the person can give you hard currency.”
Anita Posch “Okay, so you know these people already or do you find them on platforms like LocalBitcoins.com or other platforms?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Mainly I started knowing those people through hypes if you know what I’m talking about, you know, those network marketing companies that said you can donate Bitcoin then you can receive Bitcoin so many people so so many things, but then we we met under bad circumstances with Bitcoin, where people can actually their Bitcoin can get stolen. After you you, you’re given promises that you’re going to get something if you donate, say $10 worth of Bitcoin you’re going to get $100 more so usually after something bad happens mostly in Zimbabwe that’s how people get to know about Bitcoin, ah this Bitcoin is bad this one this one, but no, then I started researching more about it, now we know people are genuine who said between genuinely only because there are no companies actually that’s really trade Bitcoin in Zimbabwe. Yes they was but they are not open enough to trade Bitcoin openly because there’s no regulation around that. That’s that cryptocurrency issue. So that’s how we know it in so many groups now on WhatsApp in Telegram also on Facebook. Yeah, Bitcoin groups, whereby people now know this is a bad company, this is a good company where you can join Bitcoin.”
Anita Posch “Yeah. Okay and if people here would like to get Bitcoin how to the proceed? I mean, can they earn it in a way or do they buy it for RTGS? How is this working?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Okay, let me say in Zimbabwe when you want to trade Bitcoin into RTGS that’s actually we do it the longer way. As traders what we do is we I do have Bitcoin in my wallet besides the Peer-to-Peer I take the Bitcoin to my Skrill account. Then if you put into Skrill then you can take it to your FCA account, which is a USD funded account. So it’s actually a longer process for us to then access the RTGS, you understand? Yeah, so we prefer peer to peer. Here in Zimbabwe it is actually easier and no charges, because the longer route when you get your money into the bank, then the bank charges are exorbitant. Yeah. No one would like that and you get your Bitcoin also in RTGS, you will not withdraw in resistance. So there is so much regulation. Yes, there’s so much regulation and around that withdrawal of in Bitcoin Zimbabwe. So we prefer peer to peer.”
Anita Posch “Which other use cases do you see for Bitcoin here in Zimbabwe besides trading?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “I think it’s easier because in Zimbabwe you know, we do have a currency issue. We are a multi currency economy. So I think if we introduce Bitcoin, the easier the easier for everyone because you can trade in a currency that in Bitcoin, which is a cryptocurrency that you know, it’s, it’s something solid. Yeah, so I think it’s through ease of doing business.”
Anita Posch “Do you think that people know already that Bitcoin is more solid than maybe their own currency here?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “For some of us, we’ve really researched about it. We know even the volatility around Bitcoin. We have been there we know just like any other currency in the world, that Bitcoin can go up and go down. So we are not afraid. We’re not afraid to trade in Bitcoin you’re not afraid to actually buy in Bitcoin. There was another time that I was in South Africa, I actually used my you know, there was a company that I joined like a multi level marketing company IML, which teaches you how to trade, they will give you a card a bitcoin card, you apply for the card, actually, then you can actually swipe using the card. So, we can also do that in Zimbabwe. I think it will, the ease of doing business also it can solve the cash shortages, and the much needed foreign currency can come also to Zimbabwe. Yeah.”
Anita Posch “Okay. And how do you see the future here in Zimbabwe for Bitcoin?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “What I think is Africa is the future. So, we are still a …land when it comes to innovations, new innovations like Bitcoin, we have to actually there is room for growth, there is room for growth. I would not lie because I would like to say maybe 75% of the adult population they don’t know about it. So if people get to know about it, get awareness about it. I think it’s actually a huge market.”
Anita Posch “But I think not many people can afford the internet here. So that might be a problem or because I think having a phone or having a mobile plan is very expensive for the big part of the people here because they are unemployed and they live day by day.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yeah. Most people is just the economic situation. But there were times like back in 2014/15. Things were actually better. It’s actually a phase which we believe is in Zimbabwe, we believe things are going to be okay. It’s only an economic situation in Zimbabwe, that is, everything is actually expensive. Besides internet, food is expensive, everything is expensive at the moment, but we believe probably if the right decisions are made, then I believe Zimbabwe can go far. Yeah.”
Anita Posch “Do you follow technical advancements in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, or are you a user mainly?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes, I tried to follow but nowadays I’ve decided to stay, let me stay in one lane, because there were so many bitcoins coming. There were a lot even in Zimbabwe, there was Zimbocoin, if you have heard about it, there is this Zimbocoin. So there were so many cryptocurrencies I’ve been following people who brought so many other cryptocurrencies but I decided no, let me stay in one lane, because like I told you the bad how I got to know Bitcoin, most people in Zimbabwe they got to know through bad experiences. Well then people went to the newspaper and said I lost money in Bitcoin. So it was mostly bad publicity about Bitcoin but that’s why I said, I follow the news. Yes, this developing, it is going up, it is going down, also Litecoin there is many Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that are coming. But let me say I decided to just follow one path.”
Anita Posch “Yeah. So you’re interested in other cryptocurrencies but as I understand it, you have your trust more in Bitcoin BTC than in any other.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Also Litecoin and I also tried Zimbocoin you know, the local one.”
Anita Posch “Okay and what happened with Zimbocoin?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “They are still crowdfunding.”
Anita Posch “I mean I always see the problem with these new coins or tokens is that you have a leader then you have a company you have a group of people who is behind it. Yeah, you don’t have that with Bitcoin You know, it was like a genius, immaculate birth.You know, and nobody can get hold of anyone and use those coins. I mean, it can’t be seized, it can’t be frozen. I mean, the company can..”
Internet Marketer and Trader “..close Yeah. Yeah, these traces, you can trace somebody, if you lose money you can trace it down to someone. But with Bitcoin that wasn’t we believed it was a belief that Satoshi brought a Bitcoin. But it’s one a belief we didn’t know. You know, we couldn’t even trace it back to him, you know? Yeah. So it was just a belief in everything yeah.”
Anita Posch “And we all don’t know who the founder of Bitcoin is.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes. It’s a belief. Yeah, yeah.”
Anita Posch “Do you think that if the bitcoin price is rising again, then the hype comes, that there will be another bunch of new people coming into bitcoin also in Zimbabwe?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “I think so. In Zimbabwe, oh, let me say we take risks. Yeah, we take a lot of risk. So we jump into anything especially the internet, the online entrapreneurs in Zimbabwe, I’ve been in so many groups of in online entrapreneurs they, they follow each and every hype especially if somebody says this is working and your mentor probably says this is working, you jump in and then if it fails, it fails. You know, because we have first a lot of losses, a lot of sad insurance losses so much that we take any risk now. Yeah.”
Anita Posch “Talking of risks, I mean, everybody knows not your keys, not your coins. You should hold your own private keys for your Bitcoin. Do you have something like hardware wallets here in this country? Can you buy hardware wallets here?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Not that I know of. Hardware no. So somebody tried it here in Zimbabwe but I think it died a natural death, it wasn’t successful, we do not ..have you said hardware? Not in Zimbabwe. Not that I know of.”
Anita Posch “So you basically use your computer or your smartphone for a while, actually.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yeah, exactly.”
Anita Posch “You know, a lot of online entrepreneurs, internet entrepreneurs. Yes. And are there also a lot of developers here? People who are doing programming and stuff?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes, yes, yes, there are. People that web development. Like languages, like programming languages? Yeah. There are a lot of them actually have universities and colleges that teach all of that.”
Anita Posch “Do they work internationally like living here and work for companies abroad?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes, most people usually relocate, but there are. They are online entrapreneurs that I know, say we do have a common website Afriblocks, if you have heard about it. It’s actually an innovation, whereby I think it’s solves a unemployment issue in Zimbabwe, whereby web developers, people with so many skills, web designers, graphic designers, also writers, they have so much skill here but these high unemployment rates, so it’s actually solving that issue. So I know a lot on that platform actually. Particularly on that platform. We do have a group of people who have done so many jobs outside internationally, but they are here in Zimbabwe.”
Anita Posch “And do you know how they get paid? Do you think they use Bitcoin?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes. Actually, I did a job I think two twice or three times I was paid through Bitcoin. Yeah, it’s easier, there are no charges whatsoever. Just receive your Bitcoin. That’s it, and you withdraw using the methods that I told you like Peer to Peer.”
Anita Posch “Sounds very easy, actually.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes. Actually easy. Very.”
Anita Posch “Because I think many people have like a problem to touch it because they think it’s difficult or they cannot imagine that it’s only a virtual thing. You know, many people want to have a paper note.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Exactly they are used to the old times. Yeah, yeah. This 21st century we have drones now. So the old times the old times are gone.”
Anita Posch “Do people ask you, how do you use Bitcoin? Can I do it too?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes, my friends actually, my friends. This how exactly what is it, I don’t understand most of the times I send them information. I send them PDFs to read. They don’t read at their own risk. So when initially they ask me what is this Bitcoin and I send them information.”
Anita Posch “Can you send them videos too? Or are the internet connections so bad that they can’t view YouTube videos for instance?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yeah, for YouTube. Most people they don’t use YouTube because of how expensive internet is. But fortunately for me, I do have access to cheap data, actually free data. So I get to do a lot of things I get to discover a lot of things.”
Anita Posch “What would be better ways for people here to produce educational material for them? Because in, in Europe and in the US, everybody has YouTube, you know, because there’s no such thing as a problem with internet connection. Okay of the times. Okay, and what would be form of learning material for people here that would be easy consumable to because you’re just as if I understood you said you sent them PDFs but they don’t read them or do they?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Maybe they just do not one but maybe the easier form to send information in Zimbabwe usually most people use whatsapp and Facebook if you post a video on Facebook probably five minute video people they look into that so it should be short short videos first use Facebook or WhatsApp also yeah what’s up people they do use WhatsApp.”
Anita Posch “Do people here also use Twitter?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes, they do. But here in Twitter they say it’s for the nerds for like the upmarkets. Twitter they say, is not like for everyone. Not everyone is on Twitter.”
Anita Posch “Yeah, I understand what you mean. It’s the same in Austria. Not everybody’s on Twitter. And what would you say? Should foreign people like me or companies do differently in Africa or what could we learn from you?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Okay. As Africa I think we as a developing continent, there are a lot of things that are in the developed countries that are not here. So I can say for Zimbabwe culturally people are willing to learn. Most people here they believe in. They believe in good things. They have hope. So I think in Africa and they are hardworking, so much that if you bring something innovating something good that can solve unemployment, youth problems, energy problems. I think in Africa you can learn the goodness of the heart of the people of Africa. That’s number one, that I guarantee them. Yes, the case there are instances that prove otherwise. But generally, people from Africa are hardworking, and they believe in innovations, the usually hope for the best things to happen here in Africa. So, I think if there are innovations that can solve money problems, because in Zimbabwe it has been about money. It has been about currency through the past decade, it has been about we do not have a Zimbabwean dollar. We’ve gone through so many currencies are the only nation that is used billions as a nation. So, cryptocurrencies coming to Zimbabwe, I think it’s an innovation that can really change a lot, but how you’re going to learn from us? Maybe you have just to see.”
Anita Posch “Do you think that Bitcoin can help communities here?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes, it can, it has the success of an innovation, I think it helps the community. I think if Bitcoin there is investment in knowledge, there is investment in awareness, there is investment in the like, free knowledge about it, then people can can really come come through to invest in Bitcoin they can come through to even use it. Bitcoin is a good thing but there is need for us to preach the good about it.”
Anita Posch “What I hear is it would be great or it could be a possibility to support African nations, African people in education about cryptocurrencies.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Exactly, so like how to mine. We know there is mining but I do not know exactly”
Anita Posch “Does anybody mine here?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “No. Electricity is expensive, we are not able to do that for now.”
Anita Posch “I also always think that countries like Zimbabwe are a much better place for Bitcoin usage because you have that bad money.”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Yes, we do have a currency problem. It’s been more than a decade actually with the currency problem. So it’s a multi currency system, which we can as well introduce the Bitcoin.”
Anita Posch “Yeah. But do you think that government will regulate that like forbid it or regulate it down? Like they did with with this one platform?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “I think the government it’s only let me say from my observation is the government only deal with reviews? If people come with complaints and if they are good reviews about it. You see, it’s helping us to do this is helping us to do that. I would like to think the government would have no obligation to stop it. If there are good reviews about it, if it’s actually helping the communities if it’s actually helping, probably university students is I think the government would have no obligation to stop such an innovation.”
Anita Posch “Is there anything you want to say to us other people – like not from Africa people?”
Internet Marketer and Trader “Let me say Africa is the future. That’s my go to points. But because what I can say is there is a lot that needs to be happening in Africa. There is a lot of development, whether in the health system, in the energy sector, in the money sector, the economic sector, there are a lot of things that are yet to happen. So what I can say is, if there are investors out there Africa is the place to be, if they are architects, Africa is the place to be right now, because if you have seen our roads, if you have seen our buildings, they still a lot that needs to be happen, still a lot that needs to happen here in Africa. So, we as Africans, we are looking into the European countries, but mainly to acquire the knowledge because we need to do that in Africa only we do not have the capacity to do that we do not have the money to do that. We do not have probably the most knowledge that we may need to to achieve certain things. Also is Africa I say I think the people here there is some willingness here that I’ve seen. I’ve been in other African countries, South Africa, Uganda, these Kenya, there are countries that are developing. But if there is more investment in Africa, I think Africa is would be a say to be a better place than it is now. Because there is room for improvement. There is a lot that can happen here. So, look, look, Africa it’s where the future is. Africa is the place to be!”
Anita Posch “Yeah, thank you for this. That’s a nice ending. Thank you very much for your time and bye bye.”
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Anita Posch “And how did you get into bitcoin or how did you find Bitcoin?”
Online Entrepreneur “Well, you know, when I actually started, I started somewhere in 2011 and it all started with questions. You know, you just wonder how do people generate income online and then I’ve spent a lot of time doing a lot of research and a little failing as well. And a little bit of making money in the process and some was somehow I came across Bitcoin because one of the companies that I was actually doing affiliate marketing for, they wanted to send me my money through Bitcoin. So the other methods were not really working so that’s when I developed interest in using between that’s how I found about Bitcoin.”
Anita Posch “Okay, so maybe you can explain when you earn in Bitcoin, do you use Bitcoin then here for daily stuff? Or do you have to exchange it into Zimbabwean dollar or US dollar? How do you do that?”
Online Entrepreneur “Okay, so if I earn Bitcoin say I promote something on the internet, I get paid in Bitcoin, I cannot walk into a shop or any company to buy using bitcoins, because a few companies here actually accept Bitcoin – if none, maybe zero companies actually accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. So what I then do is I go to some websites, I look for someone who needs Bitcoin, and they send me the US dollars. That’s what I do.”
Anita Posch “Okay, so these websites are exchanges then? Yes. Like, which ones are available here in Zimbabwe?”
Online Entrepreneur “The ones that are available in Zimbabwe is LocalBitcoins. You can actually use that one to exchange Bitcoin for cash and there is another one which is called AirTM. I also go there and say, hey, I’ve got bitcoins, can you send me some money so this is like a marketplace for people when it’s between those people.”
Anita Posch “It’s from people to people to peer.”
Online Entrepreneur “Yes, peer to peer, peer to peer.”
Anita Posch “And do you have the feeling that there are other like colleagues, a few other entrepreneurs who do that the same way? ”
Online Entrepreneur “Yes. So the thing is, I can safely say that I’m the one of the early adopters in terms of using Bitcoin in Zimbabwe. And since I started using between some few years back, comparing that to now, I realized that there is more and more people that are looking for information about Bitcoin in Zimbabwe, that are starting to use Bitcoin that are starting to appreciate Bitcoin so the numbers are actually growing and looking the years to come, the numbers actually going to expand. Yeah.”
Anita Posch “What are the problems for people here when they want to use Bitcoin?”
Online Entrepreneur “Okay, there’s quite a number of problems when it comes to using Bitcoin and I’ll just mention a few. One of them is awareness. Like are people well educated about what Bitcoin is and how it works, because the moment someone has Bitcoin and internet money, and then they put equals scam, okay? They think of losing money and stuff like that. That’s how most people relate between to, but Bitcoin is beyond that. So one thing that is I see people lack is awareness education, what is Bitcoin? How it works? Where did it come from, and stuff like that?”
Anita Posch “And what’s the difference to other forms of cryptocurrencies or maybe to Facebook pay?”
Online Entrepreneur “Okay. So, um, I would say that most African countries we are still developing in terms of understanding how the internet works and all that. So right now we’re actually living in an era whereby some of our African nations of some of our African people, they don’t even use the credit cards, they don’t even use Facebook pay, they don’t even use PayPal. Okay. Okay. And there is this thing again, that is called Bitcoin on top of what they don’t know, that they’re supposed to use. So there is a little bit of a gap in terms of knowledge. Some people use Visa cards, yes, for those that use Visa cards and Paypal mostly they understand they are quick to understand what Bitcoin is, is all about.”
Anita Posch “What do you think are the use cases for Bitcoin here in Africa, or in Zimbabwe?”
Online Entrepreneur “If I foresee, if I can walk into the future. I see a lot of people actually taking the Bitcoin method it’s because of number one, our inflation rate. Okay, so what I mean is normally human beings they are good at defense mechanism. Like if I take a knife and cut your hand, you’d want to grab a cloth and try and cover that so that you heal fast so if people get to a place whereby they are they’re not comfortable, they try and look for solutions, okay. So, with our inflation rate, some of the people can actually use Bitcoin as a method to save money like okay, if I have my hundred dollars, instead of keeping it in the bank, I’d rather keep it in the Bitcoin value. I see people doing that. I also see people using Bitcoin in terms of international, international easy money at freedom in terms of you know, the world is going digital. There’s sometimes where you do work and you want to get paid your money and maybe the easiest way would be Bitcoin. So I see a lot of people using Bitcoin in the future.”
Anita Posch “Are there a lot of other cryptocurrencies around that are use here?”
Online Entrepreneur “The most common one is Bitcoin…”
Anita Posch “..and you mean BTC because we also have other bitcoins, we have Bitcoin cash we have Bitcoin SV, but you mean Bitcoin?”
Online Entrepreneur “BTC Yes, BTC the other currencies, though people use them, but not that much. But it’s, it’s, it’s BTC? Yeah, yes. Yes.”
Anita Posch “Okay. And today when we think of the usage todayI have heard that there was an exchange here, colleagues, and it has been shot Down by the government because of regulation, how is regulation here in Zimbabwe towards Bitcoin?”
Online Entrepreneur “Okay, you know, the thing is my feeling about that I’m just going to share my, my personal feelings in terms of in terms of that case. Number one, I used to use Golix. Okay. And when government gave an announcement, I actually read their announcement in terms of what they’re, what they’re doing some work and so on both sides. And see. That’s my analysis. Golix was a good initiative. Okay. Golix was a good initiative initiative. But let’s look at the people that are using Bitcoin without the knowledge of how Bitcoin works. Okay. So during that time, there was a lot of activities, online scams that were happening in Zimbabwe. Okay, part of the people that used Bitcoin in Zimbabwe, they used them in online schemes, online investment programs. So some of the investment programs don’t end well. Okay. So on if you think he wants to invest in a certain business for some daily returns weekly returns or monthly returns, and the investment is asking for Bitcoin. And I searched on the internet and look for users between Zimbabwe I find out this Golix, I buy my Bitcoin I do my investment. And then I lose my money in Bitcoin, the next thing that I do is I go to the police and report my case that hey, I am actually I’ve actually lost my money and the police would question: How did that happen? And the police I would say that it happened through Bitcoin. And just because the Bitcoin transaction is – the true identity is not traceable. Now, getting into the shoes of the government handling those issues every day. Like a lot of people losing Bitcoin, that person loses Bitcoin, that person loses his Bitcoin at the end of the day, the government is there to protect his people. So only think of a lot of cases that are reported of people who lost money in Bitcoin and the government cannot protect you for the money that you have actually lost. So that’s when the government issued a statement that if you want to participate in Bitcoin, if my memory serves me, well, the statement says that if you want to participate in cryptocurrency, just know that you’re doing it at your own risk. If you lose money, then it’s up to you. So the government issued the statement, and then that actually affected the operations of, of Golix. That’s how I can actually comment on that case.”
Anita Posch “So you don’t think that is It’s about government control that they don’t want people to send Bitcoin or money from here to other countries well, or into bitcoin.”
Online Entrepreneur “Well, I wouldn’t no, because at the end of the day, if you look at the features of Bitcoin, no one can really stop anyone to use to use Bitcoin. Okay, so our, you know, their reason what was their motive? But in my case, like I’ve explained, at the same time, there are people in Zimbabwe that are losing Bitcoin through Bitcoin investments. So at times I cannot answer for the government. Yeah. What why they, they they made that decision, but my feeling is that Yeah, they can be a lot of cases to answer in terms of people that have been scammed through Bitcoin. Yeah.”
Anita Posch “Yeah. Or through other people who used Bitcoin for this scam.”
Online Entrepreneur “I created a Bitcoin course that explains the between basics for our people so that they understand in our own language.What I mean by that is okay. When you search for information on the internet, if you’re searching from Zimbabwe, you set out to use Bitcoin so you get a lot of results. Like you get someone who is in America explaining what Bitcoin is, and someone in Zimbabwe, explaining what Bitcoin is, just because someone is searching in Zimbabwe, they would prefer to hear the person who’s in Zimbabwe what they say about about Bitcoin. So when I’m seeing about in my language, I’m just saying getting people to understand Bitcoin from a Zimbabwean perspective.”
Anita Posch “What’s the difference in the Zimbabwean perspective to our, or the Western world? What would you say? What is the cultural difference?”
Online Entrepreneur “There is no cultural difference because the lessons are conducted in English so everyone will understand. Yeah, but there are some use cases that you learn from the Western world that don’t apply here.”
Anita Posch “Okay, and which is which ones are that”
Online Entrepreneur “If you want to buy bitcoin with a credit card, it’s almost impossible to do that in Zimbabwe. So you can listen to a western video saying, hey, if you wanna buy bitcoin, go to this website, use your PayPal account, use your credit card, use a Visa card, and stuff like that. But when you come to do that in Zimbabwe, it won’t work. It won’t work that way. So that’s what I mean. So I’ll be explaining what works in Zimbabwe other methods of doing stuff. Yes. Other methods of doing stuff in Zimbabwe. Yeah, that’s what I explained.”
Anita Posch “So what’s the recommended way to get to have Bitcoin here in Zimbabwe?”
Online Entrepreneur “Well people they have good different ways to get Bitcoin. I noticed to some certain extent, I just don’t know everything and I just don’t know what everyone is doing to get Bitcoin but there are people that are doing online forex trading. Those people they’ve got access to Bitcoin. There are people that are doing anything to do with online stuff. They can actually get paid their money in, in Bitcoin. And other people are investing are doing online investments and people do quite different things. Like in my case, I do some sort of work online my affiliate marketing that I do I just prefer to get paid in Bitcoin. That’s what I do is that it’s it It may be different from someone else. Myself, I do affiliate marketing others, I really don’t know what they do to get Bitcoins. Yeah, yeah.”
Anita Posch “Other any things that are missing here that we we and I mean, the Western world in that way could support you like that more people might use Bitcoin, maybe you are more people are educated, or what do you think is needed, that people not only feel the pain, but maybe also proactively realize, okay, there’s something I can use it.”
Online Entrepreneur “Okay. So, what I’ve seen, what I’ve seen the Western world doing, I’ve seen the western world expanding their businesses into other countries into different countries using Bitcoin because in countries where there are cash restrictions, they can actually expand they’ve been expanding their business and accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment. So what it simply means is, let’s say I need this service from another country, I can pay that service with Bitcoin. The point is a business can actually be set up and accept Bitcoin as a form of payment..”
Anita Posch “Is there anything that you would like to tell people in other parts of the world about Bitcoin or about anything? Yeah. What do you want to tell people?”
Online Entrepreneur “Okay, basically, I have good two messages maybe to our people in African nations, but Bitcoin comes with great rewards and it comes with a huge risk at the same time and you should understand them and be prepared for them. Okay? What I mean is, someone can actually buy bitcoin to hold and they’re just hoping for it to keep on increasing, but one of these days it loses value and that’s a risk that you have actually taken. And you can buy bitcoin today and tomorrow, the value goes up. That’s a reward that you’ve actually gotten. So you should be ready for both the risk in the reward and you should actually understand them. And another thing that I would say is before you use Bitcoin make sure you educate yourself with the basic knowledge of how Bitcoin works before you start doing anything with regards to the Bitcoin. And then to the Western world: My message is, well, people need awareness and understanding of what Bitcoin is, so that they start appreciating it. I would say that’s it.”
Anita Posch “Okay, great. Thank you very much.”
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So now you have heard from two bitcoin pioneers in Zimbabwe – I am going to answer a question from a listener of my podcast:
“Hello Anita, I wanted to ask a very basic question. I’ve only just stumbled upon your visit to Bitcoin, your Bitcoin experience in Zimbabwe, in Harare, and Botswana. Now, I just wondered if you could please just help me to understand how this can be applied in a very basic, basic fashion in a rural area where there is difficulty getting commodities, but there are a lot of industrious people in the sense of farming. How can this Bitcoin be of a unifying monetary system for everyday use. Please can you respond to that? Thank you.”
Anita Posch “Hello, thanks for your thoughtful question. Yes, I can see some use cases of bitcoin for communities in rural places, too.
For instance you can use it as a store of value Although I understand that it might be difficult to save, when people need all the income they have for food and basic things, the community could save money for the longer term with it. You do not have to buy a whole bitcoin to save it, you can start with a fraction of a bitcoin. If your local currency is more volatile than bitcoin or is in inflationary mode, then this could be an idea to save your money in the long-term.
Another use case is sending money inside and outside of the country – to buy machines or for remittances. Bitcoin is a global money, there are no borders or restrictions for sending or receiving it. If the community needs new machines or a borehole, then it is possible to pay for that abroad with bitcoin. If the community wants to sell it’s products, it can receive bitcoin, too. There is no bank approval needed, you’ll have less transaction costs and the payment is settled much faster than in the traditional banking system.
You could use bitcoin inside the community as a medium of exchange. Or you change it to USD, or to airtime for your phone with a service like Bitrefill or you exchange directly to local currency with another person over a platform called LocalBitcoins.com. As I assume that people in rural communities currently exchange money like USD, Rand or Pula to local currencies, too I am sure people will find a way to exchange bitcoin as well.
The basic things you need for a start:
An internet connection to install the wallet and for the moment in which you want to send bitcoin and for a short moment to see if you have received bitcoin.
Install a bitcoin wallet like the Blockstream green wallet on a mobile phone. https://blockstream.com/green/
Write down the password for the wallet on a piece of paper. It’s 12 or 24 english words (called “seed” or “backup”, you’ll get that inside the wallet software).
Write down the words in the given order
Store this paper safely! Do not cut it in pieces and store the pieces in separate places. You then have more places to look after and to secure.
The person who knows the seed can access the funds. That is why it is so important to store it safely and with a person in the community that you fully trust.
There are ways to secure funds to be administered for more than one person at the same time, called multisignature. But I would recommend that for experienced users only.
You are ready to go. For receiving your first bitcoin you’ll send someone your bitcoin address. You can find that inside your bitcoin wallet. The other person uses it to send bitcoin to you. That’s it. It works the same way round. If you have funds in your bitcoin wallet, you only need the bitcoin address of the receiver and can send the money.”
I hope my answer is helpful for you. You can ask me anything you want on the episode page at https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa3 and I will answer in the next episodes.
In the next episode you will hear the complete interview I did with the teacher from Harare. You have heard her already in part 1 and 2. We will talk about how bitcoin could be adopted in Zimbabwe and what else is needed to make Zimbabwe rise and shine again.
If you like my show please subscribe to it in your podcast player and share the episode on social media.
If you are a german speaker and want to start using bitcoin, then I recommend my book to you – it gives you a comprehensive jump start into becoming a bitcoin user, with recommendations and safety tips. You can buy it on Amazon or if you prefer to pay with bitcoin and lightning drop me a message at hello (at) anitaposch.com.
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Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Part 2 Zimbabwe: Living in a Multi-Currency World - Bitcoin in Africa: The Ubuntu Way
Mar 26, 2020
This is the 2nd episode of a six-part series about Bitcoin in Africa. In February 2020, right before the start of quarantine and travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, I travelled Zimbabwe and Botswana to get a picture from the ground about the usage of bitcoin in these countries. Zimbabwe and Venezuela are very ofted named as countries where bitcoin could be making a difference, in supporting people’s economic situation. I wanted to see by myself, if this is true and in how far bitcoin is known and used there.
In the first episode you learned about the current living situation of Zimbabweans and the countrys political history, which paints a picture about why things are how they are as well as the state of human rights and free speech. In this episode you will get to know the multi-currency world, the different forms and usages of money as well as the price fluctuations that Zimbabweans are dealing with day by day. We also take a look at the current regulations of cryptocurrencies, the usage of mobile payments and internet connections and the prospects of Bitcoin.
This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters. I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and the Card Wallet, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware wallet BitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network.
This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work.
Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world.
Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work.
To understand the Zimbabwean currency changes, reforms and the resulting crisis, we need to go back to 1980, the year of the independence of Zimbabwe. Back then the Zimbabwean dollar was legal tender for the first time, it was introduced to directly replace the Rhodesian dollar at par (1:1), at a similar value to the US dollar. Over time, hyperinflation in Zimbabwe reduced the Zimbabwe dollar to one of the lowest valued currency units in the world. It was redenominated three times (in 2006, 2008 and 2009), with denominations up to a $100 trillion banknote issued. The final redenomination produced the so-called “fourth dollar” (ZWL), which was worth 10 to the power of 25 (1025 ) “first dollars”.
You needed weird amounts of notes to buy stuff. I was told, there was a joke at that time, someone wanted to pay for something and came with a wheelbarrow full of bank notes to the seller. The seller threw the notes out of the wheelbarrow and went off with the wheelbarrow, because it was worth more than the big pile of banknotes.
You can buy those paper notes as collectors items now. I found 10 million dollar notes at a souvenir shop in Victoria Falls. One of these paper notes costs 5 USD, I guess that is a higher value than they had in 2008.
Ten Million Dollar Note
In 2009 the country—ravaged by the hyper-inflation—abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar and adopted multiple currencies including the US dollar. In 2014 there were eight legal currencies – US dollar, South African rand, Botswana pula, British pound sterling, Australian dollar, Chinese yuan, Indian rupee and Japanese yen. The Dollarization reversed inflation, permitting the banking system to stabilize and the economy to resume slow growth after 2009.
You can buy these notes from collectors. Now worth 5 USD.
But then in 2015, the foreign currency notes dried up at the banks, leading to cash shortages in the economy. In 2016, Zimbabwe introduced Bond notes as a surrogate currency which initially had equal value to the US dollar but today it trades at 1:43 with the greenback.
In June 2019, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe abolished the multiple currency system, outlawed the use of US Dollar and replaced it with a new “Zimdollar” based on the RTGS Dollar. The new legal tender.
Anita Posch “What are the forms of money that people use here in Zimbabwe?”
Online Entrepreneur “Okay, so in Zimbabwe there is what is known as Bond, which is the cash, the hardcash that you actually hold, paper money that you hold in your hand. And there is what is known as RTGS, which is the electronic money if I can, if I can call it that way, that’s another form of payment that people use, and also people use US dollars and some other currencies like South African land, but the most popular one is US dollars in terms of currency that is not from Zimbabwe, but mostly people use electronic money which is called RTGS the bond money and US dollars and South African rands as well.”
Anita Posch “And I always see these signs with EcoCash numbers on it. So is EcoCash very often, broadly used as a form of payment?”
Online Entrepreneur “Yes. EcoCash is broadly used. It is a form of payment in Zimbabwe. I would say, EcoCash is just a vehicle of where money passes through. Okay? So it just connects your RTGS balance to the customer. We just use it to make payments like walking into a shop, you buy bread, you can actually use it to buy anything that you want, pay school fees, pay anything that you want. Yeah. But it’s not classified as a currency. Yeah, but it holds our currency.”
The official currency of Zimbabwe is the RTGS dollar or Zim dollar. As you have just heard it is called RTGS, if it is the money on your bank account – RTGS is short for real time gross settlement. So it is called what it is, electronic money – an entry in a database. If it is in the form of cash, it is called Bond notes or Bond coins.
These are the Zimbabwean Dollar paper notes. Cash. In paper form it is called Bond note as mint Bond coin.
But the Bond notes are rare. This is the reason why there are queues at the banks, when wages are paid out. People are waiting hours for cash. Why? Because public transport with buses or in many cases the school fees have to be paid in Bond notes. You can find pictures of Bond notes and coins as well as a queue in front of a bank, that we were passing by, on the episode page at https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa2.
People waiting for their wage in front of bank in Chegutu.
There are a lot of ATMs, but they are empty, they have been used up until 2015, now you can get your bank statement, but no Bond notes. So if you can get hold of Bond notes you immediately take the chance to get them. For instance – I was standing next to my friend at the counter in the supermarket. Ahead of her there was a guy who had a bundle of Bond notes in his hands. She saw that and before he could pay his groceries my friend asked him, if he would give her the Bond notes, if she would pay for his groceries per swipe. And so it happend. His bill was settled and she got hold of Bonds.
Sign in a restaurant.
Credit cards: Credit cards have been used some years ago and you can book flights or use them for online shopping, but since they are all in foreign currencies it’s complicated to get the money out of the bank. So if you’re a merchant, it’s theoretically easy to collect money with credit cards, but very expensive and difficult to redeem it. That’s why almost nobody uses credit cards.
ATMs are empty.
So how do people pay their shopping and their bills? In the supermarket you can pay with Bonds or you swipe. Swipe means you pay with your banking card using RTGS – you know the electronically stored money in the bank – or you pay with EcoCash, which is mobile money.
People are forced into using EcoCash, because Bond notes are rare, most of the people do not have access to US Dollars and even if you had US Dollars, the use of it was outlawed. And exchanging money is very costly and cumbersome in general. That’s the reason why you get 20-30 percent off the price of goods in most cases, if you pay cash. On the other hand, if you use EcoCash prices are 20-30 percent higher, because of the conversion costs.
And additionally there is a 2% transaction fee that the government imposes on every digital transaction. This is basically a tax on every purchase. No matter how rich or poor you are.
Paying with EcoCash at the vegetable stand. The government imposes a 2% fee on every single transaction. EcoCash earns a fee, too.
While driving back to Harare from our weekend trip, we stopped at one of the many corn stands next to the street. Men are roasting corn cobs on self-made stone grills – it’s their daily business. You can see one of the guys called Advance and his grill on the episode page at https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa2 . We stopped the car, bought two corn-cobs and my friend paid with EcoCash.
One cob costs 8 Zim dollar in Bond, if you pay with EcoCash 10.
At the end of the sound you can hear Advances phone ringing, that’s the EcoCash confirmation.
EcoCash can be used in every street shop.
M-Pesa (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) is a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service, launched in 2007 by Vodafone in Kenya and Tanzania. M-Pesa allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money and pay for goods and services easily with a mobile device.
EcoCash, was launched in 2011 by Econet Wireless, a telephony company, for its customers in Zimbabwe – it is similarily to M-Pesa a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service.
Econet allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money and pay for goods and services, including utility bills, from a mobile handset. Users can also buy pre-paid airtime or data bundles for themselves or others. Users can also redeem stored mobile money for cash. A fee for each service is deducted directly from the account stored on the mobile phone.
On the episode page at https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa2 you will find a picture of an EcoCash sign, where you see the telephone number, name and the codes you have to dial to send the right amount of mobile money to the seller.
EcoCash seller shortcode for sending a payment.
Anita Posch “How many people are banked or how many are unbanked in Zimbabwe?”
Human Rights Speaker “To explain that, I have to start 10 years earlier. In 2009 the unity government under a new constitution ended the phase of the Zimbabwe dollar being the official curreny and introduced a multicurrency basket. In 2015 basically everything was paid in USD. Zimbabwe had a USD economy, but ran out of cash. The ATMs were working, but there was no money anymore inside of them. Almost everybody was unbanked. At some ATMs you could get South African Rand. And in 2016 the bottom fell out on the cash supply.”
Anita Posch “Why did the US Dollar cash supply run out in 2016?”
Human Rights Speaker “One reason is that Zimbabwe is much more of an import economy than it is an export economy. So before, like when we used to have a strong agricultural base and a strong manufacturing base, we were exporting things. We had a functioning economy. In the intervening 20 years, agriculture really declined, manufacturing really declined, we began to be a country that imported a lot more than it exported, or that we even produced ourselves. So when you go to the supermarket you will see that everything is South African, we’re not producing locally, but we’re buying. Then think about fuel, think about electricity. There’s a huge economy that’s purchasing things from outside and not much that’s selling outside. So all the US dollars that were circulating in the economy at some point they had to have been from outside the country.
So, over time, you have what’s called a nostro account, which is basically the international system of – once my money goes out of US dollars cash and into the bank, it’s technically still US dollars, but it kind of exists in an electronic trust format. So I’m a bank here and I have US dollars, your bank in the States that has US dollars, we know that we have US dollars collectively, but I’m never going to physically give you $100 because you’re the bank in the States, right? It only exists electronically. Which – as long as we all trust each other is great, but it means, that the Zimbabwe bank is meant to put my US balance into this nostro space internationally, because that’s actually where its existing and holding its value. But the banks didn’t do that. So, over time, slowly, slowly the US balance that I thought I had in my account, which was my 100 US dollars that I put into the bank – the bank didn’t hold it in the safe space, they lent it to the government, they borrowed it, they exchanged it. So the US balances that banks held got eroded. And now, when I need the US dollars to go outside the country to buy things I need actual nostros, but if I’m inside my own internal economy, I have a US dollar in inverted commas and I give it to you and it’s all buying stuff. Yeah, so we did never check one another like, do you still hold actual dollar? Here are mine. So that were years of doing that, and eventually just kind of all caught up with us. And it was like, millions, hundreds of millions of actual US dollars. The banks have just been busy borrowing, lending treasury bills and spending. And it was just a number in a database. So the physical, hard currency that should have been backing that up, it was nowhere to be found.
In 2016, they introduced the Bond notes, which was kind of like, Oh, look, there’s no more cash in the system. We’re going to introduce Bond notes to make these things easier. It’s exchange rate is one to one so one Bond note is one US dollar. Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine. And we’re like – well, we’re not particularly stupid. – But you also can’t really do much about this. That’s the thing.”
In the supermarket you can use different currencies and payment methods.
Anita Posch “And then what happened next? Because I heard from people who had like US dollars in the bank, and the government forcibly changed it to Zimbabwean Dollar. Do you have any cases or can you say something about that?”
Human Rights Speaker “I mean, that’s exactly what they did. It happened in a couple of phases. Since 2009 we have been using this multi currency basket. So my bank account that I had with Standard Chartered, it was an US dollar account. And in October 2018 you woke up one day, and they were like, okay, guys: listen, you have an US dollar account, but actually, that’s now a RTGS account – a real time gross settlement account.
Yeah. So literally like even as an organization, it was the same. They converted your US Dollar bank account with all you owned into RTGS dollars and told you, if you want, you could open an US dollar account. But you have to put new money inside this account, because the other one is now RTGS dollar – the exchange rate is one to one – but you can’t have that money.
To give you an example of how broken the banking system is: At the time, we as an organization, we were banking with Cabs – don’t bank with Cabs. Cabs is a bank, Central African building society. We had all of our money inside of the bank and remember, you can’t get cash. So let’s say we owe an Austrian company that is working for us here in Zimbabwe 1000 USD. We can’t get money out of the bank, so we have to somehow transfer it digitally to the company in Austria. The company in Austria has maybe an US nostro FCA account here in Zimbabwe, but with a different bank – not with Cabs – so there’s no nostro to nostro relationship.
But the Austrian companys bank maybe has a corresponding bank in New York. But Cabs doesn’t have an US Dollar corresponding bank. So Cabs has to find the Euros to convert our money to send it to Austria – to move it to New York, so that they can go back to South Africa, so that it can get converted to US dollars. So that the Austrian companys bank account here can get it. It was mad. It was like literally – like we paid one bill that – I think the bill was $73 and the bank charges were $45 – it was just insane. That went on for a year or so.
But then in February 2019, you woke up again. And they’re like, okay, okay, no, no. You’re right. The exchange rate is not one to one. Actually, it has taken us a while, we were a little bit slow. But don’t worry, it’s now 1 to 2.5. We’re going to have an interbank exchange rate. So now, you could move your US dollars into RTGS at the bank rate, but when you would actually go to the bank, they would just look at you like, that’s so silly – you can’t actually do that. Like we don’t have money. So you couldn’t actually do it, but they acted like you could. That was a long time. And then they introduced the statutory instrument in June that said: no more US dollars. You are only allowed to use Zimbabwe dollar only. Only ever, ever.
But then you go to a government office and you have to settle a bill and you want to use your local swipe card – and the government office tells you no sorry, we are only taking US dollars or an international credit card. So it was completely absurd, you know?”
In a restaurant we could choose between paying in US Dollars or in Zimbabwe Dollars. We got two bills.
Anita Posch “Yeah. And you also have different rates, like in the bank, you have one to 17 or something. And on the street, one to 25. So you get more RTGS on the streets.”
Human Rights Speaker “Yeah. Because the US dollar is highly valued. Especially with a lot of people or businesses, you know, who need parts or supplies, they can’t be imported or paid in RTGS. They need the US dollar. And also, there’s a lot of exchange control regulation on the US dollars. So if I’m an NGO, I am legally allowed to trade in US dollars. So we can pay a bill to a local supplier in US dollars.
That supplier has to liquidate those US dollars within 30 days, or they get converted into their RTGS account at the bank rate. So and if I’m the local company, and I want to use those US dollars to buy something, I have to prove it – I have to give my invoices – I have to give my justification – I have to ask for permission. And the Reserve Bank may or may not allow me to move those US dollars out of the country.
So suppose I’m in solar power and I want to buy 20 panels so that I can sell them. I only have 30 days to spend down on the money that I already had. And the Reserve Bank can take as long as it wants to give me permission to even go and resupply. So, like that’s another reason why the US actual physical dollars, the physical cash has so much more value. So don’t, don’t put $100 into my bank account for God’s sakes! Just give me the cash, because the cash I can keep and I can use it whenever I want it compared to the one in my bank account.”
Anita Posch “Yeah, so that’s the main advantage with US dollar cash.”
Human Rights Speaker “Yeah it’s a huge advantage and that’s why the premium exists.
So to answer your question of what percentage of Zimbabwe is banked? Basically almost everybody has to be banked in one or the other way. People have to use EcoCash, because there is no cash on the streets – there is no other way to get or use money. Every small shop on the streets, every vegetable seller uses EcoCash.
There was a case. Middle of 2019. Government basically said EcoCash: listen, no more cash out. You can no longer take your EcoCash money and change it for US dollars – were done. And EcoCash was like haha, no, sorry. Actually, they filed legal papers to object to that. And in the course of those legal papers, you got a sense of like, wow, okay, so this percentage of Zimbabwe’s transactions are electronic, so it’s huge – like 85 plus percent of Zimbabwe’s transactions are electronic, which basically means – that percentage of the economy is somehow banked or has EcoCash. Meaning 85 % of all transactions are electronically and mobile money is a huge part of that. 99.8% of the mobile money is EcoCash. I mean, it’s huge.”
Anita Posch “Are there other providers who also have something like EcoCash?”
Human Rights Speaker “Yes, it is like a mobile wallet. There are two other mobile phone operators. But they are tiny. So again, like when you say like what percent of the economy is banked? It’s actually huge because of this pressure. In 2015, maybe it would have been probably less than half. But because suddenly now you have an economy in which there is no cash, the only way I can pay for things is EcoCash or swipe. So even things like Steward bank, which is also Econet, which has really popped up in the last few years, like the queues outside of Stewart bank are massive, because they don’t have any barrier. Like, I have to rock up with my ID and I can open a bank account. And if I want to exist in this economy, I have to have a bank account.
And with EcoCash you don’t even have to buy airtime, you do not need a mobile phone package. EcoCash works on your phone frictionless, you only need an ID to register and this even does not have to be your own. From that moment on you can accept payments.”
Anita Posch “And is EcoCash a privately held company?”
Human Rights Speaker “Yeah, yeah, exactly. Is it basically the same. I mean, you can get money in – from the Diaspora into your EcoCash FCA Foreign Currency Account wallets. So then I can show my relatives on the Diaspora how to put 50 US dollars into my EcoCash FCA wallet. I could then use EcoCash’es Bureau de change to change that money. At the bank rate,”
Anita Posch “Which is not so good.”
Human Rights Speaker “No. Or I could have my relatives to send me over MoneyGram, which I could exchange to cash.”
Anita Posch “But, how much do they take?”
Human Rights Speaker “It depends on how much you’re like how much you’re changing. Yeah, like I think it’s a percentage of I mean, I’m not saying it’s free or cheap, but if I don’t have anything, it’s the possibility.”
A board in the supermarket shows daily exchange rates.
Anita Posch “So and what happened then in 2016, you get Bond notes, one to one to US Dollars.”
Human Rights Speaker “Yeah. So they kind of floated around for a couple years. But it didn’t change. It didn’t really change the cash situation at all. Like it didn’t suddenly get better. I mean, they literally had like, $2 notes and $5 notes and some coins. Lots of coins and you still had to go to the bank with cash withdrawal limits. And maybe there wouldn’t be any cash that day. And I think it was something like $50 a day and $300 a week. I mean, and they would give it to you in coins, like, oh, here I have $50 in coins. It didn’t actually improve the cash situation.”
Anita Posch “So just getting back to EcoCash. I mean, how do people feel about having to use this, because actually, it’s you have to, you’re forced to use it.”
Human Rights Speaker “Yeah, I can’t remember maybe last year there was something like “Oh, this is so great. You know, Zimbabwe is leading the Electronic Frontier like Zimbabwe is revolutionized – We don’t even need cash, we are a plastic money society and we are the future!” Yeah, like – we are not stupid.
We are more like, this isn’t a good thing. This isn’t some choice that we’ve all decided like, Oh, it’s so convenient money. Yeah. So what am I gonna do? I’m gonna swipe.”
Anita Posch “I mean, there’s one thing you did here, you really leapfrogged the technology. Because I have seen many, many people with smartphones. I was surprised, actually, that so many people have smartphones.”
Many people own mobile phones in Zimbabwe.
As of November 2017, EcoCash was reported to have 6.7 million registered users, compared with 2 million conventional bank account holders in the country. It controlled 99.8 percent of the mobile money market in Zimbabwe at the time. During the first six years of existence, the service processed over $23 billion. In 2017, Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product was valued at US$7.5 billion.
Prices are constantly changing, that is why the menus in restaurants are without prices. Or as you can see on one of my pictures on the episode page: prices are being crossed out and re-written for instance on a packet of potato chips.
Prices are striked through, due to constant changes.
By the time I record this episode – Mid of March 2020 – the street rate is 1:43, while the official rate is still 1:17. This is reflected also in this tweet where someone is writing: “Nobody sane will exchange to the official bank rate, when you get much more Zimdollars on the street. Common sense should tell the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to float the rate or dollarise. But they won’t do that, because it will stop political elites from LOOTING!”
Nobody sane will take their forex to a bureau-de-change as long as the exchange rate is fixed at 18 & the street market is at 35.
Common sense should tell the @ReserveBankZIM to float the rate or dollarise.
But they won’t do that bcoz it will stop political elites from LOOTING!
— Hopewell Chin’ono-Journalist (@daddyhope) March 6, 2020
At the same time prices for and at public infrastructures are raised. For instance the Bulawayo municipal pool. People who know me better know that wherever I spend some time, I am looking for a pool for a swim. So we headed for the public pool. When we got there a bunch of kids stood in front of the ticket office and we thought that there might be a swimming competition. But we were wrong. The reason for them to stay outside was a price rise from 8 to 25 Zimdollar in one day. The children simply couldn’t afford that.
A price increase at the public pool left children standing outside.
The rampant inflation makes life for people, who own and earn in US Dollar easier. Everything gets cheaper – on the backs of people who don’t have access to USD.
If something cost 100 Zimbabwe dollars at the beginning of February, it was 4,2 USD. 2,5 weeks later it was 3,3 USD. So – the thing is again: if you are better off and own USD things are getting more affordable – you are better off again. But if you own Zimbabwe Dollar only, prices are rising, while your wage is in most cases not rising.
Anita Posch “From my perspective seeing the living conditions of people, the economic situation, the banking problems, the difficulties to get Bond notes, the hyper-inflation and the currency controls, I would say this is the perfect setting for the use of bitcoin to support the flow of money inside and out of the country as well as to support the community and it’s people. You as a human rights activist you know about the properties of bitcoin – being permissionless, transparent, open, non-inflatable, neutral and how it could support sending money in and out of the country circumventing currency controls. How do you estimate the chances for Bitcoin adoption in Zimbabwe?”
Human Rights Speaker “The main problem for us is exchanging money. It is very difficult and costly. Even converting EcoCash to USD is dodgy. We all know someone, who knows someone, who can convert money from one currency or form to another. But we do not use the banks. I assume the problem with Bitcoin at the moment is exchanging it to US dollar or the other way round. Because you can not pay your rent or food with bitcoin. So in general – it would be great, but at the moment I do not know how this can work.”
Anita Posch “Yes, I interviewed a bitcoin trader here in Zimbabwe, who said that if you own bitcoin you baiscally own US Dollar. Because you will definitely find a person who exchanges it for you. Since cryptocurrency exchanges are outlawed people exchange peer-to-peer in specific WhatsApp or Facebook groups. So if you take on the effort to find those groups, then you can easily exchange Bitcoin to USD.”
Human Rights Speaker “Oh really, that is great. I think it needs a combination of education, reassurance and convenience. As I said the most important part at the moment would be the exchange possibilities of Bitcoin to cash or USD. As long as that’s easy, I think the potential and the prospects for bitcoin adoption are pretty high.”
Anita Posch “Do you see other obstacles?”
Human Rights Speaker “I guess liquidity and regulation. Because I do not know what the government is doing here aside from obviously blocking Golix. The only bitcoin exchange we had in Zimbabwe.”
The building of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.
A research paper that I found online – called “The Impact of Cryptocurrencies in Zimbabwe. An Analysis of Bitcoins” written by Anthony Tapiwa Mazikana – says that in 2017 the central bank categorically stated that cryptocurrencies are not welcome in Zimbabwe. The Reserve Bank made it clear that cryptos were endangering the public.
In 2018 the RBZ noted that it will be illegal to accept cryptos as collateral, opening accounts of exchanges, dealing with them and transfer or receipt of money in relating to purchase or sale of virtual currencies.
Further on the research paper says: The RBZ believed they were “protecting the public” when they banned cryptocurrencies. Around 2018 many people were scammed by a ponzi scheme called MMM. A lot of the guiders made a fair bit of money, with many of them converting their “mavros” – the MMM digital currency – into Bitcoin. With those bitcoin they bought cars from Japan and continued to enjoy their money safely stored in Bitcoin wallets.
So – I assume that those people bought the Japanese cars on a website called “beforward”. It is still possible to buy cars with bitcoin there. Because the online entrepreneur I talked with, he said to me that many people exchanged their money into Bitcoin over Golix – to buy cars. I conclude that in the 2017 bitcoin boom many people in Zimbabwe were scammed by MMM or OneCoin and they reported that to the RBZ. And the RBZ used this as a reason to shut down the crypto exchange Golix and to forbid the handling of virtual currencies.
Yes, scams are a big problem expecially in countries, where people are poor, in desperate need of money and have a lack of education because of the circumstances. That is why education to see the differences between bitcoin and scams is so important. Banning cryptocurrencies cannot be the answer. Firstly because, the technology in itself is not scamming or fraudulent, it’s people who use it with intent to defraud others and secondly, bitcoin cannot be banned, because it works permissionless and is decentralized. If you ban it in one country, other countries will not. So globally you will always be able to use it – maybe under the radar.
As there are no exchanges in Zimbabwe, people establish groups of trust on social media and exchange peer-to-peer. I believe Satoshi Nakamoto built bitcoin exactly for that purpose. In one of the following episodes I speak with a teacher who is also a digital entrepreneur. She told me about the African philosophy of “Ubuntu” and how the narrative of bitcoin in southern Africa should be shifted from the western narrative of bitcoin as a self-sovereign freedom money to “bitcoin is community money”. In my view these peer-to-peer groups on social media are exactly an expression of this community support.
A backyard restaurant powered with solar.Food was great. Traditional sadza with spinach. Restaurant in the back of a supermarket in Bulawayo.
Teacher “Ubuntu basically stands for I am because you are the health of your community, the health of the people around you will determine your own personal well being. So I’ll give you an example of how we greet each other. So when we say good morning, it’s typically Mamukase which is just asking, how did you wake up? The response to that is Tamuka Mamumokau which means we woke up well, only if you woke up well, so it’s ingrained in our very language it’s, it’s basically putting an emphasis on those around you in order to improve your own social standing your own, your own well being as a person, so I feel like if we shift cryptocurrency for what it stands for aside, there’s a one sideways yeah it’s against the system it’s like this activist, it’s almost taken on the shade of activism. But if you look at it, then the benefit that I can if I use if I have Bitcoin is just choose Bitcoin, right? I can send money to my relatives who are in Malawi or in Namibia or in Ghana. Currently I can’t with our own currency, I can’t send money out freely and quickly. It’s usually a bit of a process and you have to get all sorts of approvals. But if cryptocurrency, if Bitcoin allows me to quickly take care of the people around me if we can sit down as a community and say, okay, we need to buy a new borehole for our community because we don’t have water, we haven’t had water for years. And we need a communal borehole. If Bitcoin allows us to buy and ship that borehole was they want the equipment or they want to bring it in from America or China or Europe. And we can do that without just by using our phones and not having to go through like, that’s an amazing thing. You know, if we look at it from a place of development, if we look at it from a place of helping the community and taking care of each other for allows us to take care of each other without having to create so many barriers and so much red tape to get stuff done with money. I feel like when you change that narrative, you you speak to something very deep within an African.”
So now we are coming to the end of this episode:
All the people I talked with, immediately understood the use case of bitcoin in Zimbabwe. But there is another obstacle. Internet use is expensive AND slow. Most of the people in Zimbabwe can not afford to pay for an internet connection. This is one of the reasons why EcoCash is so successful. One does not need to pay for the use upfront and one does not need an internet package to use the mobile money. It is also common to buy a “WhatsApp bundle” or a “Social Media bundle” which are more affordable than open internet access, which is what you need to install a bitcoin wallet on your phone. Therefore I suggest solutions, where bitcoin can be used inside those channels. The most used channels are WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Twitter and Telegram are available, too but not used widely. Telegram saw an influx of users while the internet shut down in Zimbabwe at the beginning of 2019, when people realized that they cannot use WhatsApp or facebook anymore but telegram was still working.
In the next episode you will hear from two bitcoin and cryptocurrency users in Zimbabwe. They are early adopters who use bitcoin as rails to get paid for freelance work from foreign companies and are also bitcoin traders.
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Part 1 Zimbabwe: Ideal Conditions for Bitcoin? - Bitcoin in Africa: The Ubuntu Way
Mar 19, 2020
In this 1st part of the “Bitcoin in Africa” podcast documentary you get an insight about the current living situation of Zimbabweans and the countrys political history, which paints a picture about why things are how they are, as well as the state of human rights and free speech.
In February 2020 right before the quarantine and travel restrictions due to the Corona Virus pandemic started, I travelled Zimbabwe and Botswana to get a picture from the ground about the usage of Bitcoin in these countries. Zimbabwe and Venezuela are very ofted named as countries where Bitcoin could be making a difference, in supporting people’s economic situation. I wanted to see by myself, if this is true and in how far Bitcoin is known and used there.
TRANSCRIPT Hello friends, bitcoiners and pre-coiners alike! This is the first episode of a multipart series called “Bitcoin in Africa: The Ubuntu Way” In February 2020 I travelled to Zimbabwe and Botswana to find out, if and how bitcoin is used there. I spent 3 weeks in Zimbabwe, 2 weeks of that time I was in Harare the capital and I travelled for one week to Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. After that I spent some days in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana to meet and talk with the founder of the Satoshicentre Alakanani Itireleng.
The instrument you heard is a Mbira (pronounced m-BEER-ra , IPA (ə)mˈbɪəɾə) it is an African musical instrument, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe.
Why did I visit Zimbabwe? I wanted to see with my own eyes how the living situation is for people and more importantly to research the usage of bitcoin. Bitcoin is in my eyes first and foremost not a speculative, trading object, where everything is about price. For me it’s a tool of liberation that enables individuals and communities to free themselves of tight restrictions by authoritarian or totalitarian nation states that harm people’s human rights. This has many faces. In the so-called western world, in countries with freedom of speech, safety and a high level of wealth, it is the possibility to free oneself from the banking system. The banking system has in the last 30 years in combination with national and global regulations evolved into a very strict system of surveillance and allowances. Where we – the majority people of integrity are being policed by the banks – because of fear of money laundering and terrorism finance done by the few. In conjunction with “surveillance capitalism” – a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff in her book well worth reading – surveillance capitalism – which is the permanent recording of all our digital traces on Facebook, Google and Co. – that are being used not only to comfort us with better search results and convenience, but also to manipulate our decisions and extort our data for money and higher profits. This has had disastrous consequences for democracy, freedom and our privacy. So in countries with high living standards, safety and a relatively good working banking system with a low inflation rate controlled by so called “independent” central banks, I would argue that governments try to regulate Bitcoin in the face of “money laundering and financing terrorism” – while in countries like Zimbabwe Bitcoin has to be tamed or controlled by the governing elite, because of the possibility for more “human rights and freedom” for its citizens and their loss of power.
This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters. I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and the Card Wallet, LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware wallet BitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network.
This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work.
Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world.
Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work.
I did talks about Bitcoin in both countries and introduced around 100 people to the possibilities of using and earning bitcoin and showed them how it can improve their living situation in the short and long run. I met with many people from different backgrounds with a diverse set of goals and interests. I talked with them about their daily life, how the economic situation has changed in the last 20 – 40 years, about their hopes and fears for the future and of course about bitcoin and its chances and challenges in Africa. In 2014 Alakanani Itireleng a true Bitcoin OG founded the Satoshicentre in Gaborone to educate her fellow citizens about bitcoin:
Alakanani Itireleng: “I want to help people get into the Bitcoin ecosystem and set the ecosystem to make it like work for Africa, not only for Botswana to make it to work for for Africa, you know, we are the very people that need Bitcoin. Yeah. We are the people. I think so too. Yeah, we are actually this is the place where its is needed the most. Like I was shocked when I was in the US in Orange County. I saw a drive through bank. Yeah. I was like why do you guys have a drive through banks? You don’t need Bitcoin. So we need Bitcoin.”
February 2020: my trip to Zimbabwe starts. I arrive at Harare airport – before I am allowed to join the queue in front of the immigration desk my body temperature is measured – it is Corona Virus season. All is good. They ask me where I come from: I say Austria. The answer is a question: Australia? I say no: Austria in Europe, next to Germany. Ah. Austria. Alright. I join the queue for the immigration procedure. I apply for a visa – and pay 30 US Dollar in cash. This, despite the fact, that in June 2019 the use of US Dollar and other foreign currencies was outlawed by the government. So, if the government outlawed the use of foreign currencies, why did I just pay my visa fees with US Dollar cash? This is just one of many questions I ask myself during the 3 weeks of my stay in Zimbabwe.
Next step custom control: I am very nervous, because my suitcase is packed with devices for bitcoin use. I am bringing donations from my sponsors, several Hardware wallets, the BitBox02 by SHIFT cryptosecurity, several Card Wallets, a RaspiBlitz, which is a Bitcoin and Lightning Fullnode and several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network to communicate and even send bitcoin, while being off the grid. So coming from the immigration desk I try to stay behind a couple to sneak through and I am lucky, the custom officers are not interested in me or my suitcase. I feel a great relief.
After arrival my friends immediately take me out to an event. They say, you have to see that. And they were right.
It was the Austrian new year’s concert in Harare. It felt a little weird. Being in a church, with an audience of 99% whites – so called “Murungus” in the local Shona language – attending. A group of elderly Rhodesians coming together to listen to a classical concert in the tradition of Vienna philharmoic orchestra. That’s not quite what I expected to find. But this audience is also a part of the country’s history and current life. This shows that Zimbabwe is a land of many contrasts.
In the 3 weeks of my stay, I showered exactly one time. Bäh, you might think. No, I did wash myself, but only in a so-called shallow bath. You fill the bathtub just a little bit, like 2 cm high and then you wash yourself sitting and pouring the water over yourself with a jug. Why? Because of the water drought, there is no public water supply. So people try to save as much water as possible, you don’t even flush the toilet, when you have been on the small side. You have to buy water privately, that is delivered every two weeks with a truck. And if possible, you collect the rainwater. Even though there is no water supply: the water company still sends bills and you have to pay them.
Same with electricity: it depends in which area you live. If you are close to hospitals or to the areas where people from the government live, then your chances to have water and electricity all the time are high. If not, then you have to suffer from power outages. At the place where I was staying, the power went on around 11 pm and went off around 5 am in the morning. That means, that people – and there are a lot of them – who cannot afford to buy a solar panel and an inverter – have to work by night. If you cannot afford a gas stove, you have to cook by night. And still: the electricity provider ZESA sends you bills and you have to pay them.
So I travelled the country and arranged a number of interviews — Three of my interview partners in Zimbabwe wanted to stay anonymous. One person is working for a Human Rights organization in Harare. Another one feared about his professional career and the third one is a teacher in a public school, who is also afraid of possible threats. The other two I was talking with, would have been ok with their names in the public, but I decided to leave their names out, too. Why? Because people are scared. As my interview partner, who is working for a human rights organization puts it:
Human rights person “The human rights situation here right now is really poor. I don’t, I haven’t I haven’t been this pessimistic about it in 10-15 years. It’s really is-. It’s as repressive as it has been with like, an added layer of like a sinister, vindictive.
And I think that there’s a small number of activists or organizations trying to do something. And in some ways, because there’s so few of them, it’s really easy to just sit really hard. So if you are one of those handful of people you can get kidnapped, raped, beaten up and stuff. You know, you fight life, you know, every day. And like, how long does the energy last? So because some people I mean, that’s my observation on my feet, you know, just that you can do it for a certain period of time. And then you just I don’t know, it’s almost like a, like a fading out, you know?”
Anita Posch “So one can say there’s no free speech in this country?”
Human rights person “Yeah. And adding up – Especially what you receive from a kind of like whatever in form of like a global support network coverage of it’s very poor, you know? I mean, you get a headline in the media and like this, and this happens, but actually, the peer support internationally, I also like find quite poor.”
One of my interviews was taking place at a self-service restaurant in the middle of Harare. My guest and I started talking and I recorded with my audiorecorder and two handheld microphones. After 20 minutes a women from the restaurant approached us:
….recording and taking pictures is not allowed….
We continued and finished our interview and left for another restaurant. But this was a disturbing experience. At least for me. I am used to being able to record my own conversations wherever I want. But people here are scared. And as I realized afterwards reports from foreigners about Zimbabwe require a permit. Also you are not allowed to take pictures of government buildings.
Anita Posch “With all those complicated living conditions, what are the positives about living in Zimbabwe?”
Human rights person “The people, the people, people it is and yeah, the climate. And the possibilities. You know, if you are an entrepreneurial person you are very free to start new things – there are not so many strict regulations for starting a business. In fact, you have to have this self-sovereign attitude otherwise you couldn’t survive here. Still, it is very different, if you have the possibility to leave the country or not.
Because It’s tough. I mean, I think that’s a big part of why people leave, is the combination of kind of lack of civic freedom and lack of economic prospects. And it’s a little bit like what we were just saying about the colleague who’s gone to work in London, like you had an opportunity like that, yoou take it and if you mean, even if, even if the choice was like, be a tomato vendor here, or work as a waitor in South Africa, I’ll work as a waitor in South Africa, or for any other foreign currency, I can send it home. I can support my family.”
There are 16 million people living in Zimbabwe and only about 800.000 of them have a formal employment. That are only 5 % of the population, that means 95% are informal unemployed, they hustle, they live of nothing. Of the 5 % with a formal employment, most of them work for the government, are civil servants or teachers in public schools.
This is what the headmistress of a school told me:
“Yeah, we hustle. Oh, yeah, it’s your you have people who work but and who are self employed. But very few people are like working from a for a proper institution, because even the institutions are in a difficult place because you’ll have rentals for example, charged in US dollar, even though the government would say no, it’s not allowed Even if they rate it, it will be like astronomical prices. We like I don’t even earn that much. So typical rental, for example, for a one bedroom apartment, let’s call it that, which is pretty standard. You’re looking at about 250 – 350 US dollars, the average person at most is maybe earning 2500 Zim dollars, which is about 100 hundred dollars. So how do you pay your rent, but then and so now like it’s become, employment has almost become like a jail, because it’s like, because now you don’t have time, because they’ll take all your time, you don’t have time to find that additional 200 or $250 to pay your rent. But really, and truly, you need additional maybe $400 because you’ve got the other bills outside of rent. So it’s almost like being employed is almost a disadvantage almost in this country because you’re locked down at that price and even if everything goes up, every month, your salary will remain the same. And a lot of companies struggle to put, what did they call it? Something allowance of forgetting the term an adjustment, as Yeah, it’s called a salary adjustment to move with the market. It’s never really completely what you actually need. They’ll try maybe you get an extra 200 bond or an extra 500 bond. But it’s difficult, you know, it’s difficult to keep up with that corporate struggling as well. Very few corporates are able to pay people very well for it to make sense.”
As a teacher and headmistress she can tell about the situation in schools:
“Wow, I mean, I work in education. I work in education, and I can tell you, it’s difficult. It’s difficult. Have a staff compliment of 14 and they, my you have to then obviously get money from school fees. So you have a lot of schools now. Trying to diversify. Because if you put all that pressure on the parents, then your parents can’t afford to send their children to your school. So it’s like, Okay, what do you do? We need to increase our fees because I need to be able to pay my teachers more. But if I throw that burden on the parents, I, as a parent know that I can’t even afford that, you know, per term for every child that I’ve got some parents of 2, 3, 4 children, and they need to bring your children so what do you do you end up subsidizing? That’s when you have schools that have maybe a little Market Garden, you know, where you commercialize your kitchen and you start baking. You know, when you’re not making lunch for the kids, you’re selling food on the side so that you supplement your income. It is difficult and teachers have struggled the most, especially who work for state schools, public schools, they are in the worst possible position. Those who work in private schools are in much better position because they can afford to charge more government schools can’t charge what private schools are charging, because government schools supposed to the public schools supposed to be affordable for anyone to send their child to school, then they put in a difficult position where you’re told you cannot not accept a child because they haven’t paid fees. So you have to accept them. So you’ll have, let’s say, 50 children, and maybe only 15 of them have paid the school fees. But because as a government school, you’re not allowed to send children home because they have a right to education. How do you take care of the other 35 off 15 and still take care of your teachers and it’s, it’s our country is madness, you know, the more I talk about it, you know, it sounds terrible.”
Not only that prices are rising daily, the whole society is crippled by corruption. Before 2017, when Robert Mugabe still was the countrys leader, there were roadblocks by police everywhere. They would stop your car and say that you have done something wrong or mock you about small things they find in your car – ending with demanding money. Friends told me, that they stopped driving through the city of Harare, because at one time they were stopped by 5 roadblocks inside the city and had to pay around 100 USD in fines only to get from one side of town to the other. With the new government this has changed. No more roadblocks inside Harare. When I was there, it was almost spooky. Because I did not see any police. A friend said: If you need the police at your home, because something has happened, you cannot just call them and they’ll come, you have to go and fetch them.
And still there are roadblocks. A thing that I have never encountered in my life before: when we were on our roadtrip to Victoria Falls, we were stopped by roadblocks at the borders of each city. Coming from Austria, I have never seen something like that before. And it feels creepy. It’s like, everytime I see police and I have to stop – or maybe they wave us through, you never know – it feels like you have done something wrong. Uncertainty, being at the mercy of their whims – that’s not a good feeling.
Headmistress and teacher “As any person I hate talking ill about my country, but it’s the truth, sadly, sadly, is the truth. We are struggling. We are struggling. We have doctors are not paid nearly what a doctor should be paid realistically. We don’t have equipment. We don’t have the right medication the cost of medication alone is unbelievable. You can’t afford to get sick. We were in a fuel queue with car behind us was a doctor, a doctor was in there. And he eventually was he was actually a doctor on call. And he’d also been in this queue for like, two hours or so. And the guy was supposed to be on call and knowing already that was so severely understaffed. A doctor who supposed to be attending to patients, but it’s stuck in a fuel queue is a problem. So he went up to the front and he tried to get fuel, at least in a jerrycan and he showed them his card and the fact that he was on coal and it was a huge fight. But I think in the end, he only got like 10 liters, which is enough just to get him to work and get back home at the end of it. And as we’re trying to help him sort of fill up his car. He then says, As a doctor, I can safely say to you cannot afford to get sick. Please do not get sick in this country, because it’s one of two things It’s either you cannot afford it, because they are hospitals that are beautifully equipped, fully staffed, all the medication, all these hospitals are here right now in this country, but you know you are paying a premium for it. Even our medical aids, not all of them are accepted at these hospitals. But then you have our government hospitals, which are not as well equipped. And if you don’t have the kind of money that is required to get proper health care, your chances of not making it or you know, probably not getting the best health care you possibly could a very, very high, very high and if a doctor can say, don’t get sick, what does that what does that tell you?”
While travelling from Harare to Bulawayo I met a doctor, who lived a big part of his life in Zimbabwe. I would say, he is in his early 70ies and he fought in the Rhodesian Bush War, which was a guerilla war to fight for the independence of Zimbabwe in the 1970ies. It ended with the declaration of independence of Zimbabwe in 1980 with a new leader called Robert Mugabe. This doctor lives in Europe now, but every year he returns to his old home country to stay for some weeks. He brought a suitcase full of medical supplies with him, to donate it to a hospital, because public hospitals are lacking everything. At the airport custom officers opened his suitcase, and demanded money for the supplies.
Corruption is everywhere. And it seems that there are different rules for different people. Yes, I think one can say that for every country, but the differences are so big here. If you have USD, if you are in a high position, if you are in the right network, you can have a great life in Zimbabwe. I have seen private houses with swimming pools blue as the sky, many shiny SUVs and most of the better off people employ gardeners, maids and other staff.
When I was there a new rule by the government was published. The minimum wage for a gardener or worker is allowed to be as little as 8 USD. Per month. And of course: this is not paid in USD, but in Zimbawe dollar.
For instance: The maid in a house – close to where I stayed – works 7 days a week, from 5 am to 10pm, doing housework, cooking, taking care of the kids. She is a so called livin in maid. Due to the power cuts she has to iron by night. She also sleeps in the house of her employer. For this, she earns 10 USD per month. Most of the times the families of workers like her live in another part of town, where the rents are cheaper. So, because they cannot afford a car, if they want to go home, they have to take the bus which costs them around 1-2 USD. How should anyone be able to live from that?
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I could go on with these examples of mismanagement and corruption. For instance: MealieMeal – which is like a corn meal- it is the Zimbabweans staple diet… The thing people eat on a daily basis like rice in Asia, noodles in Italy or potatoes in Germany. It’s part of their diet and normally relatively affordable. But it is not available at the moment. The producers of MealieMeal are being forced by the government to get paid in Zimbabwe Dollars. So they decided, before they are paid in this bad money, that loses its value daily, they rather store the MealieMeal in their warehouses and wait for better deals. This is something that hits people in towns worse, than those on the countryside. Because there either you have your own corn or the local chief settles a deal with the producers so that his people get MealieMeal.
Basically much of the conversation is about where to get what, at which prices:
“Do you know that they have chibage, MealieMeal at the shops?….”
And I did not even mention the fuel queues up until now. So petrol. The urban spaces in Harare, Bulawayo and other towns are not densely populated in general. That means, that distances are very great. And there is no public transport like we know it. Yes there are a lot of mini buses and also bigger buses to travel over land. Someone like me would be completely lost, because there are no timetables or stops with signs. And yeah, there are no road signs at all. Nowhere. So you really need to know your way or ask people. That means everything is depending on cars and buses. If you cannot afford that, you have to walk. And I saw a lot of people walking. Women, who were carrying heavy bags on their heads – yes like we see it on television – and men, who interestingly enough, carry much less than their accompanying women. And yes, I have asked. It is a very patriarchal society.
Coming back to the petrol.
There are severe petrol shortages. You never know when and where you can get petrol. I was told that most of the times, when fuel shortages occured, the price was raised afterwards. In the weeks I was in the country, I saw many many people queueing for petrol. Long lines of cars are parked at the side of the streets waiting for the petrol station to open. People spend nights and days queueing, never knowing for how long the petrol will last? One of my interview partners excused himself for not calling me at the time we agreed upon, because he was in the petrol queue for such a long time, that he did not have power anymore in his cell phone.
Before we dive deeper into the current situation in the following episodes – Let’s take a look back and take a look into the history of this beautiful land Zimbabwe and it’s people.
The Encyclopædia Britannica begins its history of Zimbabwe with: The Stone Age. The first Bantu people are thought to have reached Zimbabwe between the 5th and 10th centuries CE. Zimbabwe is home to many stone ruins, including those known as Great Zimbabwe, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986.
Overview of Great Zimbabwe. The large walled construction is the Great Enclosure. Some remains of the valley complex can be seen in front of it. By Image taken by Jan Derk in 1997 in Zimbabwe. – en:Image:Great-Zimbabwe.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132171
The Portuguese, who arrived on the east coast of Africa at the end of the 15th century, dreamed of opening up the interior and establishing a route to connect their eastern settlements with Angola in the west. The first European to enter Zimbabwe was probably António Fernandes, who tried to cross the continent and reached the neighbourhood of Que Que (now Kwekwe).
A second great movement of the Bantu peoples began in 1830, this time from the south. The Ndebele, carved out a kingdom. The Ndebele were warriors and pastoralists, in the Zulu tradition, and they mastered and dispossessed the weaker tribes, known collectively as Shona (Mashona), who were sedentary, peaceful tillers of the land. For more than half a century, until the coming of European rule, the Ndebele continued to enslave and plunder the Shona. — this is an important fact for the later development. During this period, however, British and Afrikaner hunters, traders, and prospectors had begun to move up from the south, and with them came the missionaries.
In South Africa Cecil Rhodes formed the British South Africa Company, which received its charter in October 1889. Its objects were to extend the railway, to encourage immigration and colonization, to promote trade and commerce, and – off course – to secure all mineral rights, in return for guarantees of protection and security of rights to the tribal chiefs.
The Ndebele resented this European invasion, and in 1893 they took up arms, being defeated only after months of strenuous fighting. The Shona had at first accepted the Europeans, but they too became rebellious, and the whole country was not pacified until 1897.
“The Rhodes Colossus” – cartoon by Edward Linley Sambourne, published in Punch after Rhodes announced plans for a telegraph line from Cape Town to Cairo in 1892. By Edward Linley Sambourne (1844–1910) – Punch and Exploring History 1400-1900: An anthology of primary sources, p. 401 by Rachel C. Gibbons, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1765203
By 1892 about 1,500 settlers from the south had arrived in Rhodesia. The railway reached Bulawayo in 1896 and Victoria Falls in 1904. After Cecil Rhodes’s death in 1902 he was buried in the Matopos Hills and they built him a monument that stands on top of these hills destroying the beauty of the land.
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In 1922 – British South Africa Company administration ends, the white minority opts for self-government. 1930 – Land Apportionment Act restricts black access to land, forcing many people into wage labour. Between 1930-1960s – Black opposition to colonial rule was growing. 1965 – Prime minister Ian Smith unilaterally declares independence from the United Kingdom under white minority rule, sparking international outrage and economic sanctions.
The Rhodesian Bush War lasted from 1972 to 1979 it was a Guerrilla war against white rule. According to Rhodesian government statistics, more than 20,000 people were killed during the war. Rhodesian security forces, guerrillas and around 8.000 black civilians, and 500 white civilians were killed.
In 1980 – Zanu leader Robert Mugabe won independence elections. He became the first prime minister as Zimbabwe achieved an internationally recognized independence on April 18, 1980. He stayed president of Zimbabwe until 2017.
Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family – hence remember how the Ndebele enslaved and plundered the Shona, before the European rule.
Because between 1982 and 1985, Mugabe sent the military and the so called 5th brigade – trained by North Korean – to crush armed resistance against him from Ndebele groups – in a military crackdown known as Gukurahundi, a Shona term which translates roughly to mean “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains”. The Gukurahundi campaigns were also known as the Matabeleland Massacres. Approximately 20,000 Matabele were murdered in these first years after the war; most of those killed were victims of public executions.
Margaret Thatcher’s UK government was aware of the killings but remained silent on the matter, cautious not to anger Mugabe and threaten the safety of white Zimbabweans. The United States also did not raise strong objections, with President Ronald Reagan welcoming Mugabe to the White House in September 1983. In October 1983, Mugabe attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in New Delhi, where no participating states mentioned the Gukurahundi.
Economically, Southern Rhodesia developed an economy that was narrowly based on production of a few primary products, notably, chrome and tobacco. It was therefore vulnerable to the economic cycle. The deep recession of the 1930s gave way to a post-war boom. This boom prompted the immigration of about 200,000 whites between 1945 and 1970, taking the white population up to 307,000. They established a relatively balanced economy, transforming what was once a primary producer dependent on backwoods farming into an industrial giant which spawned a strong manufacturing sector, iron and steel industries, and modern mining ventures. These economic successes owed little to foreign aid.
In the 1990ies hundreds of thousands of acres of largely white-owned land were expropriated. In April 1994, a newspaper investigation found that not all of this was redistributed to landless blacks; much of the expropriated land was being leased to ministers and senior officials. Responding to this scandal, in 1994 the UK government—which had supplied £44 million for land redistribution—halted its payments.
Over the course of the 1990s, Zimbabwe’s economy steadily deteriorated. By 2000, living standards had declined from 1980; life expectancy was reduced, average wages were lower, and unemployment had trebled. By 1998, unemployment was almost at 50%. As of 2009, three to four million Zimbabweans—the greater part of the nation’s skilled workforce—had left the country. Mugabe increasingly blamed the country’s economic problems on Western nations and the white Zimbabwean minority, who still controlled most of its commercial agriculture, mines, and manufacturing industry.
From a human rights perspective I also want to talk about Mugabes growing preoccupation with homosexuality, lambasting it as an “un-African” import from Europe. He described gay people as being “guilty of sub-human behaviour”, and of being “worse than dogs and pigs”. This attitude may have stemmed in part from his strong conservative values, but it was strengthened by the fact that several ministers in the British government were gay. Mugabe began to believe that there was a “gay mafia” and that all of his critics were homosexuals. Critics also accused Mugabe of using homophobia to distract attention from the country’s problems.
In February 2000, land invasions began as armed gangs attacked and occupied white-owned farms. The farm seizures were often violent; by 2006 a reported sixty white farmers had been killed, with many of their employees experiencing intimidation and torture. A large number of the seized farms remained empty, while many of those redistributed to black peasant-farmers were unable to engage in production for the market because of their lack of access to fertiliser.
The farm invasions severely impacted agricultural development. Zimbabwe had produced over two million tons of maize in 2000; by 2008 this had declined to approximately 450,000. By 2009, 75% of Zimbabwe’s population were relying on food aid, the highest proportion of any country at that time. Zimbabwe faced continuing economic decline. Hyperinflation resulted in economic crisis. By 2007, Zimbabwe had the highest inflation rate in the world, at 7600%. By 2008, inflation exceeded 100,000% and a loaf of bread cost a third of the average daily wage. Increasing numbers of Zimbabweans relied on remittances from relatives abroad.
The country’s lucrative tourist industry was decimated, and there was a rise in poaching, including of endangered species. Mugabe directly exacerbated this problem when he ordered the killing of 100 elephants to provide meat for an April 2007 feast.
In 2008, the parliamentary and presidential elections were held. After the election, Mugabe’s government deployed its ‘war veterans’ in a violent campaign against his opponent Tsvangirai supporters. Between March and June 2008, at least 153 MDC supporters were killed. There were reports of women affiliated with the MDC being subjected to gang rape by Mugabe supporters. Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans were internally displaced by the violence. These actions brought international condemnation of Mugabe’s government.
This is only 12 years ago. No wonder, that people are scared.
In 2009, Mugabe’s government declared that—to combat rampant inflation—it would recognise U.S. dollars as legal tender and would pay government employees in this currency. This helped to stabilise prices. But then in November 2016 – A new national currency – called bond notes – was introduced amid public resistance.
In 2017 Mr Mugabe resigns after the military takes control. Former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa becomes president.
People have hope, that from now on Zimbabwe might become a better place. But as it seems, nothing really has changed.
In January 2019 – Protests break out in major cities after the government more than doubles fuel prices in an attempt to tackle shortages and the black market.
In June 2019 Zimbabwe outlaws the use of any other foreign currency. Only Zimbabwean dollars are allowed as legal tender. That meant that All USD one had held on a bank account in the country were changed into Zimbabwe dollar at the exchange rate of 1:1. This did not last long. Today – 9 months afterwards – the exchange rate on the streets is 1:43. So now 43 Zim Dollar are equivalent to 1 US Dollar.
Anita Posch “When I came here two and a half weeks ago, I think the official exchange rate was one to 17. And in the shops, we had one to 20 or 25. Today, we got 1 to 30 in a shop. While so in Yeah, in two and a half weeks, the rtgs or the bond, Zimbabwe bond lost a lot. I don’t know how many percent that exactly now, but actually a lot of Yes. value. Yeah. So what do you see? Or what do you think is coming next? I mean, do you think you’re going into hyperinflation again?”
Headmistress “We are in hyperinflation.”
Anita Posch “You are still in hyperinflation or again?”
Headmistress “Yeah. I think we are. It’s just that it’s not. t’s not on the scale, where last time we just like I feel like it just ran out of people’s hands like when we will became trillionaires. And quadrillion is like it just there was no control left like no one’s Coming and no one knew how to deal with it. We’ve been there before. So now it’s like okay, let’s try and control it. But it is in we are in currently in hyperinflation, I believe so maybe an economist will tell me I’m wrong.”
In the 3 weeks of my stay the exchange rate on the street went from 1 : 20 to 1:30 in only three weeks, this is a huge change. This is a sad situation because for the people living is getting difficult again.
And by the way: the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe maintains a Twitter account, where you can find tweets, which paint a picture about what is happening in the country.
For instance one tweet is threatening people with disciplinary measures for posting pictures of new banknotes on social media!
In the next episode you will hear more about the banking situation and how people here are used to living in a multicurrency system, which theoretically is a perfect starting point for people to adopt bitcoin.
If you like my show please subscribe to it in your podcast player and share the episode on social media. You can find additional pictures and videos from my travel on the episode page at bitcoinundco.com
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Thanks for listening.
Credits: Idea, content and production: Anita Posch Edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor: Adam B. Levine Cover Image: Martina Gruber Music: “Start with yes” by Delicate beats
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
BUC Live: Digital Scarcity - Will Central Banks Be Obsolete Within This Century?
Mar 12, 2020
This is a live recording of a panel discussion at the “Value of Bitcoin Symposium” in Vienna, March 5th 2020. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of digital scarcity and a hard capped supply versus fiat money, the impact of new players in the money game like Facebook’s Libra, the topic of central bank digital currencies and how that all relates to bitcoin. Participants were Rahim Taghizadegan – Austrian economist, Arthur Stadler – lawyer with blockchain expertise, Beat Weber – Austrian Central Bank and Aurel Schubert – former director general at the European Central Bank.
Please, excuse the low audio quality.
Topics:
Where do you see bitcoin in relation to central banking?
Concept of digital scarcity and a hard capped supply vs. fiat money with controlled expanding and contracting of the supply.
Maintaining the stable value of FIAT money vs. bitcoin volatility
Impact of new players like Facebook’s Libra and other corporate money
Thought experiment on Central Banks buying bitcoin
Aurel Schuberts book and learnings from “The Credit-Anstalt Crisis of 1931”
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Connie Gallippi: A Pioneer Bridging the Gap Between the Non-Profit Space and Bitcoin
Mar 05, 2020
Connie Gallippi is the Founder and Executive Director of BitGive. In May 2013, she founded BitGive, the first government recognized Bitcoin 501(c)(3) nonprofit and pioneer organization leveraging Bitcoin and Blockchain technology via practical applications for humanitarian work in the developing world. Under her leadership, BitGive has built a positive philanthropic representative organization for the Bitcoin and Blockchain industry, bridging the gap between an innovative technology and its practical applications for nonprofits and humanitarian work in the developing world. BitGive has established strong partnerships and raised funds with well-known nonprofits including Save the Children, The Water Project, TECHO, Medic Mobile, and more.
Connie is a well-known industry spokesperson for the social impact of Bitcoin and advocating for more diversity and equal opportunity in the digital currency community. She speaks internationally on the social impact of Bitcoin and Blockchain.
“This technology has the most potential in developing economies.” – Connie Gallippi
We talk about:
GiveTrack peer-to-peer donating
How Bitcoin helps the non profit sector
Uphold converting everything to Bitcoin
Ecosystem has a long way to go
How they vet projects
Obstacles to get funds
Project in Kenya
Dealing with regulations as a non-profit
Understanding the needs of other places
Alakanani Itereleng, Founder of Satoshicentre in Botswana
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Randy Brito: How People Are Using Bitcoin in Venezuela
Feb 26, 2020
Randy Brito is the founder of bitcoinvenezuela.com and the CEO of Locha Mesh. In 2012 he started publishing educational material about Bitcoin in Spanish and translated the interface of the Electrum Wallet. We are talking about the economical situation in Venezuela, how authorities extorted miners in 2015 and how people are using bitcoin today.
We talk about:
Started bitcoinvenezuela.com in 2012
Economical situation Venezuela
Spanish translator for electrum wallet 2012
Bitcoin is used to get money in and out of Venezuela
Most liquid currency in Venezuela in the moment
How people buy online in the US and get delivered to the border
~ 300.000 people use bitcoin
People fled Venezuela with their families with the help of bitcoin
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Pascal Huegli: The Problem With Today’s Banking and Monetary Colonialism
Feb 19, 2020
Pascal Hügli is a journalist working with financialmedia AG. He focuses on the topic of finance and economics. As such he considers himself as a life-long student trying to get a real understanding of the world. He’s the author of “Ignore at your own risk: the new decentralized world of Bitcoin and Blockchain”. He is also a lecturer at HWZ and moderates as well as debates in public.
We talk about:
Bitcoin is a social phenomenon
Problem with banking
Credit expansion and the next crisis
Bitcoin’s capped supply
Financial oppression is growing
Bitcoin as a check
Human mankind’s mind is maybe not made for bitcoin
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Philipp E. Dettwiler: Merging Traditional Banking With Bitcoin and Digital Assets
Feb 13, 2020
Phil Dettwiler is Head of Custody Storage & Transaction Banking at SEBA Bank AG, the first crypto bank that was granted a banking license in Switzerland. Being a banker all of his life, he sees the investment opportunity in bitcoin and likes the possibility of independent banking. Phil also answers the question: Why do we need banks in Bitcoin?
SEBA Bank AG enables professional and institutional clients to invest, safely keep, trade and borrow against traditional and digital assets, as well as issue tokens, in one place.
We talk about:
The banking license for SEBA
Bitcoin as investment opportunity
The possibility of independent banking
Why a bank in bitcoin? Blockchain Trilemma
How a bank handles crypto custody
Latency and security
The future of banking
Central Bank Digital Currency and traditional banking
Volatility and liquidity
Facebooks Libra
Developing their own wallet solutions
Deposit protection and insurance market
Tokenization, Asset Tokens and the insurance market
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Brandon Green: What to Expect From Bitcoin (In) 2020
Feb 05, 2020
In March the Bitcoin2020 conference is taking place in San Francisco. In this interview I talk with Brandon Green, who is a project manager at BTC Inc. for the conference. BTC Inc. is also the company behind the Bitcoin Magazine and the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast network. We talk about the latest developments in Bitcoin, the halving, their suspended Twitter account and what you can expect from the conference. Brandon is right hand to the CEO at BTC Inc. He’s been working in the Bitcoin space and writing for Bitcoin Magazine since early 2017.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Tatiana Moroz: Bitcoin Is a Tool to Liberate Humanity and Gives Power to Creators
Jan 29, 2020
Tatiana Moroz is an American folk singer-songwriter, liberty activist, and peaceful revolutionary. She is in the Bitcoin space since 2012 and is pioneering creative autonomy and freedom as the creator of the world’s first artist cryptocurrency Tatiana Coin. Tatiana merges music with blockchain technology to renew the power of songwriters and creators. Her inspiring album “Keep The Faith” was released in 2017 and was funded completely with cryptocurrency. She wrote a song about Bitcoin, it’s called the “Bitcoin Jingle” and it is featured in this episode.
“Blockchains can take us away from the music industry cartel.” – Tatiana Moroz
“If you’re a major label you are also getting screwed by these big social media companies.” – Tatiana Moroz
We are talking about:
What music and Bitcoin have in common
How artists can be supported directly by their fans
Social media platforms “own” your fans
Building a long term relationship with her fans with Tatiana Coin
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Locha Mesh - Chat and Send Bitcoin Anonymously Without Internet
Jan 22, 2020
Randy Brito is the founder of bitcoinvenezuela.com and the CEO of Locha Mesh. With the Locha Mesh device one can send text, audio, and Bitcoin without cell service or internet as long as the device has battery life. Locha Mesh nodes create high bandwith long range decentralized radio networks to connect devices at up to 4km away from each other, and relay information to reach longer distances.
We talk about
Locha Mesh censorship resistant payments and internet
Bitcoin payments without internet and without electricity
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
DEBNK: Building Global Trustless Peer Banking on Top of Bitcoin
Jan 16, 2020
My guests in this episode are Patrik Tjokorda, Josef Tětek and Tomas Marada, we met at the Hackers Congress in Prague. They are working on a project called DEBNK. Their goal is to build global peer banking on top of the bitcoin settlement layer. This trustless third layer on top of bitcoin will be able to store different assets and can make stablecoins obsolete. We talk about how this will be implemented, the use cases they see and about volatility and price discovery in bitcoin, the block subsidy, the halving and bitcoin in the Czech Republic. At the moment the development team is looking for grants to bootstrap the MVP, the minimal viable product. Patrik and Tomas just launched a bitcoin quant fund www.hedge.capital, that will also serve as funding vehicle for DEBNK later on.
We talk about
bitcoin will change how we cooperate as a society
3rd layer on bitcoin – financialisation of bitcoin
storing different asset on bitcoin infrastructure
accounting assets on top of lightning channels
CFD contract for difference: Usecase derivatives
No need for stablecoins
Volatility and price discovery in bitcoin
PlanB, Stock to flow
BAKKT, derivatives space
Opting out of the system with bitcoin today
Personal privacy practises
“Bitcoins security budget is adequat for now” …Scroll down for video
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Alexandra Moxin: Bitcoin Changes the Power Dynamic - Back to the Individual
Jan 09, 2020
Alexandra Moxin is the host of the Advance Tech Podcast and a moderator at Bitcoin conferences, living in Vancouver in Canada. We met at the Baltic Honeybadger Conference in Riga back in September of 2019. Alexandra works for Microsoft as developer engagement lead for Azure and follows the developments in Bitcoin since 2017. We talk about why we are interested in bitcoin only, about podcasting, Bitcoin in Canada and learning resources for Bitcoin.
“Bitcoins biggest strength is, that its security is backed by so much power.” – Alexandra Moxin
“Bitcoin changes the power dynamic, it gives power back to the individual.” – Alexandra Moxin
“Bitcoin brings back critical thinking.” – Alexandra Moxin
“Bitcoin rips off the rose-coloured glasses with force in a non violent way.” – Alexandra Moxin
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Lisa Neigut: Bitcoin Is Mind-Boggling Cool and How She Became a C-Lightning Developer
Jan 02, 2020
Lisa Neigut is an engineer and developer at Blockstream working on c-lightning. We met at the Lightning Conference in Berlin in October 2019 and talked about a variety of topics ranging from quantum experiments, Bitcoin in general, stocks as currency, to the future of the Lightning Network. Before that she was working at Squarecash and at Etsy as an Android developer. People who want to start a career in programming and technology should listen to her story of how she got hired as a lightning developer without fitting the profile.
“People should be able to make deals between themselves.” – Lisa Neigut
“Reading ‘Mastering Bitcoin‘ was just mind-boggling cool!” – Lisa Neigut
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec: Bitcoiners by Heart Lead Us Behind the Scenes of Pool Mining
Dec 26, 2019
We will take a non-technical look into bitcoin mining in this episode. My guests are Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec, the CEOs and Founders of Braiins, the company that is operating Slush pool, which is the world’s first bitcoin mining pool with more than 1 000 000 BTC mined since 2010. Jan and Pavels company is located in the Czech Republic in Prague. They are bitcoiners by heart and explain how pool mining works, what the challenges for miners are to be profitable, share their thoughts about the electricity consumption of proof-of-work and what they believe bitcoin will be in the future.
“Bitcoin is a big social change in the world.” – Jan Čapek
“Bitcoin forces you to think differently.” – Pavel Moravec
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Austin E. Alexander: Bitcoin Is a Complete, Total Game Changer. It’s an Opt-Out.
Dec 19, 2019
Austin E. Alexander is working for the office of the CEO at Kraken. He joined Kraken at the end of 2013. Back then, Kraken had only 20 to 30 employees. Today it is one of the biggest and most respected crypto exchanges in the world. I met Austin at several bitcoin conferences and at the Baltic Honeybadger in Riga in October, we finally sat down to chat about his career and the developments in the bitcoin space since 2011. In 2013 he was co-founding the Bitcoin Center New York with Nick Spanos. He talks about how enthusiastically they have built the center and about the problems they ran into in the dawn of the Bit License. We also discuss his learnings in 2019 while visiting Uganda, Somalia, South Africa and Zimbabwe and much more.
“In retrospect we’ll see that bitcoin has grown exponentially.” – Austin E. Alexander
“I would have never imagined that bitcoin is this big this quickly.” – Austin E. Alexander
“Bitcoin is going to change how we consume.” – Austin E. Alexander
How he found out about Bitcoin
Questioning the fiat and nation state system
Security Token Offerings
Co-founding the Bitcoin Center of New York with Nick Spanos
Effects of the Bit License
His million dollar bicycle
Not getting a bank account
Future of Exchanges in countries like Uganda, Guatemala, Somalia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Smuggler: A Cryptoanarchists View on Bitcoin, Democracy, Dark Nets and Privacy
Dec 11, 2019
The Bitcoin & Co. podcast is a bitcoin-only show that’s focusing on the why of Bitcoin. Why is it important for humanity, what are the implications from a privacy perspective, how are we able to grow this space together, what are the visions of the people who drive the Bitcoin space. I want to look behind the scenes and take you with me on this journey.
Sometimes my guests are rather critical about bitcoin, which I think, is a good thing. Bitcoiners tend to be full of hopium and forget to look for possible downsides. But only with critical thinking, things can be improved. Todays guest is Smuggler, a cryptoanarchist I met at the Hackers Congress in Prague. We had a wide ranging conversation about cryptoanarchy, privacy, technology and democracy and he shares some – at least in the Bitcoin space – unpopular opinions about Bitcoin. He also shares some methods to escape mass surveillance on your phone and computer. I think it is a great conversation, which is why it is longer than usual.
“Cryptography is better for honest people, than for dishonest people.” – Smuggler
“Decisions should be made where the highest effect is to be felt.” – Smuggler
We talk about:
Nation States, corporations, politicians and power
Cryptography and dangers of technology
His vision of the future
Alternatives to the state and the market
Bitcoin governance
Where Bitcoin sucks
Scrit Cash
Privacy and mass surveillance
Pseudonomous societies
Dark nets and the dark web
Anonymity and civility
How to be not mass surveillanced
IP intelligence
Thanks to Paralelni Polis for the picture of Smuggler.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Jameson Lopp: Bitcoin Will Never Die, It’s a Pure Form of Economic Interaction
Dec 05, 2019
Jameson Lopp is very well known in the Bitcoin space for his wide expertise on security, technology and privacy. He is maintaining and curating a Bitcoin resources page with links to valuable information on Bitcoin and since his house was swatted by police in 2017 after an unknown attacker reported a false hostage situation, he is a cypherpunk at heart. Jameson is the CTO at Casa, a company devoted to providing products for personal sovereignty.
“Bitcoin can’t be dead, until we all agree that it is dead and it is so widely distributed now.” – Jameson Lopp
Money is language
Byzantine generals problem
Security of Bitcoin
Why full nodes are important
Trust and reputation
When should I sell?
Is Bitcoin dying because ____?
On Bitcoin being built by the NSA, FBI
On becoming a cypherpunk
Privacy and fungibility
Tainted coins
Facebook and Libra
A bitcoin miner in every household
The Casa node, the keymaster app and the seedless setup
Personal sovereignty
His vision for Bitcoin
“The game of just speculating is a waste of time and it’s not adding a lot of value to the system.” – Jameson Lopp
“We need to have a very solid user friendly foundation of security, if we want average people, who don’t live, eat and breathe Bitcoin all day long to be able to do this. They need to be as confident with their bitcoin wallet as they are with the money in their bank, so we still have a long way to go for that.” – Jameson Lopp
Welcome to Bitcoin, newcomers! Here's your FAQ:
Q: Who should I trust? A: Nobody.
Q: When should I sell? A: Never.
Q: Is Bitcoin dying because ____? A: No.
Q: What have I gotten myself into? A: Nobody knows.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
John Carvalho: Bitcoin Is Not About Getting Rich, It Is Meant to Be Freedom Money
Nov 28, 2019
Wether you are a newbie or a Bitcoin enthusiast, this interview with John Carvalho, one of the rare people with strong views and rhetorical talent at the same time, will bring you joy and new insights. John is the CCO of Bitrefill, a swedish company that sells giftcards and phone refills for cryptocurrencies and offers “Thor” a lightning network services provider. He says, his higher boss is Bitcoin and he is working for bitcoin since it’s price was 10 USD. John Carvalho has seen a lot of things happening in the bitcoin space, let him inspire you.
“Bitcoin is the best store of value.” – John Carvalho
This episode was recorded at the Lightning Conference in Berlin in October 2019.
Being powerless and taking back power
From a meme on Twitter to Bitrefill
Bitcoins development in the last years
Growth of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network
Changing into saving mode
Being paid in bitcoin
Why bitcoiners like ETFs
Libra, Central Bank Money
Price manipulation and trading
Evaluating altcoins
Privacy at the base layer
Bcash dances, Roger Ver and Craig Wright
On ignorant money
Founding of Bitrefill
Buying gift cards cross border
Thor: a lightning network service provider
Blockchain in supply chains
How to educate yourself about Bitcoin
“Do not trade, unless it’s your career.” – John Carvalho
“The job of every altcoin is creating a narrative aganist bitcoin and whoever has the best narrative against bitcoin gets the most ignorant money.” – John Carvalho
“Bitcoin means, that I can be actually free and be a sovereign individual doing what I want, as long as it does not hurt somebody else.” – John Carvalho
“I just don’t think Bitcoin dies.” – John Carvalho
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Jonathan Leong: Building an Exchange for Easy Access to Bitcoin
Nov 21, 2019
Jonathan Leong is a coder as well as the Co-founder and CEO of BTSE a multi-currency digital assets exchange and derivatives platform. His goal for BTSE is to make bitcoin affordable for anyone by reducing the volatility of bitcoin through the allocation of liquidity. I also asked him about their criteria for altcoins to be listed on the exchange and how they managed to get through the bear market successfully.
From mining farms to trading
How to mine successfully through the bear market
What a futures contract is
Liquidity management at exchanges
Regulations in the Arab Emirates
Bitmex, Deribit as competitors
Futures 2.0
Non-custodial order placement with the Liquid network
Bad actors and the security of an exchange platform
Libra, Telegram token
Criteria to list an asset
Workweek of the CEO of an exchange
BTSE roadmap
Financing the project
“I wanna make bitcoin affordable for anyone.”, says Jonathan Leong, CEO of BTSE
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
The Nodl Team: Behind the Scenes of Building Bitcoin Nodes
Nov 14, 2019
Let me introduce you to two true Bitcoiners: Ketominer and his business partner, who are building bitcoin and lightning full nodes under the brand “nodl” since 2018. In our interview they explain how they got into bitcoin, why it is important to them and how they bootstrap their “un-corporation” from one level to the next.
How they got into the Bitcoin space
Changes in the Bitcoin space in the last years
How “nodl” came into life
The first nodl box
The importance of a full node
How to receive online payments with BTCPayserver integration
Nodl Cloud, Samourai Dojo Box
Difference between Nodl and Casa Box
Regulation of open source software related to crypto assets
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Jimmy Song: Bitcoin Makes Human Civilization Grow Again
Nov 07, 2019
“Regret is thinking you’re late. Gratitude is thinking you’re early. It’s still early to get Bitcoin.”, says Jimmy Song. He is a bitcoin educator, developer, entrepreneur, a lover of cowboy hats and boots and, as you can see on Twitter, a philosopher. He is the author of “Programming Bitcoin” and a co-author of “The Little Bitcoin Book“. I sat down to have a chat with him at the Baltic Honeybadger conference in Riga.
Austrian economics
Hat and boots
Tim Ferriss, Austin, Texas
Difference between his book and “Mastering Bitcoin” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Altcoins and FIAT money
Demands on bitcoin
Method of payment or store of value
USD and BTC competition
Energy consumption of bitcoin
Bitcoin brings back a new frontier
Going to Mars
Silicon Valley is missing out on bitcoin (see Dan Held)
Libra, Central Bank Digital Currency
What Bitcoin needs
Bitcoiners are questioning everything
Regrets and being grateful
“Regret is thinking you’re late. Gratitude is thinking you’re early. It’s still early to get Bitcoin.” – Jimmy Song
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Juraj Bednar: Using Bitcoin Is like a Filter for People with an Open Mind
Oct 26, 2019
Juraj Bednar is an entrepreneur, hacker and co-founder of Paralelná Polis Bratislava and Prague’s Paralelní Polis. It hosts a hackerspace called Institute of Cryptoanarchy and a cafeteria with best coffee in Prague and accepting only cryptocurrencies. His favourite cryptocurrency is bitcoin, he also uses monero as a medium of exchange. In his talk “Financial surveillance and crypto utopias” at the #HCPP19 Hackers Congress Juraj presented his research on how banks are enforcing KYC, anti-money laundering regulations while at the same time do not care about it, if they want you as a customer. He also shows us hacks to regain financial privacy with cryptocurrency.
We talk about:
Opposing totalitarian regime and communism
Concept of Paraleni Polis
How to survive in a society that is not free and the development of parallel society
KYC, anti-money laundering, tax evasion
Banks are over-regulating, but they do not need to, if they want you as a customer
Need to have a bank account
Security theatre
Hacks for better financial privacy
Why bitcoin is his favourite cryptocurrency
“Don’t feed the beast with your data.” – Juraj Bednar
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
BUC Live: Lightning Hardware and Nodes Panel from The Lightning Conference Berlin
Oct 22, 2019
This is a Bitcoin & Co. live recording from the worlds first lightning conference that has been taking place this weekend in Berlin. For the first time around 500 lightning and bitcoin engineers, researches, developers, businesses, hardware builders and enthusiasts gathered to discuss and work on new projects. Two days packed with interesting talks, workshops and panels. You can find the live streams of most talks on YouTube in the conference channel. I had the honour to moderate the “Lightning Hardware and Nodes” Panel on day 2. Due to technical problems, it could not be live streamed, but here is the audio. Thanks to Christian Rotzoll for recording. And kudos to Jonathan Cross, Justin Moon, Dario Duran and Viktor Bunin for reviewing my questions.
Now listen to four panelists who represented four devices: Ketominer – nodl Box, Stacie Waleyko – Casa Node, Christian Rotzoll – RaspiBlitz and Sebastian Küng – BitBoxBase.
01:52 Introduce yourself very shortly and tell us which device you are presenting and: Which functionalities does your device offer? Is it a bitcoin full node, has it integrated Lightning, too – can it also be used as a hardware wallet?
04:09 What are the core design principles behind the development of your device? Who is your target customer?
07:06 Is your device able to verify bitcoin transactions?
08:38 What are other reasons for people to run their own nodes at home?
11:42 How open are your devices regarding software use. Which Software / Wallet do you offer for your device? Do you have your custom wallet?
14:41 Is it possible to connect to your node when you’re out and about with the smartphone and if so how?
17:21 Is the watchtower functionality in your setup included or is it not necessary?
19:01 How would a user verify that the node software is correct and that the node itself is healthy? Do you have any procedures or incentives for the hardware users that they run upgrades of the software / firmware regularly.
24:38 With Lightning there is no seed. What happens if your HW device is destroyed or it is stolen. How can you backup the state of your channels?
28:46 A lightning node should be online 24/7, how does your device handle the fact that it is offline sometimes?
32:01 What are your future plans for your products?
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Janine Roemer is an independent journalist, who went from technophobe to cypherpunk. She heard about Bitcoin in 2012 and is working in the Bitcoin space since 2014. We talk about her concept of a revision controlled journalism that could lead to more objectiveness in the media landscape and replace churnalism and fake news through an independent funding model with bitcoin and lightning payments, research and quoting sources.
We discuss:
Definition of Cypherpunks
Identity vs. anonymity
Mass surveillance
Revenge porn, deep fakes
Definition of “criminal”
Fake news, Ad surveillance model
Lightning payments as a funding model for journalism
Steem.it platform for blogging and social media
Civil uses Ethereum, is a spoke of Consensus
Censorship resistance of “blockchain” platforms
Open Timestamps and services
Revision controlled journalism
Open Source Intelligence
Confusion about tax regulation
LibrePatron
Self hosting as a security measure
WordPress, Lightning publishing plugin with BTCpayserver
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Dan Held: Silicon Valley Fundamentally Doesn't Understand Bitcoin
Oct 10, 2019
Dan Held is the Director of Business Development for all products of Kraken. Kraken is one of the worlds biggest and well known cryptocurrency exchanges. Before that he co-founded and developed products like ZeroBlock and Interchange, that were aquired later on. In between he served in the rider growth team at Uber. He lives and works in Silicon Valley. We met at the Baltic Honeybadger Conference in Riga and discussed topics like the bitcoin distribution, what he finds surprising about Satoshi Nakamotos ideas, a possible bitcoin supercycle that’s in the making and much more.
We discuss:
Interchange, a tool for Crypto hedge funds
ZeroBlock App
His learnings at Uber
HODLing vs. Spending
Half a billion or a billion users is needed for stabilizing bitcoins price (est. 20 – 40 Million users now)
The halvening
Onboarding a billion users
Libra might help differentiate bitcoins value proposition
Governments can try to forbid bitcoin
Why the bitcoin distribution is fair
#RunForHalfin @VitusZe @RusselOkung
What surprised him about Satoshis writings
“I was born to hodl with a name like Held.” – Dan Held
“I think there might be a bitcoin supercycle coming up.” – Dan Held
“People come for the trading and stay for the sound money.” – Dan Held
“Silicon Valley fundamentally doesn’t understand bitcoin.” – Dan Held
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Hass McCook: Bitcoin Is the Monetization of Energy. If It Does Not Succeed, Humanity Is in for a Bad Time.
Oct 03, 2019
Todays guest is Hass McCook, he is a civil engineer working on economic infrastructure like building roads and tunnels and has a lot of experience in mining. He did his MBA in Oxford and conducted his first research about the Sustainability of Bitcoin in 2014, he updated and expanded this work in 2018 with the paper “The Cost and Sustainability of Bitcoin” and was presenting his insights into the “Environmental & Social Impacts of Gold & Bitcoin” at the Baltic Honeybadger Conference in Riga in 2019.
Bitcoin is hard money
Consumerism
Energy consumption of Bitcoin
Environmental impact of mining Gold, of FIAT printed money, coins and of banks
Energy consumption vs. CO2 emissions
Efficiency improvements
Digiconomist uses same methodology in research, but conclusions are intellectual inhonest
Cost to mine a bitcoin is about 6.500 USD today
More hashpower will be put into the system as long as there is some money to make
Price drop at the beginning of 2019 was also because of a miners war
Market driven per Antminer S9
Australia has powerful coal lobbies, small solar-energy industry
Australian Bitcoin scene
Gold is useful in tech, a good way to store money, but unethical
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Rodolfo Novak Bitcoin Goes to Zero or It Goes to the Moon
Sep 26, 2019
Rodolfo Novak is an entrepreneur and a long time bitcoiner. He is building products like the OpenDime, the Coldcard Wallet, the BlockClock and is experimenting with a lot of other stuff connected to bitcoin. We talk about security, privacy and the future of Bitcoin as well as why he started to build hardware wallets.
We discuss:
His journey into Bitcoin
Coinkite payment terminals in 2013
How he realized that bitcoin is a store of value
The inherent right of privacy
If governments can forbid bitcoin
Sending bitcoin over radio
How OpenDime came into existence
Coldcard Wallet
Lightning vending machine
Blockclock
Future of Bitcoin
“You can’t force adoption, it’s a need thing. There was a need for bitcoin.” – Rodolfo Novak
“Security is always a set of tradeoffs.” – Rodolfo Novak
“Bitcoin gives you a hard lesson on what money is.” – Rodolfo Novak
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
The Petro Is a Scam and Bitcoin Is the Only Way to Send Money to Venezuela
Sep 12, 2019
Meet Aníbal Santaella Sánchez and Paola Rodriguez-Giustiniani from Venezuela. The couple left the country three years ago and live in Scotland now. Anibal started mining bitcoin back in Venezuela, but when the national forces started prosecuting miners, he stopped. Bitcoin is the only way for Aníbal to send money to his father in Venezuela. Listen to the podcast episode to find out how this works, how the exchange ban and the regime have ruined the country that ended in todays humanitarian crisis and why the Petro is a scam.
Aníbal and Paola are also runners and will run the Berlin Marathon as a part of Team Satoshi on the 29th of September. Side story: Andreas M. Antonopoulos was the one who connected Vitus Zeller, the initiator of Team Satoshi, with Aníbal & Paola.
We talk about:
How they got to know about Bitcoin
Prosecution of miners in Venezuela
Paying bribes to the national forces, that kidnapped the mining equipement
The Petro does not exist
Internet is the main way to communicate in Venezuela, but people have to be careful
Chances of Libra in Venezuela
Bitcoin is their only way to send money to his father
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Max Hillebrand Is Busting FUD About the Lightning Network
Sep 04, 2019
Max Hillebrand is an economist who started reading Keynes when he was 9 and got into Bitcoin at the age of 16. He says “Bitcoin is for everyone”, even his grandmother runs a Lightning node. First we discuss Bitcoin and then Max is debunking misconceptions about the Lightning Network.
We discuss:
Cantillon effect
Gold, silver and bitcoin
how to reduce bitcoins volatility
Satoshi never mentioned Blockchain only Timechain
Censorship resistant time
Lightning Network
Malicious actors
Punishment transactions
Watchtower services
Eltoo
Static channel backups
Autopilot feature
Atomic multipath payments
Digital scarcity
Lightning Network FUD
Max addresses the following criticism about the Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is built for small payments, therefore I can never send bigger payments and I have to change to the root layer and do it with a Bitcoin transaction.
Lightning network is too complex for the non technical people to use – for instance you have to open a channel manually and fill the channel before you can use it, then you might have to open a second one for a bigger payment.
If one of the nodes that route the payments turns off its service, I loose my funds.
Lightning funds cannot be backupped, there is no seed to recover funds.
Lightning Network is a centralized solution – there will be nodes that are big and route payments, they can control and censor payments like a bank, which is completely against the fundamentals of Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Network will not be feasible anymore. If all payments are in channels, there will be opening and closing transactions on the base layer only. Miners will stop mining because the transaction fees they earn will be not enough to pay the costs of mining. Bitcoin will fall apart.
If I open a channel today and close it in 5 years, the fees might be higher than today and then I might not have enough funds to pay for closing the channel.
Funds in my channel will shrink, if fees become higher.
How to get inbound liquidity.
Will node providers be regulated?
You have to be online all the time to send and receive payments.
I need to have Bitcoin before I can use Lightning, how should the people in poorer countries be able to participate?
The Lightning Network will be too slow and complex to grow and it does not scale.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Federico Spitaleri the Lightning Network Enables Innovation in Gaming and Pricing
Aug 28, 2019
Federico Spitaleri is the Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Satoshi’s Games. A gaming web platform on top of the Lightning Network, which features Lightning games and tournaments, where players can earn money in form of satoshis. At the time of our interview in June 2019 Satoshi’s Games had 6.000 unique users and enabled other developers to run their games over the platform, too.
Our Topics:
their games: a Supermario style game, Lightning Agar
obstacles at building a platform on top of Lightning
stage of their development and funding
why the Lightning Network fits into gaming
Lightning allows new ways of pricing services on a micro-level
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Satoshi Freeathlon a Sports Event to Raise Awareness for Bitcoin
Aug 19, 2019
A group of sport- and Bitcoin enthusiasts got together to challenge themselves in a 4 day race with 14 km of swimming, 280 km of biking and 63 km of running to raise positive awareness for Bitcoin. The race is named Satoshi Freeathlon (freeathlon = Freestyle + Triathlon) and is organized by team satoshi. The idea behind team satoshi is to bring forward bitcoin and the decentralization of power and money as well as the ideals of Bitcoin, which come from the Cypherpunk Manifesto (human rights, freedom of information, freedom of expression, transaction freedom, right to privacy). The team is named after Satoshi Nakamoto the unknown inventor of Bitcoin.
Seven participants from three nations will be swimming, biking and running from Zug to Munich. In total that will be 357 kilometers. Start is on August 24th 2019 in Zug, four days later the team will be welcomed at the Bitcoin MeetUp event at Bikini Mitte in Munich.
In this episode all seven participants of the Satoshi Freeathlon talk about the idea and motivation for them to participate and what Bitcoin means to them.
Participants:
All 4 days – the “Core team”: Vitus Zeller, Moritz Biersack, Thomas Bette
Single day participants:
Jeremias Kangas, founder of localbitcoins – Day 1 Anita Posch, host of the Bitcoin & Co. Podcast – Day 1 (swimming, cycling), Day 3 Veronika Kütt of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center – Day 4 Andreas Zeller – Day 1 (running)
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BUC Live: The Fight Against Money Laundering with Cryptocurrencies
Aug 01, 2019
Starting 10 January 2020, virtual currency service providers in Austria will be subject to the same know-your-customer and anti-money laundering obligations as credit and financial institutions. What does this mean for companies in the Cryptocurrency space and how does it affect you and me?
I was invited to moderate this panel discussion by Stadler Völkel Attorneys at Law in Vienna.
— Sorry, for the sometimes bad audio quality due to the live recording outdoors! —
Panel guests include:
Bryan Hollmann, counsel at Stadler Völkel Attorneys at Law. Bryans areas of practice are Capital Markets, US Securities Law, Corporate and Company law and FinTech-Companies and Cryptocurrencies.
Uwe Trummer, key account manager at Youniqx Identity AG, a subsidiary of the Austrian State Printing House. Youniqx builds systems that allow to establish people’s identity based on video identification – and to secure digital identities, which enables authorities to prevent abuse.
Oleksiy Feshchenko, anti-money laundering advisor in the Global Program against Money Laundering at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna. Since 2016 Oleksiy leads a project on cryptocurrencies. This project builds capacities of Financial Inelligence Units, law enforcement and supervisors to investigate cryptocurrencies and reduce risks of money laundering and terrorism financing.
Axel Schuster, advisor at the Family Office and Wealth management department of the Capital Bank in Graz. The Capital Bank offers personal advisory to clients about professional asset allocation, return and risk optimized portfolio management as well as a wide-range of expertise in tax-efficient investments.
Topics:
What is the current state of KYC/AML regulation for virtual currency companies in Austria?
What is a virtual currency provider?
How can virtual currency companies ensure that they are fulfilling their KYC/AML obligations?
What challenges do banks face when working with virtual currency companies?
Do banks feel pressure from governments, regulators to not deal with cryptocurrency companies?
What is the actual vs. perceived risk of using virtual currencies to conduct money laundering worldwide, in the EU and in Austria?
Which Cryptocurrencies are used by criminals and what for?
How are illegal activities traced by the authorities at the moment?
How criminals track down cryptocurrency holders
Use of mixxers
How long and when should we blacklist cryptocurrencies that maybe have been used for money-laundering years before, when we don’t do this with cash?
Is the demand for bank accounts of virtual currency companies rising?
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Matt Corallo on the Social Good of Bitcoin and the Mindset of a Bitcoin Developer
Jul 25, 2019
Early Bitcoin Core developer Matt Corallo started working on Bitcoin in 2011. At that time he still attended high school and lived in Germany near Frankfurt am Main. He was a cofounder of Blockstream before he started working on open source projects for Bitcoin at Chaincode Labs in New York. We discuss many different topics, ranging from his interest in Bitcoin at the beginning, to current issues like miner centralization, projects he is working on – Fibre, BetterHash and Rust lightning to the music he likes.
Topics:
how he got into Bitcoin at the age of 18
who the first developers were
why he speaks german – he went to kindergarden in Germany and lived near Frankfurt around 2011
non-remote working at Chaincode Labs
his first major patch for Bitcoin core
how Bitcoin developers got funded and Blockstream started
Bitcoins growth outside the western world
Mining in China
the energy consumption of Bitcoin is not a problem in the long run
how stranded energy is used to mine bitcoin
relationship between mining and the price of bitcoin – hashrate follows the price
privacy has to be default
GlobalCoin or FacebookCoin (this was recorded before the Libra Whitepaper was released) cannot compete with bitcoin and its core features like uncensorability
how the Blockstream satellites and miners utilize the Fibre (Fast Internet Bitcoin Relay Engine) protocol Matt worked on
the great firewall of China
his Rust Lightning library
BetterHash a mining protocol to decentralize mining within a pool
open questions like Mining centralization, Lightning and scalability of any blockchain system
on how to become a Bitcoin developer
the mindset of Bitcoin developers
“I still consider Bitcoin largely an experiment to see wether or not we can build a decentralized currency, because right now, it’s not.” – Matt Corallo
“It takes a long time to develop robust markets across the entire globe.” – Matt Corallo
“Bitcoin is a system where you don’t need to trust someone.” – Matt Corallo
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Max Keidun About the Possibilities of Non-Custodial Solutions and Memenomics in Bitcoin
Jul 04, 2019
Max Keidun is the CEO of the non-custodial, peer to-peer Bitcoin exchange hodlhodl. He was born in the former USSR and started his career as a journalist before he worked in the banking industry for 10 years. 2015 he quit his job in the finance industry and since then he is building products in the Bitcoin space. He is also a founder of the Baltic Honeybadger Conference in Riga.
Our topics
why he is fascinated by Bitcoin
use cases for Bitcoin
what it needs for mass adoption
hodlhodl, his non-custodial peer-to-peer exchange
KYC and non-custody solutions
Lightning powered Bitcoin trades
OTC trading and prediction market on hodlhodl
use cases for multi-sig
the bear market
honeybadger and cypherpunks
“The Bitcoin community is too focused on the tech, we need to be more focused on educating masses. I think that’s a part of mass adoption.” – Max Keidun
“I get fascinated about thousands of people in the world working on making bitcoin better at the same time.” – Max Keidun
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos Busting Arguments Against Bitcoin and Revealing Real Risks
Jun 20, 2019
In this podcast episode common misconceptions and FUD about Bitcoin like high volatility, energy consumption, inequalities in the distribution of wealth and the risk of possible failure are addressed by Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Andreas is one of the most influential and well-respected voices in the Bitcoin and Blockchain space. With four books, over 300 videos on YouTube and almost half a million followers on Twitter he is educating millions about this groundbreaking technology. I was lucky to get him for a second interview after this about privacy, human rights and the future of Bitcoin in 2018.
In this episode we discuss:
his pirate radio experience
developments in Bitcoin between 2018-2019
communities that use Bitcoin most
store of value, medium of exchange and uncensorability
censorship of ideas and loud voices in the marketplace
the resistance against Bitcoin in the first ten years
hard forks have relieved pressure over the arguments
real magic and uniqueness of Bitcoin
energy consumption of Bitcoin
inequal distribution of Bitcoin
high volatility of Bitcoin
a niche Bitcoin
risk of failure for Bitcoin
“Most of the emphasis has so far been on scaling and I think that more important emphasis needs to be placed on privacy and fungibility on the base layer.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“When Bitcoin succeeded in the first ten years it did so in the face of incredible censorship, incredible disbelief, incredible cyncism and yet the power of the technology itself proved it’s worth no matter what people said.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“Blockchain is one component, in fact its not even the most interesting component of Bitcoin.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“Bitcoin merged as synthesis, all of its parts existed before. Original was the particular synthesis of all of this parts into this receipe that created Bitcoin.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“Ultimately Bitcoin is a game-theoretical security system. The magic is the decentralization of consensus.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“Bitcoin stimulates the development of alternative energy in a way that no other system does.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“Our current system of money finances war on a massive scale and that is the most environmentally destructive human activity we have. Inflation is a hidden tax and it’s very destructive.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“I don’t want to give people the idea that this should be treated as an investment. Can you participate in this economy and make it part of your life, can you learn from the education. Do something sensible with it.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“A niche Bitcoin isn’t failure. More dangerous is the possibility of creating a niche culture and that culture being radical or toxic towards the rest of mainstream.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Richard Myers About Bitcoin Without Internet and the Importance of Financial Freedom
Jun 13, 2019
Richard Myers is the product engineer for txTenna, a project that extends the range for sending and receiving bitcoin transactions over the Blockstream bitcoin satellites and a mesh network. This basically enables using Bitcoin without internet connection. He presented the project together with Adam Back at the Magical Crypto Conference in May 2019. In the podcast interview we go deeper into the ideas and philosophy behind his interest in Bitcoin and how the mesh network allows for more privacy in financial transactions with Bitcoin.
“Having privacy in your financial transactions is a human right and Bitcoin gives you the ability to enforce that right in a peaceful way.” – Richard Myers
“They deputized the banking system as a law enforcement organisation.” – Richard Myers
“Everything the cypherpunks worried about has come to pass.” – Richard Myers
“Not you keys, not your coins, but its also not your privacy either.” – Richard Myers
Building a decentralized multiplayer game in 2004
Getting into Bitcoin
His early use case for Bitcoin
Organizing a Bitcoin MeetUp in Sweden
How he was inspired by Nick Szabo on Twitter
Alex Gladstein talk at the MCC2019
How Bitcoin could be attacked from the communication layer
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Thomas Voegtlin About Creating the Electrum Wallet, Best Practices to Secure Your Funds and His Design Principles
Jun 06, 2019
Thomas Voegtlin was a researcher in computer science, specialized on machine learning and neural networks before he discovered Bitcoin at the end of 2010. He created the first versions of the Electrum wallet while experimenting with Bitcoin, because there were no secure and easy to use wallets in 2011. Electrum is one of the most popular bitcoin wallets today. Thomas Voegtlin announced and presented the implementation of Lightning payments into the wallet at the Lightning Hackdays in Munich in June 2019.
“Having a money system that is independent of credit, would stabilize the economy.” – Thomas Voegtlin
“It’s morally wrong to create a wallet software, that is not open source.” – Thomas Voegtlin
“I didn’t want to be famous, I just wanted to write a better wallet.” – Thomas Voegtlin
We discuss…
Bitcoin in 2011
why he is interested in Bitcoin
why he created the Electrum wallet
mybitcoin.com crash
the positive feedback loop of the traditional financial system
Open source, anonymity and trust
Creating the Electrum company and it’s business modell
Multisig wallet 2FA with Trusted Coin
Phishing and DDoS Attack on Electrum
How to choose and secure a wallet
Differences between desktop and smartphone Electrum wallet
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Caitlin Long About Financial Freedom and Why Bitcoin Matters
May 23, 2019
Been in Bitcoin since 2012 and a blockchain evangelist since 2014, Caitlin is the Co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition and gubernatorial appointee. She served on Morgan Stanley’s internal blockchain working group and has 22 years of corporate finance experience on Wall Street. Caitlin is a writer on Forbes and a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Kennedy School of Government and the University of Wyoming.
“The traditional finance system is not solvent”, Caitlin Long
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Leah Wald on Possibilities for Women in the Bitcoin Space and Why We Still Are in a Bear Market
Apr 25, 2019
Leah Wald is a development economist, financial analyst and Partner & Executive Vice President at Lucid Investment Strategies. Together with Tyler Jenks she is the host of their Hyperwave Channel on YouTube. Leah began her career at 19 working at the World Bank in the Africa Region and has applied social entrepreneurship to help goat herders in Mongolia, local entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C. as well as to first-time businesswomen in India.
In this Bitcoin & Co. episode we discuss these topics:
Women in sports, knee injuries and Soccer (yes, really)
Female investors in Bitcoin and the presence of women in other male dominated spaces
Bitcoin usecases for women in developing countries like India
M-Pesa and microfinance banking
Collaboration in the bitcoin space
Altcoins as issues for confusion and the necessity for regulation
Asset management, ETFs and Bitcoin
Reasons for the Bitcoin bear market
Investing techniques
Scams and bitcoin(dot)com
Image of Leah Wald and Anita Posch by Daisy Komen Photography
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Adam Back on the Magic of Cryptography and Why Bitcoin Matters
Apr 11, 2019
Adam Back is the inventor of Hashcash, a method to prevent spam emails, that was used with minor changes as the proof-of-work method in Bitcoin. His work is cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper as well as in the Tor Browser whitepaper. He is a seasoned cryptographer with a PhD in computer science and distributed systems. As co-founder and CEO of Blockstream he is building the infrastructure for the internet of the future.
“The properties I like about bitcoin are, that it’s censorship resistant and permissionless and you don’t need to establish a bank account to use it and that’s great for people in emerging markets that can’t participate in expensive things.” – Adam Back
“Anybody who is interested in the properties of bitcoins should to be able to get access to it. So we do need some technologies with more global reach and the satellite coverage is almost global.” – Adam Back
“Somebody with a satellite dish, a generator, a solar panel and a Raspberry Pi could operate a whole business in the desert with no infrastructure.” – Adam Back
“It’s very interesting, different people find bitcoin interesting for different reasons.” – Adam Back
“The government does not own the individual, the individuals employ the governments.” – Adam Back
“With this kind of technology individuals can directly take more control of their lives and have more self-determination.” – Adam Back
“Bitcoins fungibility is not perfect, but it’s improving slowly.” – Adam Back
Picture Adam Back and Anita Posch by Daisy Komen Photography
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Demelza Hays the Way to the Highest-Quality Money, the Next Bitcoin Bull Market and Advice for Small Investors
Mar 28, 2019
Demelza Hays is a crypto researcher, asset manager, entrepreneur and is teaching at the University of Liechtenstein courses on blockchain technology. She installed the first Bitcoin ATM in Liechtenstein and is currently conducting a research on the correlation between hashrate and the price of Bitcoin. She is the Co-Author of the quarterly Cryptoresearch Report and asset manager at Incrementum AG.
We had a fascinating discussion about a variety of topics around money, wealth, digital assets and cryptocurrencies. And by the way: she thinks that the next Bitcoin bull market as begun.
How cryptocurrencies could support women in India
Obstacles for the lightning network as a micropayment method
Relationship of hashrate and Bitcoins price
Robust optimization for cryptocurrencies
Decentralized stablecoin backed by Bitcoin
Maybe the next bull market has started
Large investors are not ready yet
Electricity providers getting into mining and investing
Security of Bitcoin
Facebook-Coin
Personal advice for small investors
The problem with utility tokens
“As a money we want stability.” – Demelza Hays
“I want to see competition in money. I think that is how we are going to produce the highest-quality money that humans have ever seen.” – Demelza Hays
“I am not interested in a money that has a single point of failure.” – Demelza Hays
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Shermin Voshmgir about Bitcoin as a Governance Revolution
Mar 14, 2019
Shermin Voshmgir is the director of the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and the founder of BlockchainHub in Berlin. She is also a regular speaker at conferences and is consulting on the topic of blockchains – especially in the context of sustainability and social impact of future technologies.
In spring 2017 I attended The Gamechanger Festival in Vienna and listened to Shermins talk about Blockchains & Smart Contracts. There I realized how disruptive this technology beyond Bitcoin will be. Shermin states, that it is more than an rapidly evolving technology, it will shift the economy completely and it needs research and application of new governance models. She sees Bitcoin as the beginning of an amazing governance revolution and envisions Tokens and Smart Contracts as the killer application of Blockchains.
Shermins book “Token Economy” will be published in spring/summer 2019.
Our Topics are:
Importance of public infrastructure nodes
Bitcoin, the beginning of a governance revolution
Energy consumption of Bitcoin Mining (Min. 36:36)
Blockchain and Sustainability
Definition of terms “Token” and “Cryptocurrency”
Facebook-Coin and Blockchain
Token Design
“It is very important that universities and institutions run public infrastructure nodes.” – Shermin Voshmgir
“Bitcoin was the beginning of an amazing governance revolution.” – Shermin Voshmgir
“I think Tokens and Smart Contracts are the killer application of blockchains. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I am not sure yet.” – Shermin Voshmgir
“Facebook has to start adopting these new technologies otherwise they will be gone.” – Shermin Voshmgir
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Robby Schwertner About Blockchain Use Cases with Return on Society and Asian Markets
Feb 28, 2019
Robby Schwertner, aka CryptoRobby is an advisor, speaker and analyst in the blockchain space. His mission can be summarized with the hashtag #ReturnOnSociety. He is supporting blockchain use cases with an added value to society for instance in green energy, real estate and mobility solutions. As Robby has lived and worked in Asia, we also discuss the differences between the european and asian cryptospace.
“Lambos were necessary to reach the 99% of people.”
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Alena Vranova on the Importance of User Experience in Bitcoin
Jan 31, 2019
I met Alena Vranova at the Israel Bitcoin Summit in Tel Aviv in January 2019. We talked about how she got into Bitcoin, why user experience is the most important factor for user adoption, why she wants her Mom to use Bitcoin, about her hopes that the Lightning Network – as a global financial network – is about to explode in 2019. We discuss how TREZOR, the hardware wallet manufacturer she co-founded, and CASA, where she is the Head of Business Development and Strategy, support the security of sovereign hodlers.
I am a huge bitcoiner. But we as a Bitcoin community are very impatient and we want to enforce our worldviews on what they call the nocoiners. I don’t like the name, but you get me. We are pushing towards using satoshis or bits instead of Bitcoin, while the world has no idea about Bitcoin yet. There is certain impatience like …… we have the holy grail, why don’t you see that, your stupid if you don’t. So that is kind of the feeling I sometimes have, when I look at the developments in crypto, that are not user focused. – Alena Vranova
You are either completely left on your own, when you have a hardware wallet and you need to protect your keys or you go to a Bitcoin bank such as Coinbase and there is nothing in between and we need to bridge that. – Alena Vranova
Sometimes I think marketing is almost a swear word for some Bitcoiners. But Marketing is not a bad thing. Bitcoin is a product of collective effort and it deserves a better name and it deserves a nicer interface. So my Mom could eventually say ‘Of course I use Bitcoin’. – Alena Vranova
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
The Lightning Network Explained with René Pickhardt
Jan 17, 2019
“Lightning is Bitcoin”, says René Pickhardt a mathematician, data scientist and contributor to the Lightning Network. We talk about the evolution, goals and possible roadblocks of the Lightning Network and how it will bring massive utility to the Bitcoin Blockchain.
René Pickhardt is also the author of the German Wikipedia article about the Lightning Network. René is creating an educational book about Lightning. This book targets developers who want to make use of the Lightning Network. However he will make this book useful for anybody who is interested in the Lightning Network and Bitcoin in general. You can support his fundraiser here.
“Bitcoin cannot scale without having Lightning on top of it.” – René Pickhardt
“Lightning is a very regulated way of using Bitcoin. Thats why I say Lightning is Bitcoin.” – René Pickhardt
14:40 the main technical concepts of the Lightning Network
“The Bitcoin Blockchain becomes the judge. Its a shift in role. In the beginning the blockchain was this huge ledger where all the transactions where stored. Everybody could look at everybodies transaction. Now in the Lightning Network a payment is very private.” – René Pickhardt
“One interesting thing about Lightning is that now you are able to earn bitcoin by having bitcoin. Running a Lightning node is relatively cheap. In order to be a good node, you have to put some liquidity inside of it. So you can basically earn interest on your bitcoin.” – René Pickhardt
29:12 On scaling Lightning and privacy
“The Lightning Network has this huge potential to really add utility to Bitcoin.” – René Pickhardt
38:00 Renés’ discovery of an attack vector in Lightning and how the Lightning developers work together
42:31 the timeframe of Lightning: when will it be up and running?
“You can use the Lightning Network now, but you have to be #reckless. At this point in time a lot of things can go wrong. We need at least another one or two years until its really usable.” – René Pickhardt
“I am very optimistic, this is an amazing technology, it is very smart, I think it has very strong properties and I think all the problems we currently have, are fixable problems. They are not problems in the sense of, oh this is an open question and somebody has to come up with a smart solution. Its more like a social problem on how are we going to decide on certain things. ” – René Pickhardt
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Pamela Morgan on Inheritance Planning for Crypto-Assets
Dec 06, 2018
In this episode I am talking with Pamela Morgan. She is the author of “Crypto-Asset Inheritance Planning: A Simple Guide for Owners” a book about strategies to store your private keys for bitcoin and other digital assets safely for your heirs. Pamela is an educator, attorney and entrepreneur. She has studied Business and Computer Programming before pursuing a Juris Doctors degree. In early 2015 Pamela has founded Thirdkey solutions (with Andreas M. Antonopoulos as CTO), a key consulting firm that works with individuals and organizations to improve the security of their crypto-holdings and ensure these assets are accessible in the event of crisis, death, or disaster.
“There are two sides to all inheritance planning with crypto assets. Your technical plan must match your legal plan otherwise you’re gonna end up with a legal problem.” – Pamela Morgan
“Multisignature changes custody, you basically going from don’t be evil, don’t take the money of your clients to can’t be evil.” – Pamela Morgan
“The major reasons why people loose their crypto-assets: Nr 1 They don’t backup their wallets; Nr 2 They don’t find the backups anymore or separate it.” – Pamela Morgan
“Never send all your money to a new wallet. Always send a test transaction with a very small amount and make sure that you can send and receive.” – Pamela Morgan
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Blockchain and Data Privacy with Lawyer Prof. Nikolaus Forgó
Nov 22, 2018
Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó is the Head of the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law at the University of Vienna in Austria. We are talking about the implications of GDPR on Blockchains. What should Blockchain developers do? Where can data protection law be a problem? What are the most important regulations you should invest your 2 minutes of time on.
Interdisciplinarity is always very popular and it’s very hard to live. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
I don’t trust anybody predicting the future. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
The importance of nation states is decreasing. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
As long as the volatility problem is not solved I do not think that the average enduser will use Bitcoin for day-to-day payments. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
The huge potential is that the banks and trustees might not longer be needed. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
My interest at the moment is in how far the whole ecosystem can be replaced by blockchain technologies no longer needing trustees. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
Take data protection serious, but not too serious. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
Law is always late when it comes to technolgical developments including blockchain. If you simply read GDPR you will see quickly that this is not really practical on the average blockchain. It’s a constant challenge to try to adapt those outdated legal instruments on newly approaching phenomenons. – Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Bitcoin and the Austrian School of Economics with Rahim Taghizadegan
Nov 06, 2018
In this episode I talk with Rahim Taghizadegan about the interconnections between a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and the ideas and philosophy of the Austrian School of Economics and we take a look at the broader picture, the economical context. What is money? How did mass-consumerism arise? Are cryptocurrencies a chance to change the existing economy, which is based on credit expansion, to the better?
Rahim is an economist, book author and principal of the Scholarium, a learning enterprise based in Vienna, Austria. He studied physics, sociology and economy and is an expert on the Austrian School of Economics.
The Austrian School of Economics has proved itself to be a more realistic outlook at the financial markets. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
The Austrian School of Economics has helped some people to better survive the up and downs of the market. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
It’s only with uncertainty that you have entrepreneurship and its only with uncertainty that you need money. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
Money is an emergent complex phenomenon. Money is not a concrete object in the world, but a phenomenon. It appears out of human interaction. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
I think with cryptocurrencies we see the very interesting phenomenon of something emerging at the fringes of society, it’s people trying out different things, playing with things and that is the usual way how innovation happens. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
China and Russia have a top down approach so they have not really welcomed cryptocurrencies. They should have, I think, because right now, the cryptocurrencies would be mainly a challenge for the Dollar. Going into cryptocurrencies reflects the reduced trust in the US-Dollar as the main reserve currency. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
We have an everything bubble now. We need something to hedge against. There would be a much bigger need for cryptocurrencies if they would provide countercyclical assets which are not just a result of the increase of the money supply. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
It’s pretty obvious that Satoshi Nakamoto has read Hayek and Mises. I can see the traces. – Rahim Taghizadegan, economist, book author and philosopher
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos on Bitcoin, Privacy, Human Rights and the Future of Bitcoin
Aug 15, 2018
Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a best-selling author, speaker, educator, and one of the world’s foremost bitcoin and open blockchain experts with 440,000 followers on Twitter. Since 2012 he is commenting, educating and advising people, businesses and governments about Bitcoin and open Blockchains. He is known for delivering electric talks that combine economics, psychology, technology, and game theory with current events, personal anecdotes, and historical facts.
Andreas has been interviewed on the BBC, Bloomberg Business, CNN, The Economist, Forbes and now he is my guest on the Bitcoin & Co. Podcast. In the next 30 minutes we discuss Bitcoin in the context of human rights, privacy, blockchain projects and their impact on society and the economy, how a multi-currency world could look like, what his first purchase with bitcoin was, which books he recommends and – being self-employed since young age – he shares his views and learnings about being an entrepreneur.
As you will see Andreas M. Antonopoulos is one of the rare bitcoin and open blockchain experts who approaches the subject from an educational, political, cultural, and human perspective—not only discussing the technology in investment terms.
“If we get it right, Bitcoin and Blockchains can empower human rights worldwide.” – Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“In the next couple of years we will see strong anonymity and privacy protections using a combination of advanced technologies that are being developed today.”- Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“A transaction worth 255 million of Euros was sent in Bitcoin and the transaction fee was 20 Cents. That is simply impossible to do with the traditional banking system.”- Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“We are gradually moving into an environment where we will have tools that allow us to transfer or exchange any one of these thousands of cryptocurrencies into any of the other in a few seconds, with almost no fee at all, directly peer-to-peer.”- Andreas M. Antonopoulos
“Being an entrepreneur is not about succeeding. It’s about continuing to try through success and failures.”- Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Andreas and I were talking about Andreas Schildbach, one of the creators of the first bitcoin android wallet, if he is German or Austrian. He is living in Berlin, so I guess he is German.
It is a great honor to meet Andreas Schildbach, creator of the first Bitcoin mobile wallet pic.twitter.com/a93DolTuhI
Do you like what you hear? If yes, then please support my podcast. Every donation is used to produce episodes, finance travel costs and make the show better.
Saifedean Ammous, Economist and Author of “The Bitcoin Standard”
Aug 10, 2018
In this talk Saifedean Ammous is talking about Austrian economics, it’s relation to Bitcoin, what sound money and inflation are, why proof-of-work is so important and his vision for money and bitcoin in the future. Also we talk about the origins of his interest in bitcoin and why many Bitcoiners are carnivores.
Saifedean Ammous is the author of “The Bitcoin Standard” a book about the history of money, austrian economics and the reasons why Bitcoin is superior to other forms of money tried in the past. Saifedean is working as an assistant professor of economics at the Adnan Kassar School of Business in Beirut and holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University in New York, USA.
“Inflation and unemployment is not a god given thing” – Saifedean Ammous
“I don’t believe that bitcoin is going to completely replace the job of banking.” – Saifedean Ammous
“Ripple is probably the worst, it’s my least favourite of all of the shitcoins.” – Saifedean Ammous
“Bitcoin is a unique breakthrough. All the other coins are worthless copycats.” – Saifedean Ammous
“After all these years there is no single altcoin that is able to perform one single commercially viable thing that bitcoin does not perform.” – Saifedean Ammous
Transcript of parts of Saifedeans interview
His bitcoin skepticism I was pretty skeptical about it quite a while. It took me a long time to understand how reliable and how unkillable this thing is. The period from 2010 to 2013 I was still largely skeptical that Bitcoin could work. After 2014 when all things that I thought it would kill it where happening and yet it continued to survive, that was when I started to really paying attention.
09:43 The Austrian School of Economics – History The starting point of Austrian Economics is, that all value is always subjective, it depends on the person making the valuation.
You can’t analyse economics outside of analysing individual choices and actions. Because it’s the mind of the individual that decides on the value and it’s the mind of the individual that’s going to make the trade-offs with any particular economic decision.
There is no right and wrong in economics. There is only decisions people want to make and people make the decisions that are best for them. Therefore we see that in economic systems in which people are able to freely decide what they want to do, people prosper, people do better and the markets adjust.
The Austrians (Economists) believe that money is something that should emerge on the free market. Sound money, is money, who’s value is determined through people buying and selling things for one another freely. Whereas unsound money or bad money is money who’s value is determined through government coercion.
The School of Austrian Economics is relevant to bitcoin in the issuing of money:
Austrians believe a free market is capable of providing a modern economy with money simply by people choosing the money that they want and it’s value emerges on its own.
Keynesian economists, statist economists, central bank economists, government economists all think, that without the government as providers of money bad things would happen or we would not be able to have money.
The stock to flow ratio of gold is extremly high. The stockpile that exists today is higher compared to the new supply of gold that is produced this year. The annual supply growth rate for gold is almost always around 1-2%. Every year we are adding 1-2% to the global stockpile of gold and that is why gold is money. Because it’s hard for people to make ore gold in response to great demand and so gold is the bubble that cannot pop, because you cannot increase the supply more. And that are the economic properties that bitcoin copies. Bitcoin has not the physical properties of gold, but it does have this monetary property. Not only the supply growth rate declines constantly until we reach the fixed supply of 21 million. This is the first time that we have a liquid asset that is divideable, that is combineable, that you can send and receive easily, but also is strictly limited in its quantity. I think this makes it an excellent store of value, because it’s impossible for people to make more of it to devalue the value that you store in it. That is really an astonishing aspect of bitcoin that I think is possibly the most important economic characteristic of bitcoin. It’s truly unique.
23:59 Proof-of-Work and Security If there was a cheap way to make bitcoin and to make the proof-of-work, then the bitcoin security would fall apart. Similarly, if the earth gets hit by a meteor made of gold and everybody could go and chip gold out of it, the monetary role of gold would be destroyed. If gold gets cheap to produce and the supply begins to increase very easily, gold would not be money.
The entire quantity of gold that has been mined in all human history would fit in to about 2 olympic swimmingpools.
27:33 The Price of Bitcoin Cost of production follows the value that people give the thing. The reason that diamonds are expensive or that bitcoin is expensive is that people value it. You could spend your entire day baking a pie made out of mud, just because you spent an entire day behind it does not mean that people will pay you the wages that you think you deserve for them. If people value the mudpie they will pay for it and then based on how much they value it and are willing to pay for it, you will dedicate resources in order to produce it for them. Value is always subjective and therefore the cost of production follows the value.
30:04 Bitcoins energy consumption
32:21 The best Store of Value What are the alternatives? What is Bitcoin saving us from with this energy consumption? In my opinion what Bitcoin allows us to do, by utilizing electricity for energy consumption, is to make monetary policy free of human control, free of political control, completely independent from politicians. And I think you know once we understand, what the cost of having central banks control by governments has been, then there is absolutely no chance that you think any amount of electricity is too much for bitcoin. Having central banks control the money supply is why we’ve had wars in the 20th century that lasted for so much longer than in previous centuries.
Bitcoin is economic reality. The way I see it is, that if Bitcoin continues to operate successfully, which it might not, but if it does, it will continue to maintain it’s scarcity and it will continue to clear payments around the world and I think it’s going to impose itself that people will use it not because they agree with it’s political philosophy but because they are economically self interested. People will want to have a store of value that can allow them to hold wealth into the future and over time more and more people will realize that bitcoin is the best for doing that because of it’s scarcity and it’s neutrality.
38:45 Bitcoin is an alternative to central banking. Why you cannot compare a bitcoin transaction to a mastercard transaction
40:09 Comparing the electricity cost of a bitcoin settlement transaction to traditional settlement banking
41:22 Ripple and other shitcoins vs. Bitcoin
“Bitcoin does not compete with altcoins. Bitcoin is competing with the Dollar, and the Euro and with the IMF standard drawing rights and gold and all these international currencies for the settlement of international payments.” – Saifedean Ammous
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