African youth make up the largest demographic of the continent and yet they suffer the most due to underrepresentation in the government. However, Bitcoin fixes this.
“The idea whose time has come” has unlocked the full potential of African youth who are set to not only contribute to hyperbitcoinization directly but most importantly make ends meet for their kin while thriving, not surviving.
P2P Trading
Peer-to-peer bitcoin trading is one avenue that African youth have embraced, thus creating a source of income. This is driven by number-go-up technology and the weak African currencies (compared to the United States dollar).
Platforms such as Paxful Peer go the extra mile to help people earn by onboarding their friends and acquaintances. Moreover, there are various resources to help everyone best learn how to trade.
Biashara
The Swahili word for business is biashara. Numerous businesses in Africa have been established by and for Africans to empower people on the continent to switch to bitcoin from fiat in the simplest manner possible.
African translators who are Bitcoin maximalists such as Sabeni have worked on translating Bitcoin literature for both Exonumia and BitcoinMtaani. As most Africans are at the very least bilingual, this is a great opportunity for many to get jobs with multiple projects.
BitcoinMtaani is one such platform that seeks to expedite Bitcoin education in Africa via native African languages like Swahili, Yoruba, Isizulu and Lingala. I have firsthand experience in Bitcoin creating jobs as I work full time on this platform thanks to my investors, one being GaloyMoney. Sponsors such as Coinkite are doing an incredible job in helping me on my mission to get Bitcoin education to Africans in the languages they primarily understand and communicate in on a daily basis.
Content Creation
There are very many talented African youth and young adults who have taken the time to learn about Bitcoin and thus have started creating content to educate the continent. Most of them were jobless or were overworked with the stress of their nine-to-five jobs thus have made a conscious decision to work full time to produce Bitcoin educational content. The best part is through multiple applications like Fountain App they can directly earn sats from their listeners and thus not depend on platforms such as YouTube, who could potentially deplatform them.
Artists
Traditionally most African artists have been disenfranchised by being locked out from the international art market. Bitcoin solves this as now physical art can simply be posted on social media by an African artist and a client on the other side of the world can pay in bitcoin.
Non-fungible tokens — “NFTs” — although looked down upon by hardcore Bitcoin maximalists are truly providing an avenue for African youth to sell art thus stack more sats while making ends meet.
Developers
Africans taking a leading role in development has been one of the avenues by which Bitcoin is directly solving the scourge of unemployment, especially among African youth who are the most affected.
Qala is the perfect example as it is a program specifically designed to train the next generation of African Bitcoin and Lightning developers.
The Bitcoin Developers Academy is a great project by Fodé Diop which is focused on teaching Africans how to build Bitcoin applications using the Rust programming language.
Philanthropy
Global philanthropic initiatives via Bitcoin in Africa have directly empowered various communities to adopt a Bitcoin standard. This not only creates employment in rural communities but taps into the minds of young children who will not be indoctrinated by the fiat-based legacy financial system, but will instead grow up knowing bitcoin is the only hard money in the world.
The Built With Bitcoin Foundation has built schools, water wells and water distribution filtration systems in various African countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. This has directly led to creating employment, improving living conditions in rural communities and introducing communities to the Bitcoin standard.
I had the privilege of welcoming the cofounder and director of the Built With Bitcoin Foundation on his visit to Kenya this year. I saw firsthand the positive change Ray Youssef’s (aka Yusuf) project has brought to the community in Makueni County, Kenya.
Farming To Stack Sats
In a rural community in Voi, Taita Taveta County in Kenya Mart Veeken has established a regenerative fashion production. This project is introducing the local community to sustainable cotton farming methods in arid conditions. The whole value chain until the final production of cotton products will be on site and the entire community is being onboarded to the Bitcoin standard.
Economic empowerment from the farmers being taught how to best utilize their land to the construction and running of the regenerative fashion production facility directly provides a lot of employment to the local community. This is a great example of a Bitcoin community-based project that has brought positive social and economic change to a marginalized rural community in Kenya.
I am personally planning a weeklong Bitcoin adoption tour for Voi Town with Veeken. Thanks to Bitcoiners such as Mags (Magdalena Gronowska) and the Coinkite team we will not only show the people how to buy bitcoin via Mpesa on Paxful but also how to safely store their bitcoin in a hardware wallet. This tour will see six unemployed youth from Nairobi County get a weeklong job onboarding others to the Bitcoin standard, earning while doing what they love.
Conclusion
Bitcoin is Africa’s sole solution to multiple problems that have plagued it for decades even after the mirage of independence our forefathers fought to the bitter death to attain.
Unemployment is one such scourge that Bitcoin is solving in real time.
Africa’s future is now bright thanks to this idea whose time has come. The youth who stand the most to benefit are extremely motivated to bring their talents and competencies to this space, thus ensuring Africa actively contributes towards hyperbitcoinization.
This is a guest post by Guantai Kathurima. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
