There are various initiatives designed to empower Africans to educate themselves on Bitcoin and exercise their own financial sovereignty.
This is an opinion editorial by Alexandria, a citizen of Zimbabwe and a second year business administration student at Liaoning Shuhua University in China.
Our mission is to become the biggest Bitcoin community in Africa, using Bitcoin to guarantee the human rights to life, liberty and property. We aim to establish a self-sustaining Bitcoin community that can generate revenue while consistently growing independent of outside aid. We believe that this is possible by delivering high quality experiences based on well-researched consumer safety knowledge regarding bitcoin and its protocol.
If we can consistently deliver high quality images and videos for marketing and educating purposes then we can deliver the best educational Bitcoin content in Africa. Our video content will consist of reels, interviews, speeches, experience and memes.
If done well, then we can establish a niche in the African financial content creation market. We are already creating content, traveling further into the African continent than most have done. We are reaching often ignored lands and people, capturing their stories and their beautiful destinations. We have noticed that there is a massive lack of native African Bitcoin communities and leaders. As a result there isn’t much by way of local content produced by locals in their own countries.
“That the best way, how you can explain Bitcoin to a local person. Is that the local guys telling you, that it came from your environment, from your culture and that’s why Jacob from the Czech Republic has a YouTube channel with more than 90 thousand subscribers.” — Dusan Matuska from @AmityAge
“We have not asked for any inch of Europe, any square inch of that territory. So keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe. People must always come first in any process of sustainable development and let our Africans come first in the development of Africa. Not as puppets, not as beggars but as sovereign people.” — Robert G. Mugabe
Presently, African-based Bitcoin projects seem to be primarily dependent on support from foreign individuals. Respectfully, this tends to cut out opportunities for Africans to participate and be the influencers in their own countries. This also reduces financial incentives for Africans and thereby reduces opportunities to understand Bitcoin. They may also hunt for Bitcoin jobs, and when they fail to obtain them, they may write off bitcoin and the Bitcoin community. I have come to realize that there is a direct correlation between Bitcoin-based employment and bitcoin adoption. This may very well be the primary reason why it has been difficult to bring Bitcoin companies to Zimbabwe. However, in just three months,I have managed to bring four organizations that will invest into our education and the development of our communities.
“Let our Africans come first in the development of Africa.” — Robert G. Mugabe
It is worth mentioning that foreigners may not understand our struggles as well as we do. They may not be able to communicate with us as effectively as we do amongst ourselves. It is also true that they may only come to Africa a few times a year whereas we are always here.
A typical foreigner will spend several thousands of dollars traveling to Africa, paying for accommodation and transportation while here. These resources, if used instead for sponsoring or funding projects run by local Africans, would give much higher yields when used to fund our activities and the acquisition of much needed equipment. From a cost-benefit analysis, it is more economical to support local talent than to temporarily bring in foreign talent. Foreigners may also not have as high an incentive as locals to achieve the highest retention levels and to cultivate real Bitcoin communities in these regions of Africa. I don’t mean to talk down on any one’s accomplishments because I am truly grateful for their work in Africa — but there are flaws which have to be addressed and attended to.
We also believe we could do it at a much more affordable cost. We are better accustomed to the region, the transportation networks and other logistical implications which enable us to maximize every dollar given toward building our communities.
We have been extremely fortunate three bring in three Bitcoin foreign companies - Global Bitcoin Fest, RSK and Money On Chain. We have also had the support of two authors: Brian E. De Mint of “Bitcoin Evangelism” and Keysa Luna who wrote “The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written.” Collectively they have been able to reduce the cost of educating citizens across many African countries. It is through their generosity that we have been able to fund our past events. We hope that these individuals and entities will continue to be there even in our future endeavors.
The Integration
I envision us going from nearly zero Bitcoin content creation originating in Zimbabwe and the surrounding regions of Southern Africa, to dominating on most social media platforms and being profitable.
The second source of income will come from hosting three different types of events, which are all integrated with each other. We believe these may create and expand Africa’s Bitcoin market share in Zimbabwe massively if executed successfully.
The Three Events:
- Bitcoin Meetup.
- University On Campus event.
- Bitcoin Bootcamp.
The one key note worth mentioning is that all these events will happen at a reasonably small scale — yet they will reach multitudes of individuals bringing a more efficient and impactful experience in Bitcoin adoption in Zimbabwe and neighboring countries.
The first two types of events will have no admission fee for participation and will be fully hosted by Proof of Resilience. These are the two types of events for which we are seeking the most funding for. We have a common saying in Africa that says something to the effect of, “You have a better and more attentive audience when their stomachs are full.”
Bitcoin Meetup
This type of event will be an introduction to Bitcoin, RSK, Paxful and the solutions found in the “Bitcoin Evangelism” book, the importance of Bitcoin, and how it’s disrupting Africa and the world.
The Meetup will also serve as a platform and opportunity to sign people up for our On Campus event and the Bitcoin Bootcamp. This event will be free for the guests. We hope to reach around 30-plus individuals for this type of event. Since attendance at this event will be free, the exact number individuals confirmed to attend will depend largely on the funding received.
University On Campus Event
Our second event will be at a university. This will be a more in-depth conversation on Bitcoin and will allow us to go into the actual usage of the applications that are built on top of it. We will also go into detail about the sponsoring companies and books.
This event is projected to host up to 400 individuals, definitely a much larger audience. This will also be another opportunity to sign people up for the Bitcoin Bootcamp.
The Bitcoin Bootcamp
This will be our longest event. It will be three days long at one of Zimbabwe’s famous resorts. It will include a myriad of activities for individuals and couples and we believe this will bring a more positive relationship and association with Bitcoin to the community. This will be the perfect place to create a lot of rich Bitcoin content about. For this event we intend on actually charging the individuals attending, but still plan to spread the message of Bitcoin adoption. We believe that if the two previous events leading to the Bootcamp are well-supported and well-executed, then this Bootcamp may actually be a very profitable venture for the African Bitcoin community’s leaders.
A Bootcamp type set-up may very well prove to be the best method of educating individuals about Bitcoin in Africa.
Accelerating Hyperbitcoinization
We are mission-driven individuals; we sacrificed time and our own capital before this was profitable. We still do multiple projects that are not profitable, but they accelerate hyperbitcoinization in the world. Our goal is to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people. That’s the metric we use for success.
We aim to induce change, advance our culture and to prove the resilience of the next generation in Africa to not only avoid but fix the mistakes of the generation that came before us. We will do this primarily by fixing our money.
While we believe that it is important to build an organization that will succeed with ongoing outside sponsors, we believe in the Bitcoin community providing the resources that will accelerate our growth. We are also under the impression that it will always be difficult to raise capital to fund our mission. So we desire to build long-term methods to acquire capital, while also working hard to spread bitcoin adoption.
This is a guest post by Alexandria. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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