Fighting Scams and Preaching Bitcoin in Botswana

On this final episode of the Bitcoin in Africa series, we join Anita Posch as she travels to Botswana and speaks with Alakanani Itireleng on bitcoin's present and potential future in the "original home of the honey badger"

Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica, IHeartRadio or RSS.

In this final episode Anita speaks 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. This interview was recorded as Anita traveled through southern Africa in February of 2020, just 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’d like to support her work and the Satoshicentre, connect with her on twitter

“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

They talk about:

How her son's 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 use cases 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

A message from Anita:

If you have a question, feel free to visit the episode page https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa6 press the appropriate button and record your question.

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.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Recommended for you:

This special is also brought to you by the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network.

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information have been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.