In this 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 – please do so, her Twitter handle is @bitcoinlady.

“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 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

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.

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

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