Let’s start the year the right way. The Bitcoin For Communities program’s four final winners are here, and Bitcoinist is going to highlight them all. Galoy started the trend, offering 2.1M sats to ten adoption-building projects. Then, Bitcoin Beach joined the party and matched their donation. So, here are the first three awarded projects, and here is the second batch of three. Who else got 4.2M sats to start 2022 with a bang? Let’s find out!
Bitcoin For Communities, Day Seven: Satoshi En Venezuela
According to Galoy, the Satoshi en Venezuela team “convenes meetups, writes articles, hosts a podcast and shares news to help Venezuelans understand the importance of Bitcoin – with a focus on differentiating Bitcoin from cryptocurrencies.” The organization defines itself as “A Bitcoin-only educational project in Venezuela.”
#BitcoinForCommunities Day #7 of 10: @satoshienvzla
Today we sent 2.1 million sats to @satoshienvzla for driving #Bitcoin education and adoption in Venezuela.
Join us! Send sats: https://t.co/EQoOvv2U9k
— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) December 29, 2021
They host an interview-based podcast, “Hablemos de Bitcoin,” a news roundup program called “El Bit,” and an educational video show called “Descubriendo Bitcoin.” Here’s their show with legendary Adam Back for reference:
Bitcoin For Communities, Day Eight: Liquidity For Tonga
Where you aware that Tonga’s nickname is Bitcoin Island? Well, they’re “the highest remittance-dependent country on earth – remittances make up at least 38% of GDP.” That means that “Using Bitcoin and Lightning for cross-border payments could save the people of Tonga $60 million dollars per year in fees.” This is an El Salvador situation waiting to happen.
Today we sent 2.1 million sats to the #LiquidityForTonga project for connecting Tonga (a.k.a. "#Bitcoin Island”) to the #LightningNetwork.
Join us! Send sats:
bc1q60ktkfw0vmcjkywk6nl2529rn3c8pwtvmk2lkh— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) December 30, 2021
Well, politician Lord Fusituʻa “has been setting up nodes, championing Bitcoin education and even drafting a Bitcoin legal tender bill for the country.” After winning the grant, Fusituʻa responded, “Thank you guys. Appreciate the support always.” Writer Derek Ross also reacted, “I’m a happy member of this project. We have 5 Rings of Fire going thus far with more planned once Lord Fusituʻa brings up two more Tongan nodes. We’re still in the early building stages, but we’re building the stages of Tonga’s Bitcoin future and that’s exciting.”
Apparently, there’s a real chance that Tonga is the next country to adopt the Bitcoin standard. In an article that Galoy linked to, Lord Fusituʻa said:
“We have a house of 26 with 17 people’s reps and nine lords,” he says. “The lords, we always vote as a block. I’m the only barrister – not just among the lords but in the whole parliament – so the lords take my legal and economic advice always, that’s nine. So, we need another five. Three members of the other 17 have already come into contact with the asset [bitcoin] on their own personal journeys, so that’s 12, so we need two more out of 14.”
Let’s wait and see, though.
BTC price chart for 01/03/2021 on CEXIO | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Bitcoin For Communities, Day Nine: Lake Bitcoin In Guatemala
Another Bitcoin Beach-inspired community, Lake Bitcoin “partnered with Centro Educativo Josué to provide Bitcoin education to children and adults in the Panajachel area near Lake Atitlán.” Through this program “Families will learn about Bitcoin, Lightning and running a node. They’ll also earn sats for participating in clean-up projects around Lake Atitlán.”
Today we sent 2.1M sats to @LakeBitcoin & Centro Educativo Josué for building a circular #Bitcoin economy in Guatemala.
Join us! Send sats:
Bitcoin Lake: https://t.co/JxsJJGvaws
Centro Josué: https://t.co/AFac7Nw8Il— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) December 31, 2021
In an article about the project, the organizers shared their ideal timeline.
“Over the course of the winter and spring (2022), Bitcoin training will occur via virtual teaching with onsite translators (Josue and Flor Cifuentes). Josue and Flor will begin their Bitcoin training on/about the 15th of November 2021.
By the Spring/Summer (2022) enough children, adults and businesses will be familiar with Bitcoin to continue to the second phase which will be broader business adoption.”
The Galoy team also produced a podcast episode about the Lake Bitcoin project.
Bitcoin For Communities, Day Ten: Exonumia In Africa
The Exonumia project “is an open source platform that allows its contributors to translate and publish Bitcoin content into Native African languages.” For example, “The Bitcoin whitepaper is now available in multiple languages including Shona, Swahili, Chewa, Hausa, Arabic, Zulu and Lingala.”
Today we sent 2.1 million sats to @Exonumia280 for translating #Bitcoin resources into African languages.
Join us! Send sats: https://t.co/BXqKy8EpNZ
— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) January 1, 2022
The Exonumia team responded to the honors by saying, “Galoy is satoshi! Thank you Galoy for the Bitcoin For Communities drive and the sats that ended up in our UTXOs. Bitcoin is a global language with a global community!” On December 23rd, this Twitter user said to Galoy, “I would like to nominate Exonumia as they have translated the Bitcoin white paper to multiple native African languages. Making literature available in languages Africans primarily understand & communicate in on a daily basis will help in onboarding millions.”
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Boom! That’s Bitcoin For Communities 2021 for you. Let’s hope Galoy and Bitcoin Beach’s teams keep up the tradition and award new adoption-building projects year after year. It’s as Galoy said in the last tweet of the thread, “Let’s bring Bitcoin to the first billion people in 2022!”
Featured Image by Shane Rounce on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView