Five projects driving Bitcoin & Lightning adoption have already received their Bitcoin For Communities endowments, and five more will do so in the following days. An anonymous donor and Galoy are making the Holidays count. To 2.1M sats, which is around $1K. That donation is just the beginning, though. The Bitcoin For Communities program shares information about the selected projects and asks bitcoiners for extra support. The power of the Lightning Network is at full display here.
1/ Who likes #Bitcoin and wants to change the world? 🙋♂️
Galoy will be sharing 40 million sats for FREE over the next 10 days. All thanks to an anonymous donor.
Details below for communities, plebs and newbs. Come one, come all, this holiday season! 🎄☃️
🧵👇
— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) December 23, 2021
According to Galoy, the Bitcoin For Communities program aims to “celebrate the progress made globally towards Bitcoin and Lightning adoption in 2021.” That introduces the user participation portion of the endeavor. “Check in daily for a fun question that recaps achievements from the past year. Answer it and drop your Lightning Address in the comments for a chance to receive FREE sats.”
For background, you should know that Galoy was one of Bitcoin Beach’s first allies. The company developed the Bitcoin Beach Wallet that Bitcoinist featured here, and the Bitcoin Italia podcast discovered here. This doesn’t mean that the anonymous donor is the same one that gave the seed money that started Bitcoin Beach. But, is it the same donor, though? It doesn’t have to be, but it might.
Anyway, let’s get to the selected projects so far.
Bitcoin For Communities, Day One: Bitcoin Ekasi in South Africa
The first 2.1 million sats went to “Bitcoin Ekasi for building a circular Bitcoin economy in Mossel Bay, South Africa.” The project “is teaching residents and merchants in the townships outside Mossel Bay how – and why – to use Bitcoin as money.” Bitcoin for communities indeed.
#BitcoinForCommunities Day 1/10: @BitcoinEkasi
Today we donated 2.1 million sats to @BitcoinEkasi for building a circular Bitcoin economy in Mossel Bay, South Africa.
Join us in one hour at 1PM EST / 18:00 UTC to hear from the team! 🌍🇿🇦🙌 https://t.co/0ym6fy18tQ
— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) December 23, 2021
Notice that the Galoy team even hosted a Twitter Spaces conversation to highlight the project. After the event, the Bitcoin Ekasi team tweeted. “Huge shoutout to Galoy and Adopting Bitcoin for hosting an awesome spaces chat yesterday, super cool to connect with the wider Bitcoin community!! Beyond humbled by the support.”
Huge 🤙👍 to @GaloyMoney and @AdoptingBTC for hosting an awesome spaces chat yesterday, super cool to connect with the wider #Bitcoin community!! Beyond humbled by the support. @Bitcoinbeach @btcnyc @nicolasburtey and everyone else who joined, thank you 🙏🙏
— Bitcoin Ekasi (@BitcoinEkasi) December 24, 2021
To make things even better, the original project, Bitcoin Beach, joined the Bitcoin For Communities party. They promised to match Galoy’s donations to each one of the selected projects.
Bitcoin Beach is going to Join @GaloyMoney in this campaign and give an additional 21 million Sats to these 10 groundbreaking campaigns (2.1 million each). Please join in this effort and give to these movements! https://t.co/lN0Xtkcwq2
— Bitcoin Beach (@Bitcoinbeach) December 23, 2021
A bit more information about Bitcoin Ekasi, “the project is managed by The Surfer Kids, a local non-profit empowering marginalized youths.” They pay their instructors in sats and are looking to onboard all of these local businesses to accept Bitcoin as payment.
This is an overview of the spaza shops, in the JCC Camp township, with whom we're in consultation. Our aim is to onboard as many of them as possible to accept #Bitcoin as payment so that the salaries our coaches are earning in SATs can be spent without converting to fiat. pic.twitter.com/hx1YIZL9t3
— Bitcoin Ekasi (@BitcoinEkasi) November 16, 2021
Bitcoin For Communities, Day Two: Kiveclair in Congo
The second project selected by Bitcoin For Communities is also in Africa. Kiveclair “initially launched as a Bitcoin fundraiser to support victims of the Nyiragongo volcano eruption. Now, the project is using Bitcoin and Lightning to bring financial inclusion to Goma.”
🌍⚡️🚀 #BitcoinForCommunities Day #2 of 10: @Kiveclair
Today we donated 2.1 million sats to @Kiveclair_EN for #Bitcoin education and economic development in Congo (DRC).@Bitcoinbeach is matching the donation! 🙌
Join us in sending sats! https://t.co/pgs6ZZMTJf
— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) December 24, 2021
To teach us about Kiveclair, the Bitcoin For Communities team links to a Tech Crunch article that says:
“Wanzavalere was inspired by online news of the bitcoin Beach project in El Salvador, which he said proved poor people can still use bitcoin despite the technical challenges and volatility.
“Coming to their aid with bitcoin was a more powerful act than any marketing campaign could be. That’s when we told ourselves, OK, we’re going to do this in Congo,” the crypto-focused blogger said.”
The Kiveclair team expressed its gratitude via Twitter. “We are very happy to receive support from Galoy and Bitcoin Beach. To launch Kiveclair, we were inspired by the exceptional work you do at El-Zonte. Having your attention is the best Christmas gift.”
BTC price chart for 12/28/2021 on Bittrex | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Bitcoin For Communities, Day Three: New Story In El Zonte
This time Bitcoin For Communities goes back to the place that started it all, El Zonte in El Salvador. With the slogan “Everyone deserves a safe place to call home,” New Story’s mission is to ”pioneer solutions to end global homelessness.”
🌎⚡️🚀 #BitcoinForCommunities Day #3 of 10: @NewStoryCharity
Today we donated 2.1 million sats to help New Story make homeownership accessible to families in El Zonte (@bitcoinbeach). 🏠🙌
Join us! Send support:
Fiat: https://t.co/LbdXQBvmkt
Sats: https://t.co/h3nq8uOkEJ— Galoy (@GaloyMoney) December 25, 2021
Speaking about Bitcoin specifically, New Story is “building a 200+ home community in El Zonte and partnering with Galoy to enable Bitcoin mortgage payments via the Bitcoin Beach Wallet.” With this project, they hope to “make homeownership accessible to families in El Zonte.”
Conclusion And Call To Action
Here at Bitcoinist, we encourage you all to join the Bitcoin For Communities campaign and support these worthy projects. They are all doing God’s work. Also, keep track of Galoy’s Twitter page for a daily chance to earn some sats. Last but not least, join us tomorrow to find out about the next three Bitcoin For Communities selected projects. They’re phenomenal, we promise.
Featured Image by truthseeker08 on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView
