Bitcoin Ekasi: The Township eno leto kasneje

This is an opinion editorial by Hermann Vivier, co-founder of The Surfer Kids and Bitcoin Ekasi.

5. avgusta 2021, Joey Olden in Luthando Ndabambi walked into JCC Camp, a township on the outskirts of Mossel Bay, South Africa. They had a mission: find a township corner store willing to sell them something for bitcoin. Their eventual success later that afternoon (when they bought two cool drinks with sats sent over the Lightning Network) could be called the moment Bitcoin Ekasi se je rodil.

Above: Aug. 5, 2021 — Bitcoin Ekasi is born.

But the seeds that sprouted the project were sown long before. I was first introduced to Bitcoin in late 2013, following the bančna kriza na Cipru. My wife and I operate a surf-tourism business and, because she’s Russian, we’re primarily focused on the Eastern European and Russian markets. The crisis in Cyprus (along with the subsequent bailouts and related confiscation of deposits) affected many Russians and when I came across Bitcoin — thanks to a few early printed editions of Bitcoin Magazine and a friend who’d bought some on Mt. Gox — it grabbed my attention.

On 25. marec 2013, 10 milijard evrov vredna mednarodna pomoč Evropska centralna banka, Mednarodni denarni sklad in drugi. To je v zameno za to, da se je Ciper strinjal z zaprtjem druge največje banke v državi, Cyprus Popular Bank, z uvedbo enkratne dajatve na vse tamkajšnje nezavarovane vloge in zasegom približno 48 % nezavarovanih vlog v Bank of Cyprus, največji poslovni banki na otoku. . Manjšinski delež so imeli državljani drugih držav (mnogi iz Rusije), zaseženih pa je bilo 47.5 % vseh bančnih vlog nad 100,000 EUR.

Like all of us, I did not immediately understand what Bitcoin was or how it worked. I still don’t understand a lot of the finer technical details. But, it didn’t take long to realize that, whatever this thing was, if what was written in ta revija were true, those people wouldn’t have had their money arbitrarily confiscated if their money had been in self-custodied bitcoin rather than a Cypriot bank.

After having bought a little bitcoin near the top in 2013 and doing my homework when the price crashed, we started accepting bitcoin payments from surf-trip clients in mid-2015.

1. ruski in ukrajinski konflikt had broken out and, as a result of sanctions, in some cases bitcoin was the only way to receive payments. On 17. julija 2014 so ZDA podaljšale svojo prepoved transakcij to two banks, Gazprombank and Vnesheconombank and, on Sept. 12, 2014, imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank. This affected the ability of both ordinary Ukrainains and Russians to make international transfers and, ironically, our first surf-trip bitcoin payment (in May 2015) came from Ukrainian tourists who were unable to pay as a result of sanctions against Russia.

Hitro naprej do konca leta 2019. Episode 179 of the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast je bil moj uvod v Bitcoin plaža. The idea of proactively building a circular Bitcoin economy made sense and held great appeal. If Bitcoin was to deliver on its promise, it would have to eventually be used for everyday purposes. And, doing this in a marginalized community, like El Zonte in El Salvador, seemed like a beautiful illustration of the fact that there was no practical reason it couldn’t be adopted anywhere else. It disproved so many of the common falsehoods one hears when talking about mass adoption: it’s too volatile; it’s too complex; it’s only good for criminals and drug dealers, etc., etc.

Ko sem poslušal ta intervju z Michaelom Petersonom, sem ugotovil, da imamo platformo za nekaj podobnega. Tako sva poleg našega turističnega posla z ženo soustanovila majhno neprofitno organizacijo, Otroci surferji, leta 2010. Ustanovljena je bila kot organizacija, ki temelji na donacijah, prvotna zamisel pa je bila turistom ponuditi nekaj vpogleda v življenje 90 % Južnoafričanov, ne da bi sodelovali pri akciji »vozimo se skozi slum«. vrsto turizma. Uvedli smo program, ki je tedensko učil deskanja otroke posebej iz revnih območij in omogočil bolj konstruktivno interakcijo med domačini in turisti. Do leta 2019 je The Surfer Kids zrasel in se razvil v program, ki služi 40 otrokom, ki obiskujejo tečaje deskanja pet dni na teden, vse leto.

V 2021 Bitcoin Magazine gave me a platform to write, kar je privedlo do a podcast intervju na By the Horns and, as a result, The Surfer Kids program received its first bitcoin donation in mid-2021. That was the final piece of the puzzle and the moment when the rubber really hit the road. I could envision the practical implementation of the project, now called Bitcoin Ekasi.

Povezava do vdelanega tvita.

Obrnil sem se na trenerje The Surfer Kids, natančneje na našega starejšega trenerja, Luthando, and proposed the idea. He’d never heard about Bitcoin before (other than from scammers) so, first, we’d spend two months discussing Bitcoin, me trying to impart as much understanding as possible within a short space of time. Second, Luthando took that newly acquired knowledge and started talking to the owners of corner stores in the township, explaining the potential practical benefits of accepting bitcoin as payment.

He encountered a lot of resistance. Most shop owners believed (and many still do) that it’s all one giant scam. In fact, most of his time was spent not so much explaining Bitcoin, but simply demonstrating its ease of use. Mobile applications like Bitrefill, Paxful in (pred kratkim) Azteco were invaluable in showing people that, yes, bitcoin was in fact real money. A person’s demeanor would very hitro spremeniti from skepticism to curiosity as they witnessed bitcoin — deposited into a wallet on their own phone — being used to buy mobile credit which arrived near instantaneously with Bitrefill. Or withdrawing cash from a cash machine, despite not having a bank account, with only a pin number, sent by a stranger, who was willing to buy bitcoin from them on Paxful. Shop owners were filled with disbelief when we pretvorjeni boni, which they already stocked, into bitcoin with Azteco.

In this way Luthando onboarded our first store (Kwallos Shop, owned by Nosihle and her husband Vuyisa) in early August 2021 and at that point we began supplementing his existing fiat salary with bitcoin, which he could now spend at that store. For two months Bitcoin Ekasi remained nothing more than that. Meanwhile, I continued to educate Luthando about all things Bitcoin and he would go into the township, spend his bitcoin salary buying groceries at Kwallos and speak to other shop owners, demonstrating and explaining the practical benefits of Bitcoin.

It took about three months to onboard the second and third store owners and, in the interim, we began paying bitcoin salaries to our three junior coaches who assisted Luthando in running The Surfer Kids’ program. Up until that point, two of them had been volunteering/working as apprentices, with the hope that we’d eventually be able to afford a salary for them.

Tretji mladinski trener, Lukhangele, (17) the most senior of the three junior coaches, had been earning his salary in cash. He was (and still is) unable to open a bank account because of a clerical mistake on his birth certificate; his cash salary was often forcibly taken by older family members who used it for their own dubious purposes. Getting paid in bitcoin was an interesting shift for him as he experienced having full control over his own money for the first time. Storing money in a bitcoin wallet, protected by a password, changed the family dynamic. He’s the oldest sibling in the household and he’s the big brother in a fatherless household. Despite still being a school-kid, his salary (of about $150/month) was the single biggest regular household contribution, with the rest of the family mostly relying on social grants and intermittent casual work. Bitcoin put him in the position where he could decide what — and when — he would contribute to the household.

Above – The Surfer Kids Junior Coach – Lukhangele

These sorts of experiences and practical use cases energized me because for the first time I personally witnessed a very real-world impact of what bitcoin could do in someone else’s life. I had experienced it in my own life, but actually seeing financial empowerment happening in front of my own eyes, expanded my perspective on what’s possible with bitcoin. The meme “Bitcoin fixes this” suddenly became real, as I saw it affecting seemingly unrelated social issues in positive ways.

And the more I experienced this, the more motivated I became to drive this project forward as far as possible — because it’s one thing to believe that Bitcoin can change the world, but to see it and experience it right in front of me, that really lit the orange fire inside of me.

Približno v tistem času se je začel krepiti nek zagon, tako na terenu kot pri nas Bitcoin Twitter profile, da me je kontaktiral Michael Peterson in ponudil podporo Bitcoin plaža. His idea was to turn Bitcoin Beach into a global movement whereby they support similar projects but allow them to build and grow in their own unique ways. This speaks to the decentralization of Bitcoin itself and stands in stark contrast to the world of fiat donations/funding where, in my experience, many donors expect an unrealistic level of influence and control when donating to an NPO.

Zahvaljujoč njihovi podpori smo lahko razširili svoj vpliv z nekaj zelo razburljivimi stvarmi, kot je uvedba programa nagrajevanja naših otrok, appointing a full-time Bitcoin educator v naši skupnosti, zagotavljanje shop owners with Bitcoin signage, zaposlitev redno zaposleni reševalci za patruljiranje naših plaž in preprečevanje utopitev ter imenovanje dodatnega višjega trenerja, Akhona, da pomagam Luthandu pri vodenju tega projekta z več škornji na terenu.

In addition, we are now providing staff uniforms to our expanded team of coaches and lifeguards, all of whom earn 100% of their salary in bitcoin and spend it buying groceries from shops we have onboarded.

Zgoraj: od leve proti desni — Good Morning Shop (Michael), Good Hope Shop in Isinyoka Shop

Predvidevam, da je zadnje vprašanje: "Zakaj to početi?"

If you’re a Bitcoiner, you know why. But it’s my hope that regular people also read this and look at projects like ours and Bitcoin Beach and feel inspired to think deeper and further about the implications of Bitcoin on communities in South Africa and the Global South.

Dva razloga sta, zakaj to počnem. Prvič, podpreti in razširiti prvotni cilj programa The Surfer Kids, ki je bil vedno osebno opolnomočenje.

Kot ozdravljeni odvisnik zelo dobro razumem eno stvar, in to je dejstvo, da sprememba mora priti od znotraj. Najboljši način, da pomagate drugemu, je, da mu pokažete, kako naj pomaga sebi. Karkoli drugega ustvarja odvisnost in ima pogosteje negativne dolgoročne stranske učinke.

And so The Surfer Kids’ emphasis has always been on teaching the kids the value of commitment to long-term goals. As that’s the way for an individual to empower themselves: commit to something and stick with it, no matter what. Surfing is fun but inherently difficult to learn and, like Bitcoin, teaches perseverance.

Vendar pa se je upravljanje The Surfer Kids več kot desetletje vedno zdelo kot kaplja v vedro. V tej občini živi na tisoče ljudi v grozljivih okoliščinah in to je samo ena od tisočih občin – samo v tej državi. In služimo samo 40 otrokom.

Introducing Bitcoin as a tool for personal and financial empowerment could, like it did in El Zonte, create a ripple effect in our community. And I’ve already videl, da se je to zgodilo in numerous interesting and exciting ways. Those who dismiss the idea that Bitcoin changes a person’s mindset and attitude are either not paying attention, have not experienced the effect firsthand in their own lives and/or have never seen it happen in someone else’s life.

Second, as mentioned earlier, this is another proof of concept. There are very few places in the world where people live under more desperate circumstances than townships such as this one. Unemployment is astronomically high. Illiteracy is rife. Most homes are in fact informal structures built from scrap material and the majority have neither running water inside their home, nor toilets or warm water.

If Bitcoin can work here and be organically adopted in a setting such as this, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be adopted anywhere else. I’d understand if an upper middle class person told me they’d prefer not to use it, for no particular reason other than preference. But don’t tell me it’s because it’s too complex or volatile. If it’s being adopted (voluntarily and with no incentive other than the utility it has to offer) in the circumstances that we’ve described here, then why not anywhere else? And everywhere else?

The fact of the matter is, those are all just excuses. People will adopt it when they need it. When they have no other choice left, bitcoin will no longer be “too complex,” “too volatile” or “only good for criminals and drug dealers.”

And that’s really been the most beautiful thing about this experience. The people whom we’ve seen adopting bitcoin, in the township, have not done so for ideological or philosophical reasons. They don’t care about our Twitter debates. We’ve seen bitcoin being adopted simply because, unlike the rest of society for whom the current system still works relatively fine, for many in this township community Bitcoin is, in many respects, simply the best available option. A personal path to greater freedom and personal responsibility is being learned, one South African at a time.

And when (not if) the current status quo fails or when there’s a major sovereign default or reserve currency crisis, those skeptics who don’t yet see its utility will begin to understand. It is only at that point where they will begin to strongly consider adopting bitcoin.

V bistvu pomagamo pripraviti rešilni čoln, preden se ladja potopi. Ker mora rešilni čoln že pluti, ko se potopi.

To je gostujoča objava Hermanna Vivierja. Izražena mnenja so v celoti njihova lastna in ne odražajo nujno mnenj BTC Inc. oz Bitcoin Magazine.