Excerpt
I talk with Marcel Lorraine, founder of Bitcoin Dada Devs, about how women in Africa are using Bitcoin to solve real problems. From payment apps to online commerce, we explore how female developers are creating powerful solutions. Don’t miss these inspiring stories of innovation and change!
Transcript
We’re on our way to the center of Nairobi to meet Marcel Lorraine. Marcel is the founder of Bitcoin Dada, an organization that is educating women about Bitcoin. She’s also the founder of Dada Devs, which you might guess already is an organization that is focused on educating females to become Bitcoin developers, which I believe is very, very important, especially in countries like Kenya or other African countries, but also globally. We need more female developers to bring their perspectives into Bitcoin. We’ll have the continuous cycles of poverty year in, year out, but Bitcoin is sort of like a lifeline. It changes the narrative for us. You founded now Dada Devs, yes? What is this? So, Dada Devs is a program – a technical program that is supposed to help the technically inclined or already existing female developers in Africa to actually start contributing in Bitcoin development or building applications that will actually solve certain problems that we have in Africa. So, we’ve just had our first cohort with over – we had 30 students, right? And the beauty about this is they’ve already started building their own applications. So we’re looking to have more solutions being built by Dada Devs because I feel, at the end of the day, we don’t really necessarily need people from outside the continent to build for us the solutions. We understand our challenges, so the solutions should come from us. And what better way to actually have a solution being built than by a female. In the African landscape we do the majority of small transactions – sending and receiving – so it only makes sense if we have solutions that cater to our needs, you know? Absolutely. Which are these solutions? Do you have an example of what the ladies have already built or the ideas they have? A very good one is Tando. Mhm. So, Tando is an application that helps you to spend your bitcoin anywhere they accept M-Pesa in Kenya, which is a very good thing because you don’t necessarily need to do KYC – all that hassle, you know? You don’t have to convert your money to the local currency. The person receiving doesn’t have to necessarily understand what Bitcoin is, but you are able to actually spend and receive when you’re in Kenya. The other solution that we have is they have built this particular – or they are building this particular – platform that will enable people to, you know, purchase products online using Bitcoin. It’s still in the beginner phase, but they’ve actually done a lot. Probably I would share the GitHub because it’s open source, and then you can share it with the audience. Absolutely. And I also want to say I’ve used Tando. I came here without Kenyan shillings and was able to immediately buy groceries, pay the taxi driver, pay a bill in a restaurant – even, you know? Because, and as you say, the recipients don’t even know that it’s Bitcoin because they receive Kenyan shillings. And I think it’s a great way to onboard people, then, because as soon as more people spend Bitcoin, more merchants will want to receive bitcoin and to accept it. Exactly, exactly. And it will also create an interest and curiosity – what exactly is this that you’re using? So, I can actually… One of the challenges that people have when you’re trying to onboard, especially businesses, is they don’t know how they’ll be able to offer – they’re worried. So, if you send me this digital currency, how am I going to get the fiat? Because at the end of the day, they want to see Kenyan shillings so that they’ll be able to pay, you know, the basic expenses like the staff and all that. And we’ve not gotten to the level where we can say we’ve reached hyperbitcoinization, where everybody should receive bitcoin. So, it actually is a platform where we can onboard very easily. Great. And what are your plans with Bitcoin Dada and Dada Devs in the near future? Okay, so for Bitcoin Dada, what we’re planning to do right now is create a self-paced program that will enable everyone to learn about Bitcoin, as well as have a section for teaching people about African countries. Because a lot of foreigners that I have interacted with have very, you know, little knowledge when it comes to African countries. I’ve gotten people who’ve told me, “Say hi to my friend who is in South Africa.” I’m Kenyan. So, I felt like it would be a sort of fun way for people to learn about Bitcoin as well as African countries and some of the challenges that Africans actually go through. So that mentality of the West – some rich guy in the West – maybe it can help them, you know, understand that Bitcoin has different use cases other than just HODLing. Yeah. The other thing that we are doing with Dada Devs is we are hoping to, you know, train the ladies to actually be able to be part of the tutors. So, moving forward, I’m looking to having tutors from the same program. The other thing is I want to really support them when they’re building these solutions for our market. So, you should expect probably more, you know, solutions being built by Dada developers. We’ll be sharing these. Like I said, they are all open source, so you can help them by contributing in whatever way that you feel, you know, you are able to.
