First Stop: Bitcoin Ekasi, SA
After a train, a plane, and a beautiful 4hr drive, I finally arrived in Mossel Bay, a harbour town on the Western Cape and home to Bitcoin Ekasi.
Bitcoin Ekasi started mid 2021, and is creating a bitcoin economy in a township community. This project is an extension of The Surfer Kids, a non-profit, working to create youth-empowerment in the same community since 2010.
How does it work?
Employees of The Surfer Kids and Bitcoin Ekasi from the community are paid their salaries in bitcoin, which they can then save, or spend in the shops within the township who are now accepting bitcoin as payment.
Shop owner accepting bitcoin payments
What’s the point of that?
Many people in the community (and infact the world) are unbanked. For those in the community who do have access to banking services, the fees incurred often make it an unviable option.This, coupled with high inflation, makes saving and investing for the future, impossible. With bitcoin, anyone with a phone is able to store money digitally, with no fees, independent of social status. So, as they say themselves “through Bitcoin, spread .. empowerment wider than the physical limits of [the Surfer Kids] itself”.
Trap of poverty
You need for your basic safety and physiological needs to be met in order to have the energy and resources to reach your full potential as an individual.
The Surfer Kids, Diaz Beach Suited and ready for a surf lesson
Whats the plan?
Across the week I have been hanging out and filming with the team at Bitcoin Ekasi. The warmth and passion of everyone involved in the project is so inspiring and I can’t wait to share some moments and conversations soon.
