The Kenyan Sarafu Network Transitioning to Celo Blockchain with About 20,000 Tok...

Built With Bitcoin Foundation (BWB), a nonprofit organization seeking to provide ‘humanitarian support powered by Bitcoin,’ has opened the Bitcoin Technology Center (BTC), a learning and training center in  Ejisu City, Greater Kumasi, Ghana.

#Bitcoin Technology Center opens in Kumasi, Ghana pic.twitter.com/Qgxee1Mc1T

— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) December 16, 2022

The center is built as a legacy for the just concluded Africa Bitcoin Conference and intends to equip the local community with skills and knowledge within the finance and technology industries. It is also an open community space that anyone can access for training and learning.

Part of the ceremony, which was attended by about 300 people, was the opening of the center by the elders of the village.

There is a goal to have at least 400 people trained at the facility in its first year of operation with several subjects lined up:

• Financial literacy: understanding money
• An introduction to Bitcoin
• Entrepreneurship
• Introduction to computers
• Introduction to coding

The center will also be running ‘Intro to Coding’ camps and hosting monthly meetups.

The center is expected to employ eight local workers, including administrators and lecturers. The Built With Bitcoin Foundation is funding the facility and is said to have the support of the local Edwinase community, Blockchain Foundation Africa, and the overall Bitcoin community.

30 workers were also employed in the construction process for the facility which wants to emulate a Bitcoin circular economy, similar to Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador and Bitcoin Ekasi in South Africa.

Yusuf Nessary, Founder and the Director of the Built With Bitcoin Foundation, said:

“Our mission is to amplify communities through education and this announcement is incredibly rewarding as we hope it creates a circular economy, something that can last the test of time. We cannot wait to see the center bring in its first round of students and see how the community grows in its wake.” – Director, Built with Bitcoin

Built with Bitcoin has so far built and repaired twelve schools and education centers, serving hundreds of thousands of people across the globe.

“The Built With Bitcoin Foundation is committed to empowering Africans through education and strengthening communities. We’re ushering in a new financial dawn, welcoming more to the table, and building a truly global economy,” said Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, Executive Director and the other founder of the Foundation.

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Grassroots Economics (GE), the non-profit organization behind the community inclusion currency (CIC) model in Africa, and the Sarafu Network and token, has decided to host its network on the Celo blockchain.

A snapshot of the Safaru Network and voucher dashboard showing the number of transactions and volumes of the #Sarafu token over a one-month period pic.twitter.com/lYy2yNNyzw

— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) December 15, 2022

Previously, the Sarafu platform ran on its (Kitabu) blockchain where communities could launch their own community inclusion currencies (CIC’s) without needing the internet or users to pay gas fees.

According to GE, CICs are regional means of exchange that are derived from vouchers and supplement gaps in the national currency system. Due to economic instability, people often lack money with which to purchase from each other but communities can build their own prospering economies backed by locally available goods.

Reasons for Selecting Celo

Celo has an existing and thriving ecosystem in Kenya and GE envisions easily getting marketing support and open source contributions from the community.

Celo is also supporting GE in building capacity as a validator node for the Celo blockchain in an arrangement that will cover its gas costs making it possible for users of the Sarafu Network to continue accessing the service for free.

“We’ve been asking chains to help us with running and/or staking on a validation node, for years, so that we can guarantee gas to users. This is the first time a public chain has accepted our request to become part of their infrastructure and offer free services to marginalized communities as a humanitarian solution and means that we can be part of the Celo community of service providers.” – Grassroots Economics

GE is also drawn to the CELO ecosystem due to its compatibility with the Ethereum system, humanitarian values, and significant on-chain liquidity which it may access to support the Sarafu Network.

Following the integration, GE promises several benefits to CIC users across Kenya, Cameroon, and South Africa:

• Smooth Migration – No interruption to service
• Migrating Voucher Contracts to Celo and repopulating balances of users on Celo
• Improved UX/UI – Developing better user interfaces using marketplaces, open-source wallets, and bots. Users will be able to move off USSD/SMS onto other EVM wallets
• Connecting dApps – Example is; some voucher issuers and buyers want there to be insurance in case of defaults

The non-profit organization is also dismissing claims that it is selling out by moving over to Celo, pointing out that, in the long term, the network will have enough stake and be an independent validator which will be due, in part, to Celo’s support.

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