We're excited to announce that @nourou, founder of Yité Technologies, will be joining us as a speaker at this year’s #BtrustDeveloperDay. 🎉 Nourou is a pioneering Bitcoin builder and one of West Africa’s most active advocates for Bitcoin development and education. He discovered Bitcoin during the 2017 bull run and later deepened his technical expertise by attending Chaincode Labs' Bitcoin Protocol Development and Lightning Protocol Development seminars. Driven by his passion for Bitcoin’s potential in Africa, Nourou founded Bitcoin Sénégal 🇸🇳 and the Dakar Bitcoin Days conference, both instrumental in growing the regional Bitcoin community. Most recently, he launched @Banxaas App, an instant swap solution bridging BTC and the XOF fiat currency through the Lightning Network. At Developer Day, Nourou will lead a session on Banxaas. In this talk, he’ll unpack the journey of building, from concept to launch, explaining how Lightning can power fast, seamless swaps between bitcoin and local currencies, paving the way for everyday bitcoin use in West Africa. Don’t miss the chance to learn directly from Nourou and explore how Bitcoin innovation is driving financial inclusion across the continent. RSVP now to secure your spot: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

We're happy to have Abdias AFOUDA, an open source contributor at Plan ₿ Network and Flash, joining #BtrustDeveloperDay as a speaker 🎉 A backend developer deeply passionate about Bitcoin, Olaniran has honed his expertise through advanced training programs, including the BOSS Program, Lightning Development Path at Chaincode Labs, and the Bitcoin CLI course by Btrust Builders, where he ranked among the top ten participants. As a co-instructor at the Cotonou 🇧🇯 Lightning Developer Bootcamp and speaker at BitDevs Cotonou , he actively shares his knowledge to strengthen the Bitcoin community in Benin. His open-source contributions span initiatives such as Plan ₿ Network and onboarding to Bitcoin Core, driving both local and global protocol development. In his session, Olaniran will explore the current state of Bitcoin adoption among French-speaking communities in West Africa, highlighting progress, programs, and tools supporting their integration, and showcasing how open-source collaboration fuels this growth. Discover how grassroots education and contribution are reshaping Bitcoin development across Francophone Africa. Register here to attend: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

We’re excited to announce that Megasley, General Manager at @Africa Free Routing, will be speaking at the upcoming #BtrustDeveloperDay! 🎉 Megasley is a Bitcoin educator, builder, and advocate leading grassroots Lightning Network adoption across Africa. Over the past three years, he has hosted eight Lightning Developer Bootcamps across Nigeria 🇳🇬, Kenya 🇰🇪, Ghana 🇬🇭, Benin 🇧🇯, Zambia 🇿🇲, and South Africa 🇿🇦, training hundreds of developers and entrepreneurs to build practical, everyday Lightning tools. He’s spoken at major global Bitcoin gatherings, including the Lugano Plan B Conference, Africa Bitcoin Conference in Ghana, and the Adopting Bitcoin Conference in South Africa, and continues to mentor developers integrating Lightning into real-world systems. At Developer Day, Megasley will lead a session titled Building Lightning from the Ground Up: Insights from Developer Bootcamps Across Africa. In this talk, he’ll share lessons from teaching Lightning to developers, the creative ways his team solved local challenges, and how community-driven education is shaping Bitcoin innovation across the continent. Don’t miss the chance to learn how meaningful Lightning education programs are being built, and how you can run your own. 👉 RSVP now to secure your spot: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

This week, the Bitcoin community gathers in Brazil 🇧🇷 for the São Paulo Bitcoin Week, a series of events celebrating open-source development, collaboration, and innovation across Latin America, starting today with the Bitcoin Dev Summit. We're happy to be a sponsor of both the Bitcoin Dev Summit and @Satsconf, the largest Bitcoin conference in South America. Our program and operations lead, Stephanie Titcombe, is representing Btrust on-ground in Brazil, where she delivered a welcome address at today’s Dev Summit, highlighting the shared mission between @Btrust Builders and @npub13s0k...5g70: to empower developers, decentralize Bitcoin development, and create opportunities for new contributors across emerging regions. Stay tuned as we continue to share updates from São Paulo throughout the week, from the Dev Summit to the SatsHack hackathon and SatsConf 2025.

The #BtrustDeveloperDay is back for its second edition, and this year we’re heading to the beautiful island of Mauritius 🇲🇺. Join us for a full day of technical sessions, hands-on workshops, and community building around Bitcoin. 🗓️ Save the date: December 2nd, 2025 📌 Venue: Trianon Convention Centre, Quatre Bornes, Mauritius We have an incredible lineup of speakers ready to share insights, explore the latest technical advancements, and collaborate on Bitcoin’s most exciting developments. If you’re going to be in Mauritius, you’re not going to want to miss this. And for those who can’t join us in person, we’ll be streaming the conference live. Stay tuned for speaker announcements, event updates, and more details in the coming weeks. Register here to attend: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY Learn more about the Developer Day here:

Btrust Developer Day

Btrust Developer Day

In July, we put out a call for a Chief Executive Officer, and after a long, thoughtful, and rigorous selection process, we’re excited to share that @Abubakar Nur Khalil has been appointed as the new CEO of Btrust. Abubakar will be stepping down from his position on the Board to take on this full-time role, where he will report directly to the Btrust Board. His appointment marks an important new chapter for Btrust as we continue our mission to strengthen and support open-source development across Africa and beyond. This is a three-year term, with the possibility of renewal by a subsequent board for one additional three-year period. Read more about the appointment, as featured on @Bitcoin Magazine:

Bitcoin Magazine

Btrust Names Abubakar Nur Khalil As New CEO

After a stint as interim CEO, Abubakar Nur Khalil is officially Btrust's new chief executive officer.

Join us in congratulating Abubakar on this new role and in looking forward to what’s ahead for us.

Last week, the Btrust team was in Senegal 🇸🇳 for Dakar Bitcoin Days, a 3-day conference that brought together Bitcoin builders, educators, and enthusiasts from across the francophone region and the world over. On day 1, our communications officer, @npub12qj0...w8vy, emphasized the importance of global participation in Bitcoin development, noting that Bitcoin is a universal technology that thrives when people from all regions contribute to its code and growth. Her talk highlighted the work we’re doing at Btrust to support open-source Bitcoin development and encourage more francophone talent to join and contribute to the ecosystem. On day 2, our grantee Abdullahi shared practical insights on how developers can start contributing to Bitcoin open source, offering actionable tips and a look into what it takes to get started. Later that day, Tobechi demonstrated how BTCPay Server can connect Africa’s local payment systems with Bitcoin, advancing financial sovereignty across the continent. He also showcased the BTCPay Naira Payment Plugin (https://plugin-builder.btcpayserver.org/public/plugins/nairacheckout), which enables customers to pay in naira via bank transfer while merchants receive Bitcoin directly, powered by Mavapay as the offramp service. This model is already running successfully in Nigeria 🇳🇬, and the team is now exploring expansion across other African countries. We wrapped up the conference celebrating winners of the Dakar Bitcoin Hackathon, which had been going on for a little over a month. The conference sessions were thoughtfully curated, covering everything from beginner-friendly introductions to deep technical dives and local innovations. A big well done to the hosts for putting together the event. You can catch the session recordings here: https://youtube.com/@dakarbtcdays?si=CbSXT95Go-UlKTkf

A big thank you to @HRF team for featuring us in this week’s edition of the Financial Freedom Report. Read the full report and sign up here:

500: We've Run Into An Issue | Mailchimp

You know what’s frustrating? When you’ve got the skills, the drive, and the ideas to make an impact, but the only thing stopping you is a border stamp. That’s the reality for so many brilliant Bitcoin developers across Africa and the Global South. They can write world‑class code, contribute to open‑source, and push the ecosystem forward, but collaborating in person with global peers or speaking on major stages? Too often, visa challenges make that impossible. We’ve decided that can’t be where the story ends. That's why we created the Pull Partnership; a way to place our grantees directly inside top Bitcoin teams around the world, where they can learn, share, and grow without barriers holding them back. The idea started when our grantee, Abubakar Sadiq Ismail, joined Chaincode Labs in New York 🇺🇸 last year. He spent time working alongside leading Bitcoin developers, gaining hands-on experience and navigating the visa maze. That success made us think: what if we made this kind of opportunity a standard part of our grant ecosystem? Fast forward to this year. We’ve just piloted the Pull Partnership with 2140.dev in Amsterdam 🇳🇱. We’ve paired the Btrust‑funded developers with their team, covering salaries, relocation costs, and visa support, while 2140 provided mentorship, career development, and access to key Bitcoin industry events. We’d like to say a huge thank you to the 2140 team for making this partnership a reality. Learn more about the Pull Partnership here:

Btrust Blog

Introducing The Btrust Pull Partnership

In the world of Bitcoin development, talent is everywhere. Yet, for many developers in the Global South, especially across Africa, reaching the hig...

Six outstanding Bitcoin open-source developers are the recipients of the Q3 2025 Btrust developer grants, all alumni of the @Btrust Builders program and now making impactful, full-time contributions to the Bitcoin ecosystem.🚀 The Btrust starter grant supports engineers beginning their full-time open-source journey by giving them the freedom to explore areas of interest, identify a long-term focus, and collaborate with the global Bitcoin developer community without financial constraints. This quarter, four talented engineers received starter grants. Rita Anene is working on transaction lifecycle management, payment tracking, and storage optimization in LDK Node, while contributing to Warnet by adding dynamic plugin configuration to address issues like stuck Replace-By-Fee transactions. Ojok Emmanuel Nsubuga is focused on modernizing BlueWallet with a migration to TypeScript, strengthening reproducible builds for F-Droid, and enhancing Silent Payments support aligned with Bitcoin Improvement Proposals. Abiodun Awoyemi is contributing to Bitcoin Dev Kit with flexible Replace-By-Fee transaction construction, improved cross-wallet interoperability, caching enhancements, and more secure signing workflows, alongside educational resources for new developers. Chuks Agbakuru is working on finalizing Human-Readable Names support in LDK Node, extending SimLN with LDK Node compatibility, and developing advanced simulation features for Lightning testing. The Btrust Long-Term Grant provides sustained monthly funding, mentorship, and peer support for experienced contributors, enabling them to deepen their impact on critical Bitcoin projects. This quarter we are celebrating one engineer progressing from a starter grant to the long-term cohort and another receiving a renewal. Itoro Ukpong is leading work on the migration of BDK-FFI to version 3.0, focused on enhancing Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions, advancing Miniscript descriptor support, and maintaining developer-facing libraries and sample wallets, while contributing to the Book of BDK. Oghenovo Usiwoma is working on Bitcoin Core privacy and performance improvements, contributing to Silent Payments, batch verification of Schnorr signatures, and enhancements to libmultiprocess. Read about their work and learn more about Btrust developer grants on our blog:

Btrust Blog

Announcing Q3, 2025 Btrust Developer Grant Recipients

Africa, October 14, 2025 — We’re excited to recognize six outstanding Bitcoin open-source developers awarded Btrust grants, including four star...

On the 4th of October, we took part in and sponsored this year's #DevFestMauritius 🇲🇺 Our engineering lead, Kelvin, gave a keynote on building on Bitcoin that got local developers curious about open-source contribution. It was also really nice finally meeting the GDG Mauritius team in person after months of working together online.Big thank you to them for putting together such a well-organized event, and to everyone who stopped by to chat with us. Can't wait for what's next! See you in December at the #BtrustDeveloperDay. Learn more about the conference here:

Btrust Developer Day

Btrust Developer Day

#DevFest2025

In our latest blog, Btrust grantee, Itoro Ukpong, shares his journey from six years in enterprise software to becoming a full-time Bitcoin open-source developer.🚀 He first explored blockchain technology in 2023, but found clear direction after joining the @Btrust Builders fellowship, diving deep into Bitcoin theory, and contributing to open-source projects. Passionate about empowering people to build on Bitcoin, he focused on @Bitcoin Dev Kit. His consistent contributions caught the attention of the community, and in early 2025, he earned the Btrust starter grant, making the leap into full-time open-source work. Discover the lessons he learned, the challenges he overcame, and his advice for aspiring contributors. Read his full story here:

Btrust Blog

My Path to Full-Time Bitcoin Open-Source Development

Written by Itoro Ukpong This story details my transition from an enterprise software engineer to a full-time Bitcoin open-source developer. It co...

We’re excited to be sponsoring and taking part in #OSCAFest25, Africa’s largest open-source festival. 🎉 This gathering brings together developers, designers, students, and organizations from across the continent and beyond to learn from each other, spark new ideas, and strengthen the open-source movement. This year’s theme is "Beyond Borders", and it perfectly reflects what we believe in as an organization; building technology that connects people, communities, and opportunities across the world. 📅 August 15 – 16, 2025 📍 Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, Nigeria 🇳🇬 Grab your ticket at:

Tix Africa

and use the code OSF25BTRUST50 for 50% off. On Friday, our grantee Tobechi Chukwuleta will be hosting a workshop on Open Source Bitcoin Payment Infrastructure for African Businesses. Tobechi is a contributor to BTCPay Server, an open-source Bitcoin payment processor that gives businesses the power to accept Bitcoin without relying on third parties. In his session, he’ll walk participants through how to set up BTCPay Server 💚, use its merchant tools, integrate it with online stores, and explore its plugin ecosystem, including Lightning Network support. He’ll conclude with a live demo featuring a Naira-denominated checkout for local customers. On Saturday, our Engineering Lead, Kelvin Isievwore, will give a keynote on Building Out Africa’s Open Source Ecosystem. He’ll share our journey from an idea to a thriving community, funding developers, launching builder programs, and creating spaces where open-source collaboration can flourish. In the afternoon, Itoro Ukpong will share insights in his talk Opening Up Bitcoin: Empowering Developers Across Languages with BDK-FFI. Itoro’s work helps bridge Bitcoin Dev Kit’s core with widely-used programming languages like Python, Kotlin, and Swift. One of Saturday’s highlights will be the Women in Open Source Brunch, which we’re proud to sponsor. This is a space for women in open source to network, share, and support one another on their journey in tech. Attendance is limited, and you’ll need an OSCAFest ticket to join. You can RSVP here:

Women in Open Source (OSCAFest '25)

During the brunch: • Enigbe Ochekliye will give a lightning talk on Finding Your Place in Bitcoin Open Source, sharing stories and pathways for newcomers to get started with confidence. • Jennifer Ezeobi and Munirat Olayiwola will lead an interactive session on Building Your Career in Bitcoin, exploring how to contribute across different roles, overcome common challenges, and tap into mentorship and funding opportunities. Explore the full OSCAFest agenda here: https://festival.oscafrica.org/schedule/ We’ll have around 40 members from the Btrust Builders and BitDevs Lagos communities, so you’ll definitely spot many familiar faces. We’ll also have a booth at the event. Come through to learn more about our work, and get some merch. See you in Lagos! 🇳🇬

This past week, our CEO, @Abubakar Nur Khalil, took the stage at the Baltic Honeybadger Conference in Latvia 🇱🇻 He gave a talk on The Global Majority: Bitcoin by the Billions 🌍. He reminded us why Bitcoin matters most to those who need it most, and why the people who rely on it must be the ones building it. He spoke about building for a sustainable future and how we at Btrust are committed to decentralizing Bitcoin development so it truly belongs to everyone. Abubakar also joined a panel on building communities alongside Mir Liponi, @keypleb, and Mike Peterson, moderated by @Efrat Fenigson. The discussion provided insights into the process of building bitcoin communities. Panelists shared their unique experiences from various parts of the world, highlighting efforts to build different communities. Our team members, Kelvin Isievwore and Sharon Murugi, were also present engaging with attendees and building connections within the global Bitcoin community. Catch the livestream recordings on @Hodl Hodl's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@hodlhodl?si=Ij9AiSiY6FqOFCFI #BH2025

We're hiring a part-time accountant at Btrust 📢 If you have experience with budgeting, financial reporting, and setting up accounting systems, especially in a non-profit setting, we’d love to hear from you. As our accountant, you’ll keep our financial records accurate, help us stay compliant, and support the team with financial advice as we grow. You’ll also play a key role in building efficient financial systems that can scale with our work. This is a remote, short-term role, with flexible working hours. We especially encourage people based in Africa to apply. 👉 Learn more about the role and apply here: https://btrust.homerun.co/accountant-part-time/en 🗓️ Applications close on August 15th, 2025.

We're excited to announce our partnership with the @Africa Bitcoin Conference to bring the #BtrustDeveloperDay back for 2025. 🚀 The event will take place on December 2nd at the Trianon Convention Centre, Mauritius 🇲🇺, serving as the official developer-focused kickoff for #ABC2025. Expect a full day of deep technical sessions, hands-on workshops, and networking, all focused on our theme: "Build Locally, Contribute Globally." This is a free event open to all builders. Register to attend: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY Apply to speak:

Btrust Developer Day

Btrust Developer Day

Learn more about the event on our blog:

Btrust Blog

Announcing the 2025 Btrust Developer Day in Mauritius

We are excited to share that Btrust is once again partnering with the Africa Bitcoin Conference (ABC) to present the 2025 Btrust Developer Day. Th...

We’re excited to announce that we are partnering with Open Source Community Africa (OSCA) to sponsor the 4th edition of OSCAFEST this August. 🚀 OSCAFEST is Africa’s largest open-source festival, bringing together developers, students, designers, and organizations to share knowledge, spark new ideas, and strengthen open-source communities. This year’s theme, Beyond Borders, is about pushing past traditional boundaries in technology and collaboration. It invites participants to work together across countries, industries, and areas of expertise, enabling bold innovation, inclusivity, and growth for Africa’s tech community. 📅 Save the date: August 14 – 16, 2025 📍 Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, Nigeria 🇳🇬 Secure your spot and be part of this exciting event:

Tix Africa

👉 Learn more about our partnership and what it means for Africa’s tech community in our blog:

Btrust Blog

Btrust Partners with the Open Source Community Africa to Sponsor OSCAFEST 2025

Lagos, Nigeria – 17th July 2025 We’re excited to share that we’re partnering with the Open Source Community Africa (OSCA) to sponsor the 4th...

📢 We're inviting applications for the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Btrust. Btrust is a non-profit organization working to decentralize the development of Bitcoin software by supporting open-source developers across Africa and the Global South. We’re seeking a principles-led leader to guide our next phase of growth; someone with a track record of impact, strong leadership, stakeholder engagement, and deep alignment with mission-driven or technical work. As CEO, you’ll shape and oversee strategy and execution across our core areas: identifying and supporting developers, delivering high-quality Bitcoin education, funding open-source work, and strengthening open-source infrastructure and community. Until the appointment of the new CEO, @Abubakar Nur Khalil will continue as interim CEO to ensure leadership continuity. 👉 Learn more about the role and apply here:

BTrust

We’re excited to share the Q2 2025 Btrust Developer Grant recipients. This round features three new Starter Grant and two renewed Long Term grantees, all driving open-source Bitcoin development. Check out the full list of grantees here:

Btrust Blog

Announcing Q2 2025 Btrust Developer Grant Recipients

Africa, July 2, 2025 — We are excited to present the recipients of our Q2 Starter Grants and welcome returning members to the Btrust Open-Source ...

Starter Grants empower talented engineers to contribute full-time to open-source Bitcoin development, giving them the flexibility and security to identify their specialty and deepen their community involvement. Sulaiman Aminu Barkindo is focusing his efforts on the Validating Lightning Signer (VLS) project. With the support of the Starter Grant, he’ll be working on enhancing HTLC security, advancing on-chain state enforcement and disaster recovery, optimizing signer performance for rapid synchronization, and ensuring robust data persistence. He’s also expanding system test coverage and implementing advanced tools to bring VLS closer to production-readiness, helping make non-custodial, secure Lightning solutions more reliable and accessible, especially where self-custody is essential. Peter Tyonum is making Bitcoin wallet development more approachable and powerful through the Bitcoin Dev Kit (BDK) libraries. He’s focused on releasing bdk-cli version 1.0.0, integrating new features like hardware wallet support, building advanced wallet templates, and improving compatibility with chain clients and RPC proxies. Peter will also be expanding documentation and contributing code reviews across the ecosystem. Jamal ERRAKIBI is dedicating himself to boosting the stability and usability of rust-bitcoin. His priorities include regular code reviews, expanding documentation, improving serialization consistency, and helping guide core rust-bitcoin libraries towards a stable release. This work will support both core developers and newcomers as Bitcoin’s open-source foundation continues to grow. The Btrust Long Term Grant helps experienced contributors continue making high-impact, sustainable advances in Bitcoin infrastructure. Both Long Term Grant renewals will provide two more years of dedicated support to each recipient. Duncan Dean is working on the Lightning Development Kit, particularly advancing dual-funded channels. He is enabling funding contributions from channel acceptors, introducing robust APIs for channel initiators, and developing interactive fee-bumping. Duncan’s future plans include pioneering simple taproot channels to enhance privacy and exploring the integration of Point Time Locked Contracts. Abubakar Sadiq Ismail is deepening his work on Bitcoin Core, focusing on fee estimation improvements and strengthening mempool infrastructure. He’s developing a cluster-aware fee estimator, contributing to multiprocess support and mining interface testing, and continuing to mentor new contributors, host review sessions, and advance his expertise in Bitcoin cryptography. At Btrust, we believe supporting developer talent is key to a stronger, more decentralized Bitcoin. Our grant applications are open year-round, and new grantees are announced every quarter. If you’re passionate about contributing to Bitcoin open-source, we encourage you to apply. Visit our website to learn more about our ongoing grant programs:

Grants

Get funding to work on Free and Open-Source Bitcoin projects