{"id":410618,"date":"2022-02-28T14:09:17","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/one-mans-plan-to-orange-pill-a-nation-bitcoin-senegal\/"},"modified":"2022-02-28T14:09:17","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:09:17","slug":"one-mans-plan-to-orange-pill-a-nation-bitcoin-senegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/one-mans-plan-to-orange-pill-a-nation-bitcoin-senegal\/","title":{"rendered":"# One man’s plan to orange pill a nation: Bitcoin Senegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

“# One man’s plan to orange pill a nation: Bitcoin Senegal <\/strong>”<\/p>\n

Nourou is a 29 year old Bitcoiner with a vision for his home country. A former financial analyst for a French Bank, he founded Bitcoin Senegal in late 2021.<\/p>\n

Following an eight-year stint in France, during which Nourou earned his Masters degree, Bitcoin Chaincode qualifications, and a deep understanding of legacy financial markets thanks to work in investment finance, he was primed to orange-pill Senegal.<\/p>\n

He returned to his home country disheartened to learn that Coinmap (a website showing Bitcoin vendors and merchants around the world), had zero locations in Senegal. That\u2019s despite singer and influencer Akon\u2019s plans to set up a crypto-style Akon City.<\/p>\n

Passionate about Bitcoin and equipped with the knowledge that a \u201cBitcoin Beach\u201d idea in El Salvador eventually lead to the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, the 29-year-old was inspired to try a similar thing in his hometown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since setting foot in Africa\u2019s westernmost capital, Dakar, Nourou has made progress. As well as founding Bitcoin Senegal, he’s given upwards of 18 educational talks about Bitcoin, and orange-pilled two restaurants, one game<\/a>s shop, a surf camp and a few local vendors. That\u2019s all in the space of about six weeks.<\/p>\n

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The current status of Bitcoin merchants in Dakar, according to Coinmap<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He has his sights set on 20 restaurants to accept Bitcoin by July 2022, right before he finishes coding up Senegal\u2019s first proprietary Bitcoin exchange from scratch. The exchange would compete with Binance (which has an impressive footprint in Africa), Paxful, as well a friend’s cryptocurrency exchange which uses an off-the-shelf, third-party solution.<\/p>\n

Nourou told Cointelegraph that his exchange will be as decentralized as possible, and knows that while competition may be tough: <\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand for bitcoin is so large in Senegal that it doesn\u2019t matter how many exchanges you make.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, while the Sub-Saharan country of about 17 million people is familiar with Bitcoin, it\u2019s hardly up to speed with the digital currency. Plus, Nourou says \u201cliteracy rates are very low, one of the biggest barriers to adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, while the national language is officially French, the majority of Senegalese speak Wolof, a local language. There are sparse Bitcoin educational resources in Wolof; Nourou, therefore, started a YouTube<\/a> channel<\/a> in Wolof to educate his countrymen about Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

For vendors, the Bitcoin quest began in Les Almadies, a wealthy, ex-pat area of Dakar where foreign travel<\/a>ers are common and literacy rates are high. He\u2019s app<\/a>roached beach bars, restaurants and barber shops, happy to come \u201cday or night\u201d if there is ever a problem with BitPay or lightning terminals.<\/p>\n

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A restaurant now accepting Bitcoin in Dakar, Senegal\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the restaurant Pra\u00efnha (see picture), the Bitcoin sign is loud and proud. The owner of the establishment, Ren\u00e9e, is a surf coach and free thinker who was \u201copen to the idea of Bitcoin. Why not?\u201d They accepted their first payment in Bitcoin on Feb. 24 having set up a BTCPay Server earlier in the month.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, volatility in the Bitcoin price and education continue to hamper Nourou\u2019s orange-pilling efforts. It\u2019s for that reason that he advises vendors to include a 10% markup for Bitcoin payments.<\/p>\n

Equally, he spends considerable amounts of time sitting down with retailers going over Bitcoin, before introducing them to the Bitcoin layer 2 solution, Lightning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>Crypto firms ignore Africa at their peril as continent set for major adoption<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Regarding education, it\u2019s simply not time-effective to attempt to equip taxi drivers or street sellers with QR codes and BTC Pay servers. For the self-employed hustlers, a conversation and a mention of the Youtube channel is a useful start.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, Nourou is targeting restaurant owners, business people, surf schools and established commerce. It’s a small but vital step towards further Bitcoin recognition in the country.<\/p>\n

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A surf camp in N’Gor, northwest Dakar that accepts Bitcoin<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n