Ever since Satoshi Nakamoto released his white paper, one of Bitcoin's selling points has been: “We don't need banks. We don't need banks.” All you need is your smartphone. ”
But what if you don't have a smartphone?
This is true for millions of people in Africa. That's why Kgotaso Ngako, a former Amazon software developer, created a no-frills app that: machankula.
Alternatively, the term “app” may be misleading. It's designed to work on a simple mobile phone without a touchscreen, camera, or iPhone bells and whistles. All you need is the ability to send a text. The Lightning Network allows users to send and receive Bitcoins with or without the internet, thanks to machankra (slang for “money”).
This is something most of us take for granted. Consider a Bitcoin wallet address. Usually it's something like “37LaxH5ihB5hZMXs72fofA8qzanipuWTF!” Entering them manually will ruin your entire week. If you make a typo, and you will continue to make a typo, your Bitcoin is lost forever.
Thankfully, you can use your laptop or smartphone to copy and paste this monster. But don’t you have a smartphone? “Users may not have the ability to copy and paste,” Ngako said. “But Bitcoin has a great feature called Lightning His Addresses, which is like an email.” Now Machankula users can spend their Bitcoin by simply entering a normal-looking number and an email address. became.
Before heading to Austin for Consensus, Ngako talks about how Facebook made a smart move that inspired Machankula and how its 15,000 users are using Bitcoin. or why African usage patterns are in some ways surprisingly similar to those in the United States.
The interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Before creating Machankula, you helped spread the word about Bitcoin in Africa. How on earth does this happen?
Kugotaso Gako: I grew up in a town called Mamelodi. The main barrier back then was that a lot of the literature explaining Bitcoin was in English, right? But we have all the different African languages. So, if you're interested in Bitcoin and don't speak English, how can you get content to learn about Bitcoin? That's why we started his organization called Exonumia. Its purpose is to translate Bitcoin literature into African languages.
What kind of Bitcoin literature did you use? I think it was a white paper?
Yes, it's a white paper. Some simple things. Email sent by Satoshi when Bitcoin version 0.1 was released and Hal's Finny's reply to it. And, of course, the “I Am Hodling” post.
There are also a few others, including “Understanding the Lightning Network” and “History of Bitcoin and the Kenyan Government.” He has also translated several books, including The Blocksize War and 21 Less.
And in the end, you launched Machankura. What was your goal?
So I'm trying to use translated articles to tell as many people as possible about Bitcoin, but I'm running into various problems. Some people may not have a smartphone. Even if you have a smartphone, there is no data bundle on it. If they are interested, or if you offer a Wi-Fi hotspot, they don't have enough space on their phone.
All these problems are solved by using a service that does not need to be installed on your phone and does not require you to pay any usage fees. In other words, USSD [Unstructured Supplementary Service Data] That's pretty much it. It's like a reverse billing site. If you look at what Facebook is doing in developing countries, I think Twitter has done the same. Facebook is free to use, right? Users with mobile cell phone connections can access Facebook without paying for access, because Facebook later settles the charges with carriers. Therefore, most USSD interfaces work on a similar principle.
So what exactly does that look like in terms of user experience? Especially if you're not using a smartphone?
Users may not have copy and paste functionality. But Bitcoin has a great feature called Lightning Addresses, which are similar to emails but human-readable.So mine is kgothatso@8333.mobi. You can share this with just about anyone. Also, if someone has my number 0739 383 807, they can also use that as my lighting address.
Is this your phone number?
Yeah. So whether you have the copy-and-paste feature or not, if you have Bitcoin, you can enter one of the two. And please send me Bitcoin.
wonderful. How many users do you have? Where are they located?
Currently, the number of users is approximately 15,000. We are located in several countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Malawi.
What are people doing with it?
South Africa has a concept of stockpiling. It has a different name elsewhere. In Kenya it is called “chama”. In effect, it is desk accounting.
You gather as a group of people at someone's house and put money on the table. And if we all donated the same amount each month, we would either distribute it at the end of the year or buy things in bulk, like groceries.
interesting. So, is this a way to encourage people to save money through positive peer pressure and accountability?
yes. It can also be used as an economical “starter pack” for people in a group to buy in bulk. This will meet a minimum purchase order that cannot be done by one person alone, but can be done by a group.
Is it correct to think that instead of trying to get merchants to accept Bitcoin (which can be difficult), they are primarily using Bitcoin to purchase gift cards? Where are you spending your money?
yes. The top culprit is [internet] Airtime, electricity, groceries. And if you have a South African grocery store gift card, there are virtually a lot of things you can do with Bitcoin. Some grocery stores allow you to pay your bill at the register, so you can pay at the grocery store, book a bus trip, or even pay for a flight at the grocery store.
As far as you know, how many users are using Bitcoin as their primary means of paying bills or making a living?
That's not many users. This is a very small number of users overall. And a lot of people still have regular jobs that don't pay them in Bitcoin, right? So maybe 10% or 20% of all users.
So what are the main purposes people use it for?
Exploration, I think. That's the important thing. Many people say: I've heard about Bitcoin. So a lot of people create an account and look around and think, “Oh, I get it.'' This person is not coming back. ”And then the all-time high comes, and then that person comes back.
Honestly, it's very similar to how people use Bitcoin in the US.
That's exactly right.
Thanks to Kgothatso. Good luck with your project and see you at Consensus.
