Changing the Tide

Kgothatso Ngako is the lead catalyst at Machankura, a service on the Bitcoin and Lightning Networks that enables people in Ghana, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia (so far!) to send and receive Bitcoin over cellular network protocols (GSM and USSD) using Lightning addresses.

He is not only Changing the Tide with this service but also through Exonumia Africa, his open-source initiative to translate leading Bitcoin content into native African languages.

Imagine millions of people across the continent of Africa understanding and using Bitcoin. Not on smartphones. But on feature phones that act like "hardware wallets."

This is the future Machankura is creating. And it's happening now.

Links:

Kgothatso's Twitter handle: @440UrPp

Machankura's Twitter handle: @Machankura8333

Exonumia Africa's Twitter handle: @ExonumiaAfrica

Machankura's website: https://machankura.com/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei

Graphics: Kal Kassa

Host: Jon Crabtree

Producer: Jon Crabtree

Bryan Nonni is a software engineer at one of the world's largest payment companies and co-founded the Terminus Electric Money Lab in Atlanta in June 2022. The goal of Terminus is to be the bridge between "Transaction Alley" in Georgia and the Lightning Network via shared work and hackerspace, as well as hosted events.

They are Changing the Tide by educating some of the largest payments companies in the United States (and the world) about Bitcoin and Lightning–from the grassroots all the way to the c-suite levels.

Links: ​
Bryan's Twitter handle: @nonni_io
Terminus's Twitter handle: @terminusbtc
Terminus's website: https://terminus.money/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Michael Bumann (Bumi) is co-founder of Alby, an open-source project with two products: a browser extension and an API for web monetization via the Lightning Network.

Creators and consumers can connect their node or existing wallet to their Alby extension and quickly begin transferring or receiving value on the web. Even on sites that aren't Lightning native (think YouTube).

And now, with the API, mobile and other applications can be added to the mix.

Alby is Changing the Tide. One Chrome extension at a time.

Links: ​
Bumi's Twitter handle: @Bumi
Alby's Twitter handle: @getAlby
Alby's website: https://getalby.com/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Doug is the founder of BitRamp, a service built on top of Azteco to onramp businesses and individuals to the Bitcoin network.

Business owners and individuals can quickly set up a terminal and Azteco account to sell Bitcoin vouchers. Voucher buyers can then scan the QR code on the voucher with a Bitcoin Lightning wallet of choice to easily redeem and start using!

No week-long wait times while an entity gathers and stores sensitive personally identifiable information from the person trying to obtain Bitcoin in a honeypot, in order to finally "approve" their ability to obtain an entry in the Bitcoin database.

No account-based service preventing someone from storing the exact Bitcoin amount they want or sending and receiving exactly what the individual deems necessary at the moment.

Ethical Bitcoin on-ramps through BitRamp and Azteco are Changing the Tide. And quickly.

Links: ​
BitRamp's Twitter handle: @bit_ramp
BitRamp's website: https://bitramp.co/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Texas Slim is the driving force behind the Beef Initiative.

Its mission is "to improve the health and security of our local communities through the expansion of market access to quality animal protein by building decentralized networks of values-aligned ranchers, processors, distributors, butchers, grocers, restaurants, and consumers and providing access to the tools necessary, including bitcoin, to form more secure localized food supply chains."

He is Changing the Tide by introducing ranchers and farmers to better money, in the form of Bitcoin on Lightning, than they currently receive from their incentives paid out by governments and corporations.

Links: ​
Slim's Twitter handle: @modernTman
Slim's newsletter: https://inititive.substack.com/
Beef Initiative's Twitter handle: @beefinitiative
Beef Initiative's website: https://beefinitiative.com/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Roy Sheinfeld is CEO and Co-founder of Breez. He calls Breez "the interface of the peer-to-peer Lightning economy."

Roy is Changing the Tide in so many ways. From a mobile app that serves as a fully-featured Bitcoin and Lightning node, to innovating the Lightning Service Provider concept, to forthcoming single-purpose apps, Breez allows individuals to send and receive on-chain and Lightning payments to and from anywhere worldwide, anytime, cheaply, and without permission.

Download it today on iOS or Android.

Links: ​
Roy's Twitter handle: @therealkingonly
Roy's Medium page: https://medium.com/@kingonly
Breez's Twitter handle: @Breez_Tech
Breez's website: https://breez.technology/
Breez's Medium article "Lightning is a Liquidity Network": https://medium.com/breez-technology/lightning-is-a-liquidity-network-550896ca27ea

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Michael Rhee is Founder of Wavlake. Wavlake allows artists to upload their music to its platform and connect their Lightning node to Wavlake's Lightning node. Listeners can then tip the artist or group with direct payment to their node.

Michael is Changing the Tide with a platform that creates a more artist-friendly model of streaming. The goal? By cutting out middlemen and allowing listeners to make direct micropayments to their favorite musicians, these artists can benefit from the distribution model of the Internet (8 billion potential listeners) to hopefully earn significantly more from streaming than current dominant streaming platforms.

If you're an interested musician, join the Telegram conversation at https://t.me/wavlake or email [email protected].

Links: ​
Michael's Twitter handle: @rheedio
Michael's Medium page: https://medium.com/@rheedio
Wavlake's Twitter handle: @wavlake
Wavlake's website: https://wavlake.com/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

C Funk is Business Development Manager at Coinkite. Coinkite produces cutting-edge Bitcoin hardware, including OPENDIME, COLDCARD, BLOCKCLOCK, and more recently SATSCARD, TAPSIGNER, and now SATSCHIP.

C Funk and Coinkite are Changing the Tide by producing and distributing products and documentation that help educate individuals worldwide on securing their Bitcoin.

They are currently looking to help scale on-chain transactions worldwide with SATSCARD and TAPSIGNER, and are driving towards partnering with developers at Bitcoin businesses to implement NFC integration into their wallets. If interested, reach out to [email protected].

Links: ​
C Funk's Twitter handle: @cypher_funk
Coinkite's Twitter handle: @Coinkite
Coinkite's website: https://coinkite.com/
SATSCARD Twitter handle: @SATSCARD
SATSCARD website: https://getsatscard.com/
TAPSIGNER Twitter handle: @TAPSIGNER
TAPSIGNER website: https://tapsigner.com/
Master Guantai's Twitter handle: @MasterGuantai

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

Jesse Shrader is co-founder of Amboss. Amboss is a set of Lightning Network tools, including an explorer and marketplace for selling Lightning channels, called Magma.

Jesse and Amboss are Changing the Tide by providing services to lightning node operators to ensure a smoother payment experience across the network. Worldwide.

Links: ​
Jesse's Twitter handle: @Jestopher_BTC
Amboss's Twitter handle: @ambosstech
Amboss's website: https://amboss.space/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree

John Carvalho is CEO of Synonym. Synonym is building a model and tools to facilitate and accelerate the hyberbitcoinized future, which they call the "Atomic Economy."

John and Synonym are working on Changing the Tide with some unique products. Slashtags will change how metadata on the Web is built and shared. Slashpay will incorporate Slashtags and standardize payments between two people who may hold Bitcoin on differing address types or use different Lightning invoice formats. And Blocktank is a new Lightning Service Provider service that will automate and monetize lightning node services.

On top of this, they are making the code for these standards and products open source.

Links: ​
John's Twitter handle: @BitcoinErrorLog
Synonym's Twitter handle: @Synonym_to
Synonym's website: https://synonym.to/

Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial, legal, or medical advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax, legal, or medical professionals before making financial, legal, or medical decisions based on what you hear.

Music: "Summer Nights" by Bobo Renthlei
Graphics: Kal Kassa
Host: Jon Crabtree
Producer: Jon Crabtree