Last year’s #BtrustGathering in Kenya 🇰🇪 was a milestone for our community. As our annual gathering, it brought together over 40 people, including the Btrust Board, team, and Btrust grantees, for two days of collaboration, goal-setting, and strengthening the foundations of open-source Bitcoin development across Africa and the Global South. We aligned on our mission, explored fresh strategies to fund and support Bitcoin engineers, and shared important updates to the Btrust Builders program to better equip developers for the work ahead. By the end, we had a clear blueprint for the year and a renewed sense of connection across our growing community. Now, we’re taking that momentum to Mauritius 🇲🇺. This year’s gathering will build on everything we achieved in 2024, with bigger conversations, bold new directions, and more opportunities to work side by side. Stay tuned for updates on that.

Btrust will be opening applications for three new board members to join our mission-driven organization and help guide its next chapter. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to Btrust’s vision of supporting and growing open-source development across Africa and beyond. The new board members will replace the inaugural board, as we begin our organisationally mandated board transition process. All new members will be selected from this pool of applicants, and the board will cycle out sequentially, with time between transitions to ensure smooth continuity. At the formation of Btrust, one of our first foundational decisions was for the inaugural board to serve for a three year term to establish Btrust, and for all subsequent boards to serve for two years, and today we commence the first new board selection and transition process. If you’re passionate about Bitcoin open-source, and long-term community impact, we’d love to hear from you. Stay tuned for further details on how to apply and the closing date.

Stephanie Titcombe, program lead and Developer Day curator/coordinator, will be speaking at the upcoming #BtrustDeveloperDay. 🎉 With over seven years of experience driving education and innovation across Africa, Stephanie has worked with leading development agencies such as the UNFPA, African Union Commission, and GIZ, before joining Btrust Builders. She now leads the design and execution of developer training initiatives that empower African software engineers to build, contribute, and grow in open-source Bitcoin and Lightning development. Under her leadership, more than 600 developers have been trained, and a thriving network of over 1,100 African Bitcoin engineers continues to grow through ongoing mentorship and community support. Stephanie’s work continues to shape Africa’s developer ecosystem and drive the next wave of open-source innovation. Register here to attend: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

We’re happy to have joining us as a speaker at the upcoming #BtrustDeveloperDay! ⚡ Pins is a grantee currently contributing to LND (Lightning Network Daemon). His journey into Bitcoin development is a powerful example of passion meeting persistence. After starting his career as a software developer, Pins transitioned to commercial and sales roles in cybersecurity within major tech companies. Yet, his love for Bitcoin and open-source software reignited his drive to get back to hands-on coding. Over the past two years, Pins has dedicated himself to relearning programming and has been actively contributing to the LND codebase. At Developer Day, Pins will lead a hands-on workshop titled Taproot Lightning Channels from Scratch, designed for developers eager to dive deep into the Taproot transactions required to create and operate simple Taproot channels. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn directly from Pins and strengthen your understanding of how Bitcoin’s latest protocol upgrades expand the possibilities of the Lightning Network. RSVP now to secure your spot: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

Just wrapped up 2025, and it was such an amazing experience! On Day 2, Stephanie, our programs lead, got to speak on decentralizing Bitcoin development, where she highlighted the work we're doing in the Global South. We're really happy to have been part of São Paulo Bitcoin Week. Big shoutout to , and the entire and team for putting together such an incredible week. Looking forward to more of these. See you soon, Brazil 🇧🇷.

, Btrust CEO and Bitcoin Core contributor, joins the #BtrustDeveloperDay lineup to share insights on the future of Bitcoin development across Africa. Abubakar is one of the leading voices shaping the continent’s Bitcoin ecosystem, and also serves as CEO of , a bitcoin-focused venture fund fueling innovative projects across the global Bitcoin landscape. Through his leadership at Btrust, he drives initiatives that empower developers in the Global South with training and mentorship, helping cultivate the next generation of Bitcoin builders. Beyond his technical and community-building work, Abubakar contributes to Forbes Digital Assets, where he shares thoughtful analysis on Bitcoin’s evolution and highlights key developments within Africa’s growing Bitcoin space. Join Developer Day to hear Abubakar’s vision for a decentralized, sustainable Bitcoin ecosystem and the work being done to unlock Africa’s potential in global Bitcoin development. 👉 Secure your spot here: https://clooza.com/events/BTRUSTDEVELOPERDAY

We're excited to announce that , 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 , 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

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 , 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 and : 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.

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 , 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

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: https://devday.btrust.tech/