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Bitcoin Ekasi, located in Mossel Bay, South Africa
Frank Corva
Founded in August 2021, Bitcoin Ekasi, a Bitcoin circular economy project based in a township in Mossel Bay, South Africa (Ekasi is slang for “township” in Afrikaans) continues to expand thanks to the efforts of its dedicated members.
Hermann Vivier, founder and Chairman of Bitcoin Ekasi, shared that the continued success of the project hinges in part on the work of The Surfer Kids non-profit, which Vivier founded in 2010. The Surfer Kids is an organization that teaches marginalized youth commitment and dedication through surfing and also provides them with after-school educational support.
“Bitcoin Ekasi operates with The Surfer Kids as its umbrella organization,” Vivier told me in an interview.
“The secret to Bitcoin Ekasi’s success is the fact that we have a long-standing relationship with the community with which we work. We started operating in this particular community where Bitcoin Ekasi is based in 2015,” he added.
This isn’t to say that introducing Bitcoin into the community — one in which many of the residents have never even opened a bank account — was easy, though.
Luthando Ndabambi, Project Community Leader at Bitcoin Ekasi and The Surfer Kids, recalled how challenging it was to onboard both merchants and everyday people alike to Bitcoin three and a half years ago.
“In the beginning, it was tough,” Ndabambi told me in an interview.
“Most shop owners in the township had never heard of Bitcoin, except perhaps from negative associations with scams, which made them understandably suspicious,” he added.
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