Mama Bitcoin: Fishing for female empowerment with crypto in West Africa

2 years ago

Mama Bitcoin is the pseudonym claimed by a young Senegalese Bitcoiner called Bineta. Her business, Bleu comme la mer, was the archetypal retailer successful Senegal (and perchance West Africa) to judge crypto arsenic payment. She’s besides the archetypal procreation of her household to work and constitute proficiently.

The sanction Mama Bitcoin takes inspiration from the initials of her name, portion the “mama” not lone reflects her motherly instincts but serves to animate different women successful West Africa to get into blockchain technology and Bitcoin (BTC). She told Cointelegraph:

“There are precise fewer women that are progressive successful the blockchain abstraction astir the satellite and the concern is nary antithetic successful Senegal. I wanted to radiance a airy connected being a pistillate successful the crypto industry.”

Bineta archetypal stumbled crossed Bitcoin successful aboriginal 2017 acknowledgment to a funny operation of bully intentions and incongruous circumstances. Bineta had dreams of opening her village’s archetypal bakery, a tiny sportfishing colony called Mbour 90 minutes southbound of Senegal‘s capital, Dakar. But, successful bid to present lukewarm pains au chocolat to the assemblage each morning, Bineta needed money.

It’s incredibly hard to get a slope indebtedness for a concern thought successful West Africa, and it’s adjacent harder for women. Bineta had to hunt for alternate means. She tried a multi-level selling strategy (MLM) earlier proceeding from a person successful Cameroon that Bitcoin mightiness acceptable the bill.

After copious research, Bineta‘s curiosity sparked. She rapidly realized that Bitcoin was acold much important for her imaginativeness than a perchance risky MLM scheme. Fast-forward to mid-2017 and Mama Bitcoin had spent hours and hours devouring Bitcoin-related contented successful French and successful English, translating wherever possible.

She’d arrived astatine the decision that Bitcoin is much than conscionable a “number spell up” exertion — it could physique acold much than a caller colony bakery:

“The much I learned, the much I realized we request this. This benignant of wealth volition assistance flooded truthful galore issues. Not lone is Bitcoin a instrumentality for freedom, but the exertion underpinning Bitcoin specified arsenic blockchain and decentralization volition alteration Africa‘s development.”

The travel down the Bitcoin rabbit spread shifted Bineta‘s plans up a gear. The bakery (Bineta jokes it would person been called the Bitcoin Boulangerie) was dropped and a imaginativeness for Bitcoin successful West Africa took its place.

As the advancement and the terms of Bitcoin roseate during the 2017 bull run, her knowing of the protocol evolved.

“Bitcoin isn’t conscionable a means of self-financing without utilizing a bank, it’s a technological gyration and a mode of unlocking maturation and improvement successful Senegal.”

Questions specified arsenic “why is it truthful large yet wherefore bash truthful fewer Senegalese radical speech astir it, why is the media avoiding this captious topic, wherefore doesn’t Senegal usage this instrumentality and wherefore are determination truthful fewer women talking astir it?” kept swirling successful her head.

Bineta acceptable to work, penning articles astir Bitcoin connected societal media websites, reaching retired to the Senegalese Bitcoin and crypto community and reevaluating her goals.

Drawing from past acquisition successful concern and fixed the proximity of Senegal to the Atlantic ocean, Bineta allowed herself to imagination bigger. She conceived past established an ambitious seaside cognition called Bleu comme la mer.

A sportfishing commerce platform, Bleu comme la mer connects fishermen straight with consumers, removing the middleman. It is the archetypal concern successful Senegal to judge Bitcoin arsenic payment. They besides judge Ether (ETH) and Tezos (XTZ). In fact, Mama Bitcoin founded the Tezos assemblage successful West Africa.

Sardines, shrimp, octopus and squid — thing that tin beryllium fished from the Atlantic — are disposable to bargain with cryptocurrency connected the platform. Bineta adds:

“Payment with cryptocurrencies shows that, contrary to what galore radical think, Bitcoin is simply a peer-to-peer outgo solution, not a speculative asset.”

The blockchain imaginativeness extends simply beyond cryptocurrency payments. Bineta has focused connected making Bleu comme la Mer into a decentralized e-commerce level wherever fishermen log their catches and consumers tin spot precisely what was fished and from where.

Not lone does the decentralized level purpose to streamline the sportfishing industry, but it besides strives to undermine overfishing, a harmful yet communal enactment successful West Africa’s waters.

Nonetheless, “Senegalese and West Africans are rather skeptical astir Bitcoin.” Getting much women into crypto, a passionateness task of hers, remains a long-standing challenge.

However, determination is hope. At Dakar’s archetypal in-person Bitcoin meetup successful 2022, determination were 3 women retired of 20 participants. It’s a tiny but beardown start, undoubtedly boosted by Mama Bitcoin‘s infectious vigor and zest for cryptocurrency.