Kal Kassa (Twitter @KalKassa) runs BitcoinBirr.org, an open-source Bitcoin educational initiative for Ethiopia. He also runs DIDIBold (DIDIBold.com), a branding/tech/marketing company. To strengthen the Bitcoin circular economy, I collaborated with Kal and DIDIBold for this podcast's logo and branding assets.
Kal is Changing the Tide when it comes to onboarding Ethiopians to Bitcoin. He has a goal to onboard 10,000 Ethiopians to a Lightning wallet by September 2022 and is currently at 12% of the goal. He is set to speak on "Bitcoin in the Developing World" at the upcoming Oslo Freedom Forum. Next year, he will also host a Bitcoin conference in Addis Ababa next year.
We also talked about:
*his family's migration to California, moving back to Ethiopia after college, and landing in Austin
*what laid the groundwork for him to become a Bitcoiner
*inflation as Ethiopia's biggest burden, and what Ethiopians are doing to beat it
*Bitcoin as the answer to the inflation problem in Ethiopia
*what people like Neel Kashkari of the Minneapolis Fed misunderstand about how Bitcoin can create new opportunities in places like Ethiopia
*meeting Lightning developers at PlebFi and BitDevs in Austin, including a cool realization about how much sense it makes for @roasbeef to be working on the network
*my Bitcoin journey, which Kal was kind enough to ask about
**Note: Nothing in this podcast constitutes financial or legal advice. The content within is solely for educational purposes. Please consult tax and legal professionals before making financial or other decisions based on what you hear.**