Earlier than coming to grasp Bitcoin, Anaïse Kanimba didn’t view it as something greater than one other asset for “crypto bros” to commerce.
However after studying about what issues Bitcoin solves — from cheaper, sooner remittances to serving as cash for the unbanked to serving to pro-democracy activists to lift funds with out doxxing their donors — Kanimba has seen the Bitcoin mild, so to talk.
We mentioned the arc of her coming to grasp Bitcoin in a current interview I carried out together with her:
Within the interview, she admits that she was downright confused when she first got here into contact with Bitcoin proponents and developers at the Oslo Freedom Forum.
“After I arrived on the Oslo Freedom Discussion board and noticed a Bitcoin space, I used to be very, very confused,” laughed Kanimba within the interview.
“What are these folks doing right here?” she thought to herself — earlier than studying that they have been there to assist.
Embracing Freedom Tech and Bitcoin
Whereas working to free her father, Paul Rusesabagina, well-known for saving the lives of over one thousand folks through the 1994 Rwandan genocide (as depicted within the movie Lodge Rwanda), who had been abducted and jailed by the Rwandan authorities, Kanimba’s sister and cousin, each of whom have been additionally advocating for the discharge of Rusesabagina, discovered that Pegasus spyware had been put in on their telephones.
It was at this level that they discovered the significance of defending and sustaining their privateness within the digital house, particularly as they advocated for the discharge of their father from Rwanda’s autocratic regime.
“Lots of people from the liberty tech motion got here to us and helped us create higher [privacy] boundaries for ourselves, to seek out instruments that may defend [us] via our advocacy,” mentioned Kanimba.
Whereas studying about digital privateness practices, Kanimba additionally discovered extra about Bitcoin. She shortly noticed its worth as a fundraising software.
“Individuals have been scared to donate to [the] authorized protection fund [for my father] as a result of they have been scared to be [connected to it],” recounted Kanimba, highlighting the truth that Bitcoin allows customers to transact whereas defending their identification.
Kanimba would later study in regards to the aforementioned use circumstances for Bitcoin, which shortly made her a believer within the know-how.
“I might relate in a short time to the challenges that Bitcoin is attempting to resolve,” mentioned Kanimba.
“Serious about my earlier [work] in growth, I used to be in a position to join loads of the dots, and I noticed this as a very unimaginable software that may save the lives of individuals, particularly the folks on the backside of the ladder who’re attempting to make ends meet, people who find themselves preventing in opposition to autocracy,” she added.
Co-founding the Africa Bitcoin Institute
Kanimba has develop into so satisfied of Bitcoin’s utility that she’s now working alongside the likes of Togolese human rights activist Farida Nabourema, the Human Rights Basis’s world Bitcoin lead Femi Longe, and Gridless CEO Erik Hersman to get the Africa Bitcoin Institute (ABI), an African assume tank and analysis group, off the bottom.
Her motivation is to have Africans throughout varied disciplines contribute to the analysis on Bitcoin throughout the continent.
“The story is usually written by folks from outdoors of the continent,” mentioned Kanimba.
“And people [from Africa] who write about this are buried within the ecosystem of the manufacturing of the report. Individuals write about one thing that’s taking place in Lagos, put it on-line, anyone makes use of that as a supply, and by the point it will get revealed in additional established journals or extra established reviews then the voice of the individuals who really gathered this information is misplaced,” she added.
“The narrative ought to be coming from folks residing it, and that is the place ABI is available in to help the community of those researchers, assist folks perceive bitcoin a bit of bit higher — its challenges and its alternatives.”
Bitcoin Regulation: Pondering Globally, Making use of Regionally
Kanimba is presently based mostly in Washington, D.C. and has been paying shut consideration to each how the Trump administration is treating Bitcoin and to the kind of regulation the U.S. is creating round it.
“I’m joyful that this administration is placing these questions [about Bitcoin] ahead and that regulators are serious about it as a result of it encourages different nations to additionally assume critically about it,” mentioned Kanimba.
“If the administration have been saying ‘All of this can be a rip-off and that is only for unhealthy folks’ then you possibly can think about the dialog we’d be having in Africa can be very comparable. Regulators can be feeling the identical method, and if regulators really feel like that, then the folks utilizing bitcoin P2P can be affected,” she added.
With that mentioned, Kanimba defined that the implementation of probably comparable Bitcoin coverage in Africa should be thought-about with native context in thoughts.
“We should be very cautious that we don’t simply copy and paste it,” mentioned Kanimba.
For extra on Kanimba’s work and the work of the Africa Bitcoin Institute, comply with Kanimba on X and go to the Africa Bitcoin Institute’s website.