From The Bitcoin Jungle To The Sea, Let Lightning Be Free!

The Bitcoin Jungle in Costa Rica is a unique place where over 600 merchants accept bitcoin as part of a circular economy. This vibrant community is where Francis Pouliot, the founder of Bull Bitcoin, has made his home for the past three years. Pouliot aims to make Bitcoiner expats feel welcome and at home in Costa Rica, and to achieve this, he has created a web app that enables users to pay with bitcoin over Lightning for almost anything, even if the merchant does not accept it.

The web app works seamlessly with the Bitcoin Jungle wallet, an open-source custodial Lightning wallet, as well as with other Lightning wallets. Users can pay with bitcoin through the web app interface and have their bill settled in the local fiat currency, colónes, using Costa Rica’s national electronic payment system, SINPE. This functionality allows Bitcoin enthusiasts to participate in the country’s digital economy, even if they are not residents of Costa Rica. It also enables those who wish to live on a bitcoin standard to do so easily.

Pouliot emphasized that the Bull Bitcoin web app is as reliable as a credit card, processing hundreds of payments daily in Costa Rica. From May 2024 to May 2025, Bull Bitcoin facilitated 32,774 bitcoin-to-fiat conversions. Pouliot highlighted the importance of maintaining high success rates, as many residents, including himself, rely on the app for day-to-day transactions.

One of the main challenges Pouliot faces is sourcing fiat liquidity for less commonly traded currencies like the colón. Major exchanges do not list the colón, so he sets a virtual bitcoin-to-colón exchange rate based on various factors. This rate ensures that Bull Bitcoin does not lose money on exchanges while remaining accessible to users. Despite the complexities involved in maintaining liquidity, Pouliot commended others around the world who provide similar services with a high degree of reliability.

Ultimately, the Bull Bitcoin Costa Rica web app is revolutionizing the way Bitcoiners interact with the local economy in Costa Rica, paving the way for a future where bitcoin can be seamlessly integrated into everyday transactions. With Pouliot’s dedication to ensuring the app’s reliability and accessibility, the Bitcoin Jungle continues to thrive as a hub for cryptocurrency adoption and innovation.

That’s why, for example, I find Tando so impressive. Kenya’s version of the Bull Bitcoin app isn’t a web app, but a proper app, though the team behind Tando was influenced by what Bull Bitcoin has done in Costa Rica.

“The Bitcoin Jungle team posted a video on their X where they went into a gas station and spent bitcoin while the merchant received the local currency,” Jason, one of Tando’s cofounders, told Bitcoin Magazine.

“I was like, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ We thought that would probably work here if Safaricom [a Kenyan mobile network operator] has an API,” he added.

“And with just a little research, we figured out that ‘Yeah, we can do this.’”

Jason and his co-founder, Sabina Waithira, launched the app in July 2024, enabling Kenyan users to settle bills in Kenyan shillings over M-PESA (Safaricom helped launch M-PESA), a mobile money system that operates in more than a half dozen African countries, while paying with bitcoin over Lightning.

Using Tando, users can pay bills, buy goods, and send Kenyan shillings with nothing more than a recipient’s phone number and a Lightning wallet. The user sends bitcoin from the Lightning wallet of their choosing, Tando’s Lightning node receives the bitcoin, and Tando settles the fiat M-PESA bill for the sender.

All of this happens within seconds.

I know firsthand because I used Tando while I was in Kenya for the African Bitcoin Conference in 2024.

While in Kenya, I paid taxi fares and restaurant bills over M-PESA using Tando, something I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do, since I wasn’t in the country long enough to get an M-PESA account and fund it with Kenyan shillings. As a short-term visitor, it was much easier to spend bitcoin into the local economy with Tando, which doesn’t require a sign-up process.

Making Bitcoin Easier To Spend For Kenyans

Waithira wasn’t familiar with what was happening with Lightning-to-fiat payments in Costa Rica before Jason brought it to her attention.

What motivated her to bring Tando to life was instead her own experience of trying to spend bitcoin in Kenya.

“I used to work for Bitcoin Dada [a virtual Bitcoin education platform and sisterhood for African women] and would sometimes get paid in bitcoin”, Waithira told Bitcoin Magazine. “It was hard to spend that Bitcoin directly.”

While Waithira came up with creative ways to spend her bitcoin, like tipping waiters and waitresses at restaurants with it, she ended up facing the same question from those service workers time and time again: “How can I spend this bitcoin?”

“We didn’t have a great answer to this question”, said Waithira. “So, this is also what inspired Tando.”

Waithira added that “Kenyans are very fast learners and very curious”, which makes it easy to onboard them to Bitcoin and Tando, while Jason shared that Kenyans have been primed for Bitcoin, as they’ve already gone through the mobile money revolution with M-PESA over the past decade and a half.

Waithira also noted that she and Jason have aimed to make Tando as easy to use as M-PESA is — to not scare users off with a complicated interface.

“We wanted to mimic the experience of using M-Pesa”, explained Waithira.

“I don’t like thinking when I use apps, and I don’t think our customers do either”, she added. “We kept this in mind as we designed Tando.”

Waithira and Jason apparently did something right, as Tando has been gaining traction with everyday Kenyans slowly and steadily. It now processes over 100 transactions per day.

And beyond just helping more Kenyans live on a bitcoin standard, the app inspired a developer on the other side of the African continent to create something similar for the citizens of his home country, Ghana.

Ghana’s BitSpenda

Bright Kportiklah also attended the 2024 African Bitcoin Conference and was one of many attendees who used Tando while in Kenya.

Drawing from the inspiration he felt in Kenya as well as the connections he made at the conference, the computer programmer headed back to Ghana after the conference with the intention of building his own version of Tando.

Within a few months, Kportiklah had the beta version of a Lightning-to-fiat interface he’d created — BitSpenda — up and running. And he did this thanks in part to help from seasoned Nigerian Bitcoin entrepreneur Bernard Parah, founder and CEO of Bitnob, whom Kportiklah had met at the conference.

Bitnob is an almost decade-old financial services company that leverages payment infrastructure built on Bitcoin and Lightning. Parah and the team at Bitnob helped Kportiklah connect to local off-ramps in Africa, including mobile money networks in Ghana and Kenya and bank accounts in Nigeria.

BitSpenda, a web app that allows users to send money via Bitcoin in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria, has been making waves in the fintech world. The app, which went live on March 7 this year, has already processed thousands of U.S. dollars’ worth of transactions. BitSpenda is the brainchild of Kportiklah, who was inspired to create the app after meeting Bernard at a conference and receiving guidance from other prominent figures in the industry.

Kportiklah’s vision for BitSpenda is to expand its reach to over a dozen African countries in the near future. He is currently in the process of completing the necessary paperwork to make the app available in the remaining 12 countries on his list. The success of BitSpenda has encouraged more Ghanaians to use Bitcoin as a means of transferring money. Kportiklah explained that many Ghanaians see Bitcoin as a more valuable currency compared to the local fiat currency, the Ghanaian cedi.

One of the key features of BitSpenda is its lightning-fast transaction speed. Users can send money to recipients almost instantly, with the recipient receiving the funds within 30 seconds. In the rare event that a transaction fails, Kportiklah manually sends the payment to the recipient and notifies the sender. This level of efficiency has set BitSpenda apart from traditional money transfer methods.

Despite the app’s growing popularity, Kportiklah and his team have not yet figured out a monetization scheme for BitSpenda. They are more focused on making Bitcoin money rather than traditional profits. The founders of BitSpenda view their work as a labor of love and a contribution to the Bitcoin ecosystem. They are committed to maintaining the infrastructure necessary to facilitate Lightning transactions and promote the use of Bitcoin in Africa.

As the fintech landscape in Africa continues to evolve, BitSpenda is poised to play a significant role in shaping the future of digital payments on the continent. With plans to expand to more African countries in the coming year, BitSpenda is set to revolutionize the way people in Africa send and receive money. Bitcoin adoption in Kenya is gaining traction, with a focus on promoting the cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. While many are working towards this goal, some believe that creating tools to facilitate easy Bitcoin spending is essential. Kportiklah, for example, emphasizes the importance of developing user-friendly tools to encourage Bitcoin usage.

In a recent interview, it was highlighted that local initiatives are crucial in building interfaces that make Bitcoin transactions seamless. It takes dedicated Bitcoin enthusiasts who understand the traditional financial system to create effective solutions. These grassroots projects require a deep knowledge of the local banking system, making them best suited for local management.

While expansion plans may not be at the forefront, support for other local initiatives is encouraged. Collaborating with technology and advice can help foster the growth of Bitcoin adoption in different regions. Pouliot, a prominent figure in the Bitcoin community, commended the efforts of NostrPIX, a Lightning-to-fiat payment app in Brazil, for their innovative approach.

Pouliot also acknowledged the hard work of Bitcoiners worldwide who successfully build and manage interfaces for Bitcoin transactions. Local groups that achieve this feat are praised for their dedication and expertise in navigating the complexities of the financial system. It is recognized that creating user-friendly tools for Bitcoin spending requires a deep understanding of local dynamics and banking systems.

In conclusion, the push for Bitcoin adoption as a medium of exchange in Kenya is driven by grassroots initiatives led by dedicated Bitcoin enthusiasts. By supporting local projects and sharing technology and advice, the global Bitcoin community can further expand the reach of the cryptocurrency. The collaborative efforts of local Bitcoiners are essential in making Bitcoin transactions easy and accessible to a wider audience.