Africa Free Routing ⚡

We promote LN adoption in Africa and enable fast, cost-effective Bitcoin payments, empowering African businesses to accept Bitcoin.

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

We are building for freedom in Africa, yet bad actors are trying to ruin us. Our African nodes have been hacked. While our customers' funds were not affected, the losses we incurred are so severe we've had to temporarily close our African nodes. This is so sad, we are so sorry 😢

[Advaxe Ndayisenga⚡️ @AdvaxeIr]

An absolute honor to drive this technical intensity as an instructor alongside @heyolaniran . Our combined energy kept the momentum at peak level all week. whiteboards were full, and the code was compiling!
@savingsatoshi @FreeRoutingAf @HRF @btrust_builders @bitdevsgtga

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

@boyacaxa Fair concern. But there are also many Africans actively building, using, and teaching Bitcoin beyond the Twitter bubble. That’s the side we focus on.

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

Our Lightning Developer Bootcamp in Bujumbura, Burundi 🇧🇮 is officially a wrap and what an incredible week it has been.

Over five days, participants journeyed from Bitcoin fundamentals, the history of money, cryptographic signatures, transactions, and the blockchain, all the way to building and testing real projects on the Lightning Network. Today, they pitched those projects to the room. Watching developers who started the week with questions end it with working ideas is exactly why we run these bootcamps.

A huge shoutout to our instructors, @heyolaniran and @advaxeir. You didn’t just teach, you inspired. The depth, clarity, and energy you brought to every session shaped the entire experience. Thank you both.

To our executing team, @_Satoshee and @Ladyyyy_lo, thank you for the countless behind the scenes efforts that made this bootcamp possible. These events only succeed because of people like you.

A special thank you to @belyi_nobel, @Barakana_GE, and the @bitdevsgtga team for inviting us to Burundi, welcoming us so warmly, and supporting the local ground planning. Your community’s passion for Bitcoin education is truly inspiring, and this definitely won’t be our last time here.

And to our sponsors and partners who continue to make this mission possible, @btrustteam, @HRF, @Tether_Africa, @afribitcoiners, @planb_network, and @freetechite, thank you. Your support is what transforms an idea into five days of hands on Bitcoin education across Africa.

The Lightning Network is growing across this continent. One city, one bootcamp, one developer at a time.

Next stop: Kisumu, Kenya 🇰🇪

[TFTC @TFTC21]

Europa is a new decentralized VPN marketplace built on Nostr and paid exclusively with Bitcoin.

It launched this week from @callebtc, the developer behind the Cashu ecash protocol.

The concept is simple but the implications are significant. Instead of trusting a single VPN company with a global server fleet, one privacy policy, and one monthly subscription, Europa lets independent VPN operators list their servers on an open directory.

Each operator runs their own infrastructure in their own jurisdiction, writes their own no-log policy, and sets their own price. Users browse the directory, pick an operator, and pay them directly over Lightning or Cashu ecash. The marketplace never touches the money and takes no cut.

After payment, the operator delivers a standard WireGuard or OpenVPN config file. No proprietary app, no custom client. Users import it into the same open-source VPN software they would use anywhere else and connect. When the bundle runs out, the tunnel goes quiet. No auto-renewal, no card on file, no surprise charges.

The reputation system runs on Nostr. Instead of editorial ratings or paid placements, recommendations and complaints come from people in your social graph. Sign in with a Nostr identity and the directory weights endorsements from accounts you already follow. If Nostr is not your thing, ignore the feature entirely and start with the smallest bundle from an unfamiliar operator to limit your risk.

The entire protocol is built on public Nostr events. Operator listings, reputation data, and payment coordination all live on the Nostr network. The Europa website is just one viewer of that data, not the source. Other directories can exist. If Europa makes bad editorial choices, users can leave without losing access to the underlying marketplace. The protocol spec is CC0 (public domain) and the code is MIT licensed.

What makes this meaningful is the architecture. Traditional VPN providers consolidate trust into one company in one jurisdiction. If that company gets acquired, served with a warrant, or breached, every customer is exposed at once. Europa distributes that trust across independent operators. Users can spread their traffic across multiple operators they actually chose rather than trusting a single brand to make every decision for them.

Anyone with a server can become an operator. Anyone with a Lightning wallet can become a customer. No accounts required for either side.

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

@Barakana_GE @_Satoshee @Ladyyyy_lo @megasley @IamWhiteSarah @afriqualia @EMbits

[₿arakana @Barakana_GE]

Live from Bujumbura: 5-Day Lightning Development Bootcamp ⚡🇧🇮
An intensive hands-on training program taking place in Buja.

Special thanks to @_Satoshee and @Ladyyyy_lo from @FreeRoutingAf, as well as the entire Africa Free Routing team, for making this initiative possible.

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

@boyacaxa Thank you for the kind words. The goal is for them to work for Bitcoin.

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

Day 4 of our Lightning Developer Bootcamp in Bujumbura, Burundi 🇧🇮 is a wrap!

Today was all about building. Participants configured their own setups, used @lightningpolar as dev infrastructure to test their ideas, and spent the day working on their own Lightning projects.

No more hand-holding, just developers building real things on Bitcoin's second layer.

Tomorrow is hackathon pitch day. Can't wait to see what they've built. 🚀

@btrustteam @HRF @Tether_Africa @afribitcoiners @planb_network @bitdevsgtga @Freeti_Bd

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

@rawBit_io Cool! We will check it out.

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

✅ Day 2 of our Lightning Developer Bootcamp in Bujumbura 🇧🇮

Today, we explored and tested different Bitcoin locking scripts including P2PK, P2PKH, P2SH, and P2TR, gaining a deeper understanding of how Bitcoin transactions are secured and validated on the network.

We also applied message encoding and simulated block mining using @savingsatoshi, giving participants hands on experience with core Bitcoin concepts.

To wrap up the day, participants used the Bitcoin CLI to query the Bitcoin blockchain and make transactions between wallets, bringing theory into real world practice.

As usual, the learning, collaboration, and energy in the room continue to be incredible 🚀

@btrustteam @HRF @Tether_Africa @afribitcoiners @planb_network @bitdevsgtga @Freeti_Bdi

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

Day 3 of our Lightning Developer Bootcamp in Bujumbura, Burundi 🇧🇮, is a wrap!

Today our instructors @heyolaniran and @advaxeir went deep into the Lightning Network, its structure, how payment channels are opened, and the mechanics behind the funding transaction contract. We also unpacked payment locks and how they enable trustless transfers between peers.

The highlight? Putting it all into practice with @lightningpolar. Participants simulated a real Lightning network, tested node-to-node payments, and saw firsthand how routed payments scale across the network.

This is where Bitcoin's scalability story gets exciting, and watching developers grasp it in real time is why we do this work.

Day 4 tomorrow 🚀

@btrustteam @HRF @Tether_Africa @afribitcoiners @planb_network @bitdevsgtga @Freeti_Bdi

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

Day 3 of our Lightning Developer Bootcamp in Bujumbura is on going and we're not slowing down ⚡
🇧🇮

@btrustteam @HRF @Tether_Africa @afribitcoiners @planb_network @bitdevsgtga @Freeti_Bdi

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

Day 2 is underway in Bujumbura, Burundi 🇧🇮⚡

The energy in the room is unmatched. Let’s build. 🔥

[Africa Free Routing ⚡ @FreeRoutingAf]

Day 1 of our Lightning Developer Bootcamp in Bujumbura, Burundi 🇧🇮 is a wrap!

We started with the fundamentals, exploring what money actually is, tracing its history, and examining what makes good money. Bitcoin doesn't just meet those criteria; it redefines them.

From there we moved into the technical layer: how Bitcoin transactions are constructed, how cryptographic signatures (ECDSA) work, and the relationship between private and public keys. We closed the day by unpacking blocks and the blockchain itself, the data structure that makes it all trustless.

Shoutout to our instructors @heyolaniran and @advaxeir, you set the tone perfectly for what's going to be an incredible 5 days.

None of this happens without the support of our amazing sponsors and partners, @btrustteam, @HRF, @Tether_Africa, @afribitcoiners, @planb_network, @bitdevsgtga, and @freetechite.
Thank you 🙏

On to Day 2...