BLANTYRE, MUBAS & BITCOIN

 BLANTYRE, MUBAS & BITCOIN

Written by Pacharo Nyirenda 

Bitcoin Boma in collaboration with Trezor Academy successfully hosted the “Bitcoin Education & Development program 2025 seminar” leaving a concrete Bitcoin beacon mark at Malawi University of Business Studies and Applied Sciences in the  industrious city of Blantyre, Malawi. 

MUBAS Engeneering Theatre

It was a three-week project with three foremen carrying their Mason string lines,  tasked to lay a strong concrete foundation of Bitcoin education. 

Bitcoin is a decentralized electronic crypto currency that is commonly associated with all kinds of crypto currencies. 

What sets the white line is how this innovation isn't fully understood. What it is really, how it works, having access to it and its impact on the traditional finance and how it changes the way we understand and transact with money.

Bitcoin doesn't have the privileged status of a fancy tainted, shinny glass fitted, quarry stone headquarters. No agents sitting under an umbrella with visible agent code placards. As of writing, no major wholesale or retail merchants accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

Those who happen to hear of Bitcoin ask whether it can be exchanged for Kwacha, or if it's a reliable unit of account to buy and scale anything of value. More importantly, is Bitcoin not a scam?  and can one have access to the US dollar using Bitcoin? As at time of the seminar program, The US dollar was fetching MWK 4,500.00 on the popular “Black market” against the Malawian Kwacha. 

The Times Group article dated April 4, 2025, headlined Blantyre as the most expensive city in Malawi. A study conducted by the Centre for Social Concern indicated that it would cost an average family of six to raise MWK 916,388.00 to access basic needs on a monthly basis.

 We assured ourselves to wear Bitcoin shields to recession proof high costs that would easily rip the little change we had. The talk of inflation as recent as 2023 to the present time was a yoke and rod for Malawians.

In all corners of the country, anything with a price tag acted violently. The unforgettable night of November 9, 2023 still looms Malawians. On that fateful day,  a dark cloud hung upon us, blocking the light to charge the purchasing power of prosperity. A catastrophic charge of lightning and thunder cast upon all savings stumbling the purchasing power of the Kwacha currency note to a devalution of 44% leaving everyone in a state of disarray.

The guardian of the Malawian Kwacha, Reserve Bank was nowhere to be seen or found. The door was blown away, allowing the cyclone wind to infiltrate, flipping tables, ripping curtains, shattering glasses to pieces, scattering households, businesses, savings and everything in shambles. 

Since that fate to present it's been left, right up and up with anything concerning the Kwacha. “Yesterday's price is not today's price” is the theme for anyone involved in any commercial activity in Malawi. All fingers and lips synchronize to a slang term “ black market price boss” and “challenges of forex”

Malawi had become a theatre of exchanging value using threatening price tags to give life support to a dwindling economy.

April 28, 2025 all bags packed, the engine roared, seat belts were tucked confirming we were set for travel. The aircon was mild, bottles of water were opened as conversations rattled back and forth, debates on core developers of Bitcoin and whether the future will have subsequent soft forks on the blockchain could be the norm. It eased the journey of three hundred and eleven kilometres. 

MUBAS, Blantyre Session 1 Grant and Kondwani

As a custom we stopped by Ntcheu, a little snack, back stretch and a leak couldn't do us any harm. We successfully arrived in Blantyre around 11:00 PM close to midnight.

April 25,2025 clouds were purely orange. They covered the whole sun, signalling winter. From a windows view, it was easy to tell that the high landscapes of Blantyre can get aggressively cold and having no top to wear on was as risky as exposing your private keys to the public.

Personally, I was nervous but the boys kept the jokes running to ease the pressure. Trezor Academy t-shirts as brand-new and fresh had to be worn with the pride of representing Bitcoin. A little spray to attract bees is the essence of any fragrance.

In no time, we were already at MUBAS formerly known as The University of Malawi, Polytechnic. It was quite bright outside and the campus was decorated with a brand-new structure which added weight to the eyes. 

It is a very impressive address; we gathered the footsteps with our heads-up throwing eyes on every detail. The engineering theatre is where we were heading and some students noticed us, wondering who these men from the east were. 

We were welcomed by Grant and his team who led us all the way to the theatre. A majestic theatre with two sections. A lower and higher section. Artistically crafted, wooden separator doors, adjustable red chairs with “The Polytechnic” logo tailored, I knew we were in for a theatre treat.

Times like these, time moves two steps ahead. As we got accustomed to the surroundings the pear systems, mics, laptops and stage were already set. The Bitcoin Banners were placed side by side.

Sets of fresh water bottles were on the corner of the theatre. Our merch and hardware wallets were on display. The projector flashed the blue and orange text waiting for the input signal. The seminar seemed to have already been waiting for us.

SESSION 1 EVOLUTION OF MONEY

Kondwani Konyani raised the curtain on stage. The moment he welcomed the audience, I knew this was going to be a great presentation. It was like witnessing a great high tide calming down on the waters of nerves.

Kondwani MC making opening remarks

I was the main player of this presentation and when he announced my name and requested that I take the stage my knees felt heavy.

I described how the sky was orange and how I always found joy to be in the city of Blantyre. After all this was the city, I was born in and the thought of this energized my confidence. I ought to pay homage to the very city I took my first breath. The flow of words became seamless.

In the first thirty minutes, I discussed with my audience why we teach money, FIAT currencies then Bitcoin. It's the natural order to start from Genesis.

I discussed in free spirit the evolution of money from the ancient barter trade, commodities as a medium of exchange, transitioning to electrums and free markets choosing gold and silver as God's money.

I threw my eyes in all directions and imagined that the room was empty. Being accustomed to the audience 's eyes, staring and listening can spark nerves right up to the brain.

I had to stand firm and not experience the blue screen of death; this was my spotlight. I continued to devour our ancestors' immense knowledge of nature, leading them to discover the art of creating and preserving value in its purest form using commodities.

They understood the law of conservation and how needs and wants easily fit the natural equilibrium of market balance. This further transitioned in time landing on precious metals. The freedom to explore and create value gave birth to great civilizations and empires.

The main takeaway was the idea that money cannot and will never originate from a state, a bank or an institution by dictate, order or any authority.

Pacharo presenting Session 1

Money has always originated from free people, free markets, common brick layer, Masons, ordinary farmers and those with the skill and craftsmanship that make a community.

A consensus mechanism in its natural order springs into existence as these interact and exchange any form of value using a medium of their choice that directly expresses what they need and want at any given time.

This creates a predicted outcome of what item of value can be considered as money. Truly, commodities or items with the quality and characteristics of natural scarcity, store of value, unit of account, divisible, fungible are picked by the free market. 

Questions were asked, some were like punches. I had to be convincing and called a spade for a spade, it turned out to be a great interaction with the audience. 

I wrapped up my presentation with Bitcoins white paper and the current Dollar FIAT standard.

 When President Nixon unsubscribed from gold status channel, our currency has been nothing short of an act of deceit and tragedy for humanity.

The value of our time and skill has been syphoned by institutions that print currency in unlimited quantities. This system is responsible for all the inequalities and retrogressions. A few hands benefit whilst the rest work for something that someone can simply print out of thin air.

Students of MUBAS taking notes

In Bitcoin's white paper, soon after Bank runs and the Federal Reserve acting on “Too big to fail” printing over $700 billion, Satoshi unveiled a new innovation, a system of electronic digital currency that was independent, outside institutions, banks or government control.

This electronic cash bypasses middleman and allows individuals to possess, send, receive and store their own value. This form of digital currency is what is known as Bitcoin.

The first decentralized digital electronic currency and payment network infrastructure that is direct and peer to peer with finality.

Bitcoin truly is the banner with a message of “the money belongs to the people, get back to free money”

SESSION 2 UNDERSTANDING BITCOIN

Session 2 Understanding Bitcoin

We had a successful journey back to Lilongwe. In no time, we had to prepare for the second session on May 2nd, 2025. This time around it was all about Bitcoin.

As a foreman, I thought I did well in setting the foundation, with all corners set, it was time to insert the building blocks. Yankho Ngolleka, a Bitcoin programmer, doctor and founder for Women of Satoshi cooperative was ready to fit and plaster the blocks.

 He was going to raise the walls from the foundation level and up. He was about to engage with the audience on how Bitcoin works as a medium of exchange in a transaction. His focus was going to explore what inside Bitcoin, what are the coins in the Bits. It was going to be a very practical session.

On this special day, we unfolded layers of Bitcoin. From knowing how Bitcoin is minted using cryptographic and computational power to exchanging ownership of private keys, which is the Bitcoin.

Yankho Ngolleka presenting Session 2

In his locks, buffy stature, wearing a white Women of Satoshi Cooperative t-shirt and magnet earrings, he drew the attention further.

Ngoleka introduced Bitcoin from a developer’s perspective as he always says, “there two sides to Bitcoin, the economic and developers’ aspect”

Bitcoin in a developer’s aspect is quite a sight to behold. There are just letters and numbers all infused in a long string of a script.

As a non-technical individual, you cannot make any sense of it, yet inside this string contains private keys that give one access to Bitcoin.

In black and white text, here's how Yankho deciphered it.One has to have access to the internet, a digital wallet and the courage to tap on the screen.He explained that when one has access to the internet, a web of computers interconnected to each other with no government or central server to control it, one has access to the Bitcoin network.

Yankho explaining fundamentals of BTC wallets and Blockchain

When one installs a Bitcoin wallet or the Bitcoin software, they are automatically part of the decentralized network infrastructure and can have access to the Bitcoin infrastructure known as the blockchain which acts as a digital ledger that permanently records all transactions from its beginning, the Genesis block.

In this ecosystem he said every individual has a specific role to play. When one installs a Bitcoin wallet on their device, they are able to send and receive any amount of Bitcoin. Of course, without disclosing any of an individual's personal information and details.The Bitcoin wallets interact with Bitcoin blockchain, broadcasting change of private key ownership (transactions) within individuals. 

The task of those who installed the Bitcoin software is to validate legitimacy of transactions and permanently record them on the blockchain ledger using computational energy to solve complex Mathematical puzzles.The result, Bitcoin rewards. A computer that competes, solves complex mathematical puzzles much faster stands the chance to mine the block and earn Bitcoins. 

explaining the UTXO model and MEMpool

 It was such a grand crayon show. What stood out was how Bitcoin has two layers underneath it. The on-chain network and lightning layer protocol. He explained that in an on-chain layer, interacting with the wallet, there's no such thing as available balance in the wallet, rather Unspent Transactions Output, UTXO’s.

I saw one member in the audience take a deep sip of water from the bottle. I knew he understood the concept by being lost in the show. 

Yankho clarified that when a transaction happens in an onchain environment the whole Bitcoin including a network fee is sent as a whole to the recipient. More like when you are shopping using cash, you give the whole lump sum to a cashier in exchange for change, if any.

That becomes the sender's unspent output transaction. Such was designed to avoid the very problem that existed and rooted in the traditional financial system, the double spending problem. Using the same funds at different time stamps as payment without any noise. 

We further learnt that Bitcoin’s immutable nature any slight change in the blockchain must be verified and agreed with all participants known as nodes. In such a manner, Bitcoin is transparent, showcasing what's happening in its ledger and what it is recording at any given time. Of course, all this without revealing who you are, unless one becomes irresponsible and leaves a trail behind. 

As he plastered the walls, he introduced the lightning layer of Bitcoin, known as layer 2 of the network. As Bitcoin’s use case surged, he explained how this started to weigh on the network infrastructure causing scalability issues, inconvenience and network traffic.

As Satoshi prioritized security over convenience, it would approximately take 10 minutes or more for a transaction to be verified. Ngoleka also explained how the block size was designed with a limit of bytes it can record and flip to the next block. Bitcoin could have easily been the slowest network infrastructure for sending and receiving transactions.

Here Ngolleka took the plot and twisted it. He went on to explain that Bitcoin is an open source and programmable smart money.

Bitcoin users were able to solve this problem by creating mesh channel payments that are instant, scaling the process of sending and receiving transactions, enabling transactions to be verified by channels and later integrated into the blockchain. Although at the cost of security, this enables anyone to buy the smallest value of an item using Bitcoin at almost zero fees.

As the audience clapped hands for the great presentation, each participant installed a Bitcoin wallet on their phone without being asked how many pets you have at your home.

It was an honour for Ngoleka to have finally built solid rock walls, plastering them all round and firm. It was quite an exquisite presentation. 

Setting up a lightning wallet

SESSION 3 BITCOIN & FREEDOM

I never mentioned that we had a devoured Bitcoin preacher who has an immense theological essence in Bitcoin. Who captures the congregation, tunes the melodies and zaps messages of Bitcoin and freedom. I am talking of the founder for Bitcoin Study Hubs who is to build grassroot congregations and build secular economies using Bitcoin.

Kondwani presenting BTC & Freedom

Kondwani Konyani was not just the master of ceremonies at MUBAS but was also at the front line of the curtain raiser. It's his delivery that affirms durability and conviction.As a foreman for this seminar, he had to lay the top and finish. Advocating for Bitcoin, freedom and its use case in Malawi.

Konyani stated the key aspects of why Bitcoin is the silent revolution and the home of freedom, sharing his experience in what prompted him to believe in this technology. 

He never thought he would be able to send and receive value from the outside physical boundaries of Malawi without charge fees, ID or passport requirements, three weeks of time stamping, tracing and whether he qualifies or not to receive or send funds.

Censorship, monitoring, surveillance is the standard procedure in the normal traditional financial sector in Malawi. Without an ID, license or passport you won't receive or even send funds in some scenarios. Some are also required to declare source of funds and detail what its use case is for. 

He covered the top of the building by letting us know that is not freedom. That is bondage to the system designed for humanity to be slaves.

This reminded me of the sound money our ancestry chose when they had free markets. Where there was no need to provide identification requirements to pass. Such was a flawless system. Kanyoni emphasized on Bitcoin as humanity's chance of liberation and freedom as it is an open-source code, open to anyone, open for input, programmable that uses a set of universal laws that apply to all regardless of where they come from, gender, affiliation, religion.

Bitcoin is boardless, anyone in the world can at an instant send value via its network and reach the other side of the world with no tussles, looking eyes and middlemen fees.

Giving a test to participants

He expressed Bitcoin allows one to convert their time, energy and savings through memorising a seed phrase, enabling one to protect their precious savings from tyranny governments, Banks with predatory instincts of eroding savings through inflation and quantitative easings and enabling one to become their own bank.

He wrapped the seminar with a verse common in the Bitcoin space. True freedom comes with great responsibility. Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.

Taking group photos and networking 

participant being awarded certificate and Bitcoin Kids by Nzonda Fotsing 

As we applauded it was nearly 5:30 PM. We awarded certificates of participation and zapped Sats to the Blink and Wallet of Satoshi’s.

The building was complete, the seminar was a success and a strong Bitcoin education shelter was completed. We looked forward to the next opportunity to host an educative seminar and add to the success stories of Bitcoin adoption in Malawi.