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Title: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on December 28, 2012, 08:43:20 AM Hello,
I'm interested to create the first (well technically not the first but the first to still be existing at this moment) portal for Bitcoin in Africa. I've registered bitcoins.co.ke, a Kenya domain and secured hosting. For now it's just a simple page with a nice template but I'm looking for ideas on what to put there as well as help from someone local to the continent. I'm willing to pay someone in Kenya or Africa a little bit to help develop it. Please PM me with examples of your work if you're interested. Thanks, weex Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: matthewh3 on December 29, 2012, 06:57:34 PM It'd be useful for the site to be mirrored or at least some content in Swahili/Kiswahili. Arabic and French would also be useful for an African audience. Plus making the site work well on a 2G mobile phone would be a good idea. As that's how most Africans access the internet.
Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on December 30, 2012, 07:48:50 AM It'd be useful for the site to be mirrored or at least some content in Swahili/Kiswahili. Arabic and French would also be useful for an African audience. Plus making the site work well on a 2G mobile phone would be a good idea. As that's how most Africans access the internet. Any suggestions on design and test for 2g mobile phones when you don't have one? Guess I'd better figure out what text to post and get translated in the first place. Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Stephen Gornick on December 30, 2012, 09:06:21 AM It'd be useful for the site to be mirrored or at least some content in Swahili/Kiswahili. I'm curious if M-PESA (in Kenya) started out with any language other than English. (Or if they even support it today). Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: matthewh3 on December 30, 2012, 11:54:17 AM It'd be useful for the site to be mirrored or at least some content in Swahili/Kiswahili. I'm curious if M-PESA (in Kenya) started out with any language other than English. (Or if they even support it today). Pesa is Swahili for money. Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Stephen Gornick on December 30, 2012, 06:05:20 PM Pesa is Swahili for money. And Bel Cibo Italiano is Italian for "good italian food" but it was anything but that. Their menu was only in English, the staff spoke only Spanish and if you wanted more authentic Italian than what they served your options include opening yourself a can of Chef Boyardee. My point was, I didn't think they offered a version of M-PESA in Swahili. Apparently they do: Quote Language: Choose to display your M-PESA menu in either English or Swahili. - http://www.vodacom.co.tz/vodacom-m-pesa/vodacom-m-pesa-customers/m-pesa-customerTitle: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: matthewh3 on December 30, 2012, 09:34:59 PM Pesa is Swahili for money. And Bel Cibo Italiano is Italian for "good italian food" but it wasn't. The menu was only in English, the staff spoke only Spanish and if you wanted more authentic Italian than what they served you could open yourself a can of Chef Boyardee. My point was, I didn't think they offered a version of M-PESA in Swahili. Apparently they do: Quote Language: Choose to display your M-PESA menu in either English or Swahili. - http://www.vodacom.co.tz/vodacom-m-pesa/vodacom-m-pesa-customers/m-pesa-customerIt does make sense for M-PESA to offer Swahili as even if English is widely understood the majority of people speak Swahili. So for east Africans and some central Africans learning to read Swahili would be easier than learning to read English as it is their mother-tongue. Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on December 31, 2012, 04:58:06 AM So after further research, I think it'll be good to go with a WAP and responsive CSS. I'm hearing anecdotes that Android uptake is really fast but that WAP is still quite important. I'm also trying to get a developer in Kenya or Africa interested in helping.
Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on January 01, 2013, 02:55:10 AM So after further research, I think it'll be good to go with a WAP and responsive CSS. I'm hearing anecdotes that Android uptake is really fast but that WAP is still quite important. I'm also trying to get a developer in Kenya or Africa interested in helping. Here's the reponsive CSS version of the site in English. http://www.bitcoins.co.ke/ Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on January 01, 2013, 08:07:00 PM Looking for a human English to Swahili translation of http://bitcoins.co.ke and will pay up to 3btc. Bid here or by PM.
Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on January 05, 2013, 03:28:42 AM Looking for a human English to Swahili translation of http://bitcoins.co.ke and will pay up to 3btc. Bid here or by PM. Guess there's not much interest at 3btc. Anyone care to add to the fund? Bitcoin.co.ke Swahili translation bounty address: 1oTTJisx8cpdAuX4tg29hBmVuovr3KACY Title: Re: [Bounty 3 btc] Translate Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal to Swahili Post by: niko on January 05, 2013, 03:52:51 AM Great initiative. It would be nice to have a short video demonstration of typical usecases. A friend from a western country sends bitcoins to an address; only an hour later, the recipient in Kenya spends some of it from her mobile phone, the merchant may be using a phone, too. To set the expectations right and avoid disappointements, it should be mentioned that this is still a young technology, but growing every day.
Title: Re: [Bounty 3 btc] Translate Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal to Swahili Post by: weex on January 25, 2013, 09:55:52 PM The translation to Swahili is done. If you find a typo, let me know! http://bitcoins.co.ke/index.sw.html
Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal now in Swahili Post by: weex on February 01, 2013, 08:36:00 PM And now there is a forum. Trying to get a list of other kenyan and african forums so put a bounty there as well.
http://bitcoins.co.ke/forum In general it seems like Kenya doesn't have enough forums so there are more OT categories there to start. Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal now in Swahili Post by: weex on February 04, 2013, 02:55:54 AM Found someone who was interested to write about payments and the possibliities for Bitcoin in Kenya so here's the first article.
The State of The M-Pesa http://www.bitcoins.co.ke/forum/showthread.php?tid=10 Please join, comment, share on Twitter or Facebook or donate to 1Hekr2AZDFonVzZ9nGwSzR6T3cby35jRYY if you'd like to encourage this type of writing. Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on February 04, 2013, 02:57:06 AM We also have a new logo which Beefsock helped with.
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on February 19, 2013, 08:10:17 AM Thread for The High Cost of PayPal: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144495.0
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Stephen Gornick on February 21, 2013, 03:19:01 PM Is the registration e-mail being sent out automatically? I registered but haven't seen the message. I checked my spam folder as well.
[Edit: And I clicked the re-send activation and didn't get anything after that as well.] Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on February 21, 2013, 05:05:09 PM I'm noticing some weirdness with the email as well. I'll submit a ticket.
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on February 21, 2013, 05:42:31 PM sgornick, your account is now activated and email should be fixed.
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on February 22, 2013, 10:19:20 AM How can Kenyan undergound artists sell music globally at true market rates? (http://www.bitcoins.co.ke/forum/showthread.php?tid=20)
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Ente on February 27, 2013, 09:47:15 AM It looks like it's advancing fast, great! :-)
So, what's needed next, thinking in big steps? Ente Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: baggyp on February 28, 2013, 02:03:49 AM well done sir! I really want to help this project in any way I can, I see it as a good thing not only for the Bitcoin, but for Africa. Early adoption of bitcoin could do alot for that continent.
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on February 28, 2013, 03:25:22 AM So, what's needed next, thinking in big steps? well done sir! I really want to help this project in any way I can, I see it as a good thing not only for the Bitcoin, but for Africa. Early adoption of bitcoin could do alot for that continent. Thank you both! Here are some steps big and small that would be great to take: * We need to build the local exchanger network on localbitcoins.com. Perhaps a document that describes the process or helping to fund some Swahili translations could help with that. * I think growing the local community on the forums and through Twitter (@BitcoinAfrica has been setup for this purpose) would be good. We need a moderator or two who can visit the site daily and approve new users. * Other tasks I've been starting with have been to contact local publications and other local tech startups to let them know about Bitcoin, offer help if they have any questions about the technology, and help to connect them with others that are local to them. The focus has been on Nairobi so far but exploring other African tech centers will become important over time. Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Ente on March 01, 2013, 12:05:25 PM ..lets get some more users and posts in http://www.bitcoins.co.ke/forum :-)
I'll start! Ente Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: ahmed9979 on April 02, 2013, 05:45:57 PM I can do Arabic translation for the site, would you be interested?.
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Werosim on April 06, 2013, 11:45:46 PM Yes, how are you?
Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: mai77 on April 07, 2013, 02:10:41 AM good luck to you. 8)
may we the people overcome all central banks in the world! 8) Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: pvaladares on April 08, 2013, 09:49:28 PM I may start the Portuguese version.
There are severals countries in Africa that currently use Portuguese language (Angola, Mozambique, etc). Give me some feedback. Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Ente on April 09, 2013, 07:02:08 AM I may start the Portuguese version. There are severals countries in Africa that currently use Portuguese language (Angola, Mozambique, etc). Give me some feedback. Good approach! Like, a whole new portal, or a portuguese translation of bitcoins.co.ke? With the currently little members and activity, I would suggest concentrate all of them in one place (as a neginning at least). Ente Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Stephen Gornick on April 09, 2013, 02:40:14 PM New Post:
Afrinnovator - Bitcoin Crypto-currency and the opportunity for a truly Pan-Africa money revolution - http://www.bitcoins.co.ke/forum/showthread.php?tid=36 - http://afrinnovator.com/blog/2013/04/01/bitcoin-crypto-currency-and-the-opportunity-for-a-truly-pan-africa-money-revolution/ - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=164451.0 Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: cypher-punk on April 15, 2013, 10:07:39 AM New Post: Afrinnovator - Bitcoin Crypto-currency and the opportunity for a truly Pan-Africa money revolution - http://www.bitcoins.co.ke/forum/showthread.php?tid=36 - http://afrinnovator.com/blog/2013/04/01/bitcoin-crypto-currency-and-the-opportunity-for-a-truly-pan-africa-money-revolution/ - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=164451.0 excellent idea! Title: Re: Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: IntentionTech on April 25, 2013, 04:51:26 AM It'd be useful for the site to be mirrored or at least some content in Swahili/Kiswahili. Arabic and French would also be useful for an African audience. Plus making the site work well on a 2G mobile phone would be a good idea. As that's how most Africans access the internet. Any suggestions on design and test for 2g mobile phones when you don't have one? Guess I'd better figure out what text to post and get translated in the first place. There may be someone on here that will translate for bitcoins Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: pelleb on June 28, 2013, 08:14:07 AM Hi Kenyan bitcoiners.
We're launching a wallet with mpesa to bitcoin integration. We performed the first M-Pesa to Bitcoin sale 2 weeks ago. Our site is http://kipochi.com and yes we have a version in Kiswahili http://kipochi.com/sw/ I'd be interested in hearing feedback and perhaps organizing a meetup here in Nairobi. Asante sana Pelle Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: niko on July 02, 2013, 11:26:20 PM Hi Kenyan bitcoiners. Can anyone from Kenya confirm a successful M-Pesa transaction through this Website? We're launching a wallet with mpesa to bitcoin integration. We performed the first M-Pesa to Bitcoin sale 2 weeks ago. Our site is http://kipochi.com and yes we have a version in Kiswahili http://kipochi.com/sw/ I'd be interested in hearing feedback and perhaps organizing a meetup here in Nairobi. Asante sana Pelle Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: jim618 on July 08, 2013, 07:34:14 PM (slightly OT but this is the only Kenya thread).
As the Bitcoin activity in Kenya seems to be picking up, I have added Swahili as a target language for MultiBit. If you are a Swahili speaker and are interested in helping translate, please have a look at: http://translate.multibit.org Asante! Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Ente on July 09, 2013, 12:24:41 PM Great project, I wish you all well. I went camping in Uganda for two weeks last January. My cousin has been a missionary/veterinarian there for 22 years. She got married, I went to play music for her wedding (along with two sisters, and some cousins). We were in the Karamoja area (northeast Uganda, not far from Kenya). Where we were was amazingly primitive. The Karamojong do not really have currency, other than cattle. One of the things that impressed me greatly, was the wide use of cellphones in Uganda (not among the Karamojong, but on the way there). There was widespread use of "Mobile Money", an SMS protocol (http://www.mtn.co.ug/MTN-Services/Mobile-Banking/MTN-MobileMoney.aspx) to facilitate peer to peer money. People that lived in cardboard boxes have old candy bar phones, and there are plenty of street kiosks to sell air time, charging, and give cash for the mobile money. This is one of the things that got me interested in Bitcoin. Bringing currency and payments to the otherwise unbankable. Thank you for your observations! Yes, we hear "hey, Bitcoin would be good for Africa!" regularly, but it's first-hand experiences like yours which show the path. Maybe we need to go big on this. Like, founding a Bitcoin-Africa-Foundation. Have some dedicated people, have funds from the community, and do it right. Ente Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: nanobtc on July 09, 2013, 01:59:10 PM Some of the strengths of BTC seem like they could be problems in Africa. BTC is by nature peer to peer. To use it on dumb phones requires a middleman (M-Pesa, Mobile Money, whoever). They are big companies, they probably won't start using this new currency, without a surcharge. And really, that is fine, as long as it doesn't get taxed into the ground.
I asked someone what happens when they lose their phone. They said it's all based on their password, and that the money is "out there" (waving hands in the air) and not on their phone. I guess "the cloud" buzzword has not made it to the small villages yet. Although in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, English is widely spoken, in Uganda there are 40 dialects (much a variation of Swahili). English letters and numbers on phones are alien, but they learn to use them. Many governments in Africa are very corrupt as well, I don't know how well a truly decentralized currency would be accepted. I live in the USA, and have the same thoughts about BTC here. Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on July 09, 2013, 07:46:35 PM Some of the strengths of BTC seem like they could be problems in Africa. BTC is by nature peer to peer. To use it on dumb phones requires a middleman (M-Pesa, Mobile Money, whoever). They are big companies, they probably won't start using this new currency, without a surcharge. And really, that is fine, as long as it doesn't get taxed into the ground. The difference with Bitcoin is that it can help in different ways. No company can have a monopoly on Bitcoin transactions so it breeds competition in whatever it touches. If the technical know-how were there, there could be hundreds of sms powered services backed by Bitcoin. Or maybe they'd use their own servers and Android apps to help move value around with Bitcoin serving as the economic backbone.Quote Many governments in Africa are very corrupt as well, I don't know how well a truly decentralized currency would be accepted. I live in the USA, and have the same thoughts about BTC here. Yeah, it will be tough some places but that's why education and building relationships with all stakeholders is important. The more Bitcoin is seen not so much as an inevitable force but more as a source of competitive advantage (you do want competitive advantage, right?) the more it will be supported.Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Stephen Gornick on March 22, 2014, 02:55:25 PM hi weex,
I'm having trouble logging in. I don't see an error message, but submit on the user login just reloads the page without authenticating me (says "Hello There, Guest!"). I've tried with both my e-mail address as username, and with a username as well. Both behave the same way. Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: weex on March 24, 2014, 08:59:45 PM Stephen,
I think there may be an issue with the cookie the forum uses. Can you try after deleting any bitcoin.co.ke cookies? Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Stephen Gornick on March 25, 2014, 07:51:25 PM Can you try after deleting any bitcoin.co.ke cookies? I was using a new (clean) instance of Chrome, Incognito mode -- so there were no prior cookies. I solved my problem by resetting the password and using that. I feel confident I didn't have the wrong password before because no warning (showing how many more attempts before my account gets locked) appeared on each login attempt. So whatever it was, I cannot reproduce it now. Title: Re: Bitcoins.co.ke - Kenya/Africa Bitcoin portal Post by: Afrikoin on May 12, 2014, 03:22:14 PM Hey Kenyan bitcoiners BTC!
I'm scouring through the net looking for you guys. Let's keep in touch. I'm working on a project to create awareness on crypto currencies in Kenya and will be here often. I look forward to more interaction. |