Btrust Backs First BitDevs Meetup in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is currently the most interesting Bitcoin story on the continent, but until now, it has always been about hardware and hydropower. We have the state-backed mining deals and the massive energy surplus from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, yet we have lacked a central nervous system for the people actually writing the code. The launch of BitDevs Addis Ababa on April 23 changes the equation.

This is not a networking mixer or a pitch deck session. BitDevs is a global institution known for its Socratic Seminars, which are rigorous, high-level technical discussions where developers dissect recent pull requests and analyze Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs). By bringing this format to Ethiopia, organizers Kal Kassa and the Btrust team are actually proving that Addis is ready to move past being a destination for miners and start being a hub for protocol engineers.

Moving Beyond the Hashrate

For the last two years, Ethiopia has dominated headlines by capturing nearly 2.5% of the global hashrate. While mining provides the muscle for the network, BitDevs provides the brain. Btrust, the non-profit funded by Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z, is backing this specific meetup because their goal is to decentralize the development of Bitcoin itself. They want the people maintaining the world’s hardest money to come from the places that actually need it, rather than just from Silicon Valley or Berlin.

The shift is significant. It moves the local conversation from passive infrastructure to active contribution.

What to Expect at the Seminar

If you are a software engineer or a researcher, this will likely be the first time you are in a room in Addis where "price talk" is effectively banned. The focus stays strictly on the technical side of the ledger.

• Code over Clichés: Expect to dive into the nuances of the Lightning Network, Miniscript, or security vulnerabilities discovered in the last month.
• The Socratic Method: There is no expert at the front of the room lecturing. Instead, a moderator facilitates a debate where everyone is expected to have done the required reading.
• Global Integration: This is no isolated local group. Addis now joins a network of chapters from New York to Lagos, giving Ethiopian developers a direct pipeline to the global open-source community.

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The first session is set for Thursday, April 23, 2026. Given the backing and the novelty of a purely technical Bitcoin event in the region, seats will likely go fast.

• Registration: luma.com/tafunqff
• Updates: Follow @BitDevsAddis for the reading list.