Welcome to the jungle — the Bitcoin Jungle.
Bitcoin Jungle is a bitcoin round economic system positioned within the Puntarenas province of Uvita, Costa Rica, the place over 600 retailers settle for bitcoin. It’s additionally the place Francis Pouliot has referred to as house for the previous three years.
And the Canadian expat and founding father of Bull Bitcoin needs different Bitcoiner expats who go to the area, and Costa Rica at massive, to really feel how he feels within the nation — welcomed.
For that reason, he and the staff at Bull Bitcoin created an online app that works each throughout the Bitcoin Jungle pockets, an open supply, custodial Lightning pockets, and along side different Lightning wallets.
Via the online app interface, Bitcoin fans pays for nearly something with bitcoin over Lightning, no matter whether or not the service provider or counterparty with whom they’re transacting accepts it.
Utilizing the Bitcoin Jungle app or the online app immediately, customers pays with bitcoin and have their invoice settled within the native fiat forex, colónes, over the nation’s nationwide digital cost system, SINPE (Sistema Nacional de Pagos Electrónicos). (That is corresponding to how Strike, Bringin, and Bull Bitcoin allows customers to pay with bitcoin over Lightning to settle fiat payments through the US’ ACH system, Europe’s SEPA system, and Canada’s Interac system, respectively.)
With greater than 90% of the nation’s residents over the age of 18 utilizing SINPE for each day funds, the Bull Bitcoin app makes it very straightforward for nonresidents of Costa Rica to take part within the nation’s digital economic system (you have to be a resident of the nation to open a SINPE account) and/or for many who need to stay on a bitcoin normal.
“This permits individuals to stay solely off of bitcoin,” Pouliot instructed Bitcoin Journal. “Each service provider that accepts fiat funds over SINPE in Costa Rica can now settle for funds from a Bitcoiner.”
How the Bull Bitcoin Costa Rica Net App Works
When customers use the Bull Bitcoin net app in Costa Rica, they make a cost to a Bull Bitcoin Lightning node on the backend. As soon as Bull Bitcoin receives this cost, it makes a fiat cost through SINPE on the consumer’s behalf.
Bull Bitcoin processes tons of of such funds each day in Costa Rica. From Might 2024 to Might 2025, Bull Bitcoin processed 32,774 bitcoin-to-fiat conversions.
Pouliot prides himself on ensuring the Bull Bitcoin net app is as reliable as a bank card, as a result of he is aware of that many within the nation, himself included, depend upon it day in and day trip.
“Should you’re on the fuel station in Costa Rica and also you don’t have a bank card and also you simply crammed up your automobile, you want that Lightning-to-SINPE cost to work as a result of in any other case you’re screwed,” defined Pouliot.
“That is how lots of us stay right here. We don’t use bank cards. We don’t have money. So, if I’m going to the fuel station, this app higher fucking work. In any other case, I simply crammed up my automobile and I’ve a really indignant fuel station attendant,” he added.
“The success fee is effectively over 99% — virtually 100%. I don’t even keep in mind any Lightning funds failing. And that’s as a result of the Bull Bitcoin is managed by hardcore Bitcoiners that know how you can navigate Lightning Community liquidity.”
Pouliot added that the toughest a part of retaining the app functioning correctly isn’t working the Lightning node or plugging within the banking API, although. As an alternative, he mentioned the largest problem is sourcing the fiat liquidity in a not-so-widely-accepted fiat forex just like the colón.
“There is no such thing as a worldwide open market for very low-liquidity fiat currencies and bitcoin,” defined Pouliot.
“Neither Kraken nor Binance or Coinbase checklist the colón — there’s no bitcoin-to-colónes order e book. We have to promote that bitcoin to another person to get the fiat with the intention to pay out the fiat service provider,” he added.
Pouliot defined that, as a result of main bitcoin and crypto exchanges don’t checklist the colón, he primarily units the trade fee for it by setting up what he calls a “digital bitcoin-to-colón trade fee.” To calculate this fee, Pouliot elements within the colón-to-U.S. greenback fee and the USD-to-bitcoin fee after which provides a 1% gross margin fee to assist Bull Bitcoin not lose cash on the trade fee whereas nonetheless retaining the product accessible to customers.
He burdened that sustaining liquidity is really the largest problem on this course of, and he tipped his hat to others all over the world who provide the same service with a comparable diploma of reliability.
“Everytime you see a gaggle of folks that have achieved this seamless circulation, know that whereas it sounds so easy, it may be very difficult on the again finish”, mentioned Pouliot. “That’s why, for instance, I discover Tando so spectacular.”
Kenya’s Tando
Kenya’s model of the Bull Bitcoin app isn’t an online app, however a correct app, although the staff behind Tando was influenced by what Bull Bitcoin has executed in Costa Rica.
“The Bitcoin Jungle staff posted a video on their X the place they went right into a fuel station and spent bitcoin whereas the service provider acquired the native forex,” Jason, one in every of Tando’s cofounders, instructed Bitcoin Journal.
“I used to be like, ‘That’s fairly cool.’ We thought that will most likely work right here if Safaricom [a Kenyan mobile network operator] has an API,” he added.
“And with just a bit analysis, we discovered that ‘Yeah, we will do that.’”
Jason and his co-founder, Sabina Waithira, launched the app in July 2024, enabling Kenyan customers to settle payments in Kenyan shillings over M-PESA (Safaricom helped launch M-PESA), a cell cash system that operates in additional than a half dozen African international locations, whereas paying with bitcoin over Lightning.
Utilizing Tando, customers pays payments, purchase items, and ship Kenyan shillings with nothing greater than a recipient’s cellphone quantity and a Lightning pockets. (M-PESA solely requires a recipient’s cellphone quantity for cash transfers.)
The consumer sends bitcoin from the Lightning pockets of their selecting, Tando’s Lightning node receives the bitcoin, and Tando settles the fiat M-PESA invoice for the sender.
All of this occurs inside seconds.
I do know firsthand as a result of I used Tando whereas I used to be in Kenya for the African Bitcoin Convention in 2024.
Whereas in Kenya, I paid taxi fares and restaurant payments over M-PESA utilizing Tando, one thing I in any other case wouldn’t have been in a position to do, since I wasn’t within the nation lengthy sufficient to get an M-PESA account and fund it with Kenyan shillings. As a short-term customer, it was a lot simpler to spend bitcoin into the native economic system with Tando, which doesn’t require a sign-up course of.
Making Bitcoin Simpler To Spend For Kenyans
Waithira wasn’t aware of what was taking place with Lightning-to-fiat funds in Costa Rica earlier than Jason introduced it to her consideration.
What motivated her to carry Tando to life was as a substitute her personal expertise of attempting to spend bitcoin in Kenya.
“I used to work for Bitcoin Dada [a virtual Bitcoin education platform and sisterhood for African women] and would generally receives a commission in bitcoin”, Waithira instructed Bitcoin Journal. “It was onerous to spend that Bitcoin immediately.”
Whereas Waithira got here up with inventive methods to spend her bitcoin, like tipping waiters and waitresses at eating places with it, she ended up dealing with the identical query from these service staff time and time once more: “How can I spend this bitcoin?”
“We didn’t have an awesome reply to this query”, mentioned Waithira. “So, that is additionally what impressed Tando.”
Waithira added that “Kenyans are very quick learners and really curious”, which makes it straightforward to onboard them to Bitcoin and Tando, whereas Jason shared that Kenyans have been primed for Bitcoin, as they’ve already gone via the cell cash revolution with M-PESA over the previous decade and a half.
Waithira additionally famous that she and Jason have aimed to make Tando as straightforward to make use of as M-PESA is — to not scare customers off with an advanced interface.
“We needed to imitate the expertise of utilizing M-Pesa”, defined Waithira.
“I don’t like pondering once I use apps, and I don’t suppose our prospects do both”, she added. “We stored this in thoughts as we designed Tando.”
Waithira and Jason apparently did one thing proper, as Tando has been gaining traction with on a regular basis Kenyans slowly and steadily. It now processes over 100 transactions per day.
And past simply serving to extra Kenyans stay on a bitcoin normal, the app impressed a developer on the opposite aspect of the African continent to create one thing related for the residents of his house nation, Ghana.
Ghana’s BitSpenda
Brilliant Kportiklah additionally attended the 2024 African Bitcoin Convention and was one in every of many attendees who used Tando whereas in Kenya.
Drawing from the inspiration he felt in Kenya in addition to the connections he made on the convention, the pc programmer headed again to Ghana after the convention with the intention of constructing his personal model of Tando.
Inside just a few months, Kportiklah had the beta model of a Lightning-to-fiat interface he’d created — BitSpenda — up and working. And he did this thanks partially to assist from seasoned Nigerian Bitcoin entrepreneur Bernard Parah, founder and CEO of Bitnob, whom Kportiklah had met on the convention.
Bitnob is an virtually decade-old monetary providers firm that leverages cost infrastructure constructed on Bitcoin and Lightning. Parah and the staff at Bitnob helped Kportiklah connect with native off-ramps in Africa, together with cell cash networks in Ghana and Kenya and financial institution accounts in Nigeria. (BitSpenda at the moment serves the residents of those three international locations.)
“It’s very troublesome to hook up with these native off-ramps through API as a small fintech,” Kportiklah instructed Bitcoin Journal.
“After I instructed Bernard on the convention that I needed to construct one thing much like Tando, he gave me a contact to succeed in out to in Ghana,” he added.
This contact helped Kportiklah join BitSpenda to Ghana’s cell cash system.
Kportiklah additionally added that Kgothatso Ngako, the founding father of Machankura (which permits customers to ship bitcoin over Lightning utilizing a characteristic cellphone), and Onionsman of Bitpension (a bitcoin pension account platform primarily based in Nigeria) have additionally suggested him on the venture.
“I met all these individuals on the convention in Kenya, and so they have been so instrumental in serving to me construct this,” Kportiklah mentioned.
BitSpenda went stay on March 7 this yr.
To make use of the online app, senders can lookup the recipients they need to ship cash to by cellphone quantity in Ghana and Kenya and by checking account quantity in Nigeria.
As soon as the sender has discovered the recipient they’re in search of and decides to make a cost, a Lightning bill or QR code is generated, and, virtually immediately, the bitcoin the consumer sends is transformed into the recipient’s native forex and the transaction is settled.
“Inside 30 seconds, the recipient will obtain the cash, and the sender can see on BitSpenda whether or not the cash was acquired or not,” defined Kportiklah.
If a transaction fails, as has solely occurred in lower than 1% of transaction makes an attempt to this point, Kportiklah can manually ship the cost to the recipient and notify the sender that the transaction has gone via.
As of late April 2025, the app had processed 1000’s of U.S. {dollars}’ price of transactions. Kportiklah claimed that the app has inspired extra Ghanaians to make use of bitcoin not simply because they really feel that bitcoin is a greater cash than Ghanaian cedis, the nation’s fiat forex, however for one more essential purpose, as effectively.
“Ghanaians are extra prepared to make use of Bitcoin due to the worth it gives when it comes to finance,” defined Kportiklah.
“For instance, in Ghana, if you happen to hold your cash in your financial institution accounts, on the finish of the month, the financial institution will cost charges, however this isn’t the case when individuals use bitcoin as a substitute of their financial institution,” he added.
“Some individuals additionally simply see bitcoin as a forex that has extra worth as in comparison with the Ghanaian cedi and select to make use of it for that purpose.”
Kportiklah additionally famous that an app like BitSpenda is especially useful in Ghana, the place outdoors of the Bitcoin round economic system that Kportiklah serves because the technical advisor for — Bitcoin Dua — virtually no retailers settle for bitcoin.
And he aspires to not solely provide this service to Ghanaians, however to Africans in over a dozen international locations.
“A yr from now, we needs to be in a minimum of 15 African international locations”, mentioned Kportiklah.
It’s onerous to doubt he’ll accomplish this when, in below 4 months, he was in a position to roll out BitSpenda in three international locations.
Kportiklah mentioned he’s at the moment finishing the mandatory paperwork to make BitSpenda out there to members of the remaining 12 international locations he needs to service.
He’ll need to hurry, although, provided that the staff from Tando is trying to broaden into Uganda quickly and {that a} new net app constructed by a Senegalese developer — Banxaas — now allows bitcoin-to-fiat funds in Senegal, as effectively.
A Labor Of Love
The irony in what Pouliot, Waithira, Jason and Kportiklah have created is that they’re much less motivated by making a living than they’re by making bitcoin cash.
“This isn’t a worthwhile endeavor”, deadpanned Pouliot about Bull’s Bitcoin Costa Rica net app.
“Truly, this has a really excessive value for us — it’s very difficult and there’s lots of overhead. So, it’s executed with the mindset of ‘Certain, possibly in the future it’s going to be worthwhile,’ however we do that extra to be a part of the Bitcoin Jungle mission of sustaining infrastructure to facilitate Lightning”, he added.
“To not say that it’s going to by no means be a worthwhile enterprise. I truly encourage individuals to think about that to be a doubtlessly worthwhile enterprise. However at scale, it’s actually onerous to tug off.”
Neither the founders of Tando nor Kportiklah have discovered a monetization scheme but.
“Our enterprise mannequin is we get bitcoin”, mentioned Jason half-jokingly.
He added that he and Waithira have fielded a variety of requests for different wallets who need to use their Safaricom API, and that they’re contemplating charging a price for these different wallets to take action. This doesn’t appear to be as a lot of a precedence for them as getting Kenyans to view bitcoin as a medium of trade, although.
Kportiklah is of the identical thoughts:
“The aim for now could be simply to create a device that may assist individuals to spend Bitcoin with ease”, he mentioned.
Towards the tip of my interview with Pouliot, he highlighted as soon as extra how essential it’s to understand that it takes lots of work from devoted Bitcoiners to tug off the “with ease” half, noting that initiatives like these are finest created and managed on the native degree by those that have a stable understanding of the normal monetary system with which they’re interfacing.
“These merchandise are higher constructed as grassroots tasks, as a result of they require data of the banking system on the bottom”, defined Pouliot.
“For this reason we don’t have that many enlargement plans, however I’m completely satisfied to assist the opposite native initiatives with know-how and recommendation”, he added earlier than noting that he thinks what NostrPIX, one other Lightning-to-fiat cost app, is doing in Brazil is cool.
He concluded by as soon as extra providing reward for his colleagues all over the world who’re efficiently constructing and managing such interfaces:
“Everytime you see a neighborhood group of Bitcoiners pulling it off, make sure that they’re fucking superior and that it wasn’t straightforward to do.”
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This piece is an article featured within the newest Print version of Bitcoin Journal, The Lightning Problem. We’re sharing it right here to indicate the concepts explored all through the complete subject.
