Tando Was All The Rage At This Year’s Africa Bitcoin Conference

Credit : bitcoinmagazine.com

Even earlier than I obtained to this yr Africa Bitcoin ConferenceI noticed members posting about it Tandoa brand new Kenya-based fee app that enables customers to spend their cash at retailers that don’t settle for bitcoin.

Simply arrived in Nairobi 🇰🇪🛬 and the very first thing I see after I go outdoors is the @tando_me signal

Let’s go @AfroBitcoinOrg 🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/zhPSP2dTH8

— OKIN | Nikolaj Tjongarero (@OKIN_17) December 8, 2024

“How is that this doable?”, it’s possible you’ll surprise. Effectively, let me clarify.

To make use of Tando, merely obtain the app and put together to pay any service provider who accepts funds by way of M-PESAKenya’s cell cash service. (Observe that I did not say you needed to undergo an set up or KYC course of, as a result of neither is critical – Tando doesn’t gather any figuring out info from its customers.)

When the service provider fingers you your bill, merely click on the “Ship Cash” field on the app’s residence display. From there, enter the cell quantity linked to the M-PESA account you’re sending cash to after which enter the quantity in Kenyan shillings you wish to ship.

The app robotically calculates the variety of sats wanted to cowl the shilling quantity you entered. Then click on the inexperienced ‘Create Bill’ button to acquire a Lightning bill. Then you definately copy the bill and pay it by way of your favourite Lightning pockets. Tando receives the sats after which settles the invoice in shillings with the dealer inside a number of seconds.

I can hardly depend what number of occasions I’ve seen Bitcoiners use Tando to pay restaurant payments or taxi fares since I have been right here. (I have been to many eating places and ridden in lots of taxis since I arrived.)

Now I do know what a few of you’re considering: Tando is linked to a fiat fee system, which implies it ought to be excommunicated from the Church of Bitcoin.

However earlier than you permit your self to entertain a lot of these ideas, take into account the next ideas:

1. You are a loser.
2. Right here in Kenya, as in different components of Africa, folks really use bitcoin for funds.
3. While you present somebody use Tando, it provides you the chance to indicate the dealer what Bitcoin is whereas exhibiting them how the app works. (I appeared Gorilla Sats‘ Brindon Mwiine do that masterfully for a waitress at a convention after-party.)
4. M-PESA requires its customers to KYC and a few Kenyan residents shouldn’t have the right documentation to take action, which means they’re locked out of the system. With the assistance of Tando, they are often included into Kenya’s broader financial system.

The joy round Tando on the convention was a part of the broader enthusiasm round apps that make bitcoin simpler to make use of on the African continent – ​​apps like Bitsacco, MachankuraFedi and Bitnob.

An enormous shout-out to the builders who create #Bitcoin wallets simpler to make use of.@bitsacco @Machankura8333 @fedibtc @tando_me @Loicbtc pic.twitter.com/UhVw5bnBxO

— Frank Corva (@frankcorva) December 11, 2024

African Bitcoiners are far forward of their counterparts in the US with regards to utilizing Bitcoin because it was supposed: as peer-to-peer digital cash.

And whereas many Africans are working tirelessly to attach as many retailers as doable to Bitcoin, Tando is a wonderful interim step that enables Bitcoiners to spend their cash even when the retailers they spend with aren’t but accepting Bitcoin funds.

This text is a To take. The opinions expressed are solely these of the writer and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.