Co-Founder & CEO · Bitcoin Innovation Hub
The Bitcoin Innovation Hub was a Kampala-based Bitcoin technology and financial-inclusion firm, backed by a three-year $300,000 grant from Jack Dorsey's #startsmall initiative, empowering individuals, businesses, and communities — with a focus on refugee economic opportunity — to harness Bitcoin.
Role & Responsibilities
- Designed and shipped a Bitcoinized inventory and settlement product, implemented on BTCPayServer, that cut transaction fees by more than 90% — improving liquidity and bringing modern asset management within reach of small businesses.
- Worked with vendors to implement point-of-sale systems and bespoke payment integrations, including stablecoin acceptance and Stripe on client digital platforms.
- Built and delivered the Hub's financial-literacy and Bitcoin education program, graduating more than 1,000 refugees with diplomas covering practical financial skills and peer-to-peer Bitcoin transactions.
- Ran intensive two-day developer workshops for 125+ third- and fourth-year computer science students — granting 100+ Blockstream Jade hardware wallets to students and two Bitcoin miners to the university — from which student teams went on to lead four flagship builds: Bitcoin-powered savings and micro-investment apps, remittance platforms, point-of-sale solutions, and real-world-asset tokenization.
- Validated product direction and prioritized roadmap investments through customer research and stakeholder interviews with universities, merchants, developers, and policymakers.
- Authored product documentation, implementation guides, and deployment automation enabling client engineering teams to stand up and operate their own infrastructure independently.
- Joined the MIT DCI Global Research Network as an Africa lead focused on growing the network across the continent — going on to lead its global growth initiative as Global Mapping committee lead, serving on the Global Workshops committee and coordinating researchers and institutions across jurisdictions.
Skills built & sharpened
Payments product designBTCPayServerSettlement modelsStablecoin & Stripe integrationsCustomer discoveryStakeholder researchDeveloper enablementGrant-funded deliveryFinancial inclusionResearch-network leadership
Transaction fees: before → after
Fee cost per settlement, indexed to traditional rails = 100
Fees cut by more than 90% for small-business settlement. Shipped on BTCPayServer.
Outcomes, plotted
1,000+
Refugees earned diplomas in financial literacy & Bitcoin P2P
125+
3rd/4th-year CS students in two-day workshops
100+
Blockstream Jade wallets granted · 2 miners to the university
4
Flagship projects led by workshop graduates
Partners, Donors & Sponsors
The network behind the Hub — grant funders, technology partners, and research institutions, from the three-year #startsmall grant to the MIT and Kampala ends of the mission.
