In 2010 Hermann Buhr Vivier and his wife, Jenya Zhivaleva, co-founded The Surfer Kids Non-Profit. In August 2021 they used that NPO as a trusted community platform to launch Bitcoin Ekasi.
‘Ekasi’ is a colloquial South African term derived form the Afrikaans word ‘lokasie’ referring to the vast slums that grew outside South African cities during Apartheid. Unemployment, crime and poverty remain rife there. We believe #Bitcoin can help uplift those who need it most.
Bitcoin Ekasi uses The Surfer Kids as a trusted community platform to get sats flowing in the local economy. The Surfer Kids is a registered NPO based at Diaz Beach in Mossel Bay, recruiting 50 children from the poorest surrounding townships — Isinyoka, Asazane, and Fairview, collectively known as JCC Camp. Staff include surf coaches, lifeguards, teachers, and community workers, all from the same township community. All of them earn 100% of their salaries in Bitcoin.
The project Founder, Hermann Buhr Vivier, has been following Bitcoin since late 2013 — first drawn in by the banking crisis and bank bailouts in Cyprus. In 2019, an interview with Michael Peterson of Bitcoin Beach planted the seed. In August 2021, the first township spaza shops were on-boarded, and The Surfer Kids’ coaches began receiving a portion of their salaries in Bitcoin — spending it at those very same shops.
What is the motivation behind launching a Bitcoin economy, specifically in a South African township?
Bitcoin Beach proved something counterintuitive: lower-income people want to save — they just haven’t had access to something that can outpace inflation. Nowhere are the effects of inflation felt more acutely than in communities living day-to-day. You can’t beat inflation by saving in fiat. But if you’ve only got a few dollars a week and no bank account, you can’t buy shares or property either.
In El-Zonte, El Salvador, Bitcoin fixed that problem.
Bitcoin is easily accessible. You can access Bitcoin without a traditional bank account. Bitcoin can be divided up into tiny fractions (SATs) and bought in very small amounts. And with the lightning network (Bitcoin’s fast-growing 2nd-layer scaling solution) it’s possible to make payments as small as a few cents, at virtually no cost.
Most importantly, Bitcoin is designed to be anti-inflationary, with a fixed supply, making it far superior to fiat currencies as a long-term savings vehicle. Yes, volatility in Bitcoin is obviously an issue, but only over the shorter term. Long-term it’s always reliably out-paced inflation, and then some.
Plus Bitcoin is in fact becoming less volatile over time with each successive cycle dampening relative to the previous one.
Furthermore, in communities such as the township where we operate, businesses are almost entirely cash based. This presents obvious security issues. Proper management of Bitcoin private keys can, however, largely eliminate this risk.
Bitcoin can provide a very high level of security at a very low cost.
Money is survival — it’s what gives us access to food, shelter, and water. So the old adage ‘Money is the root of all evil’ should read ‘Corruptible money is the root of all evil.’ Large central banks create vast sums of currency at no cost, exporting inflation and burdening future generations with debts that can never be repaid — all to finance the irresponsible behaviour of governments and banks too big to fail.
Bitcoin presents an alternative: a sound, fair, transparent, and decentralized system of money that cannot be co-opted by a powerful elite. Widespread adoption could alleviate many of the social ills that plague our societies — wasteful wars, institutional corruption — by holding everyone accountable to the same monetary rules.
Morality should not be determined by proximity to the money spigot.
Bitcoin Beach illustrated that Bitcoin is not only a speculative asset, or a store of value. It can function as a medium of exchange, bringing it one step closer to a fully fledged and viable alternative global currency. One that is as fair as it is transparent. Open to anyone with a internet connected device.
If Bitcoin Ekasi (and others following the Bitcoin Beach example) proves a success, then it becomes that much more plausible to imagine Bitcoin being adopted as a fair and truly global currency.
We exist to illustrate the point: Bitcoin is a viable and already functional alternative that can help usher in a better and fairer future for all humankind.
Bitcoin Ekasi 