What Bitcoin Did
How Bitcoin Is Changing the World | Erik Hersman, Phillip Walton, Eric Yakes & Mark Kamau
- Gridless deployed a team across 1,100 kilometers of northern Kenya to survey Saru, a remote village with no electricity, assessing viability for off-grid solar and battery storage paired with Bitcoin mining to fund electrification profitably.
- Bitcoin mining economics now justify building energy infrastructure in isolated communities, with a **~30% IRR** on $1 million deployments (1 MW solar + 5 MWh storage + 250 kW mining capacity) profitable from day one without selling power to locals.
- Solar and battery costs have dropped so significantly that hydro and solar unit economics now converge, allowing Gridless to accelerate deployment from 12–18 months (hydro) to 3–6 months (solar) across Africa.
- NGO-led energy projects fail 90% of the time and distort local markets; Dukana's failed solar co-op now charges 75¢/kWh (vs. 25¢ in Nairobi) because of mismanagement and theft, demonstrating why market-driven approaches are essential.
- Kenya's M-Pesa and Bitcoin integration—via apps like Tando and Blink—has created possibly the world's easiest jurisdiction to live and transact in Bitcoin, with 65+ merchants accepting it in Kibera slum alone.
- Human-centered Bitcoin UX design tailored to African contexts (sub-16MB apps, simple onboarding, Lightning-agnostic) is critical; Blink's success in Kibera stems from community feedback loops and ease, not technical sophistication.