Kondwani Konyani

Open Study Hubs · Lead Catalyst

My name is Kondwani Konyani. I am a Malawian teacher, Bitcoin educator, and grassroots community builder focused on bringing knowledge about Bitcoin and freedom technologies to rural communities.

My journey began between 2014 and 2017, when I was living and working in Abu Dhabi. Sending money home to Malawi was difficult. Remittance fees were high, transfers could be slow, and supporting my family often felt harder than earning the money itself. That experience left me asking a simple question: Why should moving money across borders be so difficult?

After returning to Malawi in 2017, I started looking for better ways to move value. That search eventually led me to Bitcoin. I began studying economics, the history of money, sovereignty and decentralised systems, and gradually realised that Bitcoin is much more than a payment method. It fundamentally changed how I understood money.

In 2022, I joined Yellow Card as a brand ambassador, helping Malawians access Bitcoin through mobile money. When the company's direction expanded toward crypto tokens, I decided to leave. I wanted to focus on Bitcoin.

In 2023, I connected with Kgothatso, the founder of Machankura, and discovered something that changed my understanding of Bitcoin adoption in Africa: Bitcoin could work on a basic phone, through USSD, without requiring internet access. This mattered to me because I could see the enormous adoption gap in rural communities, where I'm from —many people don't have smartphones, internet, or access to main-grid electricity.

Around the same time, Stacker News became an important part of my learning and helped connect me with Bitcoiners around the world.

In 2024, I became more involved with Bitcoin Boma as an educator. Through the wider Bitcoin community, I connected with people such as Yankho Ngolleka of BitDevs Malawi, Thandi Mtemang'ombe of Women of Satoshi, Grant Gombwa and Pacharo Nyirenda of Bitcoin Boma, Arnold of MyFirstBitcoin, Josef Tetek of Trezor Academy, Justin Shocknet of ShockWallet and Lightning.Pub, Modibe Matsepane of Fedi, and many others. I am also particularly grateful to Olev Maimets, whose support has contributed to several Bitcoin projects in Malawi.

My work increasingly became focused on one question: How do we make Bitcoin education and practical use possible for people who are excluded by the technology and infrastructure around them?

That led to Bitcoin Amoyah and, within it, the development of Open Study Hubs.

The idea is to create simple, local learning spaces where people can learn Bitcoin, Bitcoin related tools and infrastructure, and freedom technologies, while using tools appropriate to their circumstances. The Genesis Hub is our first model. It is an opportunity to test the concept, learn from the community, and develop something that can eventually be reproduced in other rural communities across Malawi and Africa.

The work is not easy. We currently operate from a rented building, have no formal sponsor, and the volunteers on our team receive no financial incentives. Much of what has kept us going has come from individual supporters. Kgothatso sponsored our initial awareness campaigns, the laptop I use was acquired through donations via Geyser.Fund, and Olev Maimets covered our first month's rent in July 2026.

I am grateful for every person who has helped, because these contributions have allowed the work to continue while we search for a more sustainable model.

I believe Open Study Hubs fits the African context because it starts with the realities people actually face rather than assuming everyone has a smartphone, cheap internet and reliable electricity. The goal is not simply to tell people about Bitcoin, but to give them the knowledge and practical tools to use it themselves.

My hope is to see Study Hubs grow across Malawi, with communities eventually running their own hubs, businesses accepting sats, young people contributing to Bitcoin projects, and rural communities building stronger local economies.

I started by looking for a better way to send money home. I found Bitcoin. Now I want to help other people—especially those in communities like mine—discover what it can mean for them.