Zambia Bitcoin Builders Expand Open-Source Education and Community Organizing
Bitcoin communities in Lusaka held a student-focused open-source workshop on May 16 and a community-leaders meetup on May 19. The events connected university students, developers and educators with Bitcoin open-source contribution, Lightning tools and peer-to-peer trading in Zambian kwacha.
On May 16, 2026, students gathered at ZCAS University in Lusaka for BitDevs Zambia's Bitcoin OSS Campus Ignition workshop. The program introduced students to Bitcoin's open-source development culture, pathways into Bitcoin development, Lightning tools and locally built projects. Participants were shown Zambian projects including Bit2Kwacha, ZamPOS and the developing Sagali wallet.
Three days later, Bitcoin Zambia held a community-leaders meetup focused on sustaining local Bitcoin education and on peer-to-peer exchange. Participants discussed Hodl Hodl, a non-custodial Bitcoin marketplace that had expanded support for African currencies including the Zambian kwacha.
Neither gathering was large enough to represent a national adoption milestone. Their historical value is local: they show a Bitcoin community in Zambia developing multiple layers at once—students learning to contribute to open-source software, local builders creating tools, and educators organizing peer-to-peer adoption. The two May events also built on work begun in 2025, when Zambia's first BitDevs meetup helped establish a recurring technical community.