The need for global adoption drives the primary principle of decentralization in the history of blockchain technology; and CEOs like Femi Longe are truly defining blockchain decentralization by insisting on the African perspective in the bitcoin development narrative. To a fault, Femi made his points clear with Qala and now, the journey to advancing a blockchain builders programme for Africa by Africans has just begun.

Qala was an African blockchain developer training company under the CEO, Femi Longe. Qala, from its inception in October 2021 has taken the responsibility to engage African developers in a 13 weeks hands-on experience on building blockchain lightning applications while also matching their skills with global opportunities. Up until Qala’s acquisition in September 1st 2023, by Btrust, Qala has received more than 800 applications from African developers to join their programme.

Qala’s popularity surged after it was recently acquired by Former twitter (now X) CEO and bitcoin enthusiast, Jack Dorsey and Rapper Jay-Z. The Duo had formed a Non-profit organization on February 12th, 2021 with the name Btrust, to support bitcoin development in Africa and India. Jack, via his twitter page made this announcement on the said date pointing that they are “giving 500 BTC to a new endowment named Btrust to fund Bitcoin development initially focused on teams in Africa and India. It is set up as a blind irrevocable trust”. In essence, Btrust launched with over 500 BTC and tends to have the financial capacity to push Africa’s blockchain talent. However, Btrust faced a structure challenge, which Qala seems to have solved half way – now that is the attraction.

Femi’s Qala has established a system and of course a structure for bringing hands-on experience on the bitcoin lightning network to African developers – this was a major pitfall for Btrust. The programme was fully-funded. Applicants must have up to 3 to 5 years experience as a developer. On successful completion of a code challenge, a short interview is granted where the top 50 are invited to start a cohort. In the end, only the top 12 are chosen to start a 3 months programme to gain advanced skill in bitcoin lightning network development. In all of these, Qala left traces of challenges too, which was majorly financial, coupled with the need to get senior level software engineers onboard to transition into the blockchain development curve.

The Birth of Btrust Builders programme

On acquisition of Qala, Btrust is now rebranded as Btrust Builders programme. This is more than just a mere ‘company buying’, it obviously reflects a shared vision in advancing blockchain inclusion and decentralization in Africa. What does this mean,Qala was just bought over after all ? Well there seems to be a very interesting twist that will otherwise advance Femi’s dream to promote the African perspective of blockchain development.

Femi will be joining the Btrust Builders Programme, together with Stephanie Titcombe, former Programme manager at Qala, as Programme leads. Driving on the wheels of the former Qala, Btrust Builders Programme aims to foster open-source training on bitcoin lightning network development this time with more resources and structure in places.

Speaking of the challenges Qala faced, Femi cited that Qala survived on sponsorship majorly from blockchain establishments and Human Right Foundation. The financial resources were as such limited to the market performance. Secondly, It was so easy to get junior and mid-level developers on-board however, for an open-sources training system like Qala, it was a big deal to attract senior level developers. Getting the professional software engineers obviously comes at a high cost and at the same time, this set of engineers has the wealth of experience that Qala needed to drive its goals.

It is so pleasing to know that Qala is living its dreams in the Btrust Builders programme. There is now a call on African senior software engineers to become a part of the Btrust open-source training on bitcoin lightning network development in Africa irrespective of the cost.

Light on Bitcoin Lightning Network

Among the many opportunities that Femi’s Qala created was to on-board African developers into the Bitcoin lightning network development which is an alternative software implementation of Bitcoin. In the master plan, this was going to stimulate alternative bitcoin use-cases in Africa.

The Bitcoin lightning network is the second layer of Bitcoin that can enable seamless bitcoin transactions by introducing off-chain transactions to resolve glitches associated with the blockchain transaction. Off-chain transactions are such that are not recorded on the blockchain ledger because the value of the transaction was exchanged outside the blockchain as opposed to on-chain transaction is very popular.

As it is, Bitcoin transaction confirmations are not instant due to longer processing time. The transaction charges also doubles an issue. However, the lightning network is intended to speed up transaction time, cut cost to the barest minimum and reduce network congestion by cutting off miner’s validation. It will also enhance bitcoin transaction security and tighten up privacy.

Ending Note

It must have been a long work for Femi over the past two years but it is paying off. Becoming a part of the Btrust Builders Programme as a Programme Lead hits on the big responsibility on Africa to grow in proficiency through challenges and opportunities that can help us develop in-demand skills for this new era.

The decentralization of the blockchain technology is not only limited to the borderless transactions using exchanges, it rubs-off on community representation, direction and use cases. Without African representation in the bitcoin lightning network development, there may be no one to propose how this technology can meet the needs of the African blockchain community.