Speaker Applications Now Open for Africa’s Premier Open-Source Dev Conference in Nairobi
Nairobi to Host Bitcoin++: Speaker Applications Now Open for Africa’s Premier Open-Source Dev Conference
Nairobi is set to cement its status as the “Silicon Savannah” of the digital age this June. Bitcoin++, the world-renowned developer-centric conference series, has officially opened speaker applications for its upcoming “Open Source” edition, taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, from June 17–20, 2026.
This marks a pivotal moment for the continental ecosystem, shifting the focus from Bitcoin as a speculative asset to Bitcoin as a robust engineering protocol.
What is Bitcoin++?
Unlike broad industry trade shows, Bitcoin++ is a “hard-tech” conference series organized by , a Bitcoin protocol school. The event is designed for engineers, researchers, and privacy advocates who want to dive deep into the technical “plumbing” of the network.
The Nairobi edition carries the theme “Open Source,” highlighting a concerted effort to integrate more African developers into the global maintenance and evolution of the Bitcoin codebase, Layer 2 solutions like Lightning and Ark, and decentralized protocols like Nostr and Fedimint.
Call for Speakers: Who Should Apply?
The organizers are looking for technical deep-dives, live coding sessions, and research presentations. If you are building on the protocol or solving unique regional challenges through code, this is your platform.
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Key Topics: Bitcoin Core development, Lightning Network infrastructure, Miniscript, Fedimint, E-cash, and protocol-level privacy.
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The “Work in Public” Ethos: The conference prioritizes speakers who are actively contributing to open-source projects or building transparent, non-custodial tools.
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How to Apply: Developers and researchers can submit their talk proposals via the official portal: btcpp.dev/talk/nairobi.
Key Figures and Local Impact
The choice of Nairobi is no coincidence. The city has become a powerhouse for cryptographic engineering, largely supported by the efforts of , an organization dedicated to decentralizing Bitcoin development.
Key figures expected to be involved include:
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: Founder of Base58 and a prolific Lightning Network developer.
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The BTrust Builders team: A cohort of African developers who have been instrumental in bridging the gap between local talent and global open-source contribution.
Why This Matters for the African Ecosystem
For years, the narrative around Bitcoin in Africa has centered on peer-to-peer trading and remittances. Bitcoin++ Nairobi changes that story. By bringing global protocol experts to Kenya, the conference fosters direct mentorship and collaboration.
The goal is to move beyond just using Bitcoin-based applications to actually writing the code that secures the network. For a continent often sidelined in global financial architecture, the ability to contribute to a neutral, open-source monetary protocol represents the ultimate form of digital sovereignty.