On Saturday, Might 16, 2026, the world’s latest bodily Bitcoin house opened in Nairobi, Kenya.
It’s known as Node NBO (NBO is brief for Nairobi), and it’ll function a co-working house for notable Bitcoin, freedom tech, compute, and power firms and organizations in Africa, together with Fedi, Gridless, and BTrust in addition to the Human Rights Basis (HRF).
A screenshot from the homepage of the Node NBO web site.
The power may also be dwelling to 3 labs — an open-source power lab, an open-source Bitcoin mining lab, and an AI compute lab. These labs will function locations the place groups can construct, design, and assemble new merchandise in addition to strategize implementation.
And Node NBO additionally has an occasion house, the place simply over 150 individuals can collect for particular events and meetups.
The primary of such events was the smooth launch of the power on Might sixteenth, which was attended by Fedi CEO Obi Nwosu; Gridless’ co-founders, Janet Maingi, Erik Hersman and Philip Walton; BTrust CEO Abubakar Nur Khalil; and Minmo CEO Jodom Konuko (Minmo crew members may also work out of Node NBO) amongst quite a lot of different notable members of the Kenyan Bitcoin neighborhood.
BitDevs Nairobi attendees in addition to quantum computing researchers and builders from Nairobi may also meet within the occasion house on a month-to-month foundation.
“We would have liked a spot the place people who find themselves engaged on onerous issues can come into proximity with one another, particularly when there’s overlapping areas that want specialization,” mentioned Hersman in regard to the impetus behind creating Node NBO.
“We needed to get the individuals behind this foundational layer of this tech we’re all utilizing in a spot the place they will discover one another, work on cool stuff round one another, and speed up one another,” he added.
“We couldn’t be extra excited to be a part of Node NBO,” mentioned Nwosu. “There’s a lot synergy already occurring between the businesses and organizations concerned with Node NBO that it simply is smart to convey all of them below one roof.”
Showcasing African Tasks to International Guests
Node NBO is situated in Gigiri, Nairobi, a northern area of Nairobi that Hersman known as a “diplomatic space.”
Services within the space steadily host worldwide guests, as Gigiri is dwelling to the United Nations’ Nairobi headquarters, which is simply strolling distance from Node NBO.
A picture from contained in the Node NBO facility. | Photograph courtesy of Node NBO
Hersman famous that one more reason for the house was that he, too, usually hosts guests from overseas, and he needed to create a hub at which he might showcase the numerous completely different initiatives which can be presently being developed in Africa.
“We’ve had all people from crew members from NVIDIA to the Rockefeller Catalyst Fund to high-level crew members from Google and Microsoft come to go to and now we have now a spot the place we can provide individuals like this a tour of what’s occurring,” mentioned Hersman.
A Distinctive Facility for Distinctive Infrastructure Corporations
The brand new facility might be distinctive in that it is going to be powered solely by photo voltaic panels.
“Gridless is placing in solar energy over the entire facility in order that it really runs absolutely off of its personal power,” mentioned Hersman.
That is the form of ingenuity that Gridless has develop into well-known for.
In its 4 years of existence, it hasn’t simply capitalized on mining bitcoin with renewable, hydro power in rural Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia, and it’s created a mannequin that has catalyzed the electrification of those rural areas whereas holding the price of electrical energy for residents of those areas low.
Now its crew members might be officemates with crew members of a Fedi accomplice enterprise known as SateNet.
SateNet is a mission by which bodily towers that broadcast satellite tv for pc web are put in in underserved communities reminiscent of Kenya’s Kibera, dwelling to the Afribit neighborhood, and South Africa’s Mossel Bay, dwelling to the Bitcoin Ekasi neighborhood.
By way of SateNet, residents of those communities can buy high-speed web at low charges after they pay in bitcoin through the SateNet Mini App, obtainable through the Fedi app.
“With Bitcoin and different freedom applied sciences, individuals want the web to make use of them,” mentioned Nwosu. “This was one of many essential the explanation why we determined to assist the communities with whom we work to realize entry to extra inexpensive web through SateNet.”
The area people will come to share possession and administration of the web infrastructure, enabling the web to develop into a self-sustaining native utility.
“Node NBO is an area to assist showcase the infrastructure of this new know-how — the precise metal and silicon of the stuff,” mentioned Hersman. “We’re telling the story about how Africa has these firms which have a stake within the floor so far as infrastructure.”
Working Collectively the Kenyan Method
In response to Hersman, many necessary choices in Kenya are made in a communal vogue and he feels that Node NBO can function a hub at which such kinds of choices might be made.
“The Kenyan means of doing issues requires individuals to see one another nose to nose once in a while,” defined Hersman. “We come collectively as a neighborhood to make choices.”
And that is no completely different relating to Nairobi’s Bitcoin neighborhood.
“The Bitcoin neighborhood that builds most issues in Kenya is right here in Nairobi,” mentioned Hersman.
“We work with one another. We don’t compete in opposition to one another,” he added.
“So, that is a part of the tradition of who we’re nicely earlier than any of this know-how — that is simply a part of Kenya.”
This text was reposted from Fedi’s weblog, and can also be obtainable right here.
This can be a visitor put up by Frank Corva, who’s a content material producer at Fedi. Opinions expressed are totally their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.