Erik Hersman

250th Independence Day celebration at the US Ambassador’s place, so got patriotic for it. :)

Notes from Prague. Thanks

We’ve launched a new space in Nairobi for energy and compute (companies and community), called Node - www.nodenbo.com

✅ 1 gig fiber ✅ GPU cluster ✅ Bitcoin miner repair

Onsite solar+storage coming next.

A lot of work still ahead, but the companies are moving in and the meetups have started.

Thanks to

and Gridless for making it possible.

London goose was really eyeballing me.

Waitabit Coffee feels warm and cozy on these rainy Nairobi mornings.

We’re building NodeNBO.com as a space for energy, AI, and Bitcoin people and businesses in Nairobi.

Last week we started events, including BitDevs Nairobi, AI+Freedom meetup, and the Quantum Kenya meeting.

Waitabit coffee anchors the public entrance.

Back at the cottages.

Usually disconnected on these trips, but sometimes you have to be on a call. This setup works very well. Anywhere.

Morning espresso with a view over the rift valley.

Doing some VERY offgrid (potential) site visits with @dannyknowles and Eric Yakes.

Hiking views.

The road out.

A number of places worse but I couldn’t get a video.

Cold morning at 8,000 feet. But we’re dry and have food.

Some days start hot, dry, and dusty. Then end cold, wet, and muddy.

Deep in Kenya’s inhospitable northern desert, camels and goats are about the only animals people keep.

But did see an albino topi today!

Made our way to the southern part of Lake Turkana.

Caralluma acutangula. Desert rose. Campsite at the lake.

Ok. Fixed the shocks.

Now found a broken spring. Did a bush mechanic job on it. It’ll hold until Nairobi.

One shock down…

A lot of wind and sun up here.

And camels. 🐪 Most camels per capita in the world.

Some days you just need a tow strap.

Ended up fixing it, the FJ40 spark plugs needed some attention.

Heading into the northern desert

2.6MW “chocolate milk” hydro visit in Rwanda today.

A lot of debris, approximately 3 tons gets pulled out manually at 3 different points in a single day.

This “Imagine If” event that

has created is something special.

Weekend favorites.

The Proto miner hardware seems like a real step-change for ASICs. The reusable rig is amazing, now just swap out hashboards.

The modularity and openness (software and hardware) will allow everyone to do a lot more with them, and for a lot longer.

The rig is part of the infrastructure. The upgrade path is so much easier

AI adds load in two ways: massive one-off training runs and the relentless drip of inference as millions query models all day.

https://eladelantado.com/news/energy-collapse-ai-consumption/

Took off for a 15km hike and run with my youngest. Hot and muggy! The waterfall and dip at the end was amazing!

Getting some new stickers made. Designed by one of our regulars.

A white browed coucal catching a skaapsteeker snake.

There are worse places to live than Nairobi.

“Green city in the sun”

The Kenya VASP bill is poor execution on a bad idea.

It’s a gift to rent seekers and a blow to innovation that punishes startups with red tape.

Loose definitions of virtual “assets” and “tokens” increase uncertainty and allows regulatory overreach.

They’d be better off just defining bitcoin vs other cryptocurrencies as commodity vs securities and letting the already existing Capital Markets Authority deal with it.

PDF of the bill: http://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2025-04/THE%20VIRTUAL%20ASSET%20SERVICE%20PROVIDERS%20BILL%2C%202025%20%282%29.pdf

Adults need self control. Powerful adults need it more.

Doing a Bitaxe giveaway at our monthly bitcoin meetup this evening at Waitabit Coffee.

Rose Njeri, a 35 year old software engineer and mother of two, was picked up and held by police for 5 days in Kenya.

Why? Because she created a site to allow people to easily write an email to their representatives - pushing back on the new Finance Bill 2025.

Back in 2016-2018 we spoke about how bad this “Computer misuse and cybercrimes act of 2018” was for Kenyans, and that it would be used for spurious charges like this against people just like Rose Njeri.

This is wrong and we need to both push back on new bills as well as change old ones.

I was able to travel to see the 100MW Penguin bitcoin mine in Paraguay last year.

They didn’t start by wanting to mine.

They had a software academy that they needed money to support. So they took advantage of stranded power, and have used this to fund education to the tune of $1.5M.

The power of bitcoin mining is not just jobs, stable grids, and less expensive power…

it also can be used to finance amazing projects like this!

Excellent talk by

Crypto wars 1.0 “Code is speech”

US Supreme Court says, “Spending money is speech”

Crypto wars 2.0 “Tornado cash and Samurai Wallet founders indicted”

Threatens the notion that we have the right to privacy in our money.

“Critical news can’t beat cat pics”

Old friend Anjan (@anjansun) is launching a Stringer News on Nostr architecture.

https://stringerjournalism.org

Worth supporting.

This is more like it. Sun today.

Off to Oslo.

If you’re in Vegas next week for the Bitcoin conference, my co-founder

will be there as well.

Ask her about our expansion.

Pizza 🍕 incoming.

In Bitcoin mining, survival comes down to margins and margins come down to energy costs.

While most miners race to secure ever-cheaper electricity contracts, Gridless takes a different route:

we mine exclusively on stranded power, using a revenue share model that eliminates direct energy costs entirely.

This gives us a structural advantage in volatile markets, allowing us to stay online when others shut down, and to profit even at historically low hashprices.

https://gridlesscompute.com/2025/02/07/mining-without-a-bill-the-revenue-share-advantage/

Getting water flow readings. We don’t always have a bridge to work from!

Sundowners. Mt Kenya.

Worldcoin issues in Kenya. The problem is this is a data technicality so with the right paperwork they can overcome it.

Hosting an MBA group from the University of North Carolina today at Gridless.

Love having Anil Patel’s (https://anilsaidso.gumroad.com/) slides and assets to talk through what Bitcoin is.

Bedford. Really do enjoy visiting this town.

Really enjoy being back in Bedford,

and

do such a great job with the Cheatcode conference. Small towns make for easier and more conversations, and one-day events mean a lot more signal.

Also, great new coffee shop and wonderful people.

Impressive to see the launch of the Bitcoin Humanitarian Alliance after years of hard work by

and and HRF!

Bitcoin operates outside the control of governments, banks, and corporations. This means humanitarian organizations can raise funds, move money across borders, and bypass financial repression.

At the Frontline Club in London.

https://bitcoinhumanalliance.org

“Two very large pools are creating more than 50% of the blocks”

on why he started DMND pool based on Stratum V2.

One of my takeaways from Bitcoiners working on energy-related projects in the EU is that they seem bound and hamstrung by rules and bureaucracy. Seems harder than it should be.

It’s like a full-time job in paperwork with a bit of mining on the side.

The people at the European Bitcoin Energy Association (EBEA) are doing great work, and when they finally break through there will be a massive growth in decentralized hashing for heat+BTC in Europe.

Portugal 🇵🇹 for a couple days. Then to the UK 🇬🇧.

Minion 3 learning how to replace hashboards.

Will be in Portugal next week. Good energy conversations incoming.

Good Nairobi Bitcoin meetup turnout at Waitabit Coffee this evening!

A Ross Stevens quote.

Mountain retreat (Kenya).

Discussing whether small scale energy + bitcoin mining can support conservation.

Busy day.

Checking out a hydro site this evening that was delayed due to come civil works having to be redone.

Biomass bitcoin mining site in Kenya.

It’s a finicky source compared to the simplicity of hydroelectric.

Lifeblood of the land. Above Kenya.

Safari shots to finish the weekend. https://image.nostr.build/a2e55f9f3b2d93f12f6eeb0e31ff459260866722187ca63cfe567ce8de9f9ef9.jpg https://image.nostr.build/aad7d3e1cd375ec3881ed0f127e732a14131c6c1bdaed070c405e7205ddf11ce.jpg https://image.nostr.build/b0df33103c5f934f80f7f6cd09362aa0befc7b1453064f4963e659e719ae3a97.jpg https://image.nostr.build/7d7d4bb67a57e032ef6ae856026e6e720b0f0bdad223cc6c078e658d06740de7.jpg https://image.nostr.build/3df7b4742e2e8bf94a4c9296c8e2ec3d0efb3eb9f109465f0695fab5f0e1b403.jpg https://image.nostr.build/86362092c5504f418058627cf086b36e8bbb13fb5762277014d86889cea79007.jpg https://image.nostr.build/9270625d37e9b1b746f5095f6cab137f49eb4fb88556ec8874352d98052796e1.jpg

Seems legit. https://image.nostr.build/d03ecb17c5660fbe92a65514c76a42d302388cc266a381b36fec048beb2e05de.jpg

You gotta get to the bush for a bit just to relax if you live in Africa.

Pace is different. https://image.nostr.build/79838cc9d90773dabadbd85f598032d87f6dd0fe511b43a2907e8bf2b5ab6bb6.jpg

Not excited by SBR.

Working from Waitabit on Fridays is chill. https://image.nostr.build/1e987acd89341882ea2ee25d1e33ab1041679700181bd72d5da64bb628184e1c.jpg https://image.nostr.build/30750ba0c0806c5a0b9bbf7c0cf06a3b1bf69b24ccd9c3e161c14dcb3f93b983.jpg

Staring up a new thing at Waitabit coffee, since we have so many normal people asking about Bitcoin.

Glad Felix, Vlad, and Collin will help! https://image.nostr.build/a5c1973772468c4df33ec0569a9206e2c43d42484c84f91189c568f4beef14ab.jpg

On to Los Angeles and then Houston this week. The US tour continues.

NYC trip was made amazing by the invite to

- great community!

By my friend Gado in Kenya.

Foreign Aid is (mostly) bad. Though I can make room for specific disaster relief. https://image.nostr.build/8f5e79424188e2a4f0e080d03ecd444fa029309a1ca2d468ee1fccb8c5fa6d4e.jpg

NEMS 2025 was excellent.

Signal > noise.

Loved seeing the Pod256 Foundation win a block and now their largest founder is the Bitcoin Network.

Thanks to

and Rob Warren.

NEMS is high signal. Great people who are hands-on mining.

Block 881423 hit live yesterday too. https://image.nostr.build/00076d94bc9294087b5d225737f04ee09221c2b46ced8f9b894d82df3fcb452f.jpg https://image.nostr.build/6d4d2f05b435198dbf593a89c44258b61201041eaff541054cf899d8c2147d11.jpg https://image.nostr.build/870255a328972546340801cad4d4781a0adead2ca4bf20d842f685e043d593f0.jpg