CD205: JASON - TANDO - SPEND BITCOIN ANYWHERE IN KENYA from Citadel Dispatch

Citadel Dispatch

ODELL

CD205: JASON - TANDO - SPEND BITCOIN ANYWHERE IN KENYA

1 hour 3 minutes Posted Jun 9, 2026 at 6:27 pm.

Jason from Tando in Kenya

Kenya's M-Pesa rails explained: methods and limits

Cash vs mobile money and agent networks

CBDC fears vs private digital rails and censorship risks

From PayPal debanking to bitcoin motivation

How Tando works: Lightning to M-Pesa flow

Comparisons: Money Badger, South Africa, and QR ecosystems

Phone number lightning addresses in Kenya

Access without smartphones

Pragmatic tools and US analogies with Venmo and Cash App

Platform risk with M-Pesa and alignment incentives

Business model: fees, trust, and partner integrations

Deep dive on phone numbers as de facto digital IDs

Alternatives and identity: email, VoIP, and keys

Nostr, multiple identities, and app-layer pragmatism

Open protocols meet AI: donation flows and LNURL

Tandos simplicity and API requests

Challengers vs incumbents: Cash App, Venmo, Strike

Circular economies: merchants, Tando as the clutch

POS tweaks, receipts, and grassroots

Whats next: youth, AI, and bitcoin events

Kenyas evolving crypto regulation and realities

Scale dynamics, big tech analogies, and AI politics

Tando adoption numbers and closing thoughts

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Show notes

Jason joins to discuss Tando, a Bitcoin payments app in Kenya that connects Lightning to M-PESA. We get into why M-PESA dominates Kenyan payments, how Tando lets Bitcoiners spend sats anywhere M-PESA is accepted, and why pragmatic fiat bridges help bootstrap real Bitcoin circular economies. Then we discuss phone numbers as financial identities, Lightning addresses for Kenyan phone numbers, KYC-free Bitcoin flows, merchant adoption, AI-assisted development, upcoming Kenya Bitcoin events, and the changing regulatory environment.

Tando: https://tando.me/
Tando on X: https://x.com/tando_me
Tando on Nostr: https://primal.net/p/nprofile1qqs97ekh6cxykm34l0m5ddrlymhj9rxrys3jemtf90psy3nysum0lkcvrgxmd
Bitcoin Kenya: https://bitcoin.co.ke

EPISODE: 205
BLOCK: 952989
PRICE: 1640 sats per dollar

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ten31: https://ten31.xyz
opensats: https://opensats.org