On Saturday, May 16, 2026, the world’s newest physical Bitcoin space opened in Nairobi, Kenya.
This is called Node NBO Nairobi (the short name for the city) will act as a coworking space in Africa for prominent Bitcoin, computing, energy, freedom-tech, and Bitcoin companies. Fedi, GridlessThen, BTrust As well as Human Rights Foundation (HRF).
Node NBO’s homepage.
The facility will also be home to three labs — an open-source energy lab, an open-source Bitcoin mining lab, and an AI compute lab. The labs are places for teams to build, design and assemble products, as well as strategize their implementation.
Node NBO has a space for events, which can accommodate up to 150 people.
First, the Soft Launch of the Facility on the 16th of May was attended by Fedi’s CEO Obi Obiosu, Gridless co-founders Janet Maingi and Erik Hersman, BTrust CEO Abubakar Nur Khalil, and Minmo Jodom Konuko is the CEO (Minmo Team members will be working out of Node NBO), amongst many other members of Kenyan Bitcoin.
The event will be a meeting place for BitDevs Nairobi participants, as well as researchers and developers of quantum computing from Nairobi. This monthly gathering is open to all attendees.
“We needed a place where people who are working on hard things can come into proximity with each other, especially when there’s overlapping areas that need specialization,” Hersman spoke about the motivation behind Node NBO.
“We wanted to get the people behind this foundational layer of this tech we’re all using in a place where they can find each other, work on cool stuff around each other, and accelerate each other,” He added.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be part of Node NBO,” “Nwosu” “There’s so much synergy already happening between the companies and organizations involved with Node NBO that it just makes sense to bring them all under one roof.”
African Projects on Global Visitor’s Agenda
Node NBO, Nairobi is located at Gigiri in the northern part of Nairobi. Hersman called this area a “diplomatic area.”
Node NBO, located in Gigiri, is a popular destination for international tourists, since the United Nations Nairobi headquarters is nearby.
A view from the Node NBO facility.The photo is courtesy | Photo courtesy of Node NBO
Hersman said that the other reason that the area was created is that Hersman, himself, hosts many visitors from overseas. He wanted to establish a space where he could display the various projects currently underway in Africa.
“We’ve had everybody from team members from NVIDIA to the Rockefeller Catalyst Fund to high-level team members from Google and Microsoft come to visit and now we have a place where we can give people like this a tour of what’s happening,” Hersman is a good example.
A Unique Facility for Unique Infrastructure Companies
Solar panels will power the new building.
“Gridless is putting in solar power over the whole facility so that it actually runs fully off of its own energy,” Hersman is a good example.
Gridless’s ingenuity is well-known.
It has created a business model in its four-year existence that is not just about mining bitcoins with hydro power, but also using renewable energy sources. catalyzed the electrification of these rural regions while keeping the cost of electricity for residents of these regions low.
The team now shares an office with a Fedi-partner enterprise named SateNet.
SateNet, a satellite-based internet project that aims to improve the quality of life for underserved areas such as Kenya’s Kibera (home of the infamous AIDS epidemic), is an initiative through which towers are built in communities with poor service. Afribit Mossel Bay in South Africa is home to the Bitcoin Ekasi community.
SateNet offers residents in these areas the opportunity to purchase internet service at a low rate by paying with bitcoins via the SateNet mini app, which is available through the Fedi application.
“With Bitcoin and other freedom technologies, people need the internet to use them,” “Nwosu” “This was one of the main reasons why we decided to help the communities with whom we work to gain access to more affordable internet via SateNet.”
It will be the local community that owns and manages the infrastructure of the internet, making it a local service which is self-supporting.
“Node NBO is a space to help showcase the infrastructure of this new technology — the actual steel and silicon of the stuff,” Hersman is a good example. “We’re telling the story about how Africa has these companies that have a stake in the ground as far as infrastructure.”
Kenyan Way of Working Together
Hersman believes that in Kenya, many decisions are taken in a collective manner. He feels Node NBO could serve as the hub where such decisions can be taken.
“The Kenyan way of doing things requires people to see each other face to face from time to time,” Hersman, explained “We come together as a community to make decisions.”
Nairobi’s Bitcoin Community is no exception.
“The Bitcoin community that builds most things in Kenya is here in Nairobi,” Hersman is a good example.
“We work with each other. We don’t compete against each other,” He added.
“So, this is part of the culture of who we are well before any of this technology — this is just part of Kenya.”
This article is also available on Fedi’s blog. here.
Frank Corva writes a guest blog as a Fedi content producer. The opinions expressed by Frank Corva are theirs alone and not those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
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Source: bitcoinmagazine.com
