APAY

APAY bridges the gap between Bitcoin and everyday commerce across Africa. Pay with Bitcoin; merchants receive local currency instantly

Comment

Inspiration

At Nairobi’s Maasai Market, I watched a M-Pesa stall reject Bitcoin payments from 3 different tourists. Meanwhile, almost 30+% of Kenyan youth own cryptocurrency (GeoPoll 2023), but they can't spend it locally. APAY solves this by making Bitcoin work like M-Pesa - instant, mobile, and accepted everywhere from Kikuyu shops to Kilimani cafes.

What it does

For Nairobians: ✅Pay: Scan QR at Nakumatt with Bitcoin ✅Convert: Instantly to KES via BitPesa API ✅ Receive: Merchant gets M-Pesa "You’ve received KES 5,000 from APAY" Unique to Kenya: ✅ Lipasafe Number: Pay via 483 amount * till number ✅ M-Pesa Integration: Direct settlement to Buy Goods till ✅ KRA-Compliant: Auto-generates receipts for Bitcoin transactions

How we built it

graph LR A[Flutter App] --> B[Africa's Talking USSD] B --> C[LocalBitcoins P2P Pool] C --> D[M-Pesa Buy Goods API]

Challenges we ran into

CBK Hurdles: M-Pesa API access required 6-month negotiation Solution: Partnered with licensed Paybill provider Gikomba Market Test: Dusty conditions broke QR scanners Solution: Voice-based payments (483 amount 2547...) **Matatu Adoption:* Conductors needed <3-second transactions Breakthrough: NFC stickers for Bitcoin-to-M-Pesa taps Coding Experience I was working on this project with Bolt to code the full project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I have just completed building it, and you will see how it works in the video demo.

What we learned

📌 Most Kenyans prefer "Bitcoin" over "crypto" (localized branding boosted trust) 📌 M-Pesa till numbers > QR codes 📌 Nairobi’s 3G dead zones require offline TX queuing

What's next for APAY

Immediate: Launch it by 2026, if all goes well, based on the outcome of the bolt's hackathon. Equity Bank Partnership for Bitcoin-KES payroll Long-Term: PesaLink Integration: Send Bitcoin to any Kenyan bank County Tax Payments: Accept BTC for parking and licenses

Share this project:

Updates