Mapping Bitcoin for Missions Design Labs

by Nate Scholz Ahshuwah and I offered this prototype to Missio Nexus as a proposal for their innovation grant a year ago. Our initial desire was to attract the attention of the missions community to the benefits of Bitcoin technology for use in missions projects, which was largely unknown at the time. We had already begun to effectively network with Christian Bitcoiners at various meetups across the US, and we began to imaging bridging the gap between these two communities. Rather than try to convince reluctant missions people, we elected to find the early adopters who were already using the technology successfully. We would ask them to host a gathering of Christian Bitcoin technologists and Cross-cultural missions practitioners who we would find and invite. Together we would learn what the host had been doing, then ideate prototypes using a customized process similar to Jake Knapp’s Design Sprint and the Human Centered Design approach popularized by Stanford University’s Ideo Labs. We promised our donors that documentation would be provided to report our findings and success, along with videos that we would feed back into the Missions community grapevine to encourage others to learn more. In effect, we created a pull dynamic, rather than pushing our ideas. In November of 2023, we were with Michael Peterson of the famed Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte, El Salvador, and in March of 2024, we were hosted by Erik Hersman of Gridless Compute in Naivasha, Kenya. Currently, we have plans to execute our 3rd iteration of this prototype in Goa, India, with a Missionary named Alex. In the first two iterations, we discerned several phases that were needed: • Getting the right combination of people together • A 4-week pre-event training that would combine elements of introductory Bitcoin knowledge, a hybrid combination of spiritual discernment and design-thinking, and cultural competency • A play-by-play map for executing the event that would result in new prototypes to test • Supporting the leaders in testing iteration • Documentation • Disseminating findings through various broadcast tools Combining spiritual formation, training, and innovative collaboration are key, especially when it leads to global impact and kingdom breakthrough. In the systematic cycle, we believe that we will achieve a circular economy as missions executives and wealthy Christian Bitcoiners catch on the value of our program and agree to finance future design lab trips.