Dakar, Senegal — Pan-African payment infrastructure company Bitnob has concluded Code & Chain Dakar 2026, a two-day developer workshop and hackathon that brought 98 builders together in Senegal's capital to build with Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. The event, supported by Btrust, ended with 17 project demos and $5,000 in prize money shared among three winning teams. First place went to RAK TAK CASH, a tool that enables merchants to accept Lightning payments.

From Discussion to Deployment

Held on October 17 and 18 at the Orange Digital Center, a tech-training hub operated by telecoms operator Orange, Code & Chain paired hands-on technical workshops with a build sprint. The goal was to move developers past the theory of what Bitcoin can do and into shipping working products.

Btrust, the non-profit that funds Bitcoin open-source development across Africa and the Global South, backed the event. Its support gave participants practical exposure to Bitcoin development tools as they worked on problems in commerce, public services, and the digital economy.

The gathering also drew in local developer communities and ecosystem partners, including Women in Blockchain Africa, an organization working to grow women's participation across the continent's blockchain industry, adding to the momentum in Senegal's growing tech scene.

"Code & Chain is about moving beyond conversations about what Bitcoin can do and giving developers the skills, tools and opportunities to actually build with it," said Damilola Robert, Head of Growth at Bitnob. "We're grateful to Btrust for helping create an environment where builders can turn ideas into practical solutions for their communities."

Two Days, 17 Projects

Day one was dedicated to technical training, walking participants through the fundamentals of building on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, the layer-two protocol that moves payments off Bitcoin's base blockchain so they settle faster and at lower cost — the properties that make it suitable for retail-style payments like the ones many teams targeted. On day two, teams put that training to work, building and pitching products aimed at local and regional problems.

The 17 projects presented covered payments, commerce, digital public services, and the creator economy, showing how far Bitcoin-based infrastructure can stretch beyond trading and speculation. The spread of use cases — retail checkout, administrative paperwork, developer bounties — illustrates how the same payment rails can be repurposed for very different local needs.

The Winners

Three teams split the $5,000 prize pool:

• RAK TAK CASH (first place) built a merchant-focused payment solution that lets businesses accept Lightning payments and secures transactions between buyers and sellers.
• DioteKo (second place) created a platform that simplifies how citizens request, pay for, and verify administrative documents, using digital credentials and Lightning payments.
• BitBounty (third place) connects open-source developers to global bounty opportunities and pays them out in Bitcoin.

Building Africa's Bitcoin Developer Pipeline

Code & Chain is Bitnob's developer initiative, run through workshops, hackathons, and partnerships with local tech communities. The Dakar edition is part of the company's wider push to give African developers the training, tools, and room to build real-world products on Bitcoin.

"Some of the most impactful innovations will come from developers who understand the challenges in their local markets and have the tools to solve them," Robert added. "Our role is to help bridge the gap between that knowledge and the technology needed to bring ideas to life."

Bitnob provides Bitcoin-powered payment infrastructure, offering APIs and business tools that help companies and developers move money, accept payments, and build financial products. With 98 attendees and 17 working prototypes produced over two days, the Dakar turnout points to growing interest in Bitcoin development across Francophone West Africa. All 17 entries left Dakar as prototypes; whether tools like RAK TAK CASH and DioteKo find users beyond the demo stage is the next milestone for the teams involved.