🇲🇺 Evento Takes on Mauritius! BTrust Dev Day & ABC Recap

Last week in Mauritius felt like a glimpse of the future we’re building toward - a future where communities gather freely, where technology empowers rather than restricts, and where people around the world connect through play, learning, and purpose. Evento had the honor of running a booth at Btrust Dev Day and the our team attended the Africa Bitcoin Conference - and boy was it a week to remember!

The Evento Experience at BTrust Dev Day

BTrust Dev Day was the perfect place to share what we’ve been building over the past few months, showcase our favorite bitcoin game, announce Hack4Freedom 2026, and of course give out special Evento merch!

⚡️ Launching the Evento Wallet (Beta)

For the first time ever, attendees got to try the Evento Wallet: a fully non-custodial bitcoin lightning wallet built using the Breez/Spark SDK and integrated directly into the Evento platform. We're entering the Evento Wallet into the Time2Build Challenge presented by Breez and Spark, so crossing our fingers we win this one!

Beta access will open up next week! Follow us on X to get first dibs!

We were hacking all weekend and into the early morning right before the conference started, fixing bugs and adding finishing touches to make sure the experience was delightful for everyone that day! Shout out to my husband who stayed up all night to make sure we were all set ✊ Love you!!

We onboarded over 80 people during Dev Day, each one walking away with sats they fully controlled. This was an insane moment for me - I've been dreaming of launching a wallet inside Evento for such a long time, and it finally happened.

The onboarding flow was seamless. Payments were instant. For many, it was their first time holding bitcoin in a truly self-custodial way that felt intuitive. Watching sats stream into people’s wallets - sometimes immediately after crossing a Mario Kart finish line - was one of our favorite parts of the week.

🏎️ Mario Kart Double Sats by D++

We set up Mario Kart Double Sats, our favorite bitcoin game built by D++, where every race earns sats paid directly to your Evento Wallet. If you want to support the game to bring it to more communities worldwide, she's got a crowdfunding page set up! Every sat counts ;)

All day long, our booth was packed with people racing, cheering, challenging each other, and explaining lightning payments to friends who couldn’t believe how fast it all worked. It was joyful, chaotic, and deeply educational: freedom tech through play.

Dev Day ended with our second-ever Double Sats Tournament, where the energy in the room was electric.

Paper from Bitspace won the finals and took home more than 750,000 sats. He said he will be donating his winnings to Bitspace! He was also our official Evento merch model, so I can't think of anyone better to have won the finale! Follow Bitspace on Evento to see all of their upcoming events :)

👩‍💻 Announcing Hack4Freedom 2026

We also used Dev Day to announce the expansion of Hack4Freedom, our two-week hackathon and builder bootcamp designed to train and uplift female developers in the Global South.

After the success of our inaugural program in Kaduna, Nigeria, we’re growing to five cities in 2026:

• Lagos
• Nairobi
• Port Harcourt
• São Paulo
• Belo Horizonte

Participants will learn to build functional open-source tools with Bitcoin, Lightning, Nostr, and eCash, supported by mentors across the ecosystem. Applications for hackers, mentors, and sponsors are now open!

✨ Stickers, Merch, Polaroids & Pure Community

Our booth became a little hub of connection. People stopped by for wallet demos or Mario Kart and stayed to talk about community organizing, Bitcoin adoption in their cities, or events they want to host on Evento.

We handed out Evento merch, stickers, sats, and took Polaroids of everyone who visited. Those snapshots felt like tiny time capsules of a week filled with collaboration, curiosity, and joy.

The atmosphere around the booth captured the heart of Evento:
simple tools, real connection, and communities building freely together.

Sessions That Left a Mark

Throughout the week, we attended workshops and talks that reminded us why education and freedom tech matter so deeply.

🧡 Women Building the Future

with Lorraine Marcel from BTC Dada

An honest, powerful discussion about gender inclusion in Bitcoin: the barriers, the opportunities, and the shared responsibility to create spaces where women can step into technical and leadership roles confidently. The men in the room showed up thoughtfully too, making the dialogue even richer.

Everyone in the room was so inspiring we made sure they all applied to be mentors at next year's Hack4Freedom!

🧡 Building with Care: Mental Health & Sustainability in Bitcoin Development

with Amiti Uttawar from Waye

A grounding session on building sustainably rather than burning out. Amiti explored what it means to take care of yourself while contributing to open-source work, and how emotional sustainability strengthens the entire ecosystem. I learned that I need to take more breaks and celebrate my wins way more!

Check out their amazing program for FOSS devs, helping them with their mental health so they can show up for themselves and work smarter, not harder!

🧡 Living with Bitcoin

with Renata Rodrigues and Modibe from Fedi

A look into community-led Bitcoin projects across Africa - from youth programs to savings cooperatives to grassroots circular economies. These stories of real-world, local empowerment were deeply inspiring.

After the session, we did karaoke in the Fedi room, which was obviously hilarious. Shoutout to Fedi for providing the space to sing our hearts out!

🧡 Bitcoin to Self-Custody: Anonymous Purchasing with Hodl Hodl

with Anna from Hodl Hodl and Ben Perrin (BTC Sessions)

A practical, privacy-focused workshop on how to acquire Bitcoin without sacrificing identity. The emphasis on sovereignty aligned perfectly with our mission.

Hodl Hodl is an amazing alternative to acquiring bitcoin on an exchange. And BTC Sessions was the perfect person to walk everyone through the process!

🧡 From Data to Policy: How Bitcoin Research Shapes Africa’s Financial Future

with Anaïse Kanimba from Africa Bitcoin Institute & José Edil Medeiros, from Vinteum, moderated by Paul Eke

A fascinating conversation about how research informs policy, and how both can work together to shape responsible Bitcoin adoption across Africa and the Global South.

We love the work Anaïse is doing at the Africa Bitcoin Institute and of course are huge fans of everything Edil has done for Vinteum.

Community, Community, Community!

Beyond the sessions, the racing, and the wallet demos, this week was about people: the relationships we’ve built, the collaborators who make Evento possible, and the new connections sparked in Mauritius.

One of the highlights for me personally was finally meeting Sekinah, Evento’s product manager, in person. After months of building, shipping, troubleshooting, and dreaming together remotely, sharing the same physical space felt like a milestone. We’ve spent so long side-by-side on screens and meeting face-to-face at Dev Day made the work feel even more real, and even more like a shared mission.

We also gave away sats to everyone who activated their Evento Wallet, handed out merch and stickers, and took Polaroids of everyone who stopped by the booth. We met organizers, builders, students, journalists, activists, and founders from across the continent and the world.
And yes, we did karaoke every single night! Thanks to Lucas from Vinteum, who is so incredibly passionate about karaoke that he made it a point to do it daily.

Mauritius was full of those small but meaningful moments: the excited “wow” when someone received their first Lightning payment; the laughter between strangers turned friends; the late-night conversations about freedom tech and the communities we want to build.

A Week That Captured What Evento Is Becoming

Mauritius reminded us of our mission:
to make gathering easier, freer, and more meaningful, whether you’re running a workshop, playing Mario Kart, teaching others about bitcoin, or creating a new project that pushes the movement forward.

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth, tested the wallet, raced for sats, joined the discussions, or sang with us after hours. You’re the heart of what we’re building.

And a HUGE thank you to BTrust for always believing in us and letting us be a part of this incredible event. You rock!

Onward! to more freedom tech, more connection, and more communities organizing with courage and creativity.