Rurbit: 100 Users in Rural Burundi Are Using Bitcoin Without the Internet

By June 2026, 100 people in rural Burundi were sending and receiving Bitcoin over the Lightning Network on basic phones with no internet, no app, and no smartphone. The tool making it possible is Rurbit, a USSD Bitcoin gateway built by Wilfrid Cubahiro, a computer science student who started with a Blink API key and a problem he could not let go of.

Rurbit's own milestone post in June was plain: "100 people are now onboarding into a more inclusive financial future, no internet required."

How Rurbit sends Bitcoin over USSD without internet

Users dial a short code on any phone with a signal. A text menu appears, the same kind used across Africa for airtime and mobile money. From there they can send and receive sats over Lightning, top up airtime, pay bills, and cash out through local agents using Lumicash. Every user gets a Lightning address on Rurbit's domain, short enough to type on a feature phone keypad and shareable by SMS. A Kirundi‑language AI educator is built into the flow so first‑time users learn as they transact.

On the backend, Rurbit runs on the Blink API. I covered the technical architecture in detail in my Blink blog piece.

Who built Rurbit

Wilfrid discovered Bitcoin in March 2025 through Trezor Academy and joined BitDevs Gitega, a developer community in Burundi's former capital. He was later selected for the Plan B Network Lugano summer Bitcoin school, where the assignment was to build something real. The question that stayed with him: what does Bitcoin look like for a farmer who has never owned a smartphone?

He built the first version alone.

Rurbit in rural Burundi: real user stories

During the two‑week testing phase with ten users, Wilfrid showed Rurbit to a rural shop owner. The man listened, then asked: can my son in Tanzania send me money with this? The answer was yes, instantly, at near‑zero cost, without walking hours to town or paying high agent fees.

In September 2026, the team ran Bitcoin education sessions with women small‑business owners. Posts from those sessions show groups of women gathered around phones and notebooks, learning the basics of Bitcoin and financial sovereignty, then making their first transactions and saving in sats.

Rurbit's growing recognition across Africa

African Bitcoiners featured Rurbit as a project spotlight in September 2026, listing five aims: wallets on basic phones, cheaper remittances, everyday utility, education in Kirundi, and rural financial rails that can expand across underserved areas.

Bitcoin Zambia drew a direct line from Machankura to Rurbit: "Machankura showed us how to send sats via USSD without internet. Building on that blueprint, Rurbit in Burundi is bringing offline BTC to feature phones."

What it costs to build USSD Bitcoin in Africa

A dedicated USSD short code in most African markets costs upwards of $10,000 with ongoing monthly fees. Wilfrid started on a shared code, three months of access for $500. The project is raising funds through Geyser to scale USSD infrastructure, launch a local Bitcoin hub, and run education missions.

Rurbit remains early. It is an MVP built by a student with support from a small circle of Bitcoin‑aligned friends. Burundi's central bank issued a warning against cryptocurrencies in 2019, and no legal tender status exists. The work continues anyway, on the phones people already carry and in the language they already speak. Rurbit sits alongside BTC Shule, which is building a physical Bitcoin education hub in the same country, and the two projects share the Burundi Bitcoin scene with BitDevs Gitega.

As Wilfrid put it: "This project isn't just about code; it's about dignity."