As part of the Dakar Bitcoin Days event, we met Vladimir Fomene, a bitcoin developer who contributes to the BitcoinDevKit library.
Hello Vladimir, can you introduce yourself and tell us about your work on Bitcoin?
My name is Vladimir Fomene and I’m a bitcoin developer. Currently, I mainly work on the BitcoinDevKit, a library that is used to develop bitcoin e-wallets. I am funded by Btrust for this work.
Can you tell us more about Btrust?
It is a fund created by Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z whose goal is to finance African developers so that they can work on Bitcoin.
A quick word about your background and training?
I trained as a computer scientist at Ashesi University in Ghana. After leaving school, I worked as a Front End and BackEnd web developer. Then, I had the opportunity to get involved with Btrust on Bitcoin development
Do you think that Bitcoin wallets could one day be really accessible to non-specialized or even illiterate people?
I think yes. There is work being done in Nairobi, Kenya, to develop seed sentences in Swahili. That is to say that tomorrow, when you are using a non-custodial Wallet, you will be able to use seed sentences in a language you understand. That’s work that can be replicated here in Senegal where we speak Wolof. Because you have certainly noticed that when you arrive in Senegal, the first language spoken to you is not French, it’s Wolof. This means that we must develop tools that will allow Africans to be able to use these wallets, and having seed sentences in languages that we understand is already something, it is already progress. Now, there are also other technologies that Africans are developing. For example, you have surely heard of the project called Machankura, which is a bitcoin technology that can be used on USSD services.
Will the Bitcoin protocol experience changes and new features? Which ones?
The protocol continues to evolve, as people come up with interesting ideas that could push bitcoin forward. Either to ensure that many people can use it, or to ensure that we can develop interesting things on bitcoin. Every day, there are proposals that are made by developers in the Community.
The Bitcoin protocol has never been faulted before. How much longer do you think this can last? Are you worried about quantum algorithms?
I believe the system will continue to be secure as it always has been. Because there are people like us who watch to ensure that this system remains secure. And developers have already thought about solutions to block quantum algorithms. So we shouldn’t have a problem when quantum algorithms come on the market.
Can you describe the areas of development and your projects planned for 2023?
Well, personally, I would like the swalli word system that we developed for the seed phrase to be integrated into the Bitcoin system. We have opened a request for this.
Apart from that, there is also work that we are currently doing on the Bitcoin Dev Kit that will allow us to go to version 1.0. It’s actually a bit of a restructuring of the entire architecture of our library. So, I would like to continue to contribute to this work. For 2023, my focus will really be to allow Africans to keep their bitcoins.
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