Weekly Brief 2026/12

Square is planning to auto-enable Bitcoin and Lightning payments for all eligible sellers starting March 30 — across a merchant base reported at more than 4 million businesses. While that rollout approaches, Bolivia's merchant network climbed to 86, Kenya's Bitcoin spending spread to supermarkets, tailors, and snack shops at ticket sizes as low as 30 shillings, and Bitcoin Ekasi handed out 35 NFC Bolt Cards at a surf event — 20 used for real transactions on the spot. The week's signal: Bitcoin payments are spreading through distribution, not just discovery.

Bolivia delivered the week's clearest measurable growth trend, while Santa Cruz added five everyday merchants in a single push.

• Bolivia reaches 86 Bitcoin-accepting merchants: The network grew from 33 in May 2025 to 75 in January, 77 in February, and 86 by March 2026 — with La Paz now reported to have doubled Cochabamba in Bitcoin-accepting locations. New additions include an exchange house, a food stall, a barber shop, and merchants along Avenida Illampu, a high-traffic tourist corridor in La Paz. For a Blink user traveling to Bolivia, the spend map is substantially larger than it was a year ago.
• Santa Cruz adds 5 merchants in one week: Unidos x Satoshi mapped a protein bar, physiotherapy clinic, barber shop, grocery, and electronics store in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, bringing the city total to 34 on BTC Map. These are recurring-spend categories — the kind of merchant mix that supports weekly Bitcoin use, not just one-off experimentation.

Kenya extended its BTC-to-shilling checkout model to the smallest everyday purchases, while South Africa made its Bitcoin spend network easier to find.

• Kenya — 30-shilling tickets, multiple merchants, zero complaints: @waithiraah documented a full day of Bitcoin-funded purchases: items at Chandarana Supermarket, a tailor visit, bottled water, and a snack — merchants receiving Kenyan shillings via Tando, with 30 shillings saved in fees and payments as small as 30–50 KES working without friction. Last week proved Bitcoin works for lunch in Nairobi. This week proved it works for the rest of the day too.
• South Africa — 31 places to spend Bitcoin in 2026: BitcoinFriendlySA published its 2026 spending guide listing 31 Bitcoin-friendly locations, while MoneyBadger released a companion FAQ covering what you can buy, where to shop, whether Bitcoin is legal tender, and how payment works. Separately, MoneyBadger confirmed its Blink Lightning integration is fully open-source and permissionless — meaning any wallet can adopt the same interoperability approach without coordination with either company.

Two grassroots stories stood out this week — one measured in card taps, the other in conversations.

• Bitcoin Ekasi distributes 35 NFC Bolt Cards at a surf event — 20 used for real transactions: At the Surf Series Comp at the Point, Bitcoin Ekasi handed out 35 NFC Bolt Cards pre-loaded with sats. Twenty of the 35 were used for actual purchases during the event — the first tap-to-spend Bitcoin experience for many attendees. The setup ran on BTCPay Server, required no wallet download, no QR code scanning. A 57% first-use conversion rate at a live public event is a meaningful onboarding signal.
• Bliss Beauty Salon — 8 women onboarded through customer conversations: Winnie, owner of Bliss Beauty Salon and a BitBiashara merchant, has been teaching customers how wallets work during appointments — using Bitika, Blink, Wallet of Satoshi, and Tando to demonstrate send and receive. Eight women have already learned through these salon interactions. Her Lightning address: Winniesalon@blink.sv. Bitcoin education spreading through everyday service businesses, one haircut at a time.

The week's only policy signal came from Canada and directly targets spending friction.

• Quebec — no capital gains on Bitcoin spending, regardless of amount: The Conservative Party of Quebec adopted a platform plank under which spending Bitcoin would not trigger capital gains tax, Bitcoin ownership would not need to be declared to government authorities, and regulatory barriers to Bitcoin mining would be removed. This is not enacted law — it is a party platform. But it is the clearest proposal anywhere in the current source set aimed specifically at making Bitcoin spendable as money without a tax event at checkout.

Last week, Bitcoin payments plugged into existing rails. This week, they spread through existing distributions — a POS network measured in millions, a spending guide for a country, a shelf of NFC cards at a surf event. The surface area keeps expanding. See you next week.

And before we go — this is what it looks like when a community makes Bitcoin real to the people who lead it. Bitcoin Ekasi's community lead @LuthandoSABTC took a ward councillor to the first shop in Khayelitsha that's been accepting Bitcoin since 2021, and made a payment in front of him. If you want a community to believe in Bitcoin, start with its leaders.