Layer 2 Ep 3 [The India Series]: Basanta and Paperpsych

In this Layer 2 kick-off to our India series, Avi sits down with two grassroots heavy-hitters:

• Basanta Goswami – ex-fiat dev turned full-time “freedom-tech” maxi. Basanta helped launch the Assam Bitcoin Cohort, runs wallet-security audits, hacks on the Nostr form-builder Formstr, and curates the Bangalore “Un-F*** the Internet” privacy meet-up under his new banner, Unsigned Labs.
• Paper Psych – designer-turned-community lead at Bitshala’s BitSpace, India’s first Bitcoin co-working / hacker hub in Bengaluru, home to BitDevs, design-athons and a Spanish-style fellowship that pays newcomers to contribute to open-source Bitcoin.

Together they unpack:

• how a 2022 Bitcoin conference flipped their orange-pill switch
• why talking to Indians in their own languages supercharges adoption
• Bitshala’s cohort-to-fellowship pipeline for developers & designers
• grass-roots tactics that beat alt-coin marketing budgets - Nostr zaps, vernacular podcasts, local meet-ups
• the promise (and policy pain) of hydro-powered mining in the North-East
• a vision of decentralized tech, digital self-sovereignty and an orange future for 1.4 billion people.

Whether you’re building, hodling, or just Nostr-curious, this episode is a front-row look at India’s rapidly forming Bitcoin layer - told by the plebs making it happen.

Links

Bitshala: https://bitshala.org/

Formstr: https://formstr.app/