On March 6, 2026, we conducted a field visit to Lwandi Surf, a surf school located in the village of Ponta do Ouro, close to the border with South Africa. We reached it via a two-hour drive from Maputo heading south.
The name “Lwandi” means “ocean” in the local Shangani language. The visit focused on understanding the emerging Lwandi Bitcoin circular economy initiative and assessing its potential for growth.
We noted that Lwandi Bitcoin has strong potential to become a project similar in success to Bitcoin Ekasi in Mossel Bay, South Africa. In Bitcoin Ekasi, a local surf school began paying instructors in bitcoin in 2022 and onboarded a small number of merchants to accept bitcoin. Four years later, the project has attracted significant interest and has become a role model for other communities.
Ponta do Ouro is a tourism center, and the surf school operates a social project that has been running since 2019. The program focuses on educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds and currently includes 130 surfer kids. During the visit, we learned that Lwandi Surf works closely with the local community. One of the founders, Gabriel, is a trained civil engineer who changed his career path to focus on surfing and social work.
At present, there are seven surf instructors, and they earn a small amount of bitcoin. The cafe next to the surf school is already accepting bitcoin. The proximity of the South African border shapes local economic behavior: people often walk along the beach into South Africa to purchase goods that are not available in Ponta do Ouro. Directly across the border is a Pick n Pay, where bitcoin earners are able to spend their bitcoin.
