Kuhnel comes from a strong development and technical background and has been interested in digital currencies since late 2013. She created a bitcoin payment company that was the only affiliate partner of BitPay in South Africa. The company allowed merchants to accept bitcoin as a payment method on their websites using BitPay’s API and plugins.

"When I first started in the bitcoin space, I encountered significant resistance towards digital currencies from individuals and businesses in South Africa,” says Kuhnel. “The level of understanding of bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain, proved to be a real challenge and I realised I would have to first educate the market place before there would be any significant uptake of the digital currency and the cutting-edge technology behind it.”

Kuhnel then went on to start Bitcoin Events in 2014. The company held its inaugural Bitcoin Africa Conference in Cape Town in April 2015. The conference was a huge success with top international and local speakers such as well-known technology entrepreneur Vinny Lingham, co-founder and CEO of Gyft, who was the keynote speaker at the conference. Other speakers included Simon Dingle from BitX and Brock Pierce, chairman of the US Bitcoin Foundation.

It was at this conference that Kuhnel met Ian Merrington, the CEO of the Bandwidth Barn and Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) – Africa’s oldest incubator who has of late added a strong focus on innovation, particularly around Fintech.

Kuhnel and Merrington went on to collaborate on the successful launch of BitHub at the Barn in May. BitHub promotes digital currency and block chain development and recently hosted the Bitcoin Cape Town Meetup group.

“I feel there is a real lack of understanding around bitcoin and the blockchain technology and its benefits, which is what drove me to launch the Bitcoin Academy,” says Kuhnel. “We are offering basic, intermediary and advanced training in bitcoin and the blockchain, and some of the top financial institutions in South Africa have already expressed interest in our courses.”

Merrington says, “Our support for the Bitcoin Academy fits in very well with our Fintech incubation strategy. Our role is to empower the tech and innovation ecosystem, so hosting the Bitcoin Academy provides support for the formal financial industries as well as entrepreneurs and innovators working with crypto currency.”

“Sonya is a passionate advocate of bitcoin and the blockchain and she’s made significant inroads for all players in this space in terms of educating businesses and corporates and fuelling interest in this powerful technology,” says Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of BitX.

Preparations for the next Bitcoin Africa Conference, to be held in Johannesburg in March 2016 are well underway. Kuhnel will be bringing in top local and international speakers to further build on the foundation that the Bitcoin Academy is laying.

For more information, visit the Bitcoin Academy website. Alternatively, phone Sonya Kuhnel on +27 21 409 7000 or email [email protected].