Enter the Build Better Contest with Stellar

Stellar’s Build Better is an invitation to challenge the status quo, reimagine what’s possible, and bring ideas to life in ways that create real, tangible change. For David Nandwa, founder of HoneyCoin, this ethos drives every line of code, every decision, and every feature. 

The vision behind HoneyCoin reflects exactly what Build Better asks: What would you build better? Growing up in Nairobi, Kenya, David saw firsthand the limitations of traditional financial systems, particularly in emerging markets often excluded from innovation. Instead of accepting these barriers, HoneyCoin adapted crypto tech to bridge cultural and technological divides—integrating familiar systems like mobile money while quietly solving cross-border payment challenges. This approach embodies the spirit of Build Better: solving real problems by starting with curiosity, cultural understanding, and a relentless belief that better solutions are possible.

For anyone wondering where to begin, HoneyCoin’s journey is proof that you don’t need to have all the answers to build something transformative. Change begins when you ask, “There has to be something better than this.” It’s a question that fuels HoneyCoin’s mission to reimagine financial access and inclusion—and it’s the same question Build Better invites you to answer. What does your better look like? Whether it’s creating a tool, sparking an idea, or collaborating to solve a challenge, the future is built by those willing to take action. It starts with saying yes to the invitation to build. 

Building Better Financial Futures with David Nandwa, founder of HoneyCoin

At the heart of every transformative idea is a commitment to challenge the status quo and reimagine what's possible. 

In this conversation with Stellar ecosystem founder David Nandwa, we explore how HoneyCoin is leveraging blockchain technology, particularly on the Stellar network, to build a more accessible, equitable financial system. David shares insights on the intersection of culture and technology, the power of collaboration, and what it truly means to Build Better.

Can you tell us about HoneyCoin and the specific problem it aims to solve? Put simply, we’re building the operating system for money to be sent, spent and held by the global majority of consumers and business who have historically not been prioritized. This is seen in two ways, with Peer, our lifestyle financial super app that allows users to open a bank account, send USDC into mobile money wallets and 200+ supported banks, invest in stocks and even spend at physical and online stores using their digital assets. And HoneyCoin for Business our treasury and payments platform that allows merchants to collect payments in stablecoins and traditional financial rails, move money across 40+ countries and even manage spend across their company using our corporate cards.  

What inspired you to build HoneyCoin, and how did your personal or cultural experiences shape its development? I’ve always had a passion for technology and software engineering in general but my real “aha” moment was when I started building consumer apps as a teenager and seeing that lines of code can be an agent of change and impact if you’re actually solving a problem people are facing. For HoneyCoin specifically - I come from Nairobi, Kenya which although is one of the more stable/developed markets in Africa is still quite lagging when it comes to banking and financial technology. Layer on debanking and deplatforming experiences due to “country risk” from platforms like Paypal & Wise as well as the fact that emerging markets are typically the last export destination for most category-defining fintech companies of today. Building HoneyCoin has gone beyond just building another fintech product - it's a deeply personal mission to create the financial infrastructure for consumers and businesses that I wish existed when I was growing up, and to ensure the next generation of dreamers and doers won't face the same barriers I did.

How does HoneyCoin reflect the ethos of Build Better—challenging old systems and creating something transformative? For us, 'Build Better' is about fundamentally rethinking how financial services should work in emerging markets like Africa whilst being exportable to developed markets like the US. Many of us in web3 and tech in general can resonate with the reality of growing up in a world where permissioned access is the norm, this has meant settling for what exists even when that product or solution is a far cry from the best. Our rapid growth shows that when you build solutions that truly understand and address local challenges, people embrace them. That's what building better means to us - creating something transformative by actually solving problems that matter."

Why did you choose to build on Stellar, and how has the technology enabled your vision? What drew us to Stellar was the fast throughput, low fees, and amazing protocol design; what’s kept us there was the community and core team. I’ve been in crypto long enough to have experienced a few bull runs, the NFT craze, winters and many more. One thing the Stellar community embodies is filtering out the noise and being laser-focused at why blockchain technology is so important - to build better solutions for the real world. 

How do you see technology, particularly blockchain, influencing cultural shifts in financial access and inclusion? I think the most impactful ways that blockchain technology is doing this is by removing intermediaries, reducing costs, and enabling trustless systems. It is a feature not a bug that card payments - the most used financial instrument of this generation is one of the most expensive ways to pay for both consumers and businesses. And it’s also a feature that we have to ask banks to send our own money when we want to, or trust private intermediaries who have their best interests first. 

In what ways does HoneyCoin bridge cultural and technological gaps in the regions you serve? Our approach to bridging these gaps really stems from our deep understanding of how people in different emerging markets actually use and think about money. We're not coming in trying to force-fit solutions, instead, we're building around existing behaviors and trust systems.

For example, many of our users are comfortable with mobile money services like M-PESA, but struggle with international transactions and apps. So we've designed our interface to feel familiar to someone who uses M-PESA while quietly leveraging blockchain technology in the background to solve their cross-border payment & savings needs. We're not asking users to learn about cryptocurrencies or change their habits – we're adapting the technology to fit their world.

We also understand that business is done differently in emerging markets like Africa. It's more about community validation and personal relationships than institutional backing. That's why we've invested heavily in solving the fragmentation problem, building local customer support teams who understand not just the language, but the cultural context of our users' needs and making stablecoins ubiquitous with cash.

This 'local-first' approach has been key to our rapid adoption. Users don't see us as a foreign technology being imposed on them – they see us as a natural evolution of the financial tools they already use and trust."

What role do you think community and cultural understanding play in building technology that truly makes a difference? I think it’s the heart of it. For most people - DAOs, run clubs, and dating apps are all optimising for the same core human need - belonging. As we build technology that truly makes a difference it’s crucial to approach it from the perspective of how any solution we build, by helping people save more, spend better and connect with each other financially no matter where in the world they are ties back to their community and cultural roots. 

How do you see the future of decentralized finance (DeFi) evolving, especially in emerging markets? My predictions for the future of DeFi can be broken down into 3 core themes:

1. Stablecoins will become as ubiquitous as mobile money, disrupting traditional card and banking revenue streams

2. Large consumer businesses will launch their own chains in order to capture more value, we’re already seeing this happen with companies like World.

3. Banks will use stablecoin payment platforms like HoneyCoin for clearing and settlements within the next 10 years.

What’s next for HoneyCoin, and how do you plan to continue building better in the next year? For us we’re laser focused in building the best operating system for money to be sent, saved, spent and held in emerging markets like Africa. And we’re not letting our foot of the gas anytime soon. A handful of exciting updates:

1. We’ve just launched our merchant acquiring solution which allows businesses and startups to collect payments via Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cards, Mobile Money & Bank Accounts and receive settlements instantly in USDC/USDT in over 38 countries.

2. We’ve also secured licenses in Europe, Canada & South Africa that allows us to launch products we’ve had on our roadmap for a while.

3. We also just launched Crypto Invoicing - allowing business to invoice suppliers and partners in USDC and get paid into their bank accounts instantly or on the same day.

How can people get involved with HoneyCoin or support its mission? If you’re a business looking for banking, treasury & payment rails in Europe, the US, Africa, & Asia - we’d love to serve you.  Our landing page is a great place to start to learn more and I respond to 99% of emails that hit my inbox! (david [at] honeycoin.app) If you’re an investor - we’re currently fundraising and would love to chat. (fun fact: we’ve been profitable every single year since launch) 🙂 If you’re a consumer - please give Peer a spin and let us know what you think! Other than that - I’d just like to say a huge thank you to the Stellar & FWB team for featuring us in your newsletter and thank YOU for reading. 🫶💛

The FWB 2024 Winter Bazaar: powered by PYUSD on SOLANA arrives Thursday 12/19

Dropping Thursday, December 19: Friends With Benefits x PYUSD x Solana presents the FWB Winter Bazaar 2024: a 72-hour e-market with curated goods from the extended Friends With Benefits community. Our physi-digital subcultural economy is made possible by the accelerating advancements in emerging technologies like trusted stablecoins and increasingly efficient layer one infrastructure.

Bar Blackbird San Francisco

Bar Blackbird is a members-only club for thirsty birds.

Bar Blackbird passes are valid every night of the week at 10+ beloved San Francisco watering holes. Members enjoy insider access and a drink (cocktail, wine, beer, +++) on Blackbird. Bar Blackbird membership unlocks members-only events, plus a 2,500 $FLY activation bonus (value: $25). Spend $FLY at participating Blackbird establishments all over San Francisco. Bar Blackbird membership is $30 a month.

Participating venues: 
• Bar Iris • Bar Sprezzatura • Bergerac • Blind Pig • Bus Stop • Hazie's • Kaiyo Rooftop • Mosto  • Palm House  • Tacolicious  • The Brixton • Trick Dog •

Distribute Music, Tokenize Royalties, Automate Splits in Stable Coins

Original Works is a decentralized and open-source protocol for Music IP that offers next-generation, secure, and transparent music distribution to all major streaming platforms and stores for artists, labels, and businesses.

Collect royalties from all major platforms and stores, whilst receiving payments onchain in USDC.

Enjoy seamless payments and royalty splits sent directly to the respective wallets of IP holders using Smart Contracts (Royalty Tokens). Access advances and easily split revenue, all while retaining self-custody of your IP rights.

Collect Tahquitz by Erika Weitz

Tahquitz is part of the HOLY WATER series from artist Erika Weitz exploring the psychedelic analog liquid light shows from the 1960s, which are synonymous with the mystical counterculture spirit and acid culture. Water and oil repel each other on the surface but are contained within a greater whole, celebrating novel expressions of their differences to mimic the ebb and flow of the world around us.

During her residency at the ACE Hotel Palm Springs, Weitz spent significant time at the waterfall in Tahquitz Canyon. The desert serves as a constant reminder that water is not only necessary for life in the sweltering desert heat but also a sacred cleansing ritual. During this time, Weitz encountered multiple coiled snakes in the canyons. The symbolic representation of the coiled snake, or ouroboros, embodies the continuous life / death / life cycle, highlighting the regeneration that exists all around us and recalling the continual transformation of shedding the old to become anew.

TOKEN MIGRATION UPDATE

Crypto is a rapidly evolving industry, with tools advancing in efficiency and scalability everyday. It’s incredibly exciting, and it’s exactly why we proposed updating the FWB token ecosystem from ETH Mainnet to Base L2. As many of you know Uniswap is close to launching a more proven V4. After careful consideration, we are postponing opening the migration to align with the launch of Uniswap V4 in order to set the pair once. We’re targeting January 2025, exact date to come.

ADD CULTURE TO YOUR TECH STACK WITH FWB

Friends With Benefits is a new type of cultural institution driving the adoption of emerging tech. Forged on the internet, FWB is a group of 5,500+ global members with a combined, cross-channel audience of 100K+ cultural producers, emerging tech builders, and early adopters. We partner with infrastructure companies, consumer brands, protocols, and communities to build user adoption strategies, craft cultural positioning, and deploy product launches.

What We Do: 

• Content & experiential marketing

• Solving cold start problem

• User acquisition & retention

• Community building

• Strategic advisory

How We Do It:

• URL → IRL Activations

• FWB FEST

• Incubators

• Strategic rollouts & marketing campaigns

• Thought leadership

Our Edge:

• Solving the Cold Start Problem: Our crypto-native community are the right first adopters paired with a custom rollout plan to drive early traction.

• Beyond crypto: We help you break out of the web3 bubble, ensuring your product resonates with a broader audience.

• A Community of Culturalists: Partner with us to access a global network eager to bring your vision to life and drive cultural relevance.

• Solutions for Newly Funded Companies: Our tailored approach maximizes your investment, delivering impactful results for your growing business.

More Than A Social Network

FWB was founded as a new kind of social network. Four years later, our network has evolved to produce cultural go-to-market solutions leveraging our 5,500+ global membership and wider emerging tech ecosystem.