For decades, the financial capitals of the world were set in stone: New York, London, Zurich, Hong Kong. But today, the center of gravity shifted out of the Global North to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean.
As the #BtrustGathering kicked off in Mauritius today, the island transformed into more than just a scenic backdrop; it became the ground zero for the future of money. The event opened with a mission statement that felt less like a conference theme and more like a declaration of independence: “Mapping the future of open-source collaboration across the global majority.”
A New Financial Geography
The choice of Mauritius is symbolic. Historically a bridge between Africa and Asia, it is now the bridge between the broken financial systems of the past and the open protocols of the future.
The “Global Majority”—the billions of people in Africa, India, and Latin America—have long been treated as passive consumers of Western financial products. Today, that narrative died. The speakers taking the stage in Port Louis are not bankers selling loans; they are engineers building sovereignty.
From Gridless turning stranded energy into digital gold in rural Kenya, to Bitcoin Boma building circular economies that bypass SWIFT entirely, the innovation showcased today proves that the most advanced financial engineering isn’t happening on Wall Street. It’s happening here.
Redefining “Value”
What is happening in Mauritius is a redefinition of value itself. In the traditional financial centers, value is defined by stock prices and derivatives. In this new center stage, value is defined by utility and freedom.
The builders gathering here are not solving for “yield”; they are solving for survival. They are building censorship-resistant payments for activists, offline transaction tools for rural farmers, and inflation-proof savings for families.
By centering the needs of the Global South, Mauritius is hosting the birth of a financial system that is anti-fragile by design.
