JAIPUR, India, November 2, 2026 — Fedi Community Custody was in focus at Bitmela Jaipur as Fedi, the Bitcoin wallet, chat and community app built on Fedimint, participated as a festival partner. The event, billed as India's first Bitcoin festival, took place on October 30–31 at InterContinental Jaipur.
Shikhar Vaibhav, Fedi’s Community Knight for India, represented the company on stage on the second day. He spoke on “What Does Money Mean Where You Live?”, a 30-minute panel on the Cake Stage.
One question, three continents
The session brought together four speakers from three continents to compare how differently people think about money. Shikhar shared the stage with Sabina Waithira, co-founder of Tando, Mineey, CMO of NonceLab, and Tony Nakamoto, an educator at Hodl Hodl. Shambhavi Soni, founder of BitcoinHer, moderated.
The topic suits his role. Fedi’s Knights lead its on-the-ground work in their countries, building local partnerships and running meetups and workshops. Shikhar’s focus is connecting Bitcoin with the everyday realities of how people save, spend and send money.
A middle path for holding Bitcoin
Most Bitcoin users face a hard choice: hold their own keys and carry all the risk, or hand their coins to a custodian. Fedi offers a third option, which it calls community custody.
It is built on Fedimint, an open-source protocol. A group of at least four trusted people, called Guardians, runs a federation together, and more than two-thirds of them must agree to move funds. No single person, device or seed phrase can drain the wallet, and members can withdraw at any time over Lightning or on the Bitcoin main chain.
Inside a federation, balances are held as ecash, which is designed to make payments fast and private. Fedi says Guardians cannot see individual balances or personal transaction history.
Fedi is open about the trade-offs. Members must trust Guardians not to collude, and funds can be frozen if too many nodes go offline. Choosing who runs a federation matters.
Money, chat and community in one app
Fedi combines a Bitcoin wallet with encrypted chat and community spaces, and it is available on iOS and Android. Community leaders can set up spaces for their members and add Mini Apps such as calendars, shared documents and local payments.
Two features stand out. Stable Balance holds part of a user’s funds at a fixed fiat value, adjusting the amount of bitcoin automatically as the price moves. Multispend works like a group wallet inside a chat, where a set number of voters must approve each withdrawal. A group might use it for an emergency fund or a community project.
That idea of pooled money should sound familiar in India, where friends and neighbours have long saved together through kitty groups.
Built with communities in mind
Fedi was founded by Obi Nwosu, Eric Sirion and Justin Moon. Sirion is the original creator of Fedimint. The company launched the production version of its app in August 2024, and it raised a $17 million Series A led by Ego Death Capital in 2023, according to Bitcoin Magazine.
Its users include grassroots projects. In Kenya, the waste-to-bitcoin initiative EcoBitz uses Fedi to pay recyclers and share price updates with them.
At Bitmela, Fedi sat alongside partners including title sponsor Cake Wallet, Bitshala, Foundation, Trezor Academy, Coconut Wallet and Unocoin.
Community custody relies on trust in a federation’s Guardians. Crypto assets carry risk. This release is for information only and is not financial advice.
About Fedi
Fedi is a Bitcoin wallet, chat and community app built on the Fedimint protocol, offering community custody through federations run by Guardians. Learn more at fedi.xyz.
About Bitmela
Bitmela is a two-day festival on the future of money, combining talks, workshops and a traditional Indian mela. Its first edition took place in Jaipur on October 30 and 31, 2026. Learn more at thebitmela.com.
About Bitnxt
Bitnxt is a crypto B2B directory, media and discovery platform, and a media partner of Bitmela. Learn more at bitnxt.io.
