ALEX ATUHAIRE

I am a Ugandan IT professional, technology entrepreneur, and IT operations specialist with approximately 15 years of experience in information technology infrastructure, systems administration, networking, software development, systems integration, server management, IT operations, and technical training.

I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Makerere University and serve as Head of IT Operations at UBRO CLASSIFIEDS LIMITED, a Uganda-based IT solutions provider offering website development, hosting, networking, software development, systems integration, IT consultancy, infrastructure management, and technical training.

My professional experience has given me practical exposure to the challenges involved in designing, deploying, securing, and maintaining reliable technology infrastructure. My current interests extend this experience into Bitcoin infrastructure, open-source software, decentralised systems, node infrastructure, operational resilience, and security research.

I am currently developing an independent Bitcoin infrastructure research programme through UBRO CLASSIFIEDS LIMITED called BNSAT-R - Bitcoin Node Security, Availability & Resilience Research.

BNSAT-R seeks to investigate practical questions related to Bitcoin infrastructure security, availability, recovery, and operational resilience through independent research, controlled experimentation, technical documentation, reproducible methodologies, open-source development, and collaboration with Bitcoin developers and researchers.

The initial research project under BNSAT-R is BNOCR - Bitcoin Node Operational Continuity Research.

The central research question is:

"How do independently operated Bitcoin full nodes recover and return to operational continuity following controlled disruptions, and can this recovery process be measured using a reproducible framework?"

The proposed research may explore controlled disruptions involving power, network connectivity, bandwidth, computing resources, and storage. Potential research measurements include process recovery, peer recovery, chain-state recovery, operational recovery, recovery time, resource utilisation, recovery success, and the need for manual intervention.

BNOCR is currently at the concept and research validation stage. My immediate priority is to review existing research and open-source projects, identify genuine research gaps, consult experienced Bitcoin developers and researchers, refine the research question, and develop a reproducible methodology before beginning significant experimentation.

My approach to research is guided by five principles: research before building, measure before claiming, collaborate before duplicating, reproducibility, and open contribution.

I believe that Africa can make meaningful contributions to the global Bitcoin security and infrastructure ecosystem. Technology infrastructure is often studied in environments with relatively stable electricity, internet connectivity, hardware availability, and technical support. African environments can provide valuable perspectives on infrastructure variability, connectivity, resource constraints, hardware affordability, operational continuity, and resource efficiency.

The objective is not to suggest that African infrastructure is inherently less secure. Rather, I am interested in investigating whether studying decentralised infrastructure under a broader range of operational conditions can produce knowledge that is useful to the global Bitcoin ecosystem.

The initial research activities are planned from Kampala, Uganda, with the possibility of future research activities in other locations as the programme develops.

I am interested in connecting with Bitcoin Core developers, Bitcoin infrastructure researchers, security researchers, academic researchers, open-source developers, node operators, and organisations working on Bitcoin infrastructure.

Potential areas of collaboration include Bitcoin node research, operational resilience, infrastructure security, resource-constrained deployments, open-source research tools, technical experimentation, documentation, data analysis, and technical training.

My immediate objective is technical validation and collaboration. I want to learn from experienced contributors, understand existing work, avoid duplication, identify genuine research gaps, and contribute useful, evidence-based research to the wider Bitcoin ecosystem.

I do not approach this work with the assumption that I already have all the answers. My objective is to research carefully, listen to experienced contributors, conduct reproducible experiments, and contribute openly where the work can add value.

I believe that researchers and developers from Africa can make meaningful contributions to Bitcoin's long-term security, and I hope to build that contribution from Uganda.

Research. Measure. Build. Contribute.