Chub Cay seeks to adopt a Bitcoin standard – Bitcoin Magazine
- Chub Cay is an island located in the Bahamas and is currently looking for a Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet provider to partner with.
- Chub Cay Resort and Marina conducted an internal survey showing that over 50% of employees want at least some of their paychecks in bitcoin.
- The lack of banks and financial education in the area makes using traditional banking systems ineffective and at times impossible.
Chub Cay – an island located in the Berry Islands district of the Bahamas – is a private island looking to adopt a bitcoin standard and they need a strong Lightning Network wallet service provider to bridge infrastructure gaps, according to a recent interview with Bitcoin Magazine.
The introduction of a bitcoin standard on the island will be driven by Chub Cay Resorts and Marina, the largest employer on the island which is wholly owned by energy magnate George Bishop – who also owns the island. In a recent internal survey, the resort found that over 50% of employees want to receive at least some of their paychecks in bitcoin.
Resort staff, including locals, noted a desire for access to bitcoin due to the extreme difficulty associated with operating on a fiat standard. A high percentage of the island’s local population is unbanked and lacks financial literacy, which is exacerbated when one considers the lack of access to traditional banking institutions for many Bahamian islanders.
In fact, many islands don’t even have a bank, which requires more time, effort and resources, plus a $7 fee every time someone wants to send money home to help their loved ones. For those who are unbanked or uninformed considering money services altogether, the process can become almost impossible.
In addition, the Bahamian government has adopted heavy-handed regulatory practices that completely cut off the ability to send money abroad. An emergency government order restricted money transfer services to domestic transactions only as a result of COVID-19.
“We asked for incoming transfers to be cleared as much as we want to help the community at large. There are a number of people here who receive funds from abroad,” said Julian Rolle, CEO of Cash N Go – a company that petitioned the government for to offer these services.
“There may also be other residents and tourists here who cannot go, and we would like them to be able to collect money if their loved ones send it to them,” Rolle continued.
At a later stage, money services were added to an exception list so that they could operate even if the order was still active. However, the restrictive behavior of the government at the time created a level of doubt among both the locals of Chub Cay and the resort staff. Thus, a calculation was made and many among the islanders decided that the bitcoin standard was not only feasible, it might just be necessary.
“The idea is to create a circular bitcoin economy on Chub Cay, with the hope that it will serve as a model for the rest of the Bahamas,” the consultant for the resort told Bitcoin Magazine.
Chub Cay Resort and Marina has already started accepting discounts for paying for reservations in bitcoin, as well as adding QR codes to menus to pay in bitcoin, and even plans to roll out bitcoin ATMs in the area. Other businesses on the island have also started accepting bitcoin.
As the Bahamian government struggles to understand the innovation bitcoin brings to a financially inclusive economy, could Chub Cay lead the way to a bitcoin standard in the Bahamas?
