Paying the way for Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador: Video
The Bitcoin (BTC) white paper title describes Bitcoin as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system.” So how is Bitcoin used as a medium of exchange, or electronic cash, in the first country to adopt Bitcoin?
Reporter Joe Hall spent a few weeks in El Salvador trying to live on Bitcoin and Bitcoin only. He documented his trials, tribulations, successes and satoshis (the smallest amount of a Bitcoin) in a video for Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel:
Headlines from El Salvador within the crypto community have been largely positive. Moreover, the statistics from the country have been quite positive; tourism is up 30%, crime and homicide rates in El Salvador have dropped dramatically, and the Bitcoin bond project is up and running in 2023.
Nevertheless, while Bitcoin is undoubtedly one of the most well-known brands worldwide; and a marketing tool that appeals to a pool of ardent Bitcoin believers around the world, its use as a medium of exchange is often questioned. In El Salvador, it is no different, as Hall explains.
Some Salvadoran vendors are laser-eyed hodlers; others made their first Bitcoin payment with Hall and were eager to ask questions and learn more.
Hall was surprised, dismayed, amused and finally thrilled by his discoveries in the country. Adopting a new technology as new and misunderstood as Bitcoin is a huge task, but Salvadorans are sticking with the new technology wherever possible.
Retailers like Walmart had the ability to pay with Bitcoin – but the process was slow and inconvenient – while the likes of Texaco were strongly against Bitcoin. At McDonald’s, the experience is smooth and fast; it’s even faster than the McDonald’s branches that accept Bitcoin in Switzerland.
From the Adopting Bitcoin conference – a flash conference in San Salvador that brought together bitcoiners from around the world – down to Bitcoin Beach and Surf City, over to the volcanoes of Santa Ana and on the streets of San Salvador, Hall mingled with the locals to get a better feel of Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.
Related: El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy evolved with the 2022 bear market
Hall attended the “My First Bitcoin” educational graduation ceremony at a school in El Pacheco. The founder, John Dennehy, was recently interviewed by Cointelegraph. Dennehy explained the group’s plan to remedy Bitcoin education in El Salvador by teaching teenagers how to Bitcoin.
The graduates that Hall interviewed at the school actually understood the basic principles of Bitcoin and expressed their belief that Bitcoin represents hope for the future. Watch the video to find out more.
