A few hundred kilometers from El Salvador, Guatemala’s Bitcoin Lake contrasts Bitcoin adoption across the state with a promising model.
This is an op-ed through Rikki, and co-host of the podcasts “Bitcoin Italia” and “Stupefatti”. He is part of the Bitcoin explorers, along with Laura, and chronicles the adoption of Bitcoin around the world, one country at a time.
Laura and I continue our adventures in Central America with the purpose of delving into the specifics of Bitcoin adoption in many other countries and reporting it without prejudice on our YouTube channel, “Bitcoin Explorers”.
The wonderful interest that grips us after spending more than a month in El Salvador, and leaving it behind, is to seek to perceive what other people think about Bitcoin in countries where there has been no government propaganda, no media policy or ugly state applications like the Goat wallet to complicate things. Countries where, therefore, adoption is not done by decree, but only thanks to the loose projects of citizens and the paintings of personal corporations that in Bitcoin and build products and facilities in addition to their protocol.
But the question we’d like to answer is the simplest: Is the adoption of Bitcoin from the bottom up greater than the top-down adoption theorized by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele?
To locate the answer, our last destination is Guatemala, a country that is, in a way, very similar to El Salvador. In 2017, there were 16. 5 million people, of whom only about 60% lived below the poverty line, probably unbanked or unbanked. , and 23 per cent lived in extreme poverty. At that time, 0. 001% of Guatemalans owned more than a portion of the country’s wealth. These are ideal situations for the intrinsic characteristics of Bitcoin to be appreciated.
However, unlike El Salvador, the Guatemalan government’s policy is not favorable to cryptocurrencies, quite the opposite. Important laws and regulations have been followed to verify the exploitation of the phenomenon.
However, around Lake Atitlan, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, a small organization of pioneers has been organizing for about a year a select economy party in Bitcoin, similar to what has already been done in El Zonte through Bitcoin Beach. The selected call for this party is Bitcoin Lake and it is our selected destination.
We spent about ten days on the shores of the lake and documented it in a positive way, beyond our wildest expectations.
We find ourselves in a rare beauty position. An expanse of water surrounded by volcanoes and impenetrable jungle – tropical nature at its purest.
All photographs of articles taken by the author.
On the shores of Atitlan rise several local settlements, larger cities, such as Panajachel, where there is everything one can dream of to spend a few weeks of recreation and rest, and other smaller towns, for example San Marcos, in the middle of nature and in fact, more suitable for those who need to relax, meditate or spend hiking. These are other places that manage to satisfy the desires of all kinds of tourists. And, in fact, the lake thrives thanks to tourism. It is surprising how many hotels, bars, restaurants and activities are presented to those who decide to spend their holidays here.
However, there is one thing that unites all the activities here: cash. Even in Guatemala, electronic payment tools are very limited and credit card fees are exorbitant. Any tourist will temporarily realize this, because when traveling here, you will see that the few corporations that settle for credit cards charge 5% or 10% more on your bill if you need to pay with Visa or Mastercard. So, this is another ideal condition in Guatemala to build an economy of choice with Bitcoin.
And it’s an opportunity that some local businesses are rightly seizing. In addition to the large number of open-source bitcoin wallets available, there are apps like Osmo, which, in addition to allowing other people to obtain and send bitcoins, allows them to immediately convert them to quetzals, the local currency, or even US dollars. There are local payment facilities like IBEX that offer merchants a Lightning Network implementation, ideal for giant businesses that also have reporting requirements. These facilities, thanks to the Bitcoin protocol, update a bank account or a point of sale (PoS) provider. Maybe that’s why there’s so much enthusiasm on the lake for this technological innovation and why adoption is developing so strongly. that the Bitcoin Lake experiment began less than a year ago, it is impressive to see how many companies and merchants already settle for Bitcoin: a faster, safer and less expensive formula than credit cards.
But how does it feel, then, to move from bitcoin to Bitcoin Lake?
Great fun!
We had lunch and dinner at local restaurants, had breakfast enjoying the perfect local coffee, danced into the evening drinking smart cocktails, even paraglided over the lake, rented a boat, and took a tuc-tuc – all while paying in bitcoin. There are dozens and dozens of corporations already settling for them, and we honestly have plenty of options.
The comparison with Bitcoin Beach is, in this sense, ruthless. Atitlan is a much larger and more arranged hotel, so the source of bitcoins will be larger given the wide scope of adoption. El Zonte, besides the ocean and waves, has little to offer and is a very small town where, at 8:00 at night, you have trouble finding an open restaurant. But Panajachel, for example, is a hotel that manages to entertain late at night. Luckily, here you can come on vacation with your wife or pre-changing friends while enjoying a glorious Bitcoin vacation without worrying about them getting bored.
But how do merchants react when, in your store, you ask them if you can pay in bitcoin?
We were also very inspired by their reactions! They smiled at us and said “yes” with a pride and enthusiasm not found in most investors in El Salvador. When it came time to pay a bill, they grabbed their tablets or smartphones with incredible confidence, opened their wallets, and with 4 clicks, showed us the right QR codes, incredible awareness and wisdom of the tech tool.
Needless to say, of course, this has not been the case. There were also those who panicked, who told us that, for the time being, they may simply not settle for our transactions because the owners were not there and the bitcoin wallet was on their smartphone, those who told us that today “bitcoin does not work” and therefore regretted it, but they may only settle for cash.
In short, there is everything and more in Bitcoin Lake and it is still very early!But the feeling we have is that there is a lot of interest in the streets. When we stopped to talk about Bitcoin with the locals, interest. From time to time they asked us questions, they wanted to know more.
Is it true that it’s free?Do I really with the right app, even if you pay in bitcoin, can I get quetzals or dollars?”
There are no irritated expressions, sniffing faces, or politically aligned responses like “I don’t care about Bitcoin because I hate Bukele. “
At Bitcoin Lake, we were only a few hundred kilometers further north of El Salvador, but it seemed like a completely different wind was blowing. We have no doubt that it will soon be a very popular destination among Bitcoiners. After all, why shouldn’t I?Does someone visiting Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador also spend a few days here?There are personal buses that directly connect El Tunco, the city right next to El Zonte, with Lake Atitlan. It only takes a few hours of travel, is incredibly affordable shipping option and driving through majestic landscapes on safe roads.
Our adventure through Central America continues, but we feel that this part of the continent is waking up. There is a lot of economic and tourism potential here, and Bitcoin meets genuine needs. In short, the horizons of the Bitcoin traveler are expanding rapidly. and as we have shown, the number of functions is limited to El Salvador only.
This is a guest post through Rikki. The perspectives expressed are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.