News From El Salvador, Early August: Optimism, Donations, And Meetups

The outpour of Bitcoin-related news from El Salvador, AKA Bitcoin Country, slowed down. It’s the calm before the storm. The Bitcoin Law goes into effect in September. Nevertheless, things are happening and Bitcoinist is here to report on them. Who else but us reports on the little things that add up and end up changing the world? Nobody else in the crypto-space, that’s who. 

Related Reading | U.S. Citizens Will Soon Be Able To Buy Bitcoin Across 650 Banks

It’s been almost a month since our previous news roundup. To our defense, we had to switch gears and focus on big media reports for a while. Here they are: One, Two, Three. In any case, what happened this month? Well…

BTC price chart for 08/06/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Optimism From El Salvador, Forbes And Bank Of America

• As it turns out, El Salvador is Latin America’s most optimistic country about its economic future, according to Forbes. And just wait until they get a taste of what Bitcoin can do, and read “The Bitcoin Standard.” They’ll be static. And, even better, after they use the Lightning Network a few times and realize that they’re in the future while the whole world remains in the Stone Age.

• On the one hand, the Bank of America stated the obvious. On the other, it’s extremely surprising for a legacy financial institution to emit such an honest opinion about El Salvador’s bitcoinization. In any case, President Bukele shared a page from a report from the Bank of America and it made global news. As usual, Bitcoinist covered it first. Check the article for more details. 

Generous Donations And Bitcoin ATM Mania

• Bitcoin 3D printing company Crypto Cloaks auctioned the “El Salvador La Ley Bitcoin Newspaper” and raised 11,000,000 SATS for Bitcoin Beach. The Bitcoin community keeps showing up and supporting the project that changed the world. Even though it seems like Bitcoin already won, the battle is just starting. Let’s keep at it.

• The amount of Bitcoin ATMs in El Salvador went to the moon and the second part of the experiment hasn’t even started. How will this map look in a few months?

Podcasts And Meetups

• Bitcoin Magazine sponsored a meetup to talk about Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. The first of many, we hope. Here’s a picture. They described it as:

We will meet at a steakhouse, have a great meal and share our ideas about Bitcoin adoption. Let’s chat about the Lightning payment layer and the technological, economic and societal aspects of Bitcoin.

• Back in El Zonte, the host of the Bitcoin Rapid-Fire podcast, John Vallis, had a conversation with Roman Martínez and Jorge Valenzuela. The two community leaders are the current face of the Bitcoin Beach project and our main source of news for this section. Enjoy! 

Education And Community Building in El Salvador

• The Lifeguard program was one of the first projects that Bitcoin Beach tackled. These people get training, jobs at the beach, and get paid in Sats. A dream job if we ever saw one. However, can you believe how many lifeguards there are?

• Education is the key, as Martínez says. The Bitcoin Beach folks keep educating people and vendors in the nearby towns. Little do these people know that those Bitcoin classes are going to positively change their lives forever. 

That’s it for today, but the adventure is just beginning.

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Featured Image from Roman Martínez's Twitter | Charts by TradingView