It feels like a movie, a modest youth outreach program at a remote beach ended up modernizing a whole country. And probably changing the whole world. Bitcoin is already legal tender in El Salvador, but that’s just the first step. The story continues at Bitcoin Beach, where an ever-growing group of Salvadorians is facing challenges and teaching children about the marvels of this still-novel technology.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Adoption: Why Paraguay Could Follow In El Salvador’s Footsteps
What’s happening in El Zonte and in El Salvador in general? Bitcoinist has you covered.
Fees, Foundations, And Surf In El Salvador
- The Bitcoin community, lead by Miles Suter, is raising money for the Katy Diaz Surf Foundation non-profit. They’ll build a physical location for the Salvadorian Surf Team. They plan to, “fund much of this project in bitcoin directly – from the construction materials to the wages of the builders.” To learn about Katy Diaz’s story and to find out where to contribute, read the whole thread.
The Salvadoran Surf Team has no physical location to train or gather as a community.
After consulting with her family we set out to coordinate a global fundraising campaign to build a permanent surf training and community center – funded entirely in bitcoin and named after Katy. pic.twitter.com/TDpLTubsF3
— Miles Suter (@milessuter) May 5, 2021
- Around 20 thousand El Salvadorans used the Bitcoin Beach wallet this week. The fee for all of their transactions was “13879 sats, or $4.98.” That’s right, all of their transactions cost less than $5. The Lightning Network is real.
Today I got charged $25 because I got lazy on my bank account and let it overdraft. ain't got much fiat around you know.
This week, 20000 El Salvadorans have been using @Bitcoinbeach wallet and paid a total of 13879 sats, or $4.98 for using @lightning.
This is why #bitcoin wins pic.twitter.com/B3rRleBwQr
— Nicolas Burtey ??⚡️ (@nicolasburtey) June 19, 2021
- ChainBytes sent a batch of Bitcoin ATMs to El Salvador. More importantly, the company claims, “our main goal is to create skilled jobs for Salvadorans. Our leadership team is working tirelessly in El Salvador to help build El Salvador into the Bitcoin ATM manufacturing hub of the Americas.” And, apparently, they mean it.
Our #Bitcoin ATMs ready to ship out to El Salvador! #elsalvador #bitcoin @nayibbukele pic.twitter.com/PGfKMbHuzC
— ChainBytes (@ChainBytes) June 17, 2021
BTC price chart on Coinbase | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Community Building And Youth Outreach At Bitcoin Beach
- One of the many programs the Bitcoin Beach pilot project had was providing safeguar-training and then paying safeguards in BTC for their services. Look how that’s going.
Bien venidos a Bitcoinbeach
Yeah!!
Bitcoinbeach Salvando vidas. pic.twitter.com/TEDg2ZsS8G— Jorge Valenzuela Bitcoin Beach (@jorgebitcoinES) June 20, 2021
- As you can see here, the team is doing the groundwork and spreading the Bitcoin message to other communities.
explaining about Bitcoin in the villages Bitcoin is the Future!! pic.twitter.com/sQhAFinIAv
— Jorge Valenzuela Bitcoin Beach (@jorgebitcoinES) June 23, 2021
- Community leader Román Martinez gives us a tour of a Bitcoin cash point in Bitcoin Beach. The sign says: “Pay your bills here!”
#bitcoin pic.twitter.com/gbvYbbtXM2
— Roman Martínez (chimbera) (@romanmartinezc) June 20, 2021
Related Reading | How El Salvador Embracing Bitcoin Signifies “The Separation Of Money And State”
- Paxful’s Ray Youssef was in the area, hanging out with the Bitcoin Beach community leaders. He said, “These are the people who grinded every single day to build Bitcoin Beach teaching children how to surf every morning. There is no secret to adoption, just on the ground hustle and empathy to educate and empower and it all begins with the youth! ”
The @Bitcoinbeach team has been hustling for 3 yrs to make history and now the battle is joined. The people of El Salvador ?? have given peaceful honest money #bitcoin a chance and prosperity will be their reward. Come join the winning team! pic.twitter.com/ZwmEAJH0j1
— Ray “Adewale Uwaifo” Youssef (@raypaxful) June 19, 2021
- Last but not least, these are the community leaders you should follow to be up to date with the Bitcoin Beach story. About them, Miles Suter said, “While I’m honored to have a quote I hope the next article about El Zonte will focus on @jorgebitcoinES & the heroic lengths he went to for his community, that ended up literally changing his country.”
If you want to get the real story about Bitcoin Beach follow those these guys -si quieres entender el realidad de #Bitcoin Beach estes son los ejemplos @jorgebitcoinES @ArguetaSalim @HpCoin1 @romanmartinezc
— Bitcoin Beach (@Bitcoinbeach) June 18, 2021
Featured Image by Eduardo Iraheta on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView
