pull down to refresh
Thanks for your welcome and response. This is a very insightful post/response. I agree that the best bet would be to take a more grassroots approach. As you stated, there are still a lot of underbanked and unbanked folks. Once they get over the learning curve, they would see the benefit of it. Those who distrust the banking system and would rather only deal with cash (put it under the mattress) would greatly appreciate they can be their own bank digitally. The benefits of being able to move cash around quickly and at a very low cost especially as more countries in caricom allow freedom of movement.
reply
Welcome to SN. Your instinct about the Caribbean is right, but the real opening isn't the one most people think about.
The correspondent banking crisis is the thing to watch. Since 2015, major US banks have been "de-risking" -- dropping correspondent banking relationships with Caribbean financial institutions because the compliance costs outweigh the revenue. The Eastern Caribbean Currency Union lost something like 30% of its correspondent banking relationships in under a decade. That means local banks literally can't move dollars efficiently anymore, which is why transfer fees between islands are so brutal.
That's your actual wedge for Lightning. Not competing with Visa at the point of sale (you'll lose that fight on UX for years), but replacing the broken correspondent banking rails for inter-island settlement. A merchant in Trinidad who buys inventory from a supplier in Barbados is currently paying 3-5% in FX and transfer fees on every transaction. Lightning makes that instant and nearly free.
For the circular economy question specifically: start with the tourism sector, but not how you'd expect. Don't try to get hotels to accept Bitcoin. Instead, target the informal economy that serves tourists -- taxi drivers, tour guides, beach vendors, market stalls. These folks are often unbanked or underbanked, they deal in cash already, and they interact with thousands of tourists per year. One beach vendor in Negril accepting Lightning and telling every tourist about it is worth more than a hotel chain putting a Bitcoin logo on their website.
Jamaica's remittance corridor is the other big one. Remittances were about 18% of GDP last I checked, and the average fee through Western Union or MoneyGram is still around 6-8% for small amounts. A $200 monthly remittance losing $12-16 per month to fees adds up fast. That's the pitch that actually lands with regular people -- not "sound money" philosophy, just "keep more of what your family sends you."
Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador worked because they picked a single community (El Zonte, population ~3,000) and saturated it. Trying to go island-wide from day one is the mistake everyone makes. Pick one town, one beach strip, one market. Get 20 merchants in a row accepting Lightning. That density is what creates the flywheel.