The only traffic jams in El Zonte are caused by loose livestock.

in 2019, El Zonte got an unexpected break. Peterson says he was introduced to someone representing an anonymous donor with a fortune in bitcoin who wanted to see it put to good use – with one stipulation.

The stipulation was you can't just convert it into dollars because they believe the actual usage of bitcoin would be what would benefit the people. And so for me, it was, like, wow, this is somebody that wants to actually see a circular economy generated using bitcoin and they're willing to actually put the funds behind it.

Mike Peterson and his partners turned their attention to a group much more comfortable with all things digital – teenagers.

We were hiring them to do things in the community – pick up trash out of the river – and then we'd pay them in bitcoin. And so, they got into this rhythm of going out and working and earning bitcoin.

I will benefit if the price of bitcoin goes up, but I can't impact that. I can't influence that. That's not the driving reason behind this. The reason is we want to see El Zonte transformed.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You get a direct message on Twitter from who? Jack Mallers: The brother of the president. Jack Mallers: He wants to meet with me. And he gave me 24 hours.

President Nayib Bukele once referred to himself as "the world's coolest dictator."

Luis Membreño: The government wants people to think that this can be a currency. But this is just an asset and a speculative asset with a huge volatility. Imagine the U.S. dollar having a volatility of 20% in one day; would be crazy.

In El Zonte, 19-year-old Ismael Galdamez doesn't worry about a wipeout. He's teaching surf lessons and back in school.

When he learned the shaved ice vendors in El Zonte were going 30 minutes out of town to buy ice, he decided to become the ice supplier in town and used his bitcoin profits to buy this freezer.

Ismael is planning to move his parents and siblings into this new house in El Zonte later this month. He plans to pay the mortgage in bitcoin.