211 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 2 Jun \ on: El Salvador Trip report - 8/8 culture
Bitcoin is, for the moment, tourist money. It makes a lot of sense as tourist money, as tourists are used to digital payments and often do not have easy access to cash while on vacation in the tropics. When people from all over the world visit a developing country, payment issues are bound to arise, unless you use Bitcoin. Tourists are big spenders, so whatever tourists have, people will accept.
Great insight! I like to think about when/where bitcoin is money because it’s clearly not all the time, everywhere money yet. In many respects it’s hardly better MoE money on the internet.
Regularly spending Bitcoin matters. If we want Bitcoin to become money, we have to treat it as money. The masses will not adopt Bitcoin before Bitcoiners do, so I believe as Bitcoin proponents we have a duty to use it wherever we can and spread it in our communities. For now, people who use Bitcoin are a tiny minority even among Bitcoiners, which already are only a tiny fraction of the population. It only takes a handful of customers every month for a business to keep accepting Bitcoin payments, and in San Salvador, many shops hadn't seen a customer in weeks.
There’s an interesting asymmetry at play here. Most bitcoiners, and even nonbitcoiners, on a relative basis will accept Bitcoin even if they aren’t willing to spend it. I’m not sure what to do with the asymmetry, but it’s worth thinking about.
Awesome trip report. I learned a lot from it. I learned a lot from the trip summaries of others but I didn’t realize how much detail I missed until your series.
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