Last week I went on a very special trip: a family reunion. As many of you know, I’m originally from Venezuela, and we all planned to meet up in Spain. Family came in from the U.S., Costa Rica, Australia… and of course, from Venezuela.

For someone still living in Venezuela, getting access to foreign currency is incredibly difficult. Some have managed to open bank accounts abroad to keep part of their savings in a currency that doesn’t lose value as fast as the bolívar. One of my relatives, a long-time CitiBank customer, had never had issues with his bank—until now.

While vacationing in Spain, his account was suddenly frozen. Just like that, he couldn’t use his debit or credit cards. When he contacted the bank, they told him he’d have to physically go to a Citi branch in the U.S. to unlock his account.

I gave him a simple but powerful suggestion: next time he travels, he should carry a Bitcoin wallet with some funds. I explained that with just that, he could access local currency anywhere in the world—no banks involved. He didn’t know there are Bitcoin ATMs in Spain. I showed him how the lnp2pBot on Telegram works, and he was surprised by how many people were ready to buy Bitcoin instantly.

I also showed him the map on btcmap.org, where he could see all the businesses that accept BTC as payment. That really opened his eyes.

I’m sure that now he sees Bitcoin differently—not just as an investment asset, but as real money.

One of the best ways to truly understand the advantages Bitcoin offers is to face a problem—and realize Bitcoin is the solution.

BTC fixes this.