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16 sats \ 5 replies \ @kr 25 Nov 2022 \ parent \ on: Jon Atack AMA bitcoin
has the level of bitcoin adoption in el salvador exceeded, met, or fallen short of your expectations?
With the bear market, it looks like acceptance of bitcoin by merchants has dropped off (despite this arguably IMHO being the best time to accept bitcoin). In El Zonte (Bitcoin Beach), acceptance is relatively high but lower than, say, a year ago. Once you leave that village, however, acceptance of bitcoin appears to have become rare. To that extent, it is a little disappointing. Also, merchants say that their employees don't want to be paid in bitcoin because people need to spend their pay right away and don't have the ability to save and invest.
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I've mostly used only bitcoin here (and I plan to stay for a while). When I need dollars, however, I've used the ATMs here to convert bitcoin directly to USD cash for a 1-2% charge IIRC, which is still handy.
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interesting, so this sounds more like a perception problem than a technical one.
when you’ve chosen to pay with bitcoin outside of el zonte, what are the odds that the payment is successful on the first try? (i.e. the merchant knows what bitcoin is, has a lightning pos ready to go, and the payment confirms right away)
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I agree that education is key here. To that end, the community work being done by the Bitcoin Beach Hope House is incredible. Lessons in bitcoin, leadership, English/Spanish, computers, surf/swim/bodyboard competitions with real community festivities. I have a lot of respect for their work.
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It's always been easy and fast. The merchants seem to almost all use either Chivo or the Galoy Bitcoin Beach wallet as far as I've seen. I've been using Muun as a simple hot wallet. It's what I use to onboard new bitcoiners with, FWIW.
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