El Salvador is a country of astonishing beauty. Pristine beaches, lavish vegetation, pictoresque volcanos, a vibrating capital city. And it is the first country that has adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. Enough reasons for me to visit this country leading up to the Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami.

Here are some impressions from my one week trip to El Salvador.

Bitcoin Beach

My journey started in El Zonte — the Bitcoin Beach — where the Bitcoin movement started long before the Bitcoin law came into force on September 7, 2021.

The beach with its eye-catching black volcanic sand is a paradise for surfers, not crowded at all and very relaxed, with mostly small and simple hotels well embedded into the scenery. You might need a moment to get used to cows, horses or chicken strolling down the streets all by themselves as if they owned the place.

There were a bunch of Bitcoiners in town from all over the world (yes, from Switzerland too) at the time of my stay. Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert were organizing a meetup with a panel featuring Jeff Booth (author of „The Price of Tomorrow“, a great book, btw) and Austin Hill.

It was a great occasion to meet interesting people, including some who relocated to El Salvador or were in the process of doing so. Based on what they told me, acquiring property and relocation to El Salvador seem to be a straight forward process and there is — unsurprisingly — already a business evolving around this topic with local lawyers, real estate experts, architects, etc.

Somewhat the center and meeting point of the local Bitcoin community is the ‚Hope House’ — a small two story building situated in the midst of the village.

The Hope House is also a place where locals have the opportunity to take English or computer lessons. When I was there, I had the chance to participate in a session on how to setup a Bitcoin lightning node held in Spanish.

Getting around in El Salvador

I stayed in and around El Zonte for a few days. I was lucky to meet Paula on my second day in El Zonte. Paula had a car but no job and I had no car and possibly a job to offer, so we made an arrangement: she would be my local guide, interpreter and driver for the rest of my stay in El Salvador. Speaking of language: yes, it is a big plus if not a requirement that you speak at least some Spanish or travel with somebody who is fluent in the language.

There are many other nice places near El Zonte. If you’re looking for more „action“ you find a vibrant bar and nightlife scene only a few kilometers down the road at El Tunco, named after a rock formation at the beach which remotely resembles a pig lying on its back (can you see it on the picture?). Here I had my first Pupusa the simple but delicious national dish that has even a national holiday dedicated to it.

After my stay in El Zonte, I moved to an AirBnB apartment in Santa Tecla, not far from San Salvador for my starting point for day trips to San Salvador and the countryside. It was also close to where Paula lived so she could pick me up and drop me off easily. One thing that became obvious quickly was that Salvadorans love celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and the likes — at least in the city. Every newer apartment building seems to include a community area that is being used heavily and decorated with balloons and stuff over and over again.

You pretty much need a car to get around in El Salvador. There’s normally heavy traffic in and around cities. Driving seems to be a rather intuitive process and you will have a really hard time trying to spot a car that does not show any signs of confrontation with the outer world. I must admit that the car on the picture was one of the more extreme examples of this rule and yes, I saw that guy actually driving this car. [After publishing the article, somebody pointed out to me that the markings on the car actually mean that it was a totalled car supposedly imported from the USA for restoration.]

I spent an entire day in San Salvador without spotting other „Gringos“ (the non-demeaning name Salvadorans have for people like me). This was unexpected. That doesn’t mean however, that there are no tourists. It’s just many of them are visitors from other Latin-American countries that are not always immediately recognizable as tourists for our eyes.

I dismissed my plan of visiting the region, where the future Bitcoin City would emerge from scratch, financed by the yet to be launched Bitcoin Bonds. The 4 hours ride to the yet underdeveloped area near the south-eastern border to Honduras, was not deemed worth it given the limited time of my stay.

A few words about what was one of my concerns before traveling to El Salvador: is it dangerous? Can you walk around freely while wearing an Apple Watch and carrying a Sony DSLR? Do you have to look back over your shoulder every few minutes and watch out for suspicious mask-wearing individuals wanting to kidnap you only to finally decorate a dark alley with your poor gutted, dead body? The truth is, I did not feel anxious once during my entire stay in El Salvador. Never. Of course, it goes without saying that I was not actively challenging my luck by walking alone in abandoned areas and complete darkness singing the ‘Bitcoin Billionaire’ song, or taking side trips to city districts where gangs prefer to do their thing.

What did I experience instead? I met the most friendly, open, generous and decent people you can find anywhere on the planet. And I really mean it.

Bitcoin Adoption

Now this topic is probably the one that some of you dear readers are most interested in. As you could expect, Bitcoin adoption in El Zonte is pretty ubiquous, and you can use Bitcoin even to buy small items. Paying and receiving Bitcoin with a Lightning wallet (I was using Blue Wallet) is seamless and instant. Bitcoin adoption in other parts of he country is another story. While larger businesses and retail chains accept Bitcoin payments, many small businesses do not. Also, while most Salvadorans heard about Bitcoin, far from everyone has installed the Chivo app — the custodial wallet provided by the government — or is using any other wallet. Paula, who is a well educated woman in her 40ies, is a good example. Although well informed about Bitcoin, even casually checking the Bitcoin price, was not yet a user. Only when I wanted to send her some Bitcoin, she installed the Chivo app on her mobile. The enrollment was straight forward. She found the Bitcoin airdrop gifted by the government now worth $35 in her custodial wallet. Bitcoin transfers worked fine, however the fees for Lightning transfer were surprisingly similar or even higher than on-chain transfers when I tried it out. I did not have the chance to check if this is also the case with transactions between two Chivo users.

The level of adoption seems disappointing at first glance. On the other hand, it puts the often heard concerns raised by Western media as well as proponents in the Bitcoin community about a forced adoption being not aligned with the Bitcoin ethos into perspective. I did not hear from any business or individual being sanctioned in any way for not using or accepting Bitcoin.

For somebody that never had a bank account being able to use a simple app to store and transfer money in the form of Bitcoin as well as US dollar is a revelation. However, the abstraction from exchanging objects (bank notes) to going completely virtual is still a big step for many. Bitcoin’s volatility and the (so far) rather slow price appreciation since the introduction of the Bitcoin Law might have been limiting factors for adoption as well. I wished I had a chance to speak with people that are officially involved in the “Bitcoin Project” about their roadmap and further plans, but I did not get the opportunity. In any case, ongoing free education and onboarding support is key for further adoption. Bitcoin’s positive price appreciation over time will be the best marketing for the project anyway.

Nayib Bukele

Ok, now this is a sensitive topic. I’m obviously neither a political analyst nor do I feel entitled to judge Bukele’s values (which you could qualify as being conservative Christian), his methods and style. That being said, my impression is purely anectodal, based on my own experiences and casual conversations with Salvadorans I met on my trip.

One thing is clear. Nayib Bukele is very popular and well respected among a big majority of the population with approval ratings well above 80 percent — a level hardly matched by government officials even on a global level. There is a big support in the population for the consequent way the government is tackling the gang violence problem and also the way COVID was handled. The country is coming from a dark place of rampant corruption and violence. Now, people see progress and a change for the better and you can feel a strong sense of hope.

Bukele is a talented (self-) marketeer for sure. Many from the outside see this as a flaw. But Salvadorans love stories, role models and ideals. When people talk about Bukele’s family you could think they were royals. The color of daughter Layla’s latest dress is something totally legitimate to be discussed in public. Bukele and his government is creating a new, bold vision for the country and even the Central American economic region and the strong support from his population obviously helps reach ambitious goals. But Bukele is not only a marketeer, he is an implementer. You can see it when you drive through San Salvador with the huge hospitals and vaccination centers that were built in no time. You see it in the news when you read and hear about the recent systematic raids on gangs to shut down the flaring up numbers of homicides. And now think about the millions of Salvadorans, many of them never having owned a bank account, now being able to easily and securely store and transfer value on their fingertip. All executed within months. This is quite something and I have been working long enough in the ‘rolling-out financial services’ project business to feel entitled to have an opinion on that. Yes, there have been technical and other glitches at the start, but you can expect this from any project of this magnitude.

Of course, it remains to be seen if under Bukele’s leadership, El Salvador doesn’t drift away into the nightmare autocracy that especially those Western fiat-borne institutions and political agents like to conjure up, who are feeling threatened by the revolution Bukele might just have sparked with his Bitcoin move. Interestingly enough, incorruptible money and the Bitcoin ethos may be instrumental in preventing just that.

Wrapping up

This post turned out to be far longer than planned and yet misses many more details that might be of interest for one or the other. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have specific questions. I’d like to end with a big thank you to Paula, my local guide turned friend who has made this trip an immersive experience.

If you’re interested in some more pictures of this trip and others you might want to check out my Instagram too: @makerman

Watch a clip with some footage of my trip here: https://youtu.be/QT_dGv8HxXg

This article was originally posted April 16, 2022 on LinkedIn.