Recent episodes
El Salvador's Bitcoin Experiment Just Reached a New Milestone & Nobody Is Talking About It
- New Story housing project in El Zonte has built 122 homes for families who previously owned no property, enabling them to pay mortgages in Bitcoin via QR code and simple payment infrastructure. - Families pay mortgages using tools developed by Salvadoran companies Tianki and Blink, with dashboards showing payment status and wallet balances; this approach builds financial education vs. charity handouts. - Stay at Bitcoin Beach operates vacation rentals at Punta Mango Villas and Bitcoin Beach Suites in El Zonte, priced affordably for Bitcoiners; staff actively orange-pill guests on Bitcoin adoption. - Legacy banking in El Salvador remains hostile to Bitcoin businesses: banks blacklist companies with "Bitcoin" in their name, credit card payments charge ~12% fees while Bitcoin costs cents, and businesses cannot pay payroll taxes in Bitcoin despite it being legal tender. - Homeownership in El Zonte—historically the most expensive land in El Salvador—enables first-time generational wealth building and reduces displacement risk as development pressures increase. - Bitcoin adoption extends beyond investment narrative: focuses on reducing remittance fees (down from $400M+ annually in fees), speeding domestic payments, and improving living conditions (housing, health, sanitation).
How El Salvador's Bitcoin Ecosystem Launched a Tech Company in 28 Countries | Edgar Borja of K1 Technology
- K1 Technology now operates self-custody Bitcoin ATMs in 28 countries, with new software enabling both on-chain and Lightning Network purchases directly from the machine without third-party custodians like Strike or Blink. - The company recently expanded hardware to accept bills and coins from over 100 currencies worldwide, overcoming earlier limitations that restricted market reach. - K1 developed educational tools including "Aprende Bitcoin con Crayolas" (Learn Bitcoin with Crayons), a 40–60 minute workshop using colored crayons to teach private keys and signatures, and MerkColor, a board game teaching Merkle tree concepts in under 30 seconds. - Edgar Borja participated in X Founders, a month-long startup accelerator and reality TV show in El Salvador with eight companies, where he refined investor pitching and learned to articulate growth pathways from a VC perspective. - Bolivia's currency is collapsing (official rate 6 Bolivianos per dollar versus street rate of 10), driving Bitcoin adoption; K1 deployed eight machines there with Kiosko Bitcoin, a boutique shop combining retail, coffee, and Bitcoin education. - K1 operates as a self-sovereign Bitcoin machine aligned with Bitcoin principles, eliminating dependency on third-party services and enabling machine owners to set fees and currency feeds independently.
Why Bitcoiners Who Rage Quit El Salvador After the IMF Deal Will Regret It | Will Lehr of Club Cocal, James of Beef Back Better & Bitcoin Farmers Market, Ronny Avendano of the Bitcoin Hardware Store
- The Bitcoin Farmers Market has operated for three years (now twice monthly at Club Cocal in El Zonte) as a direct peer-to-peer marketplace where Salvadoran vendors and producers accept Bitcoin for beef, organic produce, artisan goods, and food. It functions as a meeting point for Bitcoiners and visitors exploring life on a Bitcoin standard. - El Salvador is experiencing **reverse brain drain**—attracting skilled entrepreneurs and capital from developed nations citing government overreach (EU wallet registration, Netherlands unrealized gains taxes, Canada Bitcoin ATM removals, COVID restrictions), seeking freedom and sovereignty unavailable at home. - Self-custody, food sovereignty, and Bitcoin philosophy are interconnected. Ronny Avendano (Bitcoin Hardware Store) and James (Beef Back Better) frame owning keys, growing food, and controlling one's health as extensions of the same autonomy principle. - Real estate in El Zonte has a Bitcoin floor: property values outpace dollar and gold/silver appreciation over 3.5 years; beachfront land is now among the most expensive per square foot in El Salvador, with developers pricing in long-term Bitcoin adoption. - The IMF deal and recent government policy shifts triggered a "flushing of weak hands" among some Bitcoiners, but core community members remain bullish. Blink wallet's adoption of self-custody and Spark protocol, growing business adoption, and expanded vendor interest suggest positive momentum despite bear market conditions. - Expansion plans include traveling farmers markets to San Salvador, Santa Ana, and Tamanique to reach inland Bitcoiners, plus a Bitcoin-prized rodeo in November at Lake Ilopango featuring cowboy poker and bull-riding events.
Arrested and Debanked in Germany, Free in El Salvador: A Warning to Every Bitcoin Maxi in Europe | Michael Ballweg
He Sold Everything, Moved to El Salvador, and Found Something Bigger Than Bitcoin | Chris Meinhart
- Chris Meinhart's personal relocation from Germany to El Salvador after a decade in the Canary Islands, driven by Bitcoin discovery and geographic arbitrage rather than tourism work alone. - The lived reality of Bitcoin as functional money in El Zonte and surrounding areas, with merchants actively accepting it, contrasting with theoretical adoption. - Bitcoin Diploma 2.0 curriculum rollout across El Salvador's public schools—a 10-chapter program starting with mindset and habits before introducing technology or wallets, supported by the Ministry of Education and National Bitcoin Office. - Chris's journey building a homestead with his Salvadoran wife in Juayúa (Ruta de las Flores) within three months after meeting her in El Salvador and marrying. - Lessons learned from early mistakes managing online communities (public disputes with My First Bitcoin NGO) and the importance of choosing peace over chaos; spiritual awakening and deepened faith connection upon arrival in El Salvador. - Chris's work with Bitcoin Beach and involvement in teacher training to scale Bitcoin financial literacy nationwide.
Is Bitcoin Backed by Anything? How a Coffee Farm in El Salvador Proved Peter Schiff Wrong
- Jorge (Cherito) transitioned from a tech and finance career in Seattle to agricultural production in El Salvador, inheriting family coffee farms and innovating through the **BioCrop Project**, which emphasizes specialty coffee, crop diversification, agroecology, and food independence across multiple farms. - El Salvador's comparative advantage lies in **high-altitude Arabica specialty coffee** rather than competing on volume with mechanized producers in Brazil and Vietnam; Cherito focuses on direct relationships with roasters and transparent supply chains to command premium pricing. - The **coffee rust disease** devastated El Salvador's coffee plants in the early 2010s, forcing a shift away from commodity coffee toward specialty varieties and ancestral farming methods paired with scientific expertise. - Cherito discovered Bitcoin through his father's interest (inspired by Max and Stacy) and recognized it as the **peer-to-peer electronic cash system** he had been seeking for direct trade relationships, eliminating intermediaries and enabling instant payments to workers. - He operates a **circular economy model** combining specialty coffee production, roasting, and Bitcoin adoption: a roastery and lab in San Salvador features two ASIC miners and a node visualizer, enabling transparent payment routing and royalty distribution to workers and producers. - Cherito travels to Bitcoin conferences (Lugano, Prague, Berlin) as an ambassador, selling Satoshi-branded coffee and introducing both Bitcoiners to specialty coffee and coffee professionals to Bitcoin, while establishing distributed European and U.S. storage hubs to eliminate intermediaries.
Who Really Controls El Salvador's Financial Grid? (It's Not the Government) | Will Hernandez of AsoBitcoin
- Will Hernandez, president of El Salvador's Bitcoin Association (AsoBitcoin), traces his entry into Bitcoin through peer-to-peer payments in 2020 and his work at Paxful before helping establish the association in February 2022 to filter out scam projects and represent legitimate Bitcoin companies. - Traditional Salvadoran banks actively use their legal right of refusal to deny accounts to Bitcoin startups, creating a major bottleneck despite Bitcoin's legal tender status. A new Law of Alternative Funds permits Bitcoin banks with minimum $250,000 investor requirements. - Real estate purchases in El Salvador increasingly occur on a Bitcoin standard through OTC intermediaries (Atera Bitcoin, Dito Banks, Silver Wallet, IBEX, Troquera), which structure deals in Bitcoin while sellers receive fiat, enabling international capital inflows seeking zero capital gains tax treatment. - AsoBitcoin is a private entity with government support, distinct from purely private associations elsewhere. It coordinates with the Bitcoin Office on events, policy suggestions, and ecosystem promotion, including international conference booths and side events. - Education expansion is critical: Bitcoin curriculum now exists in public schools, and Hernandez is pushing the Ministry of Education to mandate Bitcoin literacy in private school curricula nationwide. - El Salvador is exploring sovereign AI and autonomous agents using Bitcoin for machine-to-machine payments; the government actively encourages officials to adopt these technologies in anticipation of future scaled adoption.
Cloning El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach: How India, Peru, & the Dominican Republic are Adopting Bitcoin | Plebs Together Strong, MOTIV Perú, Bitcoindominicana
- Pedro from Bitcoin Dominicana is launching the Dominican Republic's first Bitcoin-only hotel (11 bedrooms, opening mid-February) in Arroyo Frio, a mountainous community with 160+ merchant participants and zero banking infrastructure. - Aaronman (Plebs Together Strong) is building Bitcoin adoption in Goa, India by focusing on tech-savvy youth, remote freelance opportunities, and remittance corridors—addressing shitcoin noise and mainstream crypto skepticism that has slowed Bitcoin education. - Valentin Popescu (Motiv Peru) operates 15 sites across Peru's coast, Andes, and Amazon jungle, creating a circular economy where families use sats daily for English classes, entrepreneurship, and clean water purchases; Copa Bitcoin surf competition bridges local youth culture with global tourism. - All three projects bypass legacy banking and international aid infrastructure by establishing peer-to-peer monetary systems at the grassroots level in underbanked communities. - Small, intimate community-focused approach outperforms large-city rollouts; personal relationship-building and local ambassadorship are core to adoption.
How Bitcoin Circular Economies Escape State Surveillance (Fedimint, Indonesia Bitcoin Ban, South Korea Bitcoin, Inah Citadel & White Paper House)
- FETI wallet overview: Private Bitcoin wallet built on the FEDMINT protocol that enables communities to create self-sovereign federations without FETI holding custody. Features encrypted chat (based on Matrix protocol), mini-apps for education, and community spaces. Communities can opt-in to share transaction volume data but user counts remain private by default. - Circular economy examples: Indonesia's Bitcoin Indonesia project operating as a loyalty/redemption system to navigate government restrictions on non-rupiah payments. South Korea's Bitcoin community requires members to read 12 Bitcoin books before joining, creating a strong, committed participant base despite recent regulatory restrictions on self-custody. - Bitcoin Merida's White Paper House: Hybrid for-profit and community project in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula featuring Italian gelato (Gelatoshi), Bitcoin-branded merchandise, and a distribution space for local agricultural products. Partnering with rural communities to reduce intermediaries and introduce Bitcoin organically. - INAH Citadel: 94-hectare self-sufficient intentional community with 39 planned plots (~5 acres each) in the Yucatan. Priced introductorily at ~250 BTC per plot. Features cenotes (natural sinkholes with water access), solar power, and a trust-based land structure (fideicomiso) created to navigate Mexican real estate law while maintaining ecological standards. - Stay at Bitcoin Beach: Accommodation platform launching properties across El Zonte and Punta Mongo, including Punta Mongo Villas, Casa Agua Fria, City of El Mar, Barefoot condos, and Bitcoin Beach Suites. Accepts Bitcoin for bookings, transportation, food, and services.
Uncle Rockstar Dev: BTCPay Server, Cypherpunk Ethos, Bitcoin Circular Economies and El Salvador
- BTC Pay Server origins and use cases: Nicholas Dorier created the open-source payment processor as a direct response to BitPay's support for SegWit2x fork. It has evolved into a sovereign alternative allowing merchants to self-host payment infrastructure, eliminating dependence on centralized payment processors. Recent case study: BTC Inc. processed over $1 million in Bitcoin vendor payments using BTC Pay Server. - Circular economies as Bitcoin adoption infrastructure: El Salvador's Bitcoin Beach and similar communities worldwide demonstrate peer-to-peer commerce without traditional banking intermediaries. These serve as real-world testing grounds where children naturally expect Bitcoin payments and visitors experience functional alternatives to fiat-dependent systems. - Decentralized approach to growth: Bitcoin Beach leaders intentionally rejected centralized NGO funding models to maintain sovereignty and empower local leaders. The philosophy emphasizes distributing knowledge and responsibility rather than concentrating decision-making, allowing for diverse experimentation across different communities. - Global coordination of circular economies: A summit brought together leaders from multiple Bitcoin communities across continents, including Africa. Organizers documented these efforts in a documentary premiering at Plan B conference, positioning local initiatives as nodes connecting into a larger global Bitcoin movement. - Developer feedback from real-world usage: BTC Pay Server developers gain practical insights from circular economies using their technology in diverse regulatory and economic contexts—from Indonesia's Fedi adoption to Lightning Network implementations in El Salvador. - Personal empowerment through Bitcoin: Consistent theme across speakers: Bitcoin removes dependency on central authorities and enables individual agency, particularly for populations with limited access to traditional financial systems.
Behind The World's First Bitcoin Air Taxi Network in El Salvador
- Helicopter operation in El Salvador: Jamie McBride discussed launching Cielo Norte Aviacion (CNA), a helicopter charter and air taxi service based at Salamanca airstrip, with certification expected mid-February. - Multi-country ferry flight: McBride piloted a helicopter from Ontario, Canada to El Salvador across the US, Mexico, and Guatemala in 18 stops total, taking two days in Mexico due to mountain weather challenges. - Aviation infrastructure and use cases: Identified multiple market opportunities including tourism (volcanoes, beaches), real estate property tours, government geo-surveying with LiDAR technology, and mining operations support. - Family business expansion: The McBride family operates multiple businesses in El Salvador including Sat Street (Bitcoin exchange) and True North Airways in Canada, which grew from $500k to $10m in annual revenue. - Geographic advantages: El Salvador's small size makes it ideal for helicopter operations—most locations are 10–20 minutes from the centrally located base, eliminating lengthy road travel compared to airport access. - Future growth plans: CNA intends to add more helicopters, expand into fixed-wing aircraft, and establish El Salvador as the aviation hub of Latin America.
From Canada to El Salvador: Escaping Communism & Financial Surveillance For Bitcoin Country
- Bitcoin as catalyst for El Salvador's transformation: George McBride emphasizes that Bitcoin's adoption as legal tender under President Bukele has fundamentally repositioned the country as a destination for entrepreneurs, investors, and builders seeking alternatives to jurisdictions like Canada. - Sat Street's business model and expansion: Sat Street operates as a high-touch Bitcoin and stablecoin exchange focused on large transactions ($50,000+ minimum), facilitating conversions between Bitcoin and fiat for real estate purchases, corporate balance sheet additions, and family office investments in El Salvador and across multiple jurisdictions. - Regulatory environment and business climate: El Salvador's digital asset service provider (DAS) regulatory framework is collaborative rather than restrictive, contrasting sharply with North American regulators. This openness, combined with a cooperative business culture, has attracted Sat Street's expansion from Canada and the British Virgin Islands. - Family-driven investment and economic development: The McBride family—John (father), George, and siblings—have launched multiple businesses in El Salvador spanning real estate, hospitality, and financial services, creating local employment and infrastructure while building personal wealth. - Emerging use cases and future services: Planned initiatives include escrow solutions for foreign real estate buyers (currently lacking in El Salvador), lending products against Bitcoin collateral, and integration with local automotive and tax payment systems. - Shifting sentiment among local wealthy families: Initially skeptical of Bitcoin adoption, El Salvador's established families are increasingly recognizing alignment between their interests and Bitcoin-driven economic growth, particularly through real estate appreciation and commercial opportunities.