Bitcoin Beach Brazil Inspire El Salvador – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion editorial by João, founder of Boletim Bitcoin, a Brazilian portal focused 100% on Bitcoin.
Meet Bitcoin Beach Brazil, a social project inspired by El Salvador, increasing the use of BTC as a form of payment and savings for local businesses and schools in the interior of Brazil.
The El Zonte region, located about an hour from the capital San Salvador, was where the social project Bitcoin Beach started, motivated by an anonymous donation to the local community. From there, the region became one of the hotspots for spontaneous adoption in El Salvador, with the asset being adopted by local merchants.
Inspired by the adoption of El Salvador, Fernando Motolese created the Bitcoin Beach Brazil project. As reported in an interview with the Brazilian portal Boletim BTC, the idea appeared on September 7, the date when the Bitcoin law entered into force in El Salvador:
“The project came to fruition on September 7, 2021. I saw what happened in El Zonte that this had given rise to El Salvador adopting bitcoin as its official currency. Then I started copying here in Jeriquaquara…
In the beginning, we helped merchants accept bitcoin as a payment method, until we evolved into an educational approach to help them learn how to save money and to use Bitcoin as a tool for financial inclusion. One of our big initiatives was to share our Lightning implementation at www.github.com/praiabitcoin/bancobitcoin.
There you can see all the code we use, like what we did here to use Lightning and also to have a great Bitcoin implementation to serve our community.”
Motolese highlighted that he plans to help more communities around the world integrate a Bitcoin standard through a book he is writing:
“And together with all these implementations, I am writing a book, which is: “Bitcoin Standard Circular Economy”, which aims to help communities start this journey of replicating the Bitcoin Beach experiment in the Brazilian model, which is a little different . And in this book I intend to teach local communities to replicate our initiative.”
Bitcoin in schools
One of Bitcoin Beach Brazil’s latest initiatives was the distribution of 0.1 BTC to students and teachers at a municipal school in Jericoacoara, the city where the project operates. A total of 408 wallets with 1000 satoshis were delivered in paper wallets.
In addition, the students received a T-shirt, a bottle and a piggy bank with coins from the project, as well as instructions on how to use Bitcoin.
“First activation of Bitcoin Beach, with 408 paper wallets with 1000 coins each, t-shirts, hugs and piggy banks for the students and teachers of the Municipal School of Jericoacoara.”
Motolese explained how he approached the school:
“The school librarian told me that the computers in the computer room had been down for 2 years. So I’m a computer technician… so I talked to the principal and asked him to let him raise money to fix the school’s computers.
… Then we started an approach. I posted on the internet that I needed resources to fix computers. This opened up an opportunity for us to approach the school. So the folks at Bitcoin Beach donated 0.1 bitcoin to us. So with this donation of 0.1 bitcoin that we received from Bitcoin Beach, we did this activation, which consisted of producing 408 paper wallets.”
As reported, the purchase of the t-shirts and other products was made in Bitcoin:
“The production of these shirts was paid for with bitcoin. This opened up the possibility of a partnership that has been in place since the start of the project […] And from this partnership we intend to launch some Bitcoin Beach products made locally to be sold and finance part of the project there”.
Hotspots for hyperbit conization
Through initiatives such as Bitcoin Beach Brazil, the knowledge and use of BTC is increased in local and circular communities, creating small pockets of hyperbit conization. These initiatives have the potential to bring enormous long-term benefits to these regions, as the crypto-asset appreciates and establishes itself as a supreme store of value.
The Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s Layer 2 network, plays a key role in the adoption of BTC as a payment method. The network allows for fast and affordable rate transfer, unlocking the cryptocurrency’s potential as an efficient method of day-to-day exchanges.
Direct acceptance of bitcoin in trades has the potential to increase the overall liquidity of the asset, in addition to potentially reducing volatility, as there is no need to convert the asset into fiat currency to settle purchases.
However, it is important to note that BTC must first establish itself as a store of value and later fully function as money, since individuals tend to hold strong money and spend weak money, a phenomenon explained by Gresham’s Law.
This is a guest post by João. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
