- Despite political unrest and mixed adoption across the country, Berlín has shown that Bitcoin can thrive in El Salvador.
- Unlike Bitcoin Beach, Berlín’s success with Bitcoin isn’t exclusively driven by tourism but by a strong local community effort…as well as tourism.
- The Berlín Bitcoin Community Centre is the heart of this initiative, offering various services and education about Bitcoin.
If I told you that Berlín was the real-life embodiment of a fictional Bitcoin City, you’d be forgiven for wondering when Germany became so crypto-friendly.
But look again – Germany has nothing to do with it.
No, Berlín is a 20,000-strong city a few hours from the capital of El Salvador, the nation that rose to international fame for adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.
And while the results for much of El Salvador’s economy have been mixed, a handful of locations are thriving.
And Berlín might just be the most organic of the bunch.
Related: VanEck Estimates $23 Billion Surge in Bitcoin Buying from State-Level Reserve Bills
Step Aside Bitcoin Beach – BTC Has a New Best Friend
There were strong economic reasons for El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as a national currency. But a large part of that – or at least, how it has evolved – is a strong push for tourism.
Bitcoin Beach, for example (also known as El Zonte), is primarily a tourist attraction bringing in crypto lovers to bathe and surf within a town that supports Bitcoin spending. That, in itself, is where much of Bitcoin’s value lies as legal tender.
But over in beautiful Berlín, tourism is practically non-existent. Rather, the community has banded together to leverage Bitcoin – and the blockchain’s – unique advantages. It is one of the few cases where an entire city has leveraged decentralisation’s power to try and solve financial inequality.
The city’s hub, called the Berlín Bitcoin Community Centre, acts as a community-building location. It includes a fully-decked-out cafe, recording studio, a cafe… and of course, a Bitcoin ATM.
Approximately 150 establishments throughout Berlín accept Bitcoin as payment, representing about 25% of merchants in the city.
And new people come to the Centre everyday to learn about Bitcoin and how they can benefit from using it within El Salvador.
The city didn’t magically become a Bitcoin haven overnight, though. It took door-to-door efforts from a project team of three locals (and one Irishman), who helped build the circular economy over a year or two.
As the ears of people inside and outside of El Salvador pricked up, more and more people opened up to the idea of using Bitcoin as a currency.
And the rest is history.
Civil Unrest Mars El Salvador’s Bitcoin Policy
The town of Berlín is an unfortunate exception to the rule. Despite the logical solutions that Bitcoin provided (given hyperinflation and mass unbankings), most El Salvadorians never messed with the stuff.
According to the Human Rights Watch, El Salvador has a strained political system, with civil unrest prominent throughout the nation due to a move toward autocracy. The not-for-profit also claims that, under Bukele, El Salvador is subject to ‘widespread abuses, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of detainees.’
The distrust throughout much of the nation has made Bitcoin, a Bukele initiative, less popular than it perhaps otherwise would be across El Salvador.
That said, Berlín has demonstrated that BTC can have a home in El Salvador – and that it can thrive.
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