The core ethos of Bitcoin is to create a fairer and more accessible monetary system for the billions of people worldwide who do not have access to traditional banking services, said Jonathan Martin, a graduate of Stanford University and Georgetown University. In El Salvador, the majority of the population is unbanked and relies on cash for their daily needs. This creates a barrier to Bitcoin adoption, as the long-term savings benefits of the cryptocurrency are not as attractive to them.
However, several Salvadoran nationals are working to solve this problem. Guillermo Contreras, CEO of DitoBanx, is creating bitcoin-based savings and loan products for the 70% of Salvadorans who are unbanked. Contreras has devised a way to slowly educate non-bitcoiners on how to save using the new digital currency by first giving them access to Mastercard debit cards. Users can receive Lightning or on-chain bitcoin transactions and seamlessly convert them to USDC – a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar – to assuage concerns about bitcoin’s price volatility.
The global banking system is not currently Bitcoin-friendly, and for Bitcoin to succeed in El Salvador, Salvadoran banks need to be able to integrate the network into their existing services. At present, they do not sell bitcoin OTC because of their integrations with corresponding banks in the United States like JPMorgan and the broader SWIFT system.
The Bitcoin Beach Initiative was born in El Zonte Beach, where an anonymous benefactor offered to donate his bitcoin fortune to the beach community, stipulating the money must be used for commerce and not cashed out into dollars. Michael Peterson got involved and focused his attention on creating a circular Bitcoin economy which includes remittances, tourism, public services and small businesses.
For Bitcoin to thrive, it must be viewed as the new unit of account — the means by which value itself is measured — instead of constantly compared to its current bitcoin-fiat market value. The catalyst for this shift will likely be out of necessity, the inevitable hyperinflation of the U.S. dollar, as opposed to by political decree.