I flew to El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach for 4 days… here’s what I learned…

I went to El Salvador with no expectations. When I first landed it felt hot, lovely. Had to wait for a friend so I grabbed the rental car, where they try and scam you for insurance, and went for a coffee. Friend arrived and we drove to El Zonte a.k.a Bitcoin Beach.

The drive we thought we were going to be shot, not sure why but you hear stories. We didn’t get shot. Checked in the Airbnb no probs, no hot water though.

Next day we drive to the beach for coffee and bump straight into Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, said hi, Stacy was nice but Max was not interested, I probably wouldn’t be to be fair, especially when I’m after a coffee.

Bitcoin signs everywhere, talked to a bunch of people and some knew about bitcoin but mostly not, felt like just a lot of travellers there passing through. I think all the stuff you see online you assume everyone is walking around with Chivo wallets but it doesn’t seem to be the case, maybe other places it’s like that but not here.

We contacted some estate/realtor agents and saw two properties just to see what’s available, this place literally has nothing, when I say nothing I mean you’ll need to put water in, electricity, it’s so behind the times that most people here live in tin shacks by the road/river. It seems that there’s chancers there trying their luck to get bitcoiners to buy shacks but there really isn’t any point… the reality is you can’t either, not straight forward anyway as you’ll need a lawyer and even if you buy something you’re not 100% sure you own it, it’s confusing, plus the government has some rule where they can take property off people.

My thoughts are this won’t be the future of Bitcoin, it’s so behind the times. The people were lovely, beautiful scenery, great weather but realistically this place will take 20 years to develop and in the next couple of years there will most likely be other countries adopting Bitcoin, countries which are already developed.

El Salvador is definitely cool and will probably the Mecca/pilgrimage place for the future of where it all started to be accepted but I can’t see it being anything but that. I actually hope I’m wrong because it was first and deserves so much more but after visiting and seeing how undeveloped it is I’d be very surprised if people actually go there.

If anyone has been to San Salvador and people are daily using their Chivo wallets then please comment, I hope there is more use of it as I read millions of people have them but whether they’re active accounts would be interesting to know.

The last thing I want to say is this trip has made me realise how truly early we are still… one place is using Bitcoin and it’s underdeveloped. I can’t imagine what Bitcoin will be like when everyone is using it… it blows my mind! It’s so early.