In the midst of COVID-19, a village located in El Salvador- El Zonte was hit hard by the pandemic. The community of the village took together to implement an economy based in Bitcoin (BTC) in response to it.
According to Forbes, the BTC powered economy took a hold after multi-year six-figure donation was made to the village anonymously.
While other tourist hot-spots continue to struggle as borders remain closed, the people of El Zonte have forged their own path forward, thanks to its newly formed #Bitcoin economy.@Forbes @ForbesCrypto https://t.co/cS2RiNu86M — Tatiana Koffman ⚡️ (@tatianakoffman) July 14, 2020
The residents of the village adopted Bitcoin as an alternative to its local financial solutions after its tourism sector faced heavy losses due to the pandemic.
Forbes reported that the owners of Bitcoin will now be able to use the king coin to pay for anything in the town from utility bills to even tacos.
Apparently, tokens are also being used in El Zonte to acquire school buses.
Michael Peterson, who worked with the anonymous donor in distributing the funds said:
“As we injected Bitcoin into the community, we also taught local businesses how to accept it and helped to educate them on the advantages and drawbacks of accepting Bitcoin. There was a lot of resistance among the adults, [it was ] too technical. So we moved on to youth, they picked it up right away. The key is to get them to start transacting right away, then they want to learn more about it, the security of it, and how it works.”
In February, Bitcoin Beach and Athena Bitcoin installed the first BTC ATM in the village.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Pexels