Paid for something with Bitcoin? Merchant Adoption in El Salvador | Hashpower Academy

Video Transcript:

Have you ever paid for anything with your Bitcoin? This is going to be the topic of today’s video. And the place that I’m at right now is Berlin in El Salvador. And as you can see behind me, this is a map of all the different merchants that take Bitcoin as payment for their goods, services, accommodation, things to do, shopping, you name it. And it’s really, really interesting to see. there’s this this aspect of seeing newcomers to the town arrive and pay with Bitcoin for the first time. And it’s interesting because there’s so many people that Bitcoin has been a completely digital experience for them. So to be able to go somewhere and actually purchase things with Bitcoin, it’s it’s just like you pay. Is that it? Like you’re expecting more, you’re expecting less. I I don’t know. It’s um it’s something for each person to experience in of themselves. But um where things get interesting is the fact that can you find me another place that has got over a hundred nearly 200 merchants that accept Bitcoin as payment. I don’t think there’s anywhere that has such a concentrated amount of adoption in a single place which arguably puts Berlin, El Salvador at the forefront of the payments side of Bitcoin when it comes to the real world aspect of goods and services being traded and transacted for a quantity of Bitcoin. Granted that people have dollarized costs for everything and so you’re paying a dollar amount of Bitcoin, but it’s that first step. And the first steps if you go back in history is that cash, cash money and financial history has a very good case study story that I’d like to offer you, which is this. If you have a $20 bill, that quantity $20, it sustains its quantity value, shall we say, um each time it hops around the economy. If if I go into a store and pay $20 for something, they take the $20, I receive the goods, great. Money moves in the opposite direction of goods and services. And then they take the $20 and go buy something else. and somehow I exchange my time and energy from someone and they pay me that $20 back. That the money is hopping around the economy for goods and services of human intention to trade. And that’s the that’s the technology of money. It it’s allows allows us to efficiently manage and communicate with resources. And that unit of account aspect is the accounting system of it. But where things went digital with fiat money is that that $20 does not stay as $20 each time it hops around the economy. The the banks take a fee with every step. So the more velocity of the money going around and the goods and services going in the opposite direction, the bank takes a fee, the bank takes a fee, the bank takes a fee, and uh that $20 doesn’t look like $20 anymore in that economy. It’s it’s circulating out to somewhere else. And so you need to use time more time and energy to get more money essentially. And where Bitcoin changes things is firstly we need people that accept Bitcoin. That first step that I talked about the paying with Bitcoin receiving a good or service. But that’s just two people to get that circular economy. Arguably you need three or four or anything more than three, which is I’m paying with something with Bitcoin. They take the Bitcoin and go and pay for something else, goods, services, products, whatever it is. And then somehow that Bitcoin comes back to me because of a value for value exchange and that starts the circular economy aspect to things. And yes, we’re dollarizing the prices of everything, but we’re paying with Bitcoin. That’s the first step. And so, yeah, step one, acceptance, being able to pay with Bitcoin. Step two, getting multiple people that network effect of growth almost like uh those images of the blockchain with all the nodes all connected together but more in a peer-to-peer physical way beyond the the the digital data nodes that we are very familiar to within Bitcoin. And that’s where things get really exciting here in Berlin because that’s where we’re at. We’re at this place that has over a hundred almost 200 people that are taking Bitcoin as money and using it as the the money throughout the economy here. And those next steps is why I’m here of how we can get costs in a quantity of Bitcoin. And that goes down a very interesting rabbit hole in relation to the energy side. If uh if you’re a long-term watch of the watcher of the academy, you know exactly what I’m talking about. But back to the circular economy aspect of things. How do we get people to not just accept Bitcoin, not have the not and beyond that getting the circulation but the scale? Well, the scale boils down to this. People need to come here. Bitcoiners need to come here because energy is neither created nor destroyed. So, this monetary energy needs to arrive here through people or production. That’s it. Through people or mining. That’s the uh the interesting direction to go with. But the the people side of things are is money needs to come in as goods and services go out. So the aspect for Berlin to promote itself both digit digital and through physical product out to the world is what brings people here through transactions, through payments, through wanting goods and services that are available here. And it’s a really interesting town in the fact that it’s it’s growing and developing and the acceptance of Bitcoin is is going to become part of the culture. We are uh just about at the weekend and we are going to have a festival and a an English day of of different speakers and a Spanish day with different speakers and it’s it’s really just a pallet of all different things to serve people that not really interested but there’ll be music and events want to hear everything the knowledge the information in English and in Spanish as well. It’s it’s a real community here and I cannot express how refreshing it is for me that I I’ll tell you straight. I’ve been the the teenager in my bedroom for a long time and to finally sense the the aspect of community to find that sort of community that that everyone has a shared value in Bitcoin which means we all have a shared value in a wide range of subject areas which a lot of Bitcoiners do. that people that may have been a stranger 3 days ago, you you feel like you’ve known them your whole life. And and that’s the sort of community that I think a lot of young people need. A lot of young people need to to find their tribe, to find their community, and it has to be in person. And even if you don’t feel as socially confident, the uh I really really push you to grab a backpack, grab a plane ticket, and and really just explore a Bitcoin community such as here in Berlin, even for a few days, and and just see how you feel. Get to know the people, the the the the Bitcoin center here. You’ll see it on Google Maps. You can just walk in, you can hang out, you can get involved, you can stay longer. It it’s really welcoming. I didn’t plan to go on this talking point with this video, but I I incredibly value the fact that I did. So, uh, so yeah, please come and visit Berlin. There’s going to have multiple events in the future. It’s one of the most highly adopted areas in the whole world for Bitcoin. So, it’s at the forefront of the payments side. There’s there’s all manner of different people developing products, markets, services, platforms, layers, and systems and wallets in Bitcoin, but that has to go physical. That has to go in the hands of people that are using it to trade and transact at that most fundamental level. That’s all the payments side. And it perfectly mirrors why miners are plugging in, accepting fees from the payments side to produce more energy, buy more energy, buy more miners, and project to protect more of that transaction activity. And that’s how the energy and economics of Bitcoin create that fundamental circular economy that is growing and growing by the day. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed and I will see you in the next video. Goodbye.