Based on the number of merchants that now accept bitcoin in Berlin you might think this article is about the German capital city. Instead, it’s about a small picturesque mountain town in El Salvador with a population of 20,000 people.

How it came to have over 100 merchants accepting bitcoin in a 6 month period is an interesting story of persistence, passion and belief about bitcoin. It also is the story of an area whose inhabitants were proud of their beautiful city. The town in Germany may have many more inhabitants, but the lesser known Berlin has far more bitcoiners descending upon it every day than its much better known counterpart.

Magic Internet Money

It all begins with Gerardo Linares and his girlfriend Evelyn Lemus who were working as digital nomads in El Salvador for US companies for 10 years before they discovered bitcoin. Both are natives of ES and first heard about bitcoin when the country designated bitcoin as legal tender back in June 2021.

Like many of their countrymen, they were curious about bitcoin after the announcement and began going to meetups in San Salvador and El Zonte to learn more about this magic internet money. Like many, they downloaded the Chivo wallet and collected their $30 worth of bitcoin in September 2021 when the law took effect. The more they learned about this new global digital monetary network that allows you to be your own “decentral bank” the more they liked it.

They noticed that having bitcoin as legal tender in their country attracted many outside visitors and tourists who were bitcoiners to their country, but very few natives were adopting bitcoin outside of El Zonte and San Salvador. They wanted to change that, so they quit their digital nomad jobs and began a journey that resulted in them settling in Berlin which is a small mountain town about 2 hours east of San Salvador.

Sharing The Bitcoin Gospel

After learning more about Bitcoin’s impact and the opportunities it afforded to local communities, they wanted other Salvadoran natives to understand Bitcoin too. In the early stages of their journey they traveled to many smaller towns and villages in El Salvador and never missed a chance to educate the students in the local schools who wanted to learn about Bitcoin. They eventually teamed up with Mi Primer Bitcoin which is a bitcoin education company that began in El Salvador. As Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, has been saying for years, “To educate people on bitcoin is to market bitcoin.”

When I asked how many towns they visited in the country Gerardo said “21.” I’m not sure he caught the irony of his answer to my question since many bitcoiners consider 21 to be a special number. One of the places where they gave classes on bitcoin was in Berlin. They eventually decided to start their effort to develop a circular economy in this mountain town because the town officials took great pride in their community and were eager to attract tourists to the area.

Any time you want people to adopt new technology it is the first few early adopters which are the hardest, and Berlin was no exception. In the beginning, the two of them were able to on board 17 merchants via many one-on-one conversations and tutoring. These first Berlin merchants were open to this new payment rail [lightning network] because they wanted more tourism. In addition, another advantage they had in Berlin was that most of the merchants and shopkeepers were so small that they didn’t have employees, which means they could speak directly to the decision maker on the spot. There were no employees standing in their way as “middle men.” They also had the added advantage of Bitcoin being legal tender in their country. After the initial wave of 17 merchants more locals got involved in recruiting their fellow shop keepers. Gerardo and Evelyn were quick to credit the locals for the increased adoption. This wasn’t a success solely because of Bitcoin, however. They organized community supported clean-up projects that transformed the area and made it more appealing for locals and tourists alike.

Many of the merchants and shopkeepers in Berlin had heard of Bitcoin and most knew of the success in attracting tourists to El Zonte, which was a small surfing town 30 minutes outside San Salvador and about 3 hours away from Berlin. Another advantage of the shops in Berlin was that they accepted only cash (El Salvador had stopped issuing its own currency in 2001 at which time they made the US dollar their legal tender) and had no method for accepting digital payments, which means tourists were less likely to visit.

Challenges and Solutions

Some even had the Chivo wallet from when Bitcoin was first launched because that wallet was required to receive your $30 in bitcoin from the government. However, they found out quickly that the Chivo wallet defaulted to generating a QR code for US dollars NOT bitcoin. There was a way to accept bitcoin on the merchant’s Chivo wallet but it was not the default setting and it was NOT user friendly.

They needed to do a work around to get the Chivo wallet to accept Bitcoin which made it less than ideal. Most shops are small and were not yet accepting ANY FORM of electronic payments. Gerardo and Evelyn refer to Bitcoin as “electronic money” or “dinero electronico”. Accepting Bitcoin became the method for these shopkeepers and merchants to enter the digital age for payments, instantly creating a tourist destination for the many bitcoiners descending on El Salvador after the law was passed in 2021.

At first success was slow and only one or two shop owners were willing to try it. And when they made a sale in bitcoin they would often call Gerardo and ask him to convert the Bitcoin into USD. However, many have watched the price of Bitcoin skyrocket in 2023 and are now much more inclined to keep hold on to their Bitcoin. Gerardo and Evelyn eventually showed them how to use the Blink wallet because it was much more user friendly than the Chivo wallet and Blink has a stable sats feature that lets the shopkeeper avoid the volatility of Bitcoin.

Getting shopkeepers to accept Bitcoin was only half the equation though because they needed customers and no one in Berlin was paying in Bitcoin. The couple began inviting bitcoiners from El Zonte and San Salvador to Berlin. As these groups of Bitcoin visitors grew in size and frequency they made a point of organizing lunches and dinners at the restaurants where Bitcoin was accepted. It didn’t take long before other shop keepers noticed these large groups going to their competitors who accepted Bitcoin.

Gradually, then suddenly…

Gerardo explained that once they reached a tipping point of about 50 shops the whole need to recruit owners flipped. At that point, the shopkeepers and owners started coming to them and asking how to accept Bitcoin. He added that “people here in Berlin are excited about Bitcoin.” Recently, Gerardo and Evelyn opened a small office in Berlin where they teach people about Bitcoin for free and they teach the locals who want to learn English for a modest fee.

There is no doubt that the success and buzz created from El Zonte played an important role in adoption but there are now over 100 shops and merchants that accept Bitcoin in Berlin which Gerardo estimated represents about one quarter of the shops and businesses in town.

It is not without irony that I suggested to Gerardo during the interview that Berlin is the “fastest growing bitcoin community in El Salvador.” He seemed reticent about making that claim, but those are the facts. He made it clear there is still much more to do in educating the locals and building out the circular economy. I was surprised to learn they have a 15 page strategic plan for developing their new hometown into a global tourist destination which they wrote before they began. Their ultimate goal is for the project to be self-sustaining.

They have been so effective in putting the town of Berlin on the map that if you’re a Bitcoiner who lands in San Salvador you have a decision to make: “Do I head 30 minutes south to El Zonte or do I go east 2 hours to Berlin?” Do I want the beach [El Zonte] or the mountains [Berlin]?

In either case, there will be many merchants and shopkeepers in both who will happily accept your Bitcoin. Meanwhile, tourism continues to grow in El Salvador and circular economies are popping up in the unlikeliest of places. 

This is a guest post by Mark Maraia & Beren Sutton Cleaver. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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From the very first days of Bitcoin, the community was its key driving force. Even more: it was the only one.

Without any marketing or PR, it was the community that helped transform the anonymous 9-page whitepaper from an obscure cypherpunk list into the functional Bitcoin software we use today. It was the community that propelled Bitcoin across the globe, spreading the knowledge and engaging all sorts of people and businesses that recognize the need for better money.

Bitcoin is a global phenomenon now, but its community is still the gravity center fostering technological development and adoption. It also represents something else: an elusive, yet precious quality that binds very different people from all walks of life, political preferences, age, occupation…

Indeed, the Bitcoin community shares not only the love for memes, but also a unique mix of libertarian principles, entrepreneurial spirit, and readiness to change the world.

Bitcoin events have played a crucial role in brewing this particular blend of values and expanding the community across the globe. To try and define this magic sauce that holds Bitcoiners together, I have gathered testimonials from several people attending eight European Bitcoin-only gatherings, both big and small.

From the urban pavilions of a 10,000-people Bitcoin Amsterdam to the forest tents of a 100-people BEF in Brittany, these experiences could not have been more different. However, they were also somehow similar, and sometimes – even complementary.

The Big

BTC Prague and Bitcoin Amsterdam stand out as the biggest Bitcoin events in Europe, drawing thousands of attendees, major Bitcoin-related companies, and of course an impressive speaker lineup. The latter can also include people outside of the strict Bitcoin circle, often featuring freedom fighters and businesses operating in the broader crypto spectrum.

On a smaller scale with hundreds of attendees, Surfing Bitcoin in the French Biarritz shared the same ethos, although this year’s edition was marked by a number of troubles.

For the most ardent Bitcoin maxis, Baltic Honeybadger in Riga is probably the most OG Bitcoin event, fiercely defending its Bitcoin-only stance.

The majority of people who attend these events are already orange-pilled and well-versed in the intricacies of Bitcoin. One can cross miners, cypherpunks, developers, economists, freedom fighters, investors, and a large number of influencers of all sorts.

These events represent an opportunity to promote a wallet, a mining rig, a payment solution, an association… or yourself. This commercial dimension, even though not explicitly put forward, is definitely one of the important aspects of big Bitcoin conferences, together with the extensive opportunities for networking.

The Intimate

On the opposite range, a lot of small – even intimate – Bitcoin events are popping up all over the world. However, don’t get fooled by their size. Those close-knit gatherings, which often do not exceed a hundred people, bring together some of the most active Bitcoin community members, both known and unknown by the larger public.

Such events rarely advertise and often ban any on-site recordings to protect the attendees’ privacy. The Chatham House rule is applied, meaning that anyone who comes to a meeting is free to use information from the discussion, but is not allowed to reveal who made any particular comment.

Beyond the sheer size, privacy rules, and the abundance of beer, such events often include communal living and unique experiences.

BTC Azores featured scenic hikes across this beautiful Portuguese archipelago. It was also marked by the absence of a pre-determined agenda: the attendees created the schedule themselves, submitting the topics they would like to discuss.

The BEF (Bitcoin Economic Forum) brought French bitcoiners into a deep forest in Brittany for a series of discussions, talks, and barbecues.

The upcoming B-Only in the Annecy region of France will unfold in the majestic Alpine setting, encouraging fireside conversations over a tartiflette. Scheduled for November 3-5, it will be one of the latest additions to this type of Bitcoin gatherings, and also one of the last ones this year.

These small-scale events look more like a friends and family retreat than a professional conference, and in some way, they are. Human connections grow particularly strong through new experiences, common tables, and shared living.

Bitcoin is still at the heart of the event, but the ambiance and goals change noticeably compared to the traditional conferences. People are much more accessible, and discussions more inclusive, which is particularly conducive to brainstorming and introducing new ideas.

The Institutional-Friendly

There is another type of Bitcoin event – the one that focuses on integrating Bitcoin into the local communities.

This concept is not possible everywhere in the world. In most places, Bitcoin still encounters resistance from government officials, and many public and private companies are wary of its negative image that mainstream media has so thoroughly crafted.

Switzerland stands out in this regard as one of the most crypto-friendly countries, and it is visible in its Bitcoin conferences, which are more institutionalized than elsewhere.

Paradigme Bitcoin, a relatively small event organized in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel, makes a point of inviting not only Bitcoiners but also municipality and industry leaders. Together, they discuss the ways of using Bitcoin in the region’s watch-making industry, University curriculum, and other local endeavors.

Plan B is another remarkable initiative. For a couple of years already, the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino has been educating and encouraging the city’s merchants to start accepting Bitcoin as payment. The Plan B conference is a part of this effort, but in the best Swiss traditions, the usual set of Bitcoin proponents here has been completed by bankers, officials, lawyers, and financial regulators from different parts of the world. While strictly speaking not a Bitcoin-only conference, Plan B helps Lugano to share its experience with thousands of attendees.

The Trends

From the Portuguese Azores islands to the Latvian city of Riga, European Bitcoin events are as varied as Europe itself. From a tent deep in a French forest to the bank of a Swiss lake, they can exude very different vibes, but at their core, they are the same.

In fact, they are even complementary. I witnessed instances where a new technological solution was conceived and brainstormed at BTC Azores and then found funding and support at BTC Prague.

By taking a closer look at these events, we can also discern the trends that are marking the community.

First of all – no “to the moon” talks. In fact, BTC price, which is one the most popular Bitcoin-related topic in most media, is hardly ever mentioned. And for a good reason: Bitcoin denomination in dollars and euros is secondary to its role of independent money.

Personal freedom is still a huge topic, and Nostr is now regularly highlighted at Bitcoin events. While not exactly a Bitcoin technology, its decentralized and censorship-resistance mission aligns perfectly with the Bitcoiners’ worldview, making it increasingly popular within the community.

On the technological front, this year was marked by heated debates between the proponents of the Ordinals and the supporters of a more conservative approach to Bitcoin.

Finally, family is coming into focus, both in figurative and literal sense. While ‘fam’ has already become a common address term within the community, the real family is becoming increasingly seen in conferences, as the attendees bring their close ones. There were children notably at Honeybadger and BTC Prague, the latter also featuring a whole talk by a 12-year Bitcoiner. The next generation is here, and it is no stranger to Bitcoin.

Overall, while large Bitcoin conferences are still indispensable for developing business and networking, a point can be made that the community is also becoming stronger by decentralizing its events and by building stronger connections with the local communities.

A special thank you to Aurore Galves Orjol from Leonod, Franck Pralas from D.Center, and Cyrille Coppéré from B-only for their testimonials.

This is a guest post by Marie Poteriaieva. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Community is crucial and that never has been clearer to me than it was this last month, as wildfires claimed 10,000 hectares of the area around my home, leaving many people with nothing except the clothes they were wearing when they escaped.

At its peak, our fire was being fought by firefighters from all over Portugal. More than a thousand men, 400 odd fire trucks and 14 planes eventually prevailed. We watched the massive smoke plume and none of us slept much for the four nights it burned, watching an approaching orange glow light up the sky. In its wake, now that the firemen have completed the heroic task of slaying the fire dragon, it’s the force of community which is coming to the fore.

Amongst the local small businesses, there is an almost festive atmosphere. Stories of last minute escapes are shared by those affected, damages are compared. Together, we take reckoning of what has been lost and celebrate the small victories over the fire. A home saved here, a family reunited with their livestock and pets there, a house not touched by the flames even though everything around it has burned.

People have poured in from far and wide to volunteer. Donations of food, clothing and household items are piled high against the back wall of a local restaurant and shared out amongst those who need them. Gender roles seem to be falling naturally into place amongst the volunteers, with the men mostly taking the heavy tasks of clearing scorched earth and charred trees to clear the way for people to start rebuilding and the women cooking for the teams of men and the families who have lost their homes. Now, a month on from the fire, the progress is very visible. Fallen roofs have been shovelled up and cleared, structures checked and cleaned in preparation for placing new beams and rebuilding. The melted pipes of irrigation systems have been pulled out of the ground and taken away. Personal possessions have been sifted through and what can be saved has been secured. We have received excellent information sessions on how to go about managing burned land, what to clear, what to leave, how to prevent land erosion and when and how to start replanting. With the first rain of the autumn coming in strong, the first sign of green is already showing again all over the blackened landscape.

A dear friend of mine, herself a dedicated bitcoiner, put it beautifully in a message to me when I told her how overwhelming it is to see people coming together this way. “This is what people do when they govern themselves,” she wrote, “It’s beautiful.”

Never were truer words spoken. I don’t think I have ever seen a community slip so smoothly into gear before. In countries – such as most European countries – where governments are still functioning to at least some degree (one could argue, over functioning) many people seem to have lost contact with the community. While once churches would have provided the cornerstones for this connection, the majority of people are no longer affiliated to any religious association and if you ask them about their community or “tribe,” most fumble for an answer. They talk about a group loosely composed of co-workers, sports buddies, friends who are not necessarily close by and neighbours with whom they share a mostly coincidental bond of proximity. The fabric of our societies is now an open weave and many individuals simply slip through it into isolation, holding on by only a few threads here and there.

From a historical and sociological perspective, the loss of community is deeply worrying. Humans did not form communities for fun. We didn’t group together because it was more fun to hunt or man the ramparts of the castle with a buddy (although it probably was that too). Throughout human history, no matter what the era or geographical setting, humans have grouped together because together we are and have always been safer, more effective and more capable of influencing our context to our benefit, whether it be fighting a fire, an enemy attack or political overreach. At the risk of sounding like a political slogan, together we really are stronger.

Women traditionally play a crucial role in creating and bonding communities, largely because they are socially and biologically very incentivised to do so – a woman’s first protector for herself and her children is of course her man – but beyond him or in his absence it is her community which is her second line of protection and which she relies upon for safety and help in times of need. It could be convincingly argued that it’s the breakdown of community which is at least partly responsible for the skyrocketing statistics of depression and anxiety amongst women of all ages but especially the younger generations in Northern Europe and the US. Social media appears to replicate a community in hordes of followers, but as a replacement simply doesn’t cut it, providing only dopamine addiction in lieu of genuine connection. From a mental health perspective, loss of community is as disastrous as it is when seen through a historical and sociological lens.

Obviously, it’s not only women who are vulnerable to this catastrophic downturn. Across the genders, statistics for poor mental health including isolation, depression, suicide and addiction make depressing reading and their increasing occurence, in spite of the increasing ease of living for most people in the developed world, even more so. It’s a lack of community which is leaving such a void in people’s lives, above all a lack of a sense that they contribute to a cause larger than their own personal wellbeing. It’s perhaps naïve – but I can’t help feeling that actively founding and stimulating the growth of local communities could have incredibly restorative potential for our collective wellbeing.

Which is just one of the reasons that it is so incredibly heartening to see a community here in full strength, drawing together to support and provide for one another, each member contributing what they have to offer. For some it’s money, which is being channelled straight into providing emergency relief or donated to the people whose livelihood was dependent upon their home. For others, it’s muscle and machine power, in chainsawing, clearing and cleaning. A few people have dedicated their time to coordinating the influx of volunteers. For those of us who have no idea how to wield a chainsaw and whose lack of muscle power threatens to make us more of a hindrance than a help on the front line of the clear up, it’s kitchen duty, providing food for those working and those in need. That community is vital on all the levels of Maslow’s pyramid of human needs is clearly exemplified in the wake of our fire.

But how to go about reintroducing the seeds and roots of community in other places, where with the loss of a shared faith and competitive social relations in all aspects of life, it has been so lost, for so long? Can we as individuals and families foster this growth?

As a fellow bitcoiner, I think you know what I would propose. Besides its myriad other aspects, Bitcoin provides a unique foundation for community. We’ve all experienced it if we have attended Bitcoin events; I’d bet my bottom dollar (if either you or I still believed in the value of the dollar) that you had more in common with the person you had a five minute chat with in the queue of the bathroom at the Bitcoin conference than you do with your co-workers, who you have known and worked with for years.

Bitcoin is about shared values and a shared knowledge that the system we are living under just doesn’t work. Its capacity to lay the foundation for community (not to mention the rest of its cornucopia of economic, technical, social and philosophical gifts) is second to none. A community based around Bitcoin is a whole new and unique model which has the potential to fill the void which other failed (fiat) models of community have left.

Those of us who choose to already experience some of this Bitcoin community through Telegram, Twitter and Nostr. Amongst other Bitcoiners, we can, to put it simply, just go ahead and skip the small talk. Mostly, we’re all aware of the role governments, big pharma, mainstream media and the food giants play. Once these issues are no longer a topic of conversation, it’s beautiful to watch what emerges – we’re all pretty much in agreement about what has broadly gone wrong in the past so we tend to focus on the future. These conversations are incredibly valuable. I, for one, love the thought provoking contact and the sense of online community – but there’s the danger that those online communities and the people with whom I socialize and the businesses from whom I buy the goods I need in daily life can feel like two separate worlds. It takes some steps to bring those two worlds together but I do feel that they are very much worth taking. Shared values make for strong bonds and as you build a Bitcoin community around you, you get to experience the luxury of this.

Delivering regular Bitcoin education sessions and watching as businesses around me start to accept Bitcoin is, for me, planting the seeds of a whole extra layer of community. It could be said that we have an obligation – not only to ourselves and our families, but to our communities, to seed and foster the growth of new, Bitcoin based communities. Doing so will bring us huge benefits. Not only will we be able to transact and save in real money amongst ourselves, building parallel economies which are uncensorable and tailor made to fit our own needs (because we are incentivized to orange pill businesses we most want to buy from), we will have access to the social, philosophical and even moral benefits that being part of a true community brings and which most of us have never yet fully experienced.

Can Bitcoin lead us back to a golden age of community, where all of us can experience these benefits? I think the answer is that it probably can. Some of the green shoots of it can already be seen growing out of the ash left by the collapse of fiat models of community. So if I may be so bold as to offer you some advice – go out there to that shop, restaurant or bar you go to often and say those magic words: “Do you accept Bitcoin yet?” 

This is a guest post by Holly Young. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Last Saturday, over 500 people gathered in the Argentine Polo Field to create the largest human ₿ in the world in celebration of the 10th anniversary of NGO Bitcoin Argentina. The event aimed to showcase the technology’s ability to mobilize people in defense of monetary freedom, privacy, and other values of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The human ₿, sitting at a massive 40 meters, became the world’s largest bitcoin symbol. Jimena Vallone, director of Bitcoin Argentina, expressed hopes that this would be the first of many attempts to break the record.

The event was captured by drones, documenting the scale of the gathering both day and night. Attendees also enjoyed activities such as a Kahoot game, with winners receiving 212,121 satoshis.

The event aimed to highlight the advantages of Bitcoin as an alternative currency for Argentine citizens, particularly in light of traditional monetary models’ shortcomings. Media player Carlos Maslatón emphasized that Bitcoin was not subject to permission or state recognition, making it an accessible and innovative currency.

The event attracted attendees of all ages, each with their own motivations, including concerns about inflation, privacy, and desired changes in government models. The organizer stressed that the event was not focused solely on Argentina but aimed to send a message to the world in defense of the cryptocurrency ecosystem’s values. The orange umbrellas used in the formation of the human ₿ symbol represented Bitcoin’s role as protection against inflation and the global financial crisis.

Rodolfo Andragnes, founder of the NGO, expressed the need to defend the values of Bitcoin and announced upcoming events, including the ‘B•Arte Award’ and the LABITCONF conference, which would continue to promote action, intervention and revolution in different ways. The success of the event was attributed to the support of various communities and companies in the Bitcoin space. The organizers expressed gratitude to all participants and hoped that the event would inspire other communities worldwide. They also shared the event’s photos and videos under a Creative Commons license for media and the ecosystem to use in illustrating their content.

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