Discover the towns of Jericoacoara, Rolante and São Thomé das Letras, three tourist towns using Bitcoin as daily currency. Understand how the Lighting Network plays a crucial role in promoting the use of Bitcoin as a payment method.
Store of value or medium of exchange?
Bitcoin (BTC), the market-leading crypto, is establishing itself as a reliable, liquid and international store of value. With a market value of over US$1 trillion, bitcoin is already larger than several currencies issued by national governments. Notably, Bitcoin is already bigger than the Russian ruble and the Swiss franc.
After years of technical discussions, Bitcoin's base layer is emerging as a high-value settlement network. At the same time, transactions requiring low fees and high speed are carried out on second-tier solutions, centralized or decentralized.
In particular, the Lightning Network (LN), a solution proposed to improve the scalability of Bitcoin, is probably the most widely used tool for settling small Bitcoin payments or making everyday purchases.
In Brazil at least, LN is emerging as a popular option for making daily payments in three tourist cities: Jericoacoara, São Thomé das Letras and Rolante.
These cities are found in particular in the north, center and south of Brazil. In all three cities, Bitcoin use was driven by local non-profit projects.
Learn a little more about these three success stories from the Bitcoin world.
This article was originally published on the Brazilian blog Coinextand focused on providing educational content about Bitcoin and the digital asset market.
São Thomé das Letras
São Thomé das Letras is undoubtedly one of the most mystical places in Brazil. The city, which has only 8,000 inhabitants, is one of the main tourist cities in Minas Gerais, the state of which it is part.
São Thomé das Letras is located high on a set of mountains, which offers stunning views from any point of the city. Additionally, the city is surrounded by easily accessible waterfalls and rivers. Another highlight are the countless legends and mysticism linked to the region, which involve gnomes, aliens, elves and other mythological beings.
And it is in this scenario that the Mountain Bitcoin project was born. The project, started by a local bitcoiner, aimed to spread knowledge about the major cryptography among the city's residents, mainly traders and students.
The result was impressive. Dozens of local businesses display stickers saying, “We accept Bitcoin.” Payments are made via LN via Satoshi and Blink Wallet.
Victor Souza, resident of São Thomé das Letras, declared that the project has sparked particular interest among children in Bitcoin:
“The children received satoshis in their wallets which they can then spend on fruit in the largest local supermarket, which has agreed to participate in the project. The children were extremely happy and wanted to learn more about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is in fact a generational technology, which tends to arouse the interest of younger people. Ultimately, it's something inevitable, a natural evolution of money.
Additionally, Victor noted that Bitcoin payments are still rare compared to traditional methods, although many businesses accept the digital asset:
“Cash payments are even more common, and that’s natural. People don't want to spend Bitcoin. They would rather get rid of weak government money. But the simple possibility of making purchases in bitcoin is already a big development for the use of digital currency.
Jericoacoara
The city of Jericoacoara, located in the northeast of Brazil, is known as Praia do Bitcoin. Inspired by El Zonte, located in El Salvador, Jeriquaquara pioneered the use of Bitcoin as currency.
The project was led by Bitcoiner Fernando Motolese, who promoted educational activities among students and local traders.
“The school librarian told me that the computers in the computer room had been turned off for 2 years. I am a computer technician. So I asked the principal to let him raise money to repair the school's computers.
Motolese elaborated:
“We started to get closer. I posted online that I needed resources to repair computers. This opened up the possibility for us to get closer. So the people at Bitcoin Beach donated 0.1 bitcoin to us. With this donation of 0.1 bitcoin from Bitcoin Beach, we achieved this activation which consisted of producing 408 paper wallets.
The integration with LN has been fundamental to the adoption of Bitcoin in the region, which now has several companies accepting the leading digital asset.
Rolant
Rolante, located in the south of Brazil, has only 21,000 inhabitants. However, more than 200 companies accept the region's leading crypto, a very significant number.
The adoption of Bitcoin in the region was driven by the couple Ricardo and Camila, founders of the Bitcoin É Aqui project. In addition to boosting the use of Bitcoin in commerce, they also organized the Bitcoin Spring Festival event, which brought together Bitcoiners from all over the country.
The couple notably stated that although the adoption of Bitcoin will help boost tourism in the city:
“The “Bitcoin is here!” project ” comes at a time when local merchants were hungry for something to boost tourism in the region. And at the same time, when I was already restless and needed to convey the benefits of Bitcoin beyond myself.
Victor Souza, head of SEO at Criptonizando, pointed out that the vast majority of merchants who accept Bitcoin in the city use the Lighting Network to settle payments, which are then consolidated into the base layer:
“With the establishment of Bitcoin as a settlement layer for large amounts, LN is gaining importance as the leading open protocol for these payments. Due to the still somewhat complex UX, many traders opt for custodial wallets, which can then be sent to a proprietary address.
Brazil and other Latin American countries are emerging as early adopters of Bitcoin. The region has several countries with weak and inflationary currencies, which encourages the adoption of major digital assets. Initiatives such as Praia Bitcoin, Montanha Bitcoin and Bitcoin É Aqui are moving forward in the adoption of Bitcoin as mainstream currency, which could take decades to happen on a global scale.