The b4H team recently engaged in a fireside chat with Michael Peterson, the conversation revealed how strong is the bitcoin use case and how adoption is made possible, especially during challenging moments like the ones we currently live.
Bitcoin Beach is a project created by Mission Sake’s President and Founder, Michael Peterson. The projects is helping feed the town of El Zonte and Punta Mango in El Salvador during the COVID-19 Crisis. We explored how.
El Salvador is under Martial law for 30 days, an authoritarian approach that leave many concerned with personal liberties and freedom. Military is on the streets and so far more than 1000 people have been arrested for breaking the quarentine. Most people live with what they earn on a daily basis thus having to comply with quarantine creates an enormous problem for them to feed their families.
People are allowed to purchase food twice a week but the lines are blurr when it comes to justifying the need to go out of the house for food in the eyes of the authorities.
To remedy the unsustainable situation, the government announced they would be giving people a financial aid of $300 one time payment per family. However, briefly after the announcement the website became inaccessible. No one knows who can get the relief or how to get it. It seems to be playing out differently as hardly anyone has received any aid.
Our Communities are going hungry, we can’t get through via phone or online. This makes the situation worse. Says Peterson.
The ‘Bitcoin Feeding’ comes to the rescue!
The Bitcoin Beach project took the initiative to organize Bitcoin donations sent directly to people’s wallets in the villages of El Zonte and Punta Mango. This was easy to do because most people living in these villages know how to transact with Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Beach team has carried out numerous educational sessions for the local community members.
“It was necessary to guide them through all the steps from downloading a wallet, to registering, keeping private keys, making payments and receiving bitcoins. The kids got it right away, we then decided to first train the youth so that they go on and teach their families”
During these challenging moments, the community members of El Zonte have found relief through Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Beach has arranged for small grocery stores to receive payment in Bitcoin and deliver the food to people’s home. In light of government’s efforts to discourage people from going out, the team organized the community so that members unable to go out due to age or mobility limitations would still get their basic food necessities met.
“It is easier than paying with a credit card” says Peterson. Bitcoin Beach set up payments to go through the Lighting Network to reduce the cost of transaction fees. The process has been made simple for people to text their order and pay with their donated Bitcoins over the the phone, briefly after the the food gets delivered to their home.
People living in small shacks with dirt floor are getting Amazon type of service delivery.
Thanks to the Bitcoin donor, the villages have been able to cope with the difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For us at Blockchain for Humanity, we see the Seed of Success. Challenging times bring also opportunities and renewal. This experience with El Zonte in El Salvador shows us a genuine use case of Bitcoin adoption. We support the implementation of Bitcoin as a medium of exchange and plan to expand the educational programs started by Bitcoin Beach. It is our vision to support vulnerable communities in the adoption of Crypto-Currencies.
Watch the Fireside Chat with Micheal Peterson in our Youtube Channel
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