Behind every great story imposed on the media assaults hides the little adventure of visionaries and committed creators. With Bitcoin as the main example, the current success of which no one had envisaged when it took office in 2009. But whose vocation as an autonomous digital currency quickly gave way to the speculative aspirations of hordes of investors from the most rich. Despite this, El Salvador chose to become its official national currency last June. A historic step whose importance should not however erase its origins, in the small village of El Zonte.
It is seldom the most visible people and projects that make the most significant changes. At the most, they are surfing the trend developed by others. But with the difference of having the means and the ambition to do something bigger. An operating logic that should not make people forget the soft ones crazy at the base of these historical shifts. With that little touch of madness necessary not to realize that all of this was impossible before it became real. Just look at the Bitcoin side.
And that’s exactly what happened in El Salvador, in the small village of El Zonte. A surf spot battered by the tides and the proliferation of gangs. And a population largely excluded from the banking system, plagued by poverty and lack of prospects. This is why a local support and financing project was launched in 2009. A lasting initiative, the development of which came up against a generous donor ten years later. The latter eager to make a payment in Bitcoin. There was no need for more…
” A population struggling with poverty and lack of financial inclusion is always destined to see the value of Bitcoin before wealthy communities in Singapore or Silicon Valley.”
Mike Peterson, Bitcoin Beach
El Zonte’s Bitcoin Currency Revolution
But how to integrate this cryptocurrency too speculative to make payments and too expensive to buy everyday goods? Quite simply by ignoring these received ideas of not knowing the existence of them. And this is how “those who are too young and naive to understand that their business is doomed” started the Bitcoin Beach project. This first of all in the form of a training campaign for the local population, greatly accelerated by the Covid crisis. And with the aim of developing a “sustainable circular economy on Bitcoin. ”
” In El Salvador, Bitcoin is the money of the poor and financially excluded. For Salvadorans living in poverty, the debates between the digital gold and digital currency camps seem irrelevant and irrelevant in practice. For those who need Bitcoin the most, the question comes down to how to buy their daily bread and how to save for the future.”
Mike Peterson, Bitcoin Beach
And quickly, a new problem arose. How to develop an effective tool to support this digital transition? This in the form of a small local revolution disrupting the global monetary balance from the village of El Zonte. A new stage at the origin of the entry of this race of the American startup Galoy. And as a consequence the creation in 2020 of the Bitcoin Beach wallet, in order to meet these expectations. A wallet compatible with the Lightning Network, the main weapon of mass adoption of Bitcoin as a means of payment.
$ 3 million for the Bitcoin Beach wallet
What is the difference between the Chivo wallet developed by the government of El Salvador and the Bitcoin Beach wallet? Its open source character, dedicated to the implementation of a banking alternative presented as community. But also this advantage of having been thought out at a local level. All this based on a shared custody model located outside the current divide between the custodial and non-custiodial versions. And many features such as free internal transfers, the possibility of grouping transactions or a tool for locating points of sale that accept Bitcoin.
And this project, originally launched as a proof of concept, has met with the most favorable reception. To the point of motivating the Galoy company to accelerate its development. This in order to offer its services to a greater number of users and communities. An initiative at the origin of a fundraising of 3 million dollars validated on December 15. And whose stated objective is “to allow any community, business or government to offer banking services using Bitcoin and Lightning.” “
In addition to all this, this new kind of portfolio offers a service called “Banking-as-a-Service”. With the mission of providing an infrastructure identical to that developed in El Zonte. But without ever placing the Galoy company – or anyone else – in the position of a bank. Because the goal is to develop the project in order to “really bring the platform to a wider audience in the right places in the world.” And this is again not an unrealistic utopia. Because other alternatives of the kind already exist. As the Bitcoin Jungle developed in Costa Rica with open source code from Galoy. Or the Bitcoin Lake in Guatemala which is nothing more than a new local establishment of its Bitcoin Beach.