This article is part of a series of four pieces in El Salvador. You can find the previous shipping, a story in El Zonte, Here.
There was effective energy at the Plan B conference this year in El Salvador.
The event, which took place on January 30-31, was historic for many of the 2,500 attendees. This is the first forum of Bitcoin in the Central American country to have an entire agenda of dual language-meaning sessions in both English and Spanish.
For Roman Martínez, a Co-Founder of Salvadorn of Bitcoin Beach, Plan B is a dream come true, because it enables ordinary Salvadorans to make sense in their country’s experiment and reflect on their own place inside its. “To this day, every Bitcoin conference has focused on foreigners,” he told me on the first day, in Spanish. “Not everyone knows English. It’s hard to know a complex topic in your own language. In another, three times more difficult.”
Martínez is involved in the event organizing. It is expected, he said, that for 100 to 150 Salvadorans will appear – but more than 1,500 tickets have been sold to Spain speakers. “I have never seen many Salvadoran faces at a Bitcoin conference,” he said. “We came to a point where the Salvadorans realized that Bitcoin would not go anywhere, and either we learned to be part of it today, or we would be left behind.”
I feel it too.
The English-speaking area, located in Sheraton President San Salvador Hotel, has celebrities on stage along with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, and Ogs such as Samson Mow, Jimmy Song, Blockstream CEO Adam Back and early develop Bitcoin Peter Todd. “We witness a battle between centralized and decentralized systems!” Walker America, host of the Bitcoin Podcast, shouted at the conference opening panel.
But the side of the conference felt a bit of a formula compared to the Spanish-speaking zone, held at the Museum of Arts of El Salvador, which was completely electric. Over there, the Salvadorans of all stripes have outlined plans to help their country develop – from providing new education opportunities, to mixing bitcoin to tooth care, to discussing the government’s approach In the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Many of the panel speakers, the Salvadorans themselves, had a fire in their eyes.
“We are in the right place in the world at the right time in history,” Gerardo Linares, co-founder of Bitcoin Berlín (The Initiative Behind The country’s second circular economy of Bitcoin) said to a completely surprising audience. “It’s all happening here, in El Salvador.”
A conference for Salvadorans
I was hurt by the demographic makeup of the Spanish area. Crypto conferences are famous for the male; Participants often complained of having a navigation of a sea of dudes. The English-speaking zone is like this-perhaps 90% male and 10% female.
Spain’s sides are more balanced, with a ratio of approximately 60% men and 40% women. While most attendees have sports Bitcoin’s black and orange t-shirts, you also see couples in central Salvadanran wearing elegant Salvadorn outfits, and twenty-one things University students with turtlenecks and notepads.
I asked Evelyn Lemus and Patricia Rosales, two of the Salvadanans who led the Bitcoin initiative in Berlín, what they thought at the rate of attendance with the woman. They didn’t seem surprised. “There is a new generation of Salvadoran women who do not rely on men,” Rosales, a single mother, told me. “
In El Salvador, most of the time, women in charge of family finances, ”Lemus said. “That’s why they came to events like this: to see how they can manage and invest family money. This is one of the reasons we want to have a Spanish conference.”
Bitcoin should not be reserved for the elite of the country, but should make a living day easier for ordinary Salvadorans, Lemus said. That concern influenced his action plan for Bitcoin Berlín. “We want to push the notion again that Salvadorans don’t use bitcoin – that only expats use it. Now, if you go to Berlín, you’ll see people working in the class who use bitcoin.”
Understand El Salvador’s situation
There is a general feeling that El Salvador is at the cusp of entering a new phase into its Bitcoin experiment.
The last four years have seen the Central American country, formerly known as the world’s homicide capital, rebuilds the Bitcoin country. President Nayib Buklele, by locking up MS-13 and Barrio 18 and putting an end to gang warfare, had given El Salvador a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reorganize itself and attain prosperity-at least that’s how most of the people at the people at The conference seemed to see it.
A lot of conversations revolve around the pick-up with the adoption of Bitcoin. For many years, despite Bitcoin who became legal soft in 2021, you could only pay for things with cryptocurrency in El Zonte, The little surfing village also known as bitcoin beach. In 2023, 88% of Salvadorans did not use digital coins, according to a Central American University survey.
But now a second circular Bitcoin has been implemented in the town of Berlín, up to the mountains, and other initiatives have been reported growing elsewhere, as in Santa Ana, the country’s second largest city.
Martínez, Lemus and Linares are all eager to share tips and advice. The secret sauce for adoption, they said, is to mix bitcoin initiatives in social work. “If the way people can use Bitcoin to make hamburgers instead of doing social work, I’ll make hamburgers,” Linares told me. “Whatever works. People like social things, so that’s what we do.”
Stablecoin Giant Tether’s decision to move its headquarters to El Salvador was also noticed as a huge win. Tether reported $ 143.7 billion in possessions, including $ 94.5 billion in Treasury’s bills, in the financial quarter of 2024. For comparison, El Salvador’s GDP was estimated to be $ 34 billion in 2023 of the World Bank.
Tether has become the largest company (far) based in El Salvador – and other crypto companies are dependent to follow in its footsteps, taking advantage of the country Advanced framework of crypto regulation and proficient. For Salvadorans, this means many career opportunities, higher salaries and the possibility that the country can be a tech hub of its own right.
“El Salvador should not only be recognized at first TIIANKI TECHNOLOGYsaid on stage. “Let’s change the lives of young people here and create the next leaders of this tech movement.”
“We have a small territory, but we can have a big dream,” said Alejandro Muñoz, a Salvadoran lawyer. “We can provide a large service. … Beautiful lawyers will attract great investors and refilter scammers. Bitcoin education needs to occur in the legal industry; steps are being done in the direction that that is. “
Bright future
The conference occurred only days after the government, as part of a recent -only The multi-billion dollar deal with the IMF. While some members of the Bitcoin community accused Buklele of caving the IMF, none of the Salvadorans in Plan B seemed to see it that way. In their view, nothing has changed to a practical level, as most businesses do not use Bitcoin to start.
In fact, a number of people accepted the deal. “El Salvador is locked in long-term funds to finish the reforms required,” Mike Peterson, an American expatriate living with El Zonte and co-established Bitcoin Beach, Na -Post to X recently. “The IMF Loan puts the country on the track to get the BBB credit rating that most wealth funds require to invest in a country.”
That is the big difference between the Salvadorans and the Bitcoiner. Bitcoiner hardcore values global adoption; They want cryptocurrency that will eventually supply government -released money, such as the US dollar. For them, El Salvador was a stepping stone, the first country to start hyperbitcoinization, but certainly not the latter.
Salvadorans do not have the same priorities. For them, bitcoin is a simple tool, a way to finish. Their goal is to develop the Salvadoran society.
“The Salvadorans are always proud of Salvadorn. But many pessimism. We are not the first of any positive, just negative things,” Linares told me. “Now people come from all parts of the world to Listen to what we say. Bitcoin has a lot to do with it. “
“There are many projects here in El Salvador who invested a lot of time and resources and almost no replacement – except for massive pride in the ability to restore to the community and support everything. This feeling needs to be expanded across the country. Moment of the change.
