Topic: Has anyone here ever visited El Salvador and tried paying with bitcoin there? - page 2. (Read 452 times)

In short, no one here has ever been to El Salvador and we don't know exactly what's going on there. What we know are just a few pictures and videos circulating on social networks, other than that we have nothing more. I also asked this question and I also want to know the bitcoin adoption situation in El Salvador, but no one can answer this question.
For me, using bitcoin as a means of payment is not attractive enough for me to spend time there, while as I know, El Salvador has the highest crime rate in the world. I won't go there and don't intend to go there just for bitcoin.

Of course merchants will accept Bitcoin as a means of payment because every merchant must accept bitcoin as a form of payment for goods or services as stipulated in the law pushed by Nayib Bukele and later passed by his parliamentary majority. According to the current law in El Salvador, anything included in goods and services previously paid for in fiat currency can now be paid for in bitcoin. The Bitcoin community can spend Bitcoin more freely there, although the government does not require consumers to switch to Bitcoin, but those who make transactions using Bitcoin will receive a one-time incentive equivalent to $30.

Bitcoin City is a paradise for the Bitcoin community, they can do anything there with the Bitcoin they have. The residents and tourists who come there can use Bitcoin for everything, they can pay for anything with Bitcoin, clearly this experience is a sensation that those of us who have never been there have never felt before. Of course, having the opportunity to go there is like a dream come true, there are many things you can do with Bitcoin including exploring the very famous Bitcoin city.

havnt visited but have read, heard, seen many testimonials.. overall opinion is:

though it became legal tender in 2021. its initial attempt at adoption failed due to bad advice of a stupid LN fangirl business pretending his LN service was bitcoin, the government then used LN for the backbone of chivo, and within months the liquidity/bottlenecks and flaws of LN payments caused outrage and disappointment of people in el salv. they then called it a failure of bitcoin even though the issues were about the lightning network not bitcoin network

and while el salvador was having issue with lightning but falsely calling it bitcoin(shifting blame). we had the cultish LN group promoting bitcoin adoption in western media via their LN service as a success, exaggerating and lying about the reality just to promote their LN service involvement...
even when their involvement had nothing to do with the bitcoin network, nor was a success.. same LN fangirl business done the same innigeria and made them not like the experience too

the stories of bitcoin spread even though el salv's didnt see the glamour in the same shine as western media portrayed

el salvador has to yet do alot more work to popularise and win trust of bitcoin due to the failures of LN that gave bitcoin a bad reputation, even when el salv citizens never used bitcoin due to the bait and switch game of the LN scheme

the remittance in and out of el salv via bitcoin (via CEX) is growing(2023-24). but the experience of the chivo-LN(2021) left a bad taste in many citizens and businesses mouth. both citizens and businesses try to avoid using chivo due to that bad LN experience pretending to be bitcoin, which has lead to many still not trusting bitcoin as they are not sure the 'bitcoin' they might get actually being bitcoin and not just another liquidity scam that cant settle of some other network

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and that guys conclusion
find and ATM to get fiat or avoid bitcoin and use another network... one that already failed the el salv population
conclusion: people are not adopting BITCOIN for daily use, its just used within CEX as a border crossing value transfer
(a way to avoid western union headaches when doing remittances/ border control inspections of travel/vacation money exchanges)

wow this is amazing experience , 2 months living completely using bitcoin? damn How I wish this will be available in my place since I cannot travel in ES since I still have no big amount to spend for.
but what I wanna see is many countries that will allow their people to have this same experience even if there is no total adoption , just let their people understand what is bitcoin and let it circulate for peoples choice.

This really amaze us how some countries hated bitcoin that much, but here with El Salvador, the government praises a lot when it comes to bitcoin. Well, not to mention the head of the country itself is a bitcoin enthusiast, so expect that bitcoin will be encouraged a lot in all his citizens.

I am also interested to visit El Salvador but probably, when I’m no longer seeing bitcoin as a maximum investment, that when the time comes that I also want to spend bitcoin to satisfy my wants and needs and El Salvador is the key.

What is being seen very often now is that there are things to be able to establish a direct relationship with bitcoin and that a government does not bother, because it is the right country, I understand that the country has not fully adopted bitcoin, there are many that have not They believe in bitcoin and with the increase in the price of bitcoin, what Bukele is now proposing is insurmountable. Furthermore, El Salvador is one of the safest countries there is, because many security systems have been established, and they are also adapting to a system where they coincidentally define good policies to maintain within the country, with respect to children and their safety.

Furthermore, President Bukele is always open to good proposals and is very clear about what he has in mind. If I could find a job in El Salvador I would not hesitate for a minute to go there, a country that adopts Bitcoin is the best.

I have no plans on visiting it anytime soon but it's really interesting to see people and their experience with it. Reading about it with the government making available their own wallet is somewhat surreal that it's happening. If it makes everything easier when using it, why not? It could act like just a hot wallet, you know.

El Salvador is probably the best suitable country if you want to spend your bitcoin freely as many merchants will surely accept bitcoin payment, and yes a lot of bitcoin enthusiasts definitely aim to travel El Salvador having its known as a Bitcoin City.

I have not been to El Salvador but I always heard positive news about bitcoin there. Maybe if given a chance I would also want to experience traveling into El Salvador not just to test how bitcoin adaption went there, but I want also to explore the city of bitcoin as well even just for a week.

This is because once people understood how bitcoin or crypto works, they won't use their government's wallet. Instead they will use their own. I don't know how taxation of crypto works in their country. But if people will be exposed with their crypto dealings owed to using their government's portals, for sure they won't use it or have less likelihood to use it.

Exactly, but is there really a people who will go to El Salvador just to experience the so-called bitcoin as legal tender? Because I haven't seen videos or vlogs about this, yes, I'm aware that bitcoin is being accepted and adopted in this country, but the thing is, do many people there really use bitcoin? Or utilizing the privilege of bitcoin being a legal tender? I hope some people out there who regularly use or are using bitcoin for transactions will write their comments and experiences here.
Many users or people here are hyped about bitcoin being legal in this specific country and want to try the experience. Nothing wrong with that, but the thing is, is it worth it? I mean, you will spend money in order to fly to that country just to try using bitcoin for transactions? Maybe for others, but for me as a person in a country that doesn't treat bitcoin as illegal, I see it as an unnecessary movement.

I remember a discussion we had here in our local before where the question was, would you spend a million dollars for citizenship?

This program aims to attract wealthy crypto and property investors who want to enjoy the benefits of being a citizen of El Salvador, such as visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 150 countries including the EU, the U.K., all Latin America, and most of Eastern Europe.

It's not just a simple financial investment; it's a huge decision that will open new opportunities for you. But it's also very risky; we know that given the volatility of crypto, we can't predict what changes may occur in the future.
If I were one of those wealthy individuals, I still wouldn't choose to join that program. Instead, I would expand my current business to provide jobs for some of our citizens.

But if you have a lot of money or hold Bitcoin and you can afford to travel there, why not, right? Maybe it's okay to just visit and stay for a week just to experience using Bitcoin as a legal tender in that country.

I remember seeing a few videos on youtube where people talked about their visit to El Salvador. The general theme was that most people don't use bitcoin and they don't use the wallet provided by the government, but some hold bitcoin and treat it like an investment, or a piggy bank.

It's not one or the other way round, so people who are enthusiastic about the use of bitcoin in the country are obviously wrong, but people who say there's no use and bitcoin has failed are also wrong. It's an unpopular form of payment, but a popular form of investment. Also, you can pay using lighting in a lot of places. I've read an article by a guy who tested it and he wasn't only on Bitcoin Beach, but paid for a cab and stuff.

You don’t really expect people who would travel all the way to El Salvador or move there just to be able to use their bitcoins as legal tender. It’s a nice thing to say on paper but when you consider the cost of such a move, you realize that it is not so easy. If anyone should consider moving to El Salvador because of their bitcoin friendly government, it should be miners. Bitcoin is not a legal tender in my country, but you can still find businesses that accept bitcoin as payment methods.

In essence, the news we read is El Salvador, one of the countries that has adopted Bitcoin the most, almost the people there use the Chivo Wallet to make it easier for them to carry out transactions, this is based on the policy of the president of El Salvador.

As I once read: El Salvador Adopted Bitcoin as an Official Currency; Salvadorans Mostly Shrugged.

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Talking about the experience of using Bitcoin in El Salvador, honestly I haven't gone and tried it, what's it like doing Bitcoin transactions there.

However, don't worry there is someone experienced in the adventure of using Bitcoin there.
for example, he tells something interesting.

The information I got.

This is to complete the information that needs to be seen: What it’s actually like to use Bitcoin in El Salvador.

It would definitely be an amazing experience if we could feel the sensation of being in a country that fully supports bitcoin, unfortunately we don't have a special board for Salvadorian on this forum so we can't expect direct experiences from native person there.

Unfortunately, what we think from outside is very different in its implications, in Lina Seiche's blog post on Bitcoin Magazin ^[1], she says:

"Fast-forward to today, I can’t use bitcoin as much as I would like. I would’ve loved to pay for my hotel stay in bitcoin, but the hotel couldn’t find its POS device. I’d love to pay my rent in bitcoin, but my landlord thought otherwise. I’d love to pay the customs office—well, I’m not sure I would love to pay them, but if I have to, I would like to do it in bitcoin. That didn’t happen either."

By the way, this discussion has already been discussed in another thread with "Buying/Selling & Using Bitcoin in El Salvador." title ^[2].

[1] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/el-salvador-bitcoin-news/i-moved-to-el-salvador-ask-me-anything
[2] https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5488260

Until now, visiting El Salvador as the only country that makes Bitcoin a legal medium of exchange is still just a dream for me. The very long distance from where I live and the financial limitations I have make it difficult for me to set foot in the country, but I have felt the sensation of paying using Bitcoin at the place I shop that accepts Bitcoin as a means of payment.

I just hope that even though it is very difficult to realize it in my country, like what is currently happening in El Salvador, one day it will be easier for Bitcoin users with the availability of the facility to pay using Bitcoin in my country. This forum is very broad, maybe there are some people here who have visited El Salvador and can share their experiences here.

I have never visited the country and never know how it is there, but from several sources I have read that El Salvador has implemented payments using bitcoin even though in some places it still accepts purchases or payments using fiat currency. For the thrill of purchasing using bitcoin, I once spent several items in an online shop that accepts bitcoin and I'm not that interested in now buying items using bitcoin.

The increase in tourism cannot be separated from the country's policy of utilizing bitcoin so that tourists and investors feel protected when visiting there. El Salvador has shown validity regarding the mindset towards bitcoin and they have managed to reach a much better level of adoption. This country continues to show rapid progress and is perhaps one of the countries that many people are interested in visiting.

If you want to see how paying with Bitcoin in El Salvador works, you can find the experiences of people who have been there and posted it on YT. However, do not live in the belief that you will be able to pay with Bitcoin wherever you want just because it is "legal tender", things are not exactly what they seem.

Younger people who have an entrepreneurial spirit have accepted Bitcoin, while the older ones still prefer to do business with the US dollar, which has been the official currency in that country for more than 20 years anyway. Sometimes it seems to me that some people think that El Salvador is the only place (country) in the world where Bitcoin can be spent in a physical store, but in fact in many countries where Bitcoin is not "legal tender" there may be more people who accept Bitcoin than in El Salvador.

It is always a funny topic, we have hundreds of pages of people praising Salvador, a ton of badmouthing their own country and situation, cheering on how Salvador will attract crypto lovers who will flee the countries that are antagonistic to crypto, how great things are there to spend your crypto, how wonderful everything will be yet...
In all this forum full of tens of thousands of crypto lovers there isn't a single one who has ditched his self-labeled shitty country for Salvador!

Serves as another proof that just babbling all day about crypto is not enough, there is Twitter and the forum where you can clap or say whatever and then there is real life!


And this is the reason all those plans about building a community or stand-alone town only with crypto as a liaison is pure vaporware at this moment.

This question about any forum member from El Salvador has been asked several times and I doubt if we have any member who resides or has visited the nation. We would have had a first-hand account of the Bitcoin situation in the country. Maybe one day we might have a member from the location.

Personal experience will be different from videos because everyone will have a unique experience. El Salvador also has different regions which might also bring diverse exposure for different tourists. I will not also want to visit El Salvador because of its malfunctioning legal system which has led to the incarceration of many innocent people who didn't receive fair trials. Such a trip will also be expensive for me and I don't want to spend my Bitcoin for now because it's my investment.