Topic: Using Bitcoin in Cancun Mexico (Read 96 times)

That's nice to see and get to hang out with people with the same interest. But as a tourist, I would be careful with who I talk to about in relation of Bitcoin, hardware wallet and all the crypto stuff. I'm just worried of the crimes and violence related to cryptocurrency theft and that's why if I talk to strangers, I make sure that I am not alone and I am with someone that I trust and in a place where can easily get some help if ever something wrong happens.

More time is needed for that (tender, reserves) to even be considered, for sure.
But it's still a welcomed development to teach and talk with people about it. That's very nice of the OP.

Of course I do believe most people hold their coins in centralized exchanges and they bought shitcoins instead of Bitcoin, nothing new. It's really hard to use Bitcoin as it should be, most people not even hold their coins in non custodial wallet, expecting Bitcoin to be used as a currency is almost impossible.

That's the first thing come into my mind, we shouldn't forget Mexican mayor killed the first day he started his job and Mexico is the third highest criminality rate.

I believe that we're too quick to judge. How are we expecting the common people of Mexico to embrace Bitcoin? They're struggling with much more serious issues, their priority isn't cryptocurrencies nor investments. Okay, let's suppose that your taxi driver knew about Bitcoin and actually accepted your payment. What happens now? The majority of Mexico's residents live in poverty, how is he going to cash-out your payment for his daily needs? We need to acknowledge that Bitcoin is not a panacea, it's not a go-to solution for everything in place.

Whether we like it or not, in order for it to be fully functioning, an action similar to El Salvador's is needed. Informing the public, providing basic education and access to wallets that can be used on a daily basis, to conduct basic transactions for your livelihood. That's not going to happen in Mexico, unless they take example from Bukele and deal with gang crimes that are basically running whole cities.

This is the case in a lot of countries including mine.
I saw a video a while ago where they asked a lady on the street which she would choose between 1btc or $10k and she said she'd take the $10k and bitcoin was over $60k at the time. Many people don't know what bitcoin is. Some in my country see it as "the rich man's thing". I mean, there's a misconception that only rich people can afford bitcoin. This is why I laugh when people talk about Bitcoin becoming a global legal tender anytime soon. Some people don't even know what it is, they just hear the name.


It's exactly as it is in the movies. There's nothing you've seen in the movies about cartel violence that hasn't happened in real life. It may not be as frequent as it is in the movies, but it happens.
The amount of violence by organised crime in the last election alone should give you an idea.

Mexico is the country with the most homicides in the world, and 5 of the 10 most dangerous cities in the world are in Mexico, so it is not a question of films, as Agbamoni says, films reflect reality. I have known people who have gone to Mexico and nothing has happened to them and I also know a person who had a gun pulled on him to rob him (he was lucky he wasn't kidnapped or killed before being robbed, which is not uncommon there either).

On the other hand, I don't know why the OP thought he could use bitcoin to pay in Mexico, when in fact it can't be used to pay for services on the street almost anywhere in the world.

Movies are mostly a reflection of reality. Mexico is occupied with men in arms. From cartel to cartels, its either your on one side or another.

However, i believe due to the high rate of illegal activities going on in Mexico it wont be a limitation to anyone who wants to use Bitcoin over there if it is allowed. Just so you know anything can happen even in the beach, we just need to be careful to whom we share some certain things to. Not everyone is what we seem to be.

The most fun part of his story is where most of the persons over there are not really tourist but they make use of Bitcoin. And that true, its more about the education of Bitcoin not the lack of money which has made many persons not to own a fraction.

I am not Mexican but let's be honest, many average people do not own or use bitcoin. Especially those in retail industry. Plenty of reasons why they do not use bitcoin. You can say that maybe they just do not know what bitcoin is or even how to use it. But can you blame them? Many people in my country do not even know how digital money works even though it is in fiat. What else for bitcoin? We can expect the same for a developing country. Another thing is if they are serving customers, they might not offer bitcoin because not many locals use it anyway. These people do not earn a lot and might not be attracted to their funds going to bitcoin first before they have to transfer it to their local money before they can buy food for their family.

I know that lack of education is not an excuse and if they want to progress, they need to catch up. But I also think there is no need to be condescending and assume conclusions about people of a certain region especially if you are not a local. You have not lived in their state of environment. You do not know their daily lives so assuming things like maybe they simply don't like bitcoin is unfair.

I think we should try to be kinder and let people understand bitcoin in a way that is welcoming and not patronizing. Congratulations on the vacation though. Hope you enjoyed and welcome back.

I thought all this gangster stuff about Mexico was all very active in the movie. Is the city really that rough like they make us believe? Just asking... 
 
And even if they are, I think the beach, where there will be too much crowding, will be the least place they will want to operate and oppress an innocent tourist. If there should be concern, it will be who might follow him afterward to a less crowded area.

It's good to see Bitcoiners educating those that are willing to learn about Bitcoin, but I don't think I would have had that courage, considering the fact that I wasn't in my own country, but another's man land entirely.

And back to the post, is it really lack of education or digital illiteracy?.
Yes, I can agree to the fact that the inability to read and write is a problem, but digital illiteracy is even a bigger problem IMO. There is no way all the cab drivers, or hotel workers, or any other person that you might have come across doesn't have that formal background education. Most people don't just get involved because they actually don't know how it works, what it does, how to keep it, how to send, or even how to receive, which we can definitely trace to digital illiteracy (or should I say Bitcoin illiteracy).

Being a digital illiterate is not bad, besides how many people these days knows how to surf through the internet fluently. Someone can be on a social platform, and still not be able to carry out a simple search. So, I can't dispute the fact that lack of education is a problem, but I just feel that digital illiteracy is quite common.

The is the problem, a lack of education. I easily thought since Mexico is neighbors with America, it would be easy for them to get influenced with the Bitcoin adoption going on there.
Having tourists in your country means more money is coming in and it would be a choice location for Bitcoiners who are looking to spend and live on Bitcoin throughout their vacation.

Not only Mexico but in many other countries most people aren't fully aware about Bitcoin and they don't even know how it works. Some scammers try to rug such people online by showing them dreams when it comes to crypto but even those scammers don't use Bitcoin themselves and try to rug those people's other coins instead of Bitcoin.

In areas like Mexico there are of course some people who are aware of Bitcoin and who use it for their dealings, but majority are still unaware of it and that's the reason why they don't use it. Personally, I think Bitcoin will get more attention in all areas when it gets accepted as payment method for app stores like Play Store, App Store etc, and also if online games support payments with Bitcoin then that could also be helpful. However, so far none of those accept Bitcoin based payments and that's why locals don't really know how it works and what it is.

Is it safe down there in the tourist resorts? I mean, of course you hear about the gangs and cartels that are operating there, so I was just thinking that maybe there would be some robbers who might have tried to cause you guys trouble had they seen you all talking about bitcoin.

But I would not be surprised if locals still used it regardless.

I have not been on bitcointalk much of late and I do apologize to those that I owe messages back to.  My mailbox is loaded and I just haven't had the time to dig it.  Much of the reason are personal but also, I needed a vacation like no other.  So I decided to do a little experiment down in Mexico (Cancun SORTA Mexico lol).  

I first tried to pay my cabbie from the airport to the hotel.  I tried to pay at my hotel, at clubs, bars, resteraunts. It's honestly amazing, given the fact that the Peso isn't very strong, the lack of willingness to accept bitcoin.  

My conclusion wasn't that they didn't like bitcoin or anything like that, it was a simple lack of education.  I believe this to still be the #1 reason why more people don't own/support bitcoin.

Have you ever used bitcoin in Mexico? I'm not sure I've met a single person on bitcointalk from Mexico..so would love to hear from any Mexicans who read this, if any do!!


Edit: I did give an impromptu financial "seminar" on the beach yesterday about bitcoin.  It started off explaining to a couple that I was a financial advisor and whom I worked for and then bitcoin came up.  By the end, there was about 10 people (all tourists) asking questions about bitcoin to me. Would you believe that all of them had their coins on Coinbase and many owned mostly shitcoins? smh.  ONE guy had a tangem card.  So i whipped out my wallet and showed him my Tangem card lol.  He said "okay this guy knows what's up, what was that wallet again, Trezor, how do you spell it"...  It was a fun interaction.