Has anyone here ever visited El Salvador and tried paying with bitcoin there?

[Text]

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.

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[Assface16678]

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!

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.

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.

[AmoreJaz]

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.

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.

[Maslate]

I am sure that many bitcoin enthusiasts are interested and curious to see the possible future of our world starting from El Salvador.

I personally have not been to El salvador myself and in my country, there’s almost no sign of bitcoin anywhere. From what I heard however is that stalls and other businesses in El Salvador are already using bitcoin as a payment method but not yet 100% of the country is bitcoin-friendly. Still, it’s nice to know that there is a step towards adaptation of bitcoin somewhere in the world.

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.

[crwth]

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.

[danadc]

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.

[Sanitough]

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.

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.

[kotajikikox]

I haven’t but here is an article detailing the experiences of a student who went to ES & tried to live on Bitcoin for 2 months. https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/08/07/two-months-in-el-salvador-the-ground-game-for-bitcoin-adoption/amp/

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.

[franky1]

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

I haven’t but here is an article detailing the experiences of a student who went to ES & tried to live on Bitcoin for 2 months. https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/08/07/two-months-in-el-salvador-the-ground-game-for-bitcoin-adoption/amp/

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)

[reagansimms]

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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.

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.

[Ayers]

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.

[Obari]

I don’t know for sure, but I’ve read some news about people complaining about the bitcoin issue and majority of these complains where made by the petty traders as well as most of the country’s citizens but I think the decision by their president was a concrete one and I guess the president saw the future and I could only imagine how much the country must have made from the recent bill run as I could remember when they were mocked for buying high and then bitcoin kept dipping but now, I think the reverse is the case and they should be smiling to the bank if the need be.

I haven’t been to El Salvador myself, but I think the bitcoin was imposed on them and it will take much more time for its citizens to adapt fully to it but whatever the case might be, they will still adapt.

[cryptoWODL]

I'm quite curious, of the many users on this forum, has anyone ever visited El Salvador and felt the sensation of paying with bitcoin there?
This may be a trivial question but I'm sure many of you are also curious about this.

Or maybe someone intends to go there someday. Just to take a vacation and enjoy the country's friendliness towards bitcoin. And don't worry about crime in El Salvador. because it seems that their president, Nayib Bukele, has made the country much safer from crime during the period he was president. And fortunately he was re-elected as president there. Even though it is not completely free from crime, the crime rate there seems to be decreasing based on news reports spread on the internet.

And yes, I also heard that tourism in the country has increased interest or visitors after adopting bitcoin as a legal means of payment. So I hope there is someone here who has visited there. or at least have the desire to go there. And want to share the story here.

All of us who are connected with cryptocurrency wish that Bitcoin is legal in their country. Maybe Bitcoin is legal in many countries and Bitcoin is illegal in many countries. Countries where Bitcoin is legal can buy and pay for goods from that country with Bitcoin. However, those whose countries have not yet legalized Bitcoin have not been able to get that taste, that is, they could not purchase any product with Bitcoin and pay for it. For which they have a curiosity in mind that they will travel to El Salvador, the first country in the world to legalize Bitcoin, and buy something from there and give Bitcoin as payment.

Also I have a similar curiosity in my mind as Bitcoin is not legal in our country so if I ever have time or opportunity I will travel to El Salvador, a Latin American country. There is even monitoring of various Bitcoin related activities and purchase of any product that will be paid with Bitcoin (only desired). But I would like to thank the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, for making Bitcoin so popular, because of his tireless efforts, his country has become the first Bitcoin legalization country in the world. If there are such modern and articulate leaders like him in different countries of the world, maybe Bitcoin will be legal in those countries too.

[peter0425]

There is no even one from this post that have been in EL Salvador but we all have read so many articles and proofs that this country is the sanctuary of Bitcoin and there are still no other country that offers what El salvador does .

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So the thread seems to be gathering links from internet as no direct testimonial from actual person that have been there.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Well, I do not know or have heard of any body or user of this forum who have traveled to El Salvador for whatever reason, but personally myself, I do have plans of traveling to that country someday in the future, it's not particularly about just experiencing the freedom to use bitcoin without attracting legal implications, but to learn more about their bitcoin payment systems, like other sophisticated bitcoin payment systems they must have developed and are currently using right now that is not available any where else in the world.

Being the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender, I trust that they must have come up with new kind of bitcoin payments systems that is not yet available to other nations where bitcoin is yet to become a legal means of transaction, so, if I am visiting El Salvador, this possibly will be my major reason for going there, including other personal reasons as well, which one of those is, to enjoy, and have a feel of the countries atmosphere and so on.

[FinneysTrueVision]

Bitcoin in El Salvador is mostly popular with tourists who specifically travel there to try and experience real world adoption. Amongst the general population it has not really caught on. If you meet somebody from El Salvador, the subject of Bitcoin will not come up because there is not much interest there. For the merchants who embraced it and are knowledgable in how Bitcoin works, I am sure they are thriving, but overall, adoption is very slow.

[CODE200]

If you only want get experience to use Bitcoin as a currency, you don't have to fly to El Salvador, just find the stores in your country using this maps https://btcmap.org/map and verify it by make some research.

Currently I don't want to use Bitcoin as a currency yet because people still think someone who own Bitcoin is rich, so it's dangerous. Since I also really care with my privacy, I would think twice to do it.

It's a different experience probably if you do it in a country that's legalized bitcoin, you won't be getting the same vibes in Thailand and Indonesia or the Philippines in regards to smoking marijuana (medicinal or recreational) because in Thailand, it's legal there and you're good to use it to some degree but if you do it in Indonesia or the Philippines, that's the same with this one, you don't really feel it if you're alone and the government supports what you're interested in so yeah, maps of stores near you isn't the same experience. I do have the same feels about bitcoin being used as a currency though, although I'm not scared about the risk of crime committed because I use bitcoin, I'm more on the privacy part because the moment that someone knows that I'm invested in bitcoin, I'm definitely going to be pestered by a lot of people because they want to talk nonsense stuff about it, no one wants to learn about bitcoin, they just want to know what you're doing with it, the crimes that ties with bitcoin and other redundant stuff.

[Bobrox]

Nice question for bitcointalk member ever visited El Savador and fell how excited when using bitcoin for payment transaction, currently I don't go there but have planning one day later will try using bitcoin as payment transaction. Actually I don't popular with El Savador what are the best place there and how excited for tourism going there exceptional using bitcoin as legal currency transaction. I will make some research on google and looking what is the best and beautiful place there before visiting El Savador and enjoying not only using bitcoin as payment transaction but want to enjoy with beautiful place.

El Savador become more popular country after accepting bitcoin as legal payment transaction, I don't how excited many tourism coming there for enjoying the beautiful place or want to feel excited using bitcoin as payment currency only.

[ultrloa]

I haven’t but here is an article detailing the experiences of a student who went to ES & tried to live on Bitcoin for 2 months. https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/08/07/two-months-in-el-salvador-the-ground-game-for-bitcoin-adoption/amp/

Lots of videos uploaded by vloggers about how they used or pay bitcoin on EL Salvador https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP7EJT1cjAI

You can also see the experience of the merchants in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HIbRlhJfSw

We can see that there's positive and negative results happened but hopefully their government will help their citizens to get proper education about bitcoin since they really know to handle well their bitcoin since usually they got afraid for this because they always get afraid when bitcoin price drop they lose their money.

[Cryptomultiplier]

There is no even one from this post that have been in EL Salvador but we all have read so many articles and proofs that this country is the sanctuary of Bitcoin and there are still no other country that offers what El salvador does .

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So the thread seems to be gathering links from internet as no direct testimonial from actual person that have been there.

Should there be a point in visiting a country that uses Bitcoin when I can do same in my country?
El Salvador serves as a great example for countries who consider adopting Bitcoin fully and am sure it would be as beautiful and a great destination of sort.
If and when I do visit there, I would have grown my BTC investments and have a steady expense portfolio dedicated to just the trip and cruise.