This article is part of El Salvador’s 4-piece series. You can find the story about his previous dispatch, Elzonte.
There was a formidable energy at this year’s Plan B Conference in El Salvador.
The event, held from January 30th to 31st, was historic for many of its 2,500 attendants. It was the first Bitcoin forum in the Central American nation and had a complete dual language agenda that meant both English and Spanish sessions.
For Roman Martinez, the Salvadoran co-founder of Bitcoin Beach, Plan B was a dream come true. This is because ordinary Salvadorans can understand the experiments of Bitcoin in their country and ponder their place within it. “Until now, all Bitcoin conferences were aimed at foreigners,” he told me on the first day in Spanish. “Not everyone knows English. It’s already difficult to learn complex topics in your own language. In other cases, it’s three times more difficult.”
Martínez was involved in organizing the event. He said the expectations would likely be 100-150 Salvadoranians, but more than 1,500 tickets were sold to Spanish speakers. “Never had Salvadors ever made so many faces at the Bitcoin Conference,” he said. “We are at a point where the Salvadorans are realizing that Bitcoin is not going anywhere.
I was able to feel that too.
The English-speaking area of the Sheraton President’s San Salvador Hotel includes OGs including Tether CEO Paolo Aldoino, Samson Moh, Jimmy Song, Blockstream CEO Adam Buck and early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd. , there was a cipher famous on the stage. “We are witnessing the battle between centralized and distributed systems!” Walker America, host of the Bitcoin podcast, cried out at the opening panel of the conference.
However, that aspect of the conference felt somewhat stylistic compared to the Spanish-speaking zone held at the Museum of Arts in El Salvador. All the Salvadorans over there have been plans to support their country’s development, from providing new educational opportunities to mixing Bitcoin and dental care, to discussing the government’s strategy with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). I’ve outlined it. Many of the panel speakers were ignited by the young Salvadoran himself.
“We are in the right place in the world at the right time in history,” says Geraldrinares, co-founder of Bitcoin Berlin (the initiative behind the country’s second Bitcoin circular economy). I told the audience fascinated by. “In El Salvador, it’s all happening here.”
Meetings for Salvadorans
I was hit with the demographic makeup of the Spanish region. Cryptocurrency conferences are well known for being dominated by men. Participants often complain that they have to navigate the man’s ocean. The English-speaking zone was like that – perhaps 90% of men and 10% of women.
The Spanish side was more balanced, with men as men and 40% of women. Most of the attendants wore black and orange Bitcoin T-shirts, but we saw a middle-aged Salvadoran couple dressed in elegant Salvadoran outfits.
I asked Evelyn Remus and Patricia Rosales, two Salvadorans who led the Bitcoin Initiative in Berlin, what they thought about women’s attendance. They didn’t seem to be surprised. “We have a new generation of Salvadors who are not dependent on men,” Rosales, a single mother, told me.
In El Salvador, it is mostly women who manage the finances of their families,” Remus said. “So they come to events like this, to see how they can manage and invest their family money. That’s why we really wanted to meet in Spanish. It’s just one.”
Bitcoin should not be reserved by the country’s elite, but Remus said it should make daily life easier for ordinary Salvadorans. That concern influenced Bitcoin Berlin’s plan of action. “We wanted to push back this notion that Salvadorans are not using Bitcoin. Well, when you go to Berlin, you see working-class people using Bitcoin. ”
Understanding the situation in El Salvador
There was an overall feeling that El Salvador was on the forefront of entering a new phase in the Bitcoin experiment.
Over the past four years, a Central American nation, once known as the world’s murder capital, has rebranded it into a Bitcoin country. President Nayib Bukele gave El Salvador a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reorganize himself and achieve prosperity by locking up the MS-13 and Barrio 18 and putting an end to the gang war. The meeting seemed to have seen that.
Many conversations revolved around the picking up of Bitcoin adoption. For years, despite Bitcoin becoming fiat currency in 2021, they were able to pay only cryptocurrency in Elzonte, a small surfing village also known as Bitcoin Beach. According to a survey by a Central American university, in 2023, 88% of Salvadorans did not use digital coins.
However, there is currently a second Bitcoin circular economy in the town of Berlin, mountains, and other initiatives have grown elsewhere, like Santa Ana, the country’s second largest city. It is reportedly being.
Martínez, Lemus and Linares were all eager to share tips and advice. The secret source of adoption, they said, is to mix Bitcoin initiatives with social work. “If the way to get people to use Bitcoin was to make burgers instead of doing social work, I would make burgers,” Linares told me. “What doesn’t work? People like social things, so that’s what we’re doing.”
The decision to move Stablecoin Giant Tether’s headquarters to El Salvador was also recognized as a major victory. Tether reported $143.7 billion in assets in the last quarter of 2024, including $94.5 billion in Treasury bills. For comparison, El Salvador’s GDP was estimated at $34 billion by the World Bank in 2023.
Tether has become the largest company based in El Salvador (more than that) in El Salvador. Other crypto companies will follow in their footsteps using the domestic highly cryptographic regulatory framework and an increasingly skilled workforce. For Salvadorans, it means more career opportunities, higher pay, and the possibility that the country could become a high-tech hub in itself.
“Not only is El Salvador known for its first implementation of Bitcoin as a fiat currency, but Darvin Otero, CEO of Tianchi Technology, said on stage. “It’s changing the lives of the young people here, and this technology is what’s more. Create the next leader in the movement.”
“We have small territory, but we can dream big,” said Alejandro Muñoz, Salvadra’s lawyer. “We can provide a great service. …A good lawyer attracts great investors and excludes fraudsters. Bitcoin education must be done in the legal industry. Actions have already been taken in that direction. It’s there.”
A bright future for the future
The conference took place just days after the government as part of a recent multi-billion dollar contract with the IMF, retracting Bitcoin’s status as a legal currency. This means that companies are no longer obligated to accept Bitcoin payments. Some members of the Bitcoin community have accused Bukel of being a cave to the IMF, but none of the Salvadorans in Plan B seemed to see it that way. In their view, nothing has changed on a real level, as the majority of companies have not used Bitcoin from the start.
In fact, many people welcomed the deal. “El Salvador has locked in long-term funds to end the necessary reforms,” said Mike Peterson, an American expatriate who lives in Elzonte and co-founder of Bitcoin Beach, recently called X. I’ve posted it. “IMF Loans are on track to ensure that most sovereign wealth funds get the BBB credit ratings needed to invest in the country.”
That’s a big difference between Salvadoran and Bitcoiner. Hardcore Bitcoiners prioritize global adoption. They hope that cryptocurrencies will eventually replace government-issued currencies like the US dollar. For them, El Salvador is the first country to begin hyper-bitcoinization, but certainly not the last.
Salvadorans don’t have the same priorities. For them, Bitcoin is just a tool and a means of end. Their goal is to develop Salvador society.
“The Salvadorans have always been proud to be Salvadoran. But there was a lot of pessimism. We weren’t positive, but not just negative.” Linares told me. “Now people come from every part of the world to hear what we have to say. Bitcoin has a lot to do with it.”
“There are a lot of projects in El Salvador that invests a lot of time and resources and gives little to no in return. This feeling needs to be expanded across the country. We are in a moment of great change. In the air. You can feel it in that.
