The new vacation destination for crypto enthusiasts

[ad_1]

After the success of Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador and Bitcoin Island in the Philippines, the Bitcoin Jungle has just made itself known as a new pin on the map for travelers who love the Bitcoin economy. Visitors and residents can use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for just about anything in this special area in Uvita, Costa Rica.

Bitcoin Jungle Pilot Program

Uvita sits along the southern Pacific coast and exudes the vibe of a surf town (with jungles and mountains for good measure.)

The Bitcoin Jungle region in Costa Rica. Credit: Kev Cordero, Getty.

Visitors can see national parks, attend music festivals, go deep sea fishing, zipline through fabulous lush vistas, take wildlife tours, whale watch and do as many yoga retreats as the time permits. And, they can pay for all these activities, as well as the accommodation and food they need during their stay, with Bitcoin.

The area that has been designated as a pilot project is in a part of southwestern Costa Rica where people from all over the world come to connect with nature.

Uvita, Costa RicaSource.

As travelers, digital nomads, and tourists descend and use a truly global Bitcoin resource to pay for their trip, the pilot program is set to take off. If this proves successful, the Bitcoin economy will move forward across Costa Rica.

Why does Bitcoin make sense for tourists?

Bitcoin is here to stay as a global currency, whether governments like it or not. It is ruled by no one and truly decentralized (having no central entity like a bank to govern it). BTC was the very first cryptocurrency in the world and was launched in 2010.

The cryptocurrency has a limited supply of 21 million Bitcoins in total. This means no one can print more. But it can be lost, so theoretically, as it gets rarer, it could be worth more over time. Currently, one Bitcoin is worth around AU$43,780. But you don’t need to buy a whole bitcoin to use the currency. Just like with dollars and cents, Bitcoin has a smaller unit called Satoshi or Sats for short. People use Sats to pay for everyday items. One Bitcoin has 100,000,000 Sats.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. This means you don’t need a bank to use cryptocurrency, you just need a phone. Transactions are instant most of the time and fees are much lower for suppliers and customers. Everyone wins except banks and other payment networks.

That’s why, as humans increasingly travel the world, it makes sense to use Bitcoin for vacations. You don’t need to change any money before you leave, you just need your phone. It is a real invention without borders. As tourists, we can go and spend a bitcoin bomb on bitcoin island or bitcoin jungle without a bank being in the middle of this transaction.

Benefits for local tour operators

For people like roadside vendors in poorer parts of the world, this makes selling items to tourists much more attractive. Sellers do not lose huge fees when transferring foreign money. In fact, sellers don’t even need a bank account or any type of specialized equipment.

It is this accessibility that means Bitcoin (or any other decentralized cryptocurrency) has the potential to lift the world’s poorest people out of poverty and into the global economy. These vendors can infiltrate simply by downloading a crypto wallet.

Where the pilot program started

Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte, El Salvador was a testing ground for the idea of ​​the Bitcoin economy. The tourist destination has been running its pilot program since 2019, when an anonymous donor gifted a huge sum of Bitcoin to the city with the understanding that it would be used to create a more inclusive economy and lift residents out of poverty.

El Zonte was already a popular surf spot back then. However, the term “Bitcoin Beach” took on new meaning as the word spread. Now it is attracting more tourists than ever who are crypto-curious and want to spend their Bitcoin on real terms. And it has done the town a favor, bringing new revenue to the area.

These days Bitcoin is widely used in El Zonte. In fact, the success had wider implications for the entire country of El Salvador. Bitcoin caught the attention of President Nayib Bukele, who quickly made crypto legal tender.

In fact, the president is such a big fan of bitcoin, and the promise it holds of bringing tourists and cryptocurrency businesses to the small, impoverished nation, that he’s building an entire town around the idea. It is of course called Bitcoin City and has just won an architecture award for its design.

Other bitcoin zones have popped up. In the Philippines, Bitcoin Island has come to life, hoping to attract Australian tourists interested in spending their crypto on a daily basis.

Bitcoin Life in the Jungle

The Bitcoin jungle seems to be attracting a lot of side interest from other pilot regions pushing Bitcoin life.

The organization behind Bitcoin Jungle claims that they can set up any provider with a Bitcoin POS system and wallet, where instant payments will appear.

Perhaps hoping to attract people from other parts of the world to come and live in Costa Rica, they say they can help anyone set up a payment system, even those using e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.

It seems that the irrepressible march towards a global currency is deepening. The suggestion here is… if you can’t beat them, join them.

[ad_2]