Community in Ecuador adopts bitcoin following the example of El Salvador

Is bitcoin (BTC) an alternative to improve the situation of small communities with few resources in Latin America? After Bitcoin Beach, in El Salvador, revealed it as something possible, initiatives that point in this direction have begun to be replicated in the region. Now, they arrive in Ecuador , led by businessman Mauricio Rubio.

The bitcoiner began a matter of about 6 months ago, in mid-2021, an education and community organization project with bitcoin in a rural area located on the slopes of the Antisana volcano in the town of Valencia, more than an hour and a half from Quito , the capital of the South American country.

There are just 40 families that belong to Píntag Amaru, which Rubio describes as "an agroecological peasant community" where "everything they sow they sow without any type of chemicals, they try to defend self-sustainability, reforestation and live at 3,000 meters Tall".

Even before the irruption of bitcoin in their lives, these families were already organized in community, with community jobs and projects in favor of the well-being of all, including a savings fund, which is now in BTC.

But how did this tool reach a community that Rubio describes as "the forgotten ones" on the slopes of a volcano in Ecuador? In a curious way: Rubio has a podcast where he talks about bitcoin and cryptocurrency development. One day, a woman who works for him at home told him that she had heard an episode and her entire community had heard it. "Why don't you come and explain what this bitcoin is about?"

I went to the community, and it is an organized community and they have savings. So, I proposed that we do this saving in bitcoin. I was surprised by the immediate openness of the community and we started with their first wallet and started saving in bitcoin. This was when BTC was at $ 30,000.

With Bitcoin, the key is education: teaching from El Salvador

Rubio has been in bitcoin since 2016, as he commented in exclusive contact with CriptoNoticias. And although he got in badly (he fell into a pyramid scam ), he was investigating and learning about this tool that, in his opinion, “is freedom, it is the possibility that forces will balance out on the planet. Fiat money is not.

Through the media, he learned about Bitcoin Beach, a community project in the beach area of ​​El Zonte, El Salvador. He was interested in what was happening in that place, and even before the Central American country adopted bitcoin as legal tender, he went to see first-hand the experience of El Zonte. The same that, as recognized by President Nayib Bukele, served as inspiration for the creation of the Bitcoin Law.

El Zonte is also one of those forgotten communities. I saw that through bitcoin […] they began to develop social programs to help the community. So my goal is something similar. We are working on bitcoin, we want to educate ourselves more, financially, economically. But above all educationally improve, because in bitcoin the key is education.

Mauricio Rubio, promoter of the community bitcoiner project

In this educational effort they are moving little by little. Among other things, Rubio acknowledges, due to the fact that the project is being promoted by himself only with the people of the community. But even so, what started with just moving the fiat money savings to bitcoin now includes the use of the Lightning network and trade between community members is entirely in bitcoin. They still need fiat once they get out of that little bitcoiner bubble, because in the rest of the country the use of cryptocurrency development is very rare, but already internally there is a certain circularity.

Tourism with bitcoin in Ecuador

Among the advances they have made in this short time, perhaps the most notable is the bitcoin tourism program that has already started. They started with a first experience where three people from Australia came to visit them using bitcoin.

The proposal is that the visitor experiences the community from within. To do this, they already have a site for accommodation. And although, in Rubio's words, "you don't have the comforts of a hotel," the initiative has other attractions.

Through Lightning they pay us and we take care of looking for them at the airport, taking them to the community […] you have a very fresh food made from the hands of our women and harvested by the men of the community. We eat there as a community, you get to know the volcano, you take a tour of Quito and it is a three-day experience.

Mauricio Rubio, Ecuadorian bitcoiner and businessman

With this plan, its promoter told this media, they are able to improve the community's income. Meanwhile, they are building an entire economy based on bitcoin, as El Zonte has already done.

The next step, Rubio said, is already being prepared. They are currently organizing with other small Ecuadorian communities to expand the tourism proposal.

That you get to know Antisana (you pay everything with bitcoin), then you can go to the beach or the east and live with other types of communities as well. The latter is in a development part. Our idea is through bitcoin to help communities improve their savings systems and boost their economies.

Mauricio Rubio, Ecuadorian bitcoiner.

For Rubio, bitcoin is a way to "contribute positively to society and have a significant impact" if its use is able to stop the migration of young people from small communities who go to large cities, in many cases, to live in situations of misery.