Thread by @OLAASM

I have been back in El Salvador, in so-called "Bitcoin Beach" itself - for two entire weeks - and I have not observed a single Bitcoin transaction.

Not one.

Not at the pupuserias, not at the little stores and mini markets, not in the restaurants or bars and not even at the one fancy place I went.

Maybe they're using it at the fancy hotels? I don't know. I don't go to those places.

Point is: this narrative that Bitcoin transformed the economy and saved "the unbanked" in El Zonte is an absolute lie. I have met one Salvadoran vendor who makes little sandwiches who is an enthusiast, but no others.

And he is only into it because he uses the money as a speculative investment and has done very well since 2019 - making a few hundred dollars (which is a lot when you sell $1 sammies). Not because it revolutionized his daily financial transactions.

Could you use Bitcoin to buy a banana? Or a beer? Or a pack of smokes? Sure. Probably. But I don't see anyone doing it. At all.

What I have seen... A lot this past weekend especially... Are squadrons of soldiers and cops patrolling the beach. So I dress accordingly.

(As I type this, another squad pulled up next to me. Am tempted to try and get a tourist selfie with them in this shirt, but I am also a big baby.)

Like I said ...

I lived here for two years and never saw police or military once. This weekend, with the (presumably pre-Bitcoin conference show-of-force going on nationwide), I have seen soldiers every single day. On this otherwise very quiet beach.

Kinda confirms my thesis that Bitcoin has *nothing to do with improving the lives of ordinary Salvadorans* (no matter what their exhausting propaganda says) and everything to do with Bukele's gamble to finance increased militarization...

El Zonte is their model town. They have used it and Zonteños to promote this narrative that Bitcoin is transforming and bettering ordinary lives and has become the preferred form of exchange here. I absolutely haven't seen it.