Building Bitcoin Communities From The Ground Up In The Philippines
30.09.2022
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This is an opinion editorial by Dustin Watchman, founder of the bitcoin community educational group Cloud 21 Siargo.
What if we could recreate the elements of a big city that we all love but on a much smaller scale? What would those elements be that we would seek to replicate? For much of history, cities have been places that provide opportunity, hope and connection to others. Cities hoped to bring together the best and the brightest to work hard and build things the world needs. Then, along came El Zonte, better known as Bitcoin Beach. A massive paradigm shift occurred and posed the question: “What if we could provide opportunity, hope, and connection to others by building education and knowledge around bitcoin in smaller communities?” And, just like that, the idea has spread across the globe.
El Zonte was not only the community that inspired President Nayib Bukele to envision the first bitcoin legal tender country, but they have inspired many smaller communities by their vision and success in execution. We can now see bitcoin inspired communities being built from the ground up with Bitcoin Ekasi in South Africa, BTC Beach Camp in Thailand, Bitcoin Lisboa in Portugal, Harlem Bitcoin in New York and many more! The common denominator in all these communities is the bitcoin educators willing to tirelessly dedicate their time to educating their surrounding communities. Because of the lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions of the past few years, people have searched for a purpose and for many this purpose was found by building bitcoin communities in their own backyards. The hope for a better future derived from bitcoin has led many to make positive changes in their own lifestyles and to contribute more in giving back through community growth initiatives.
One such project is known as Cloud 21 Siargao on a small island on the southeastern side of the Philippines. It is a beautiful and up and coming island that for years secretly held a hidden gem of a surf spot named Cloud 9, hence the nod to this epic surf spot with the name Cloud 21 Siargao. In December of 2021, the island was ravaged by the massively destructive Super Typhoon Odette. For the first few months after the destruction, the rebuilding was slow. Supplies were hard to come by and there was debris everywhere. In short, opportunity and hope was near an all time low, and this is where bitcoin usually succeeds. Fast forward to about nine months after the storm and the local communities are buzzing with energy as businesses have reopened and tourism was quickly pouring back to the island. With this onslaught of growth and tourism, the knowledge of bitcoin began to quickly grow alongside it. Cloud 21 Siargao set out to assist local small businesses in learning how they can accept bitcoin as payments to drive further growth in tourism, similar to what El Zonte has done the past few years.
Through Twitter Spaces hosted by Paxful and Global Bitcoin Fest, we were able to collaborate on commonly found issues in regards to bitcoin adoption in Southeast Asia with bitcoiners in these regions . Through these talks, I shaped my approach to further educating about bitcoin to overcome some of these common hurdles. The largest hurdle is probably the gambling mentality that many people have in these regions. It’s sort of an all-or-nothing mentality that they just go all in rather than taking a more moderate approach of slowly incorporating bitcoin into their lives for long term wealth building strategies. Further obstacles to bitcoin adoption here is proper education on what sets bitcoin apart from the other 20,000-plus altcoins, and also just general brand recognition of bitcoin as a whole. These are the main points Cloud 21 Siargao has set out to work on.