Cuba Bitcoin Community Hosts BTC Only Meetup

Cuba Bitcoin hosted the gathering at Bitcoin-friendly bar and restaurant Pazillo. Cuba Bitcoin is a vibrant group of Bitcoin advocates and activists whose discussions on Telegram between anonymous social media accounts that hide people’s identities have yet to make it to the real world.

Cuba’s foray into Bitcoin represents a departure from the centralized economic model that has shaped Cuba’s economic progress for decades. Despite limited internet access, financial constraints and a socialist-style government, the meeting underlined that Cubans are increasingly turning to crypto as a means of financial freedom and an “exit” from the local economy.

Cuba Bitcoin co-founder Forte11 (not his real name) told Cointelegraph:

“The meeting’s mission is to educate Cubans, not convince them of Bitcoin’s potential in Cuba. Everyone has freedom of expression to decide what they want to do. It is primarily education, education and education.”

While Bitcoin gatherings in the Western world may be dominated by middle-aged white men, Cuba’s Bitcoin-only gathering included a wide variety of characters. From small business owners to software developers to teenage students to grandmothers, more than 60 people showed up. Paco de la India, a Bitcoin vlogger and evangelist also attended and gave a talk on Bitcoin adoption around the world.

Although Cuba is technically a centrally planned economy, the state has recently relaxed laws on private company ownership. This arena is the target market for Bitcoin merchant adoption, as combined with the recent crypto regulations passed in Cuba, it is now legal to accept cryptocurrencies for goods and services.

To demonstrate this, the group sold Cuba Bitcoin t-shirts for 1,000 Satoshis ($0.30), so that attendees could learn more about the layer-2 lightning network. The T-shirts were sold out.

Nevertheless, the most important talk of the day revolves around how to get your hands on Bitcoin. In a country where mobile internet penetration remains relatively low and smartphones are not yet ubiquitous, downloading Bitcoin applications or wallets is out of reach for many Cubans.

In addition, well-known exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini are not welcome in Cuba due to the US trade embargo. As a result, Cubans tend to buy Bitcoin the OG way, through peer-to-peer exchange.

Bitcoin Cuba co-founder “C” gave a talk on buying bitcoin peer-to-peer through telegram trading groups. A lightning-fast bot chat on Telegram allows Cubans to buy bitcoin in exchange for Cuban Pesos, or the Cuban MLC, a government-owned dollar-backed stablecoin. Mobile transfers can also make purchases as more and more Cubans gain access to government-operated banking services. Most transactions in the telegram groups range from $0.20 to $50; the average Cuban owns only $40 a month.

Related: The author of ‘The Bitcoin Standard’ becomes economic adviser to El Salvador

A well-known Cuban crypto enthusiast, Erich Garcia Cruz also attended the meeting. He told Cointelegraph:

“Using Bitcoin allows you to be a freedom person. We have a lot of opportunities here if we teach all businesses to use Bitcoin as a payment method; to use Bitcoin as a freedom tool, because that is the way.”

Now more than 10 businesses in Cuba’s capital, Havana, accept Bitcoin for goods and services. Buoyed by the success of the first Cuba Bitcoin gathering, the community plans to host regular gatherings and events in the future.

This interview is part of an upcoming YouTube documentary on Bitcoin adoption in Cuba. Subscribe here.