Introducing the #BitcoinWorkers Program
We are happy to announce the #BitcoinWorkers Program! A program for the local population that will begin receiving their salaries in Bitcoin.
Lake Atitlan is growing. Many tourists and ex-pats come here, buy land, and build a home. Can you blame them? It’s gorgeous here!
But there’s a problem: they need to hire gardeners, architects, carpenters, supervisors, and mason workers, and it’s not easy for them to bring large amounts of money into Guatemala since we have a very closed banking system. Bitcoin fixes this!
The solution is to train the #BitcoinWorkers to receive their salaries in Bitcoin and use Bitcoin to either purchase goods around town or cash out to fiat using our local Bitcoin ATM.
The Approach
Over the last 6 years, I’ve given countless workshops, talks, private consultations, and seminars about Bitcoin. I would begin with “What is money?” and then jump into the Bitcoin whitepaper. I would spend time explaining why decentralization is important, briefly touch upon mining and the importance of nodes, and then end with different Bitcoin wallets and applications. Afterward, I would talk with people and notice that they now had more questions than when they started! That’s when I realized that taking a top-down approach is not the most effective way to teach Bitcoin.
I have since changed my approach to bottom-up. I realized that experiencing Bitcoin before understanding Bitcoin is a much better method. Not everyone needs to fully understand how HD wallets work or the benefits of Taproot. In fact, most just need to see that it works. That it’s fast, secure, cheap, and easy.
So that is what we are doing with the #BitcoinWorkers program. This is what we cover:
- Downloading a wallet
- Backing up your seed phrase
- Receiving your first TX (transaction)
- Sending your first TX
- On-chain vs off-chain TX
- How to restore a wallet using a seed phrase
- How to use the local Bitcoin ATM
Our First Batch
We held our first #BitcoinWorkers workshop at The Emporium in San Marcos La Laguna. We jumped right in and they were all surprised by how easy and simple it was to use Muun wallet to send and receive Bitcoin.
One of the things we like about Muun wallet is that it automatically detects their location (Guatemala) and defaults to quetzales, the national currency, as the display currency. This helps because there is no need to convert it from dollars to quetzales, eliminating another possible barrier to entry and extra hassle. It also automatically displays options in the language set on the phone, which is often Spanish.
And we then finished the workshop by showing the #BitcoinWorkers how to use the local Bitcoin ATM to both buy and sell Bitcoin!
The workshop was a complete success! We were able to successfully #OrangePill 7 local Mayan workers. In the near future we will expand this program to teach them strong personal finance principles so they can #HODL and DCA some of their savings (dollar-cost-average) into Bitcoin to change their lives.
Thanks to the growing Bitcoin community, and the employers who have agreed to begin paying their workers with Bitcoin, we continue to make big strides in creating the circular economy at Bitcoin Lake!
UPDATE: #BitcoinWorkers are now able to withdraw from the Bitcoin ATM at 0% fees
Welcome to the revolution:
- Elias — carpenter
- Glendy — student
- Antonio — mason worker
- Juan — mason worker
- Felix — mason worker
- Sebastian — architect
- Fabio — supervisor
Onwards!
#BuyBitcoin #BitcoinLake #Buidl #Guatemala #LakeAtitlan
Follow us on social media
