Even if you're not interested in the cryptocurrency world, you can't escape hearing crypto news every day. This is normal as the topic is of utmost importance for many. The other day I came across an article that surprised me and made me think.
Caribbean Crypto Hotbed: More Than 40 Businesses Accept Bitcoin Cash in Antigua
I knew that Antigua and Barbuda is a small island but that was all, so I had to check it out on Wikipedia to see if I'm right. Basically there are two major islands. Antigua and Barbuda gained full independence on 1 November 1981 from United Kingdom. This is an important detail and shows how young the country is, if I can use this term.
The estimated population of the country in 2018 was 96,286 inhabitants, which is approximately half the population of the city I'm based in. Living in a country of around 19 million inhabitants, it's difficult to imagine a county of the size of Antigua and Barbuda. Yet they are far ahead of most of the countries of the world.
As the title of the article says, 40 businesses accept Bitcoin Cash in Antigua. 80% of GDP comes from tourism, therefore there's no surprise that these 40 businesses are made of hotels, restaurants, shops, rental services and so on. Antigua also has a channel where locals can discuss trades and merchant acceptance.
Further, there’s a web portal called payantigua.com that offers educational information for accepting BCH, an introduction to crypto automated teller machines (ATM), information about the Bitcoin Cash Register App, and how to shop with bitcoin cash and save up to 50% on Amazon by leveraging Purse.io. source
This lets you know how serious they are about crypto. They are also investing in education by holding meetings and helping people transitioning from an old monetary system to a new one, as well as bringing up the new generation teaching them all they have to know about crypto.
At this point I was curious to see who the leaders are and was surprised to learn the president is an 53 year old former banker and businessman, Gaston Alfonso Browne, with an MBA in Finance. The Senate has 17 members, the House of Representatives also has 17 members, which is 34 in total. The city council of my city has 23 members.
They are capitalizing on any form of business as people need to change in order to benefit. They see this as offering what other places don't and will attract more visitors because of it. Those who like exotic places and prefer to pay with cryptocurrency, will like these small islands.
This is just a drop in the ocean you'd say, but it needs to start somewhere and once the system is tested and proven successful, other will follow.
I must confess, I'm not exactly up to date with things as have no intention to spend any yet, so I've been focusing on accumulating different tokens. But now that I'm writing this post, I thought let's see what's the situation in my city.
So there are two ATM's in the city (although the second is not sure), where you can buy and sell Bitcoin. The limit is 2050 EUR per transaction and verification of the document is required on 10 k EUR. You can buy BTC, ETH, LTC, DASH for CHF, EUR, GBP, HUF, RON, USD, and sell BTC, ETH, LTC, DASH for RON, which is the local currency.
There are companies selling online that accept Bitcoin, as well as a few service providers in bigger cities, and some restaurants.
This is a start, at least it's something, more than nothing but far from enough. If I'm comparing my country of 19 million inhabitants to that tiny island, we're nowhere.
Looks like small countries have the advantage of having just a few people making decisions. Antigua and Barbuda is forced to change, to adapt to a new situation if they want to survive. When depending almost entirely on tourism, you have no other choice than to offer more, or something the others don't.
