On the winter holidays, I decided to visit Chile, a county in South America which has summer instead of winter. The best part of this country that it has penguins (it also was cheaper to flight 14 hours to Chile for a month and travel there than to rent a place in SF for the same dates). So I decided to give a visit to the different breeds of penguins and have stopped in the small city in the North which called La Serena.

I stayed in the La Serena Beach hostel which was really cute.

This is my room. Simple but cozy.

It has a swimming pool with a temperature of water comfortable for humans unlike the ocean in the 200 meters away which can satisfy only penguins.

BBQ place, room to relax, huge kitchen, etc.

But that the best part of it that I pay for this room in bitcoins. Yes, that correct. In the center of little town somewhere the Latin America I can pay for a hostel in bitcoins. The owner of this place is used to be a corporate lawyer for the 10 years but always dreamed of traveling around the world and did it on every possible occasion. He wasn’t really happy on his job and finally decided to do something he truly enjoys and end up for running this place. And he thinks that Bitcoin is cool!

Why is that important?

I have to remind you that Chile has a lot of mines. But they mine copper not cryptocurrencies. The country barely has an IT sector and virtually all technology companies are located in the capital of Chile, which is far away from this province. And yet, little hostel are ready to take the Bitcoins. Despite the market fall.

It is very important because people like Quique (the owner) create the real utility of Bitcoin by using it. Not the typical shiller or hodler who barely even consider to use it for something. For the majority of crypto holders, Bitcoin is just speculation and they would happy to speculate on any other kinds of the asset, regardless of the true value. Decentralized penny stock. But it’s absolutely crucial to understand that without that famous pizza which was bought for 10000 BTC we wouldn’t have the whole blockchain industry. Without real users who actually spend crypto for the goods and services, all speculation won’t matter. I do acknowledge that we need market players to provide liquidity for the crypto but only spending it creates the actual value.

Financial freedom

Everyone who had ever try to pay or get paid in crypto knows the taste of the true freedom. No paperwork, no unfair commissions, nobody can freeze money for verification or whatever. It’s truly your money. Not bankers.

However, Bitcoin is the first implementation of the cryptocurrency. It has lots of downsides and limitations. It took 8 hours to confirm the payment for the hostel. During this 8 hours price could change and the business would lose some money. So it’s always a gamble on the price of bitcoin regardless of whether you would like take it or not.

We yet to see the real reliable e-cash, which Milton Friedman had predicted in his famous interview. Fast, convenient, stable, completely untraceable cash on the internet. But as without 10000 BTC pizza, we wouldn’t see the rise of Bitcoin — without earlier adopters of bitcoin for real business we won’t see a decentralized revolution. Current early adopters are essential for the next generation projects.

So, if you hold your coins, please consider spending it everywhere you can. Spending, not holding will create value via adoption and will helps blockchain to succeed.

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Alex Lebed (https://twitter.com/lebed2045)