{"id":10243,"date":"2022-04-21T13:03:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T13:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/crypto\/from-beer-to-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-a-btc-education-in-roatan\/"},"modified":"2022-04-21T13:03:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T13:03:50","slug":"from-beer-to-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-a-btc-education-in-roatan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/crypto\/from-beer-to-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-a-btc-education-in-roatan\/","title":{"rendered":"From beer to Bitcoin as legal tender: a BTC education in Roat\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Few crypto enthusiasts around the world could point to the remote island of Roat\u00e1n prior to the Bitcoin (BTC) 2022 conference in Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Du\u0161an Matuska was one of them, a Bitcoin educator whose plans to open a Bitcoin education center in a former brewery entangled with the Satoshi Nakamoto-inspired vision of a special economic zone in Honduras called Pr\u00f3spera. Located on Roat\u00e1n, Pr\u00f3spera accepts Bitcoin as a de facto legal tender as of April 2022. <\/p>\n

But, how did a Slovakian Bitcoin miner stumble across one of the few locations worldwide to accept Bitcoin as de facto legal tender? And, what does a brewery have to do with it?<\/p>\n

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In late 2021, Matuska\u2019s Bitcoin mining friends mentioned the Honduran isle of Roatan, explaining their intention to buy a few plots of land on the picture-perfect island. Given the success of neighboring country El Salvador and the Bitcoin Beach Bitcoin adoption story, as well as his personal mission to teach 100 million people about Bitcoin by 2030, Matuska\u2019s curiosity was piqued. <\/p>\n

Matuska flew over from Paraguay, where he was investigating renewable Bitcoin mining operations, and quickly learned Roat\u00e1n is a \u201cnice small island in Honduras\u201d that has \u201cbeautiful views.\u201d It\u2019s like a \u201chidden pearl of the Caribbean.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s small, so \u201cafter two weeks having a holiday there, you start to get bored.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSince our mission is always to educate people about Bitcoin, we began cooking up ideas about a Bitcoin education center in Honduras.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In line with other Bitcoin grassroots projects around the world such as El Salvador and Portland, Oregon,\u00a0while drawing from his own experience educating people about Bitcoin at crypto caf\u00e9s in Eastern Europe, Matuska began scoping out centers for Bitcoin education. <\/p>\n

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The Paralen\u00ed Polis alternative education caf\u00e9 in Prague, Czechia. The space became a Bitcoin education center. Source: Google<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A curious coincidence, Matuska is Slovakian \u2014 Czechs and Slovakians are close and share similar culture and histories \u2014 and Czech is the second-largest expat population on the island after the Americans. What\u2019s more, an old Czech brewery had fallen into disarray. <\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Seven times Bitcoin miners made the world a better place<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The former Czech brewery appeared to be the ideal opportunity to rejuvenate a tired space and convert it into a place where visitors could learn about the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency. \u201cIt looked like a Bitcoin Citadel,\u201d Matuska told Cointelegraph.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The beers to Bitcoin story had begun.<\/p>\n

However, the size and scale of restoring a large and derelict brewery into an education center were daunting. When Matuska and the team \u201cchecked it out, the building was rotten and damaged.\u201d Restoring the relic would cost \u201cmaybe hundreds of thousands of euros to put back to a normal state.\u201d <\/p>\n

In another happy accident, the Pr\u00f3spera business event was taking place on the island, just around the corner. Pr\u00f3spera is a special economic zone in the center of Ro\u00e1tan that hosts its own civil law and regulatory structure. Pr\u00f3spera\u2019s laws take inspiration from the hugely successful Shenzen economic zone in China, as well as Dubai.<\/p>\n

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The Pr\u00f3spera special economic zone. Source: Prospera.hn<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matuska left the brewery to take part in the conference buoyed by conversations he had about Honduras potentially adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. He explained that in Roat\u00e1n in early 2022:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could pay some taxes in Bitcoin; businesses were super open to accepting Bitcoin, or any other currency, because there is a huge amount of freedom in the whole area.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During the conference, a golden opportunity presented itself: Matuska was asked to discuss his work with Bitcoin and education. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking, okay, should I present the potential Honduras Bitcoin Education Center? Like, Is it okay or not? In the end, I decided I should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the presentation about the brewery to Bitcoin project, Erick Brimen, founder and CEO of the Pr\u00f3spera special economic zone, turned to Matuska. \u201cCome with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cErick Brimen took me to a building at the highest viewpoint on Roat\u00e1n in Pristine Bay. It\u2019s an amazing building. Right now, there\u2019s a school but it\u2019s outgrown the building. In June, it\u2019s going to be free. And. it\u2019s going to be where we start building the center.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Forget the derelict brewery, an even better Bitcoin education center had fallen into Matuska\u2019s lap. Moreover, Matuska got the nod from the CEO of the organization that was the driving force for Bitcoin as legal tender in Pr\u00f3spera.<\/p>\n

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Visited Roatan island in Honduras last week to find a place for our future Bitcoin Education Center. We were offered this wonderful building in @Prosperahn<\/a> to start in one of the most #Bitcoin<\/a> friendly jurisdictions pic.twitter.com\/6zrWpXAzJf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dusan Matuska (@dusan_matuska) April 11, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brimen explained to Cointelegraph that the Bitcoin education center in Pr\u00f3spera aligns with their key strategic\u00a0objectives\u00a0of identifying \u201c100 cocreators that will be \u2018hands on\u2019 in activating a string of strategic projects.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cDusan\u2019s project is one of them, he\u2019s co-creating something important to the jurisdiction by installing a Bitcoin education center. Decentralized finance is key and Bitcoin is a much better form of currency than traditional fiat. We want to enable that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Upon seeing the new building and the scale of the project, Matuska\u2019s brain went into overdrive. He needed to talk to his girlfriend, his colleagues, immigration authorities and airlines as they had just \u201ca couple of weeks or months just to set it up and start to put everything together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matuska told Cointelegraph that the Pr\u00f3spera project was keen to do \u201ceverything on Bitcoin.\u201d A deal was struck just weeks before Bitcoin 2022. <\/p>\n

During Samson Mow\u2019s keynote speech at Bitcoin 2022, Bitcoin as a de facto legal tender was announced in Pr\u00f3spera, Honduras and Madeira, Portugal, while a Mexican senator shared ambitious Bitcoin plans for her country.<\/p>\n

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The announcement made during Bitcoin 2022 in Miami. Source: YouTube<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matuska jokes that Bremen almost mentioned the Bitcoin education center during the keynote speech, but the time constraints of just \u201c90 seconds on stage\u201d didn\u2019t quite allow for it.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>Stablecoins are the perfect Trojan horse for Bitcoin, says Tether CTO<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in Honduras, the Bitcoin education center is growing in importance as part of Pr\u00f3spera\u2019s and Brimen\u2019s vision for Bitcoin. Ultimately, Bitcoin should be understood and used correctly.<\/p>\n

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The view from the top of the Bitcoin education center in Pr\u00f3spera. Source: Matuska<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brimen told Cointelegraph that \u201cit is not enough to simply make it legal,\u201d as people should \u201chave the tools available to them as well as the knowledge to use it optimally.\u201d He continued:<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it is considered legal tender, we want to enable people to not just have the right to use it but to use it responsibly.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Related:\u00a0Building businesses in the \u2018spirit of Bitcoin\u2019: The Bitcoin Hostel<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As a result, Matuska is keen for Bitcoiners around the world to visit, reach out and be part of the change occurring in Honduras. <\/p>\n

\u201cPr\u00f3spera actually asked us to be the leaders in terms of onboarding businesses in Honduras, helping them out and setting everything up. For us, it\u2019s a huge leap toward our vision of accelerating Bitcoinization. And, that\u2019s why I just couldn\u2019t say no.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cLecturers from Czechia and Slovakia are flying out to teach,\u201d but the team is still thin on the ground. As Brimen concludes, \u201cto use Bitcoin to the maximum benefit possible,\u201d they are going to need all the help they can get. <\/p>\n

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The Pr\u00f3spera Bitcoin education center. Source: Matuska<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for the former brewery that’s fallen into disrepair, Matuska told Cointelegraph that “maybe” in the future, there will be a Bitcoin-related project taking place there. It’d be a shame to let such a beautiful building go to waste.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n