Bitcoin Valley, the first bitcoin town in Honduras, was inaugurated in Santa Lucia. Businesses in the area will accept bitcoins for payments. “In Santa Lucia, we are all going to participate in this project… Accepting bitcoins will open us to another market and gain more customers“said a local business owner.
Bitcoin Valley: First bitcoin city in Honduras
Bitcoin Valley, the first bitcoin city of Honduras, was launched in the small Honduran tourist town of Santa Lucia, located 20 minutes from the capital Tegucigalpa.
The initiative was jointly developed by Blockchain Honduras, the Guatemalan cryptocurrency exchange Coincaex, the Technological University of Honduras, Decentral Academy and the municipality of Santa Lucia. Blockchain Honduras announced the launch of Bitcoin Valley on Thursday.
Cesar Andino, owner of the commercial plaza Los Robles in Santa Lucia where several commercial establishments operate, will accept bitcoins in addition to US dollars and Honduran lempiras. He told the publication La Prensa last week that he was expecting to receive a point-of-sale (POS) device that would allow him to accept cryptocurrency, adding:
In Santa Lucia, we are all going to participate in this project… Accepting bitcoin will open us to another market and allow us to gain more customers.
“We need to globalize. We can’t close ourselves to technology and we can’t lag behind when other countries are already doing it“, he added.
Carlos Leonardo Paguada Velasquez, founder of Blockchain Honduras and representative of the Central American Association of Cryptocurrency Users (Acucrip), told the publication a few days before the official launch of Bitcoin Valley:
About 60 companies will start with the Bitcoin Valley project.
He noted that the owners of these companies have received training from Decentral Academy on the use of bitcoin and the technology behind it.
Coincaex provides point-of-sale devices to merchants to enable them to accept BTC. Regarding bitcoin volatility, Paguada explained that Coincaex “assumes all risk.”
For example, he said that if a family buys pupusas in a restaurant in Santa Lucia and pays in bitcoins, the equivalent amount of the purchase in lempiras will be deducted from the family’s bitcoin wallet. Coincaex will receive BTC and transfer the payment in Lempiras to the restaurant. “Business owners will not receive bitcoin. They will receive Coincaex lempiras“, he clarified.
Ruben Carbajal Velazquez, a professor at the Technological University, was quoted by Reuters as saying: “The community of Santa Lucia will be trained in the use and management of cryptocurrencies, implementing them in different businesses in the region and generating crypto-tourism.“