Bitcoin Beach Wallet

In the El Zonte village of El Salvador (population 3,000), most residents are unbanked and most businesses are not equipped to take credit cards. But at least half of the people in the coastal community have smartphones, which made it an ideal proving ground for an anonymous donor who wanted to create a parallel economy based on bitcoin. Bitcoin Beach has been going strong since 2019, but the team decided to build an app last year. With the new wallet feature, users can see how much they hold in Bitcoin and U.S. dollars and where they can spend it. In September, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, though the rollout—met by protests—was not as smooth as on Bitcoin Beach.