Bitcoin & The Bahamas (pt.2): The Expansion of A New Frontier
Independence Day looks at where the country’s been — but let’s take some time to look at where it could be going.
As the title kinda points out, this serves as a follow-up to my previous article, highlighting the possibilities of Bitcoin adoption in The Bahamas. If you haven’t read the first article yet (or don’t remember what I talked about there), you should definitely check it out before continuing with this article.
And don’t worry.. this one won’t be as long 😉
Last year, I wrote the first article fleshing out why I think that adopting Bitcoin in The Bahamas has the potential to benefit the island nation’s short- and long-term future.
Fast-forward 1 year to Independence Day 2022 (today), and I’m doubling down on my stance.
“Why?”
Well.. a lot of has changed since that last article: The Bahamas issued an official whitepaper, held it’s first ever crypto conference, and even began to welcome a slew of crypto-focused companies to its shores.
The Bitcoin and crypto space continues to rapidly grow, evolve and change, so let’s take a look at some of the major changes that have happened over the last year and why I feel that The Bahamas is in an even better position for Bitcoin adoption than it was last year.
FTX Sets Up A New Home Base
FTX, one of the world’s premiere crypto exchanges (led by ̶C̶r̶y̶p̶t̶o̶ ̶L̶e̶x̶ ̶L̶u̶t̶h̶o̶r̶ Sam Bankman-Fried), planted a flag on Bahamian shores and set up a headquarters in the nation’s capital.
This new subsidiary, FTX: Digital Markets, came on the heels of the DARE (Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges) Act, a piece of legislation meant to help regulate this new digital assets industry.
Not much has been seen from the Bahamian subsidiary yet (well.. other than their $60M+ HQ and commercial center investment and their $500k+ donation to “Lend A Hand Bahamas” for community center development), but without a doubt, they’re gonna be a huge figure going forward into the country’s growth and development in this space.
The Bahamas Drops Its Whitepaper
As per usual in the crypto space, whitepapers are used to detail the purpose, function and roadmaps of different projects. In a sense, they’re kinda like the blueprints behind the project, detailing the “who”, the “what”, the “where”, the “when”, the “why” and the “how”.
So, in proper form, The Bahamas released it’s official whitepaper, a 9pg document entitled “The Future of Digital Assets in The Bahamas”.
Basically, this doc lays out how the country plans on moving forward as it embraces this future, taking full advantage of the opportunities presented by this new digital assets industry.
The whitepaper covers things like the kinds of rules, regulations and policies that we can expect to see going forward, with the 6 primary themes of the document being:
- openness
- speed
- adaptability
- forethought
- reputation
- Bahamian accessibility
Crypto Bahamas — The First of its Kind
So.. literally 1 week after the release of The Bahamas’ whitepaper, we had the launch of the country’s first ever crypto conference, “Crypto Bahamas”.
The conference, hosted by none other than FTX (..of course) in collaboration with SALT, was a 4-day event held at the Baha Mar resort. Drawing industry leaders and big names in the crypto space from all corners of the globe, the first-time conference held its own in comparison to many of the other established annual events in the space.
If you were to guess a random name from people in the crypto space, chances are they were in attendance.
From crypto developers and government officials, to athletes and artists, the conference touched on a wide enough range of topics for everyone in attendance to find some relevant information for their respective fields.
If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend checking it out — most of the events were livestreamed and the majority of them are still available on YouTube.
Bitcoin Adoption On The Rise
Let’s take a quick step away from The Bahamas for a sec..
In my previous article, I made direct parallels between the Central American country of El Salvador and The Bahamas, highlighting certain demographics like GDP, population, minimum wage and each country’s poverty line.
These comparisons were meant to give some context to establish the possibility of The Bahamas adopting Bitcoin as legal tender and/or working towards increasing its accessibility to the Bahamian people (with El Salvador being the case study/guinea pig for proof of concept).
“So, how’s that whole ‘Bitcoin as legal tender’ thing been going so far in El Salvador, anyway? Crypto markets are tanking and everything I hear/read about El Salvador is calling it a ‘failed experiment’.”
Lol, I love this game.. ok, I’ll bite. You know I love me some good ole fashioned stats and debunking.
Some of the most recent criticisms of El Salvador came from The New York Times in their salaciously titled article, “A Poor Country Made Bitcoin a National Currency. The Bet Isn’t Paying Off.”
Sooo.. let’s gloss through some of their statements/criticisms..
“The government’s bitcoin holdings have lost about 60 percent of their presumed value during the recent market plunge.”
That’s true.. and those holdings were also up ~50% when the markets were high.. so what? It’s meant to be a long-term investment, not a quick flip, and volatility at first is completely expected. There’ll be ups.. there’ll be downs. Besides, there’s no real loss if nothing is sold, so.. meh.
“The use of bitcoin among Salvadorans has collapsed and the country is running out of cash after Mr. Bukele failed to raise fresh funds from cryptocurrency investors.”
It “collapsed”? In less than a year? Really? Jumping the gun aren’t we? Besides, the country’s financial situation was unstable long before the Bitcoin Law, so it’s way too early to blame anything on the Bitcoin Law. So again.. meh.
“The failure of Mr. Bukele’s stated objectives for bitcoin — to bring investment to the country and financial services to the poor.”
That’s strange, seeing how, since enacting the “Bitcoin Law” in their country, President Nayib Bukele and his government have reported over a 30% increase in tourism and over a 10% increase in their GDP. Also, simply granting access to Bitcoin takes nothing away from the citizens, leaving them in no worse position than they were already in. So, say it with me now.. MEH.
I could do this for a while, but I already promised not to make this article too long, so you can read more about it here.
I mean.. if the Bitcoin experiment is such a failure, why are even more countries looking to start adopting Bitcoin as legal tender? The Central African Republic was the second nation to make it legal tender, and numerous other regions are actively looking to follow suit (look up Prospera, Madeira, and Roatan).
Just sayin..
Tying It All Together
I’ve been running on for a while so let’s wrap this up.. I’ll keep it short and sweet.
Crypto companies flocking to the archipelago.. crypto conferences becoming a norm.. industry titans establishing firm connections with local leaders.. in the span of a year, The Bahamas has gone from speculative uncertainty to a regional leader and a definitive player in the future of digital assets.
And amid a great market downturn and widespread FUD, Bitcoin adoption is still steadily increasing, with no signs of slowing down.
So again, I ask… why not try it? What is there to lose if we do? Even if it’s not implemented as legal tender, simply providing easy on- and off-ramps could drastically change the country.
But again.. I’m just a guy on the Internet.. what do I know? 🤷🏾♂️
*Disclaimer: I’m no economist, nor do I claim to be an expert in the country’s economic affairs; these are just the thoughts of a mildly educated observer and should be treated as such. I am not a financial/investment advisor, this article is not financial/investment advice and any information shared here should be personally researched prior to making any financial/investment decisions.*
