I would like to give you an impression of the state of Bitcoin adoption in a little village on the island of Crete in Greece that is representative for the aegean islands.
You find that village at the south coast and it has about two hundred people living here and during the summer there is tourism. It has some little tavernas and accomodation places, people here live on 50% tourism and 50% agriculture. Personally I rented a little house for about 20 years now that I maybe gonna buy during the next real estate crash that is already brewing.
There is one guy with a Taverna and some rooms that accepts btc onchain now since the last bull run 2021. He never studied LN, never published his BTC policy to attract the btc community... nothing. He never has any clients demanding for btc payment. Himself he's a hodler, believing in a growing ecosystem but as they are here: they don't give a f....
That's it so far. In Chania, the capital of this part of the island, the onle BTC ATM disappeared 6 months ago. I asked the shop owner (vaporizers and tobacco): no demand at all....
But: here in the village I know the young people between 20 and 35 years too. Today I talked to 6 of them: 2 bought it on binance in 2021 and still hold it, one is interested, the others don't have enough money: they thought they need to buy 1 whole BTC!
So, there is literally 0 education, a lot of confusion: "It's illegal, isn't it? What happens if it disappears? What about taxes? Lightning? WTF is that?''
But: as inflation is rising fast, anybody is watching and looking for a solution.
In my opinion You need to identify the intellectual 'leaders', explain the problem and help them to get on board by presenting cold storage and purchase solutions. That is what I did today. I gained two of the most intelligent guys I ever met (one has a restaurant the other is a writer, both living here) and we discussed the debasement problem and the fiat fraud. They got it in 5 minutes! To cross the bridge to BTC as the solution was easy. We did a sats transfer with WoS. Later we will discuss P2P orders and cold storage.
My landlord gets it, too. But I think he was a little drunk so we will have a talk tomorrow. But he was open to it, too because 99% of transfers here are cash (if You know what I mean). And the clock for cash is ticking...
I will keep the Sats (and the Raki) floating around here as good as possible.
Giasas
Btw: the foto in my profile was made from my terrace. Crete is paradise!
Great write up! Maybe you should consider posting a little article here about the Taverns. That guy will learn about lightning quickly once tourists show up wanting to pay in btc. Thanks for posting.
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It's a pleasure. The problem is that 80% of the tourists are from our beloved Germany. As I watch them over years I hold any bet that none!! of them would even think of thinking of buying btc. They are the last to join the movement. But the econ situation here is changing rapidly from bad to worse - there is pressure for those who saved some money. And as it's a veeeery conservative region (Sfakia, known as ''little Texas) anybody has guns and cash....
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thank you for your great small write up it was really interesting to read!
But as a german hodler I have to remark that we do exist :) [although it is still an edge thing in the society.] What is interesting, nevertheless, that non-tech millennials are starting to talk about it. Often it is "crypto" but still...
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Please do not take it 'ad personam'. (Du weißt, was ich damit ausdrücken möchte). And thank You for contributing. Maybe You could report us from now and then about what You see... schöne Grüße aus Kreta
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All good, got you.
Yeah, I will gladly give an update here and then on stacker.news about what I see happening here in Germany.
It's a slow process, and we still have a lot of ridiculous "bad for the environment" fud. Especially boomers are still very stubborn in their mindset (I guess this is what you were referring to originally).
I mean, 4 weeks ago or something, I talked to a PM in the tech sector (!) who was talking to another PM about how environmentally unfriendly BTC mining is, and so on. Of course, I could not help but interfere and argue with some numbers why this is just plain wrong. His reply was "Okay, it might be wrong, but I still say it" — while he is smiling in my face. At that point, I was like, "Okay, f*** it, I'm out of here," but yeah, that is mainly the boomer generation here.
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I'm looking forward to your perspective. With you and @Tomk we are getting good German (really EU) information.
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I will try to judge neutrally...
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Dude identifying intellectual leaders is useless! Bitcoin adoption will only happen when we learn to be SOVEREIGN INDIVIDUALS! :-)
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Yes. But here in the villages anybody is 100% sovereign. There is no police, no state authorities. Anything works between the big families. Trust is a currency here
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I had the same experience in Chania. Saw some signs but nobody actually knows how to accept it.
It's weird because it was the collapse and bail-ins that happened with Greece and Cyprus back in 2013 that brought Bitcoin back onto my radar so I was honestly expecting a lot more adoption there.
I guess we just have to keep stacking and wait for the price to pump the next wave of adoption.
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It looks like that. And I think that the EU/ECB-cartel transformed large parts of society into subsidy-dependent dumbsters that literally only watching state transfers like normal base of income. That's my experience with a growing number of so called ''entrepreneurs''. The flight into btc and precious metals (sad, but true) will set in, when welfare system collapse spitting out obvious to more people inflationary currency. It's in the making. Watch Germany falling - we are very near to a tipping point.
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Well, I need to add the conversation with my landlord about BTC this morning. He is 45 years old and has 3 aps and makes some money by selling olive oil and honey. He distrusts BTC by 1000%. BUT: His two adult kids (18 and 21) know what it is and are completely open to it. AND: I explained him the war on cash (which is 100% used to make this type of transaction) - this will be the killer impulse to move them. These guys understand the value of privacy... it's coming, folks!
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It'd be nice having a citadel on one of tge Greek islands
Thanks for sharing
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Yes, it is. In the villages social order and resistance against nonsense protects You even more.
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