As many of you know Waikiki Beach (Honolulu, Hawaii) has many visitors from around the World seven days a week, in regards to business people, they buy and sell all types of goods, raw materials, food stuffs. They are easy to do business with, more old school style straight to the point. For transactions over $ 5,000 USD wire transfers are the norm, expensive, 2-5 calendar days to complete between Countries. For those of us blessed with long term trusted relationships some smaller transactions in person from time to time might be conducted quietly using different Countries (actual hard cash) fiat that's ok.
We are in the middle of the ocean, we do not have the luxury of trading goods with other Countries only to tell them we will not for the next three minutes discuss payment options what is the price in this currency versus that currency. A few years ago we had a lot of Chinese tourists, and Alipay wad set up in some major retailers here to accept their credit cards linked with WeChat etc.
While the U.S. government stopped that, and as such, your right it became harder and harder for a Chinese tourist to use a credit card to spend money in Waikiki. Then eventually UnionPay has been added here, but not the same, guess what we now have 95% less Chinese tourists here.
But the free market always will win, as such Waikiki is quietly doing it's thing using Bitcoin via Lightning, It's a start, Lightning payments area logical choice a small merchant with only a 100 square foot kiosk can accept a lightning payment on his phone, tablet, POS, computer from anyone from any Country in a few seconds at almost no cost. Business people from Asia and South East Asia are 95% of my day to day dealings in person on WhatsApp, Telegram, LINE. They use many online methods to sell.
As an example these next four days the Honolulu Festival is taking place (primarily only Asian, East Asian will participate a few people from the USA). The action to and from Thailand is fantastic don't take my word for it (check out how many Russian tourists are going, moving there). The good news is we now have more and more Bitcoin ATM's in Honolulu and around the Island of Oahu. Not saying KYC is good or bad to use an ATM, I'm saying the reality of adoption and the actual day to day use of Bitcoin is finally starting to show on our Island.
In Honolulu you can go to any Palama Market and use their ATM's.
https://palamamarket.com/location-services/
90% of the OTHER supermarkets use coinstar ATM's.
This is wonderful to hear! I have friends in Hawaii, and had the amazing opportunity to go there a couple years back after always wanting to go my whole life, and it was the most beautiful experience! And given the culture of Hawaii and how kind people are, my first thought was Bitcoin would flourish here as long as they receive the right knowledge and education. But I also know from my friends that it has been a bit frustrating when it comes to Bitcoin adoption on the island, as historically regulations have been very strict and even the simple buying and selling of bitcoin has been more difficult in Hawaii compared to other states. Super bullish on this though because I feel the people of Hawaii deserve the freedom tech that is Bitcoin!
Thank you Brother for your kind words. I am going to do a video at each location to help the Bitcoin community, we're all in the same boat.
Aloha Ke Akua
Richie