El Zonte is a town in La Libertad Department in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. A popular tourist destination, El Zonte has been described as a "world

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

mecca". Playa El Zonte ( English: ''El Zonte Beach''; nicknamed Bitcoin Beach) became one of the first locales in El Salvador to accept

Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

as a payment method, and inspired the country's adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender.

Town profile

El Zonte is a town with a population of 3,000. According to ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

'' in 2021, "El Zonte is visibly poor, with dirt roads and a faulty drainage system.". El Zonte is located from

San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...

, the national capital. In Summer 2023, the roads in El Zonte were updated from dirt to brick, as well as an improved drainage system. The local economy is heavily dependent on tourism, particularly

. According to ''

France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb ...

'', El Zonte attracts tourists from

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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, and

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looking to surf, with surfing classes costing between $10 and $50 an hour. In El Zonte, a foreign volunteer-run program called the "Medusas" provide English and art education as well as low-cost surfing instruction.

Skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

is a popular activity among young residents of El Zonte, and a local community

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairw ...

was established in the town.

History

When an anonymous American began sending

to nonprofits there, nonprofit workers began an initiative to start a local Bitcoin ecosystem. The beach became one of the first places in El Salvador to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment: President Nayib Bukele cited the town as an inspiration for the

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

recognizing the

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

as one of El Salvador's two official currencies, alongside the U.S. Dollar.

In popular culture

In 2022, the American network

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

premiered an episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel that reported on the development of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Zonte and how it has impacted the community.

References

External links

Bitcoin Beach
{{Bitcoin Beaches of North America Landforms of El Salvador Tourist attractions in El Salvador Water in El Salvador Populated places in El Salvador