Worldcoin Launches in Guatemala, Poland and Malaysia Introducing Face Auth

September 28, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Bitcoin adoption in Mexico boosted by Lightning partnership with retail giant

June 21, 2023 Coin Telegraph

“Imagine if Best Buy, Bank of America, Fox News and an NFL team were all owned by the same individual. All of them will have lightning capabilities in the future,” Jose Lemus, CEO of Ibex Mercado, told Cointelegraph.

The world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) conference, Bitcoin 2023, in Miami, Florida, passed without major fanfare this year. Past conferences announced nation-state adoption, massive crypto integrations in the United States, and islands and territories worldwide embracing Bitcoin.

Nonetheless, at Bitcoin 2023, one partnership with a potentially significant impact on the world’s 15th-largest economy flew under the radar.

We're thrilled to announce our partnership with Grupo Salinas. Looking forward to seeing the positive impact this collaboration will have.⚡️ #Bitcoin #bitcoiconference2023 https://t.co/rkAjWnmKsK pic.twitter.com/yWIWc6751B
— IBEX ⚡️ (@PoweredbyIBEX) May 18, 2023

José Lemus, the CEO of Ibex Mercado, closed out the Bitcoin 2023 Industry Day. He announced a partnership with Grupo Salinas, one of Mexico’s largest corporate conglomerates. In brief, the collaboration would allow millions of Mexicans to pay their internet bills at popular telecoms company Total Play using the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Crucially, the Salinas Group owns tens of businesses across Mexico. Its billionaire founder, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, is the third-richest person in the country and a well-known Bitcoin maximalist.

Not only does the Bitcoin Lightning payments integration already deliver Bitcoin adoption to millions of Mexicans, but as Lemus explained to Cointelegraph, Total Play is one small retailer that’s part of the vast Salinas conglomerate:

“Imagine if Best Buy, Bank of America, Fox News and an NFL team were all owned by the same individual. All of them will have Lightning capabilities in the future.”

Lemus explained it’s just the “tip of the iceberg of what will go on in Mexico,” as more Bitcoin and Lightning integrations, and on and off-ramps attract more Bitcoin business. Speaking via video link, Lemus explained that fiat and Bitcoin can interact more freely in Mexico:

“Let’s say you have a wallet and you want to make Mexican pesos available in Mexico, or you have an exchange and you want to make the balances for your customers in Mexico. You can do that through CoinPro or through Grupo Salinas.”

The partnership is the beginning of Lightning functionality across Grupo Salinas. There will be a Lightning app “for employees, a super app for soccer teams to do something similar to what we have with the Perth Heat where we drive fan engagement with innovative ways.”

The Australian baseball team, Perth Heat, adopted a Bitcoin standard in 2021, with players earning salaries in Bitcoin and “Sats4Stats”, where players receive Bitcoin for hitting home runs. Plus, fan engagement activities use the Lightning Network. For example, during baseball games, “When a player steals a base, a QR flashes on screen and the first people that scan it get satoshis,” Lemus explained.

*Players can send satoshis to players directly during Perth Heat baseball games. Source: PerthHeat.com.au*

In the first year of operation, the Perth Heat players earned an extra 1% through Bitcoin, Lemus said on stage at Bitcoin 2023. “It’s still early” for such a technology, but an extra 1% is already encouraging.

Grupo Salinas owns the Mexican football clubs, Mazatlán and Club Puebla. Fans could soon get their hands on free money — in the form of Bitcoin or satoshis — for simply scanning the QR code on the stadium screen when a player scores, just like with Perth Heat.

*A snapshot of some of the Grupo Salinas brands spanning retail, banking, sports and advertising. Source: GrupoSalinas.com*

Ibex Mercado understands the massive opportunity for financial inclusion offered by the Lightning Network. Lemus founded Ibex in neighboring Guatemala, and the company delivered the Lightning Network integration for El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet — which effectively banked millions of Salvadorans — two years prior.

Lemus explained that more Bitcoin adoption could improve the lives of unbanked and underserved populations. Moreover, financial inclusion goes beyond banking the unbanked:

“It’s the ability to raise funds for your company. It’s the ability to open yourself to a broader market. And that is what, for me, true financial inclusion is.”

Finally, Lemus highlighted the potential of Mexico as a Bitcoin destination: “I think that Mexico is going to be the place where this is going to take off.“ More broadly, 2022 was a promising year for Bitcoin and crypto adoption in the country, from crypto remittance companies establishing in Mexico to crypto exchange expansion.

Does this mean that crypto enthusiasts may soon be able to live on Bitcoin like they can in El Salvador? Lemus replied:

“Let’s say you conduct most of your life in Bitcoin, I think 18 months is a reasonable target where you can do most of your life. But obviously, things like taxes and maybe rent will not run on Bitcoin yet.”

Similarly, the partnership with Grupo Salinas took 18 months of work and preparation, Lemus said. More partnerships and projects are on the horizon in Mexico, although it’s too early to share details, Lemus concluded.

Magazine: Peter McCormack’s Real Bedford Football Club puts Bitcoin on the map

Bitcoin adoption of Guatemalan merchants grows one BTC tattoo at a time

January 30, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Art

The Central American country of Guatemala is getting inked on the path to greater Bitcoin merchant adoption.

Bitcoin (BTC) use in Guatemala is on the up. The Latin American country that borders El Salvador boasts Guatemalan-grown Bitcoin companies such as Ibex and Osmo, several Bitcoin Beach-inspired projects including Bitcoin Lake, and now, free BTC tattoos.

A Bitcoin merchant adoption competition hosted by Osmo Wallet in 2022, a Guatemala-based Bitcoin company, led to the free ink promotion. Cointelegraph spoke to Piero Coen, the co-founder of Osmo Wallet, and Steven Marroquin, the owner of Soul’s Anchor, a tattoo parlor in Guatemala City.

Free tattoo ideas from Soul's Anchor. Source: Coen

Coen explained how it that the mission is to get more people to use Bitcoin:

“So we ran a competition amongst merchants to see who would process the most volume in Bitcoin sales in 2022. Turns out Soul's Anchor Tattoo Shop in Guatemala City, who started accepting Bitcoin payments using Osmobusiness back in October, won the competition.”

Merchant adoption is nothing new in Guatemala. So they thought about how to make things more exciting. They decided that offering free Bitcoin tattoos to customers might be a Bitcoin-friendly marketing tactic. “It was a huge hit. All the slots filled up in hours!” He explained.

The free Bitcoin tattoos get the thumbs up from Cointelegraph's Bman. Source: Coen

Guatemalan Bitcoin believers and Bitcoin tourists streamed into the store to ink their favorite Bitcoin meme, quote or art onto their skin. Steven Marroquin, Souls Anchor owner, explained, “It’s been around seven months since we officially accepted Bitcoin and have two to three customers per month.” It's a small amount, but payments are on the rise, he reports:

“The first months we had only one customer, and even though it’s still a few percentages of our income, probably 1%, we are happy have started accepting it.”

Coen explains that “It’s still super early” for Bitcoin adoption in Guatemala, and “Most business owners are still unsure about accepting and holding onto Bitcoin because of the volatility.”

By allowing instant Bitcoin to fiat currency conversion at the payment merchant terminal, merchants can sidestep the volatility. Instant BTC to fiat conversion is a growing trend in the Bitcoin payments space, as companies such as Strike–headed up by Jack Mallers–and CoinCorner offer similar solutions. Bitcoin as a means of exchange is burgeoning and Coen is optimistic about its future:

“Bitcoin adoption in Guatemala City is on the rise, every day we see more and more people are getting into it, learning about it, and stacking up on Sats."

Rikki, one-half of the Bitcoin Explorers couple who spent 45 days living off Bitcoin only in El Salvador, recently traveled around Guatemala, paying his way in Bitcoin. Rikki told Cointelegraph the level of “adoption of Bitcoin in Guatemala has really surprised us,” referring to himself and his partner Laura.

“Locals are curious, they want to learn about Bitcoin and see it as an important alternative to credit cards whose fees are very high in the country.”

Indeed, by accepting Bitcoin, business can save over 50% on transaction costs when compared to accepting credit card payments, “So the incentives are there,” Coen explained.

Rikki added that “orange-pilling” efforts by Guatemalan-based companies, such as Ibex and Osmo, “are pushing to raise awareness of the technology.” The couple also visited the Bitcoin Lake, a Bitcoin-beach-style community project, where a Guatemalan mayor is mining Bitcoin in his office, before getting inked themselves as part of the promotion.

“We found the tattoo idea very cute. It is a company that wants to reward its shopkeeper who has received the most Bitcoin transactions by promoting its business.”

Bitcoin and crypto tattoos are increasingly common, as crypto advocates choose to brand themselves with their coin of choice. However, crypto tattoos can sometimes go very, very wrong.

Bitcoin tattoos belonging to Rikki (top) and Laura (bottom). Source: Rikki

Take Mike Novogratz, the Galaxy Digital founder, as an example. His Terra (LUNA) tattoo is a constant reminder that investing requires humility. The LUNA token crashed by over 99% in price in 2021. Fortunately, the Bitcoin tattoos are safe, for now, thanks to a January price pump.

As Bitcoin debuts in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala study CBDCs

September 9, 2021 Coin Telegraph

CBDC

Honduras and Guatemala are studying central bank digital currencies and the value they could bring to their respective monetary systems.

Two Central American countries, Honduras and Guatemala, are taking a cue from their common neighbor’s adoption of Bitcoin (BTC), but they are taking a very different road.

Instead of embracing an existing cryptocurrency as a legal tender, like what El Salvador did, the central banks of Honduras and Guatemala are currently studying central bank digital currencies or CBDCs.

Following the approval of the board of directors, the Central Bank of Honduras kicked off a study “to determine the feasibility of conducting a pilot test issuing its own digital money or a central bank digital currency,” according to Honduras central bank president Wilfredo Cerrato’s remarks at a forum event in Tegucigalpa.

He said that the Central American Monetary Council or Consejo Monetario Centroamericano, the highest monetary authority in the region, should address the adoption of digital currencies.

In the northwestern corner of the region, the CBDC even has a name. Banco de Guatemala vice president Jose Alfredo Blanco said the digital currency — iQuetzal — would be named after the national bird of Guatemala, just like its fiat currency.

However, the central banks are not eager to integrate a new form of currency into their existing financial system without preparation. Blanco stressed that the committee to work on a central bank digital currency had been formed only six months ago, and it will take a long time to complete the investigation phase.

Central bank digital currencies have been gaining traction and interest in countries around the world. Nigeria's CBDC, the eNaira, is set to launch on Oct. 1, on the country’s 61st Independence Day. The Ukrainian government is also moving forward with its CBDC plans by giving the National Bank of Ukraine authority to issue a digital currency.

Guatemala

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