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Original title: "What is it like for two girls to travel almost half of the country without any cash and only pay with cryptocurrency?"
Original source: Vernacular Blockchain
What is it like for two girls to travel across almost half of the country without any cash and only pay with cryptocurrency?
This time, they challenged themselves to travel from Porto Alegre, Brazil to Florianópolis, all in four days using cryptocurrency.
The following is their journey experience.
01
Crypto payments on the go
Departure
Carol and Kaká’s hometown is Porto Alegre, Brazil. Since the distance between their destination and their hometown is more than 400 kilometers, their first stop in Porto Alegre was at a gas station—the only place that accepted Bitcoin!
After filling up their tanks, their first crypto payment was successfully completed through a "Digital Money" branded crypto POS terminal. The worker at the gas station told them that many people were actually paying with Bitcoin.
Pay with cryptocurrency at a gas station in Porto Alegre
Charging Challenges
In Brazil, as in most countries, highways are tolled. Arriving at the toll booth, Carol and Kaká faced their first real challenge: the booth only accepted cash or checks, not even credit cards, which are the most common payment method in Brazil.
So they talked to the toll booth owner and tried to convince him to let them pay with cryptocurrency, but unfortunately, their negotiation failed this time and they had to pay with fiat currency.
Arrival in Florianopolis
After a long drive, they arrived in Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina state in southern Brazil. The city is famous for its beautiful beaches, but it is also one of the main innovation and technology centers in Brazil, attracting many startup entrepreneurs in the technology field.
02
Crypto Payments for Meals and Accommodations
Pay for food, accommodation with cryptocurrency
Carol and Kaká stayed at Hostel Casa Terra — apparently the only hostel in Florianópolis that accepts cryptocurrencies. The hostel’s owner, Diego, is a crypto enthusiast and accepts payments in major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP).
At Hostel Casa Terra, you can send crypto to the host’s wallet, book surfing lessons, transfers, tours, and more.
Hostel Casa Terra Accepts Cryptocurrency Payments
Lunch
For lunch, they went to a place called Mercadoteca because there were two restaurants that accepted cryptocurrencies, one of which was Savas Armazém. Pedro, who worked behind the counter at Savas Armazém, told them that accepting cryptocurrencies was an innovation because many tech companies were located there.
At the restaurant, they enjoyed lunch with local cryptocurrency enthusiast friends.
Pay with cryptocurrency at Savas Armazém
03
Use crypto to pay for shopping
"Encryption Base"
There is a shopping mall in Florianópolis called Multi Open Shopping. Over 80% of the stores there accept Bitcoin payments! Not only for goods in the stores, you can also use cryptocurrencies to pay for services in the mall, cinemas, food, etc.
Here, they pay in stores using cryptocurrencies via encrypted POS terminals provided by Bancryp.
Pay with Cryptocurrency at Multi Open Shopping Mall
Prepaid Crypto Credit Cards
When they went out for a beer that night, they found that the bar had no crypto POS or crypto wallets available, so they got a prepaid crypto credit card from Alterbank and exchanged their Bitcoin for Fiat to pay.
With this crypto credit card, they can use Bitcoin to pay in street markets and restaurants, even if the store does not have any cryptocurrency POS machines.
04
Visit Crypto Organization
During their trip, Caroline and Kaká also visited an organization that organizes hackathons (dedicated to blockchain technology), lectures, and workshops.
The visit gave them the opportunity to meet other crypto enthusiasts and get an overview of the community development here.
After the trip, on the way back, they made one last payment with cryptocurrency - filling up the car with gas. Galo gas station still accepts cryptocurrency payments through the POS terminal provided by Bancrypto.
05
Conclusion
Florianópolis, Brazil, is a very cryptocurrency-friendly city, but despite this, the majority of merchants do not accept cryptocurrency payments.
In the previous post of Vernacular Blockchain, "The latest evaluation of blockchain by 11 countries and their leaders may be the "barometer" of future global regulation", we have introduced Brazil. Although Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro knows almost nothing about cryptocurrency and claims that "I don't know what Bitcoin is, but I am against it", Brazil has not stopped exploring the application of blockchain technology.
There are actually many countries where Bitcoin can be used for consumption. In addition to Brazil, it is also common for countries such as Japan and Venezuela to use cryptocurrencies. In the previous post of Vernacular Blockchain, "How to Use and Spend Bitcoin: How to Spend, Where to Spend, and What to Buy", it was introduced how to spend cryptocurrency in Japanese shopping malls. Lao Mao, a "veteran" in the blockchain industry, once used Bitcoin to purchase real estate in Tokyo, Japan.
The red ones are the stores that support Bitcoin payment. Source : Coinmap
As cryptocurrencies gradually enter the mainstream, more and more countries and cities will begin to accept cryptocurrency payments in the future.
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