Sovereign communities in Latin America

The original bitcoin circular economy, started in El Zonte in 2019 with an anonymous donation and a mandate to build a local Lightning economy. It onboarded shops, fishermen, and families years before El Salvador's legal tender law, which it directly inspired. The project now centers on education and community development; tourism, not necessity, drives much of today's spending.

A circular economy in Berlín, a 20,000-person coffee town in El Salvador's mountains, running since 2023. Around 150 to 164 merchants accept bitcoin — roughly a quarter of local businesses — and unlike El Zonte the users are overwhelmingly Salvadoran locals, not tourists. Built door-to-door by a small team; arguably the strongest evidence yet that everyday bitcoin commerce can work.

A community-run Lightning economy along Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast, centered on Uvita and Dominical since 2021. More than 200 merchants accept bitcoin through its open-source wallet, and a Bull Bitcoin partnership added direct exchange to local SINPE bank rails. Adoption skews toward expats and tourism businesses more than everyday Costa Rican spending.

A circular economy project around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, based in Panajachel since 2022. Roughly 80 businesses accept bitcoin, serving both local Mayan communities and the lake's steady tourist flow; side experiments have included mining powered by waste cooking oil. Smaller and quieter than its Salvadoran inspiration, with progress tied to a handful of persistent volunteers.

A network city of coliving neighborhoods founded in 2021, connecting 20-plus independently operated properties across the US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia under shared culture and tooling. It began as a DAO; the broader neighborhood-organizing work has since spun out into the Neighborhood Village Project. Useful infrastructure for nomads, though smaller than its early hype suggested.

A San Salvador-based education nonprofit founded in 2021, creator of the open-source Bitcoin Diploma that has been translated worldwide and taught face-to-face to over 27,000 students. Its formal partnership with El Salvador's government has ended, and the state's National Bitcoin Office now runs its own Diploma 2.0 in public schools. The independent, donation-funded education work continues.

A circular economy founded in 2021 in Jericoacoara, Brazil, by Fernando Motolese, known for onboarding schools and kids with NFC payment cards on a shoestring budget. In late 2025 the founder suspended operations and closed the community center in protest of Bitcoin Core's data-storage changes; as of mid-2026 its sites remain up mainly as a historical record.

A private charter city on Roatán operating under Honduras's ZEDE law since 2020, with its own regulatory framework, bitcoin accepted as legal tender internally, and a growing medical-tourism niche. Honduras repealed the ZEDE law in 2022; Próspera is pursuing roughly $11 billion in ICSID arbitration while continuing to build. Its entire legal foundation remains contested.