The embryo of each Bitcoin Circular Economy is unique.

The purposes of Bitcoin Circular Economies are diverse and, as they grow, the projects develop their own identity: education, P2P, payments, wallets etc. The quests of their protagonists often shape the origin of each, with characteristics and needs that define them. The founders, who decide to pursue this social, technological and economic adventure, define the spirit of the project. The Bitcoin Jungle project was born in the heart of the Costa Rican jungle, where a vibrant community of expatriates and digital nomads from all over the world is trying to develop a more conscious way of living in harmony with nature.

Two men lit the spark that gave birth to Bitcoin Jungle. Over time, others joined the fire, but two were the energies that aligned to start this project. One a developer and serial entrepreneur; the other a journalist, retired teacher and democracy activist. 

Both shared two deeply rooted beliefs in their hearts. First, Costa Rica is the best place in the world to live. Second, Bitcoin is an enlightening technology that can lead humanity to a more peaceful and evolved lifestyle.

Richard Scotford lived in Hong Kong for more than 20 years. He worked as a teacher and freelance reporter for various media outlets, always as a political analyst. Richard witnessed firsthand the peaceful protests that began there in 2014 with the “Umbrella Movement,” which later became a symbol of resistance. Without mincing words, Richard supported Hong Kong’s democratic struggle against the Chinese Communist Party, which imposed an election system where the people could only choose among candidates selected by the party. Through his articles, Richard became part of Hong Kong’s political scene, and when his friends and colleagues began to be imprisoned, he decided it was time to take a new direction in life.

At the time, Richard knew nothing about Bitcoin and admits that he crossed off the list of all the mistakes that cryptocurrency users usually make before coming into Bitcoin.

“We were scammed, we lost money until mid-2018 when we started to understand the differences between Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies.”

The realization about Bitcoin and the profound impact it could have on the world came at a very special time in the lives of Richard and his wife. 

“We were in the middle-class trap, where we had everything we needed. All we could do was have more or better stuff. A better car, a fancier boat, a bigger house or join a better club. I call it a trap because there was nothing extra to own. It was clear that our happiness was not going to change by having more or better things. We wanted to do something radically different and that’s how we ended up in Costa Rica.”

At first, the couple explored the diverse climates and landscapes of the country. They found many similarities with the jungles of Hong Kong, enjoyed the volcanic beaches of the Pacific Ocean as well as those of the Caribbean. It was not easy to impress the new visitors, who knew the Asian beaches by heart. It wasn’t until Christmas 2019 when Richard would find a new meaning to his purpose in Costa Rica.

“We participated in an ayahuasca ceremony in the jungle. Suddenly, three different ideas connected in my mind. On the one hand, I felt a call to dive deep into jungle medicine, which is central to Costa Rican culture. On the other hand, all the ideas I had about Bitcoin connected. At the time, I was precisely falling down the rabbit hole, studying and learning as much as possible.”

“It all connected with conversations about the best way to school our daughter.”

“It all came together: I was a teacher in Hong Kong, so naturally it came up for me to get involved with a local elementary school. Then the idea of building our own secondary school in 2020 would come up.”

Before long, the dream of opening his own school came to life. “I told my wife: ‘We are going to create the first school in Costa Rica that accepts bitcoin. And we’re going to teach their kids and our kids about Bitcoin.’ The only thing I could think of was to send out a tweet to the Bitcoin community that said, ‘We are a school in Costa Rica, we want to accept Bitcoin. How can we do it?’”

Many people responded to Richard’s request for help, including Nicholas Burtey, co-founder of Galoy and the Bitcoin Beach wallet, currently called Blink. Nicholas suggested that the best way to start accepting small payments was through a Bitcoin Lightning wallet and offered to help. He encouraged them to create a fork of their own wallet, based on the open source repository of the Bitcoin Beach wallet.

That was the first moment Richard realized he wasn’t alone. “That’s where things started to take shape. We wanted to develop our own wallet to simplify payments at school, and at the same time also facilitate Bitcoin adoption in Uvita, the town we chose to live in. The problem was that we didn’t have the technical skills needed to fork the Galoy repository and build it.”

The universe manages to cross the paths of people who need each other. Just when Richard was stymied by his lack of technical skills to launch a local version of the wallet tailored to Uvita’s needs, he met Lee Salminen, a software engineer and serial entrepreneur from Boulder, Colorado. Lee is a cheerful, positive person who sees opportunity in every challenge. The combination of his technical skills, his passion for Bitcoin and his purpose in life made him the perfect candidate to start a Bitcoin Circular Economy. Richard and Lee fit together like pieces of a puzzle.”

“Lee is another core founder of Bitcoin Jungle. He was able to bring the project to life. He copied Galoy’s wallet over a weekend, without any support. Even the guys at Galoy couldn’t believe we had done it so fast,” Richard recalls.

“Bitcoin is a tool to change the world, to raise the awareness of humanity.”

Just at that time, the first edition of the Adopting Bitcoin conference was taking place in El Salvador. Richard traveled to the neighboring country, while Lee stayed in Costa Rica working on the wallet. “Going on that trip to El Salvador was eye-opening. No one knew who I was. Just a simple English guy walking down the halls, trying to make friends, saying, ‘Hi, we want to do something like Bitcoin Beach in Costa Rica — can you help us?’”

The Sats Were Already in This Circular Economy

Seen from the outside, Bitcoin Jungle’s approach seemed impossible. Copying the source code of a wallet over a weekend, without technical support from the original developers, was a huge challenge. Then launching an adoption campaign without a significant amount of sats to donate and start the process. 

However, Richard knew that a Bitcoin Circular Economy in Costa Rica had potential for one simple reason. “The sats were already there! I knew Costa Rica was different. There were a lot of people around me who owned bitcoin. It was full of expats. All we needed was to create the payment rails to get them moving. The money was already here, we just needed places to spend it.” Richard doesn’t beat around the bush and gets straight to the point because he feels he has a message to share:

“You have to know your community. Understand and provide the services they need. It’s important to learn from other circular economies, but many times the keys to success are in the differences.”

When Richard returned from El Salvador, Lee already had his wallet working. The excitement within the volcanoes of the Costa Rican jungle was beginning to stir the first tremors.

The Circular Economy Plan: Start Small

From the beginning, the founders of Bitcoin Jungle decided to keep the efforts concentrated in a relatively small area called The Golden Triangle, demarcated by the towns of Dominical, Uvita and Tinamaste. Instead of spreading the efforts throughout the country, they decided to focus on this particular region, characterized by spiritual seekers, surfers and people with a deep connection to nature. 

“Although Bitcoin Jungle is spilling all over Costa Rica, in the beginning we had no plans to go out massively and try to adopt the whole country. It has always been about keeping it small, local, within our personal connections. The area between Dominical, Uvita and Tinamaste has a lot of healers, natural medicine practitioners and alternative people. It has this unique energy that is hard to explain, but easy to feel. It is a very large area, full of foreigners, who receive income from their countries and need to spend it in Costa Rica.”

Govinda wears yoga attire and whispers in a calm voice, which conveys the vibe of much of this community of foreigners who chose Costa Rica as their new home. Govinda is another key member of Bitcoin Jungle: He runs the holistic center Awake, a sustainable hotel with activities related to yoga and meditation.

Awake is also the place where many Bitcoin meetings are held, as well as training sessions on the Bitcoin Jungle wallet. This center is also the location where the Nostrica conference was held in 2023. This unique community has adopted Bitcoin as another tool to seek the elevation of human consciousness and harmony with nature. In pursuit of contributing to this balance, gaining trust within the community was key to integrating this innovative technology into their daily lives.

“It was key to the success of the project to have founders like Lee and Richard,” Govinda explains. “When the project started, there were several cryptocurrency scams going around and they were able to explain in Spanish to the store owners the differences with Bitcoin, as well as the technical aspects of the wallet in very simple terms. They were key to developing confidence in the project and the team of people behind it.”

Being scarce, digital and transparent, bitcoin begins to demonstrate its advantages, solving problems for multiple types of people. It is worth looking at the profile of the main users of Bitcoin Jungle. They face a different problem than the exiled families in El Salvador who send remittances back home.

It is true that both projects coincide in the way they defined their target influence area, seeking to concentrate the amount of Bitcoin payments per store, nurture their user experience and economic revenues, with the aim of maintaining a stable relationship between the number of visitors and the length of the store network. However, the Golden Triangle population had something in common that other Bitcoin Circular Economies did not. As Richard likes to say, 

“Most of the people in the Bitcoin Jungle community have already done the work.”

He refers to the fact that many of the people in Uvita and Dominical already understood how to hold virtual currencies and many even used bitcoin as a store of value. The team just needed to give them a direct payment system to ignite the virtuous circular cycle. Instead of paying with high-fee credit cards and constantly needing to transfer money into the country from abroad, users could simply load their Bitcoin Lightning wallet and buy whatever they needed.

“Our main goal was pretty simple, we were focused on reducing the friction of using bitcoin for people visiting and living in Costa Rica,” Richard expounds the conclusion he came to some time after processing the purpose that had distilled his spiritual journey. All that remained was to design an adoption strategy and encourage Bitcoiner tourism.

Bitcoin Circular Economies are New Social Contracts

Costa Rica is known worldwide for its paradisiacal beaches, misty jungles, exotic animals, volcanoes and surfing. It tends to be a very attractive spot for tourism in the Central American corridor. Add its political stability, its high security standards, its motto “Pura vida” (pure life), as a declaration of respect for nature and the abolition of its army. The result not only caught the attention of tourism within the ecosystem, but also of the community of digital nomads, who began to take it as one of their permanent residencies.

The community continues to expand, with a growing percentage of visitors and families who decide to settle. Most are foreigners from the United States, Canada and Europe, some seeking to escape excessive surveillance and increasing government oppression.

“Many came here looking for a new social contract, one that works for everyone and is not imposed from a top-down approach,” Govinda stresses before pausing, taking a breath, and clarifying the unwritten but community-adopted manifesto. “We believe in freedom, peace and prosperity, which are values that are deeply aligned with Bitcoin. We don’t want to be told what to do. This is why I have high hopes for the rapid growth of the Bitcoin Jungle community.”

However, the first years of these projects, which grow into a Bitcoin Circular Economy, are not easy. Founders often delimit the boundaries. There are multiple ways to get involved in the Bitcoin ecosystem and, given the characteristics of the Costa Rican community, different models were discussed in the early days. Having a large community of tech-savvy expats, with bitcoin available to spend, represents either a temptation or an opportunity — depending on your point of view — to develop a profitable business.

One of the early contributors to the project was interested in pursuing this line, while the other founders wanted to build a nonprofit community endeavor. “There was an interesting situation at the beginning, because one of the early founders tried to turn it into a commercial project and make money from it. All the other founding members were more interested in it remaining a community-driven thing. This led to a very healthy split around 2021 and what is now known globally as Bitcoin Jungle is the nonprofit project that we decided to continue,” Govinda clarifies, inviting reflection with raised eyebrows.

There are multiple Bitcoin businesses around the world that follow conscious efforts of social responsibility. However, there is a reason why Bitcoin Circular Economies are deeply rooted as nonprofit community projects. Govinda converses while touching the air with his hands. The more he shares his thoughts, the closer he comes to the image of a shaman who can observe the inner self of people who cross his path.

“People can sense it. The energy is completely different if there is someone behind it who wants to make profit or if it comes from a sincere and genuine interest in the good of people and humanity. These subtle energies create projects with a very different spirit. We were not doing this for the money.” 

Govinda speaks confidently of ideals. When the goal is to prove that a new social contract is possible, the words do not waver. “We believe in Bitcoin and we believe in Costa Rica. We want it to be a union between technology and nature to raise the level of consciousness. We are ready to dedicate some of our time and energy to make this happen as a gift to our community and the world.”

“Bitcoin aims to change power dynamics of money, to break free from abusive forces that enslave us, and to reclaim our sovereignty to choose freely.”

Nostr in the Bitcoin Jungle

Bitcoin Jungle was able to build its own identity. Another unique feature of this Bitcoin Circular Economy is its link with Nostr, the open source communications protocol that’s ideal for developing decentralized social networks. These platforms can easily integrate with the Bitcoin Lightning Network and implement micro-donations, called “zaps,” for content creators.

Given its unrestricted access design and resistance to censorship, Nostr is ideal for promoting freedom of expression in the face of social control and government censorship. Jack Dorsey, the original founder of Twitter, has been living in Costa Rica for a long time and has been closely following and supporting the growth of Bitcoin Jungle. He is one of the big promoters of Nostr, has funded several projects in the ecosystem and was instrumental in creating the first international conference on this technology.

“Jack was one of the first people to follow our Twitter account, but we had no personal contact. One day, he tweeted that a Nostr conference should be organized in Costa Rica and that he was willing to fund it if the community organized it.”

Pride covers Richard’s face as he describes the backstage of Nostrica, the event they organized together. After all, Richard had experienced first-hand the social control during his years in Hong Kong. “We all loved the idea because decentralized social networks are very much needed today. So we reached out to him and offered our entire infrastructure and business ecosystem to simplify payments for attendees.” The combination of the world’s first Nostr conference with the possibility of powering the Bitcoin Jungle circular economy seemed like a perfect match. Jack Dorsey gave the green light.

The Nostr protocol has multiple philosophical similarities with Bitcoin and, consequently, there is significant overlap between their communities. Govinda, as expected, holds space for individual freedoms alongside its inner peace. “This new communications protocol has the potential to enable social networking with complete freedom of expression — we could build a decentralized Twitter or Facebook! We can talk and share ideas or images without surveillance. It’s cryptographic and decentralized, like Bitcoin.”

Since its creation by anonymous user @fiatjaf in 2020, the Nostr protocol has seen a rapid increase in usage driven primarily by the Bitcoin community. The team insisted to Jack that the event be held in Uvita to leverage and stimulate the Bitcoin circular economy. As it happened, the Nostrica conference was a success. With over 50 speakers and 300 participants, it significantly increased international awareness of Bitcoin Jungle. 

“It really put us on the map as a destination for many Bitcoiners,” Richard recalls. “We already had one of the best user experiences for spending sats and enjoying Bitcoin, but many of them still hadn’t heard of us before the event.” The circular economy that Nostr has its strongest relationship with today is Bitcoin Jungle, and that has had many good consequences. Not only did it increase the endogenous tourism of the ecosystem, the unexpected success of the conference also generated the first economic gain for Bitcoin Jungle.

“Up until this event, everything has been self-funded. The devices we deliver to the stores, the cost to support the users, the training, the node on which the wallet runs, and so on. We don’t charge anyone, not on transactions within the node, everything is completely free,” Richard humbly shares. 

“Going forward, we plan to continue doing festivals every year to further advance our community mission, so everyone is invited to the Freedom Festival in February 2025!”

The Spiritual Connection: Why Bitcoin and Costa Rica Were Made For Each Other

Costa Rica is a very special place. Many people who dream of making a positive contribution to the world, for some reason, are attracted to this country. The connection between these international spiritual seekers and Costa Rica has created a unique community in the world, combining innovation, yoga, nature, ayahuasca and technology. 

In retrospect, it is understandable why this environment became fertile ground for the birth for perhaps the most important Bitcoin Circular Economy in the world. This transcendental aspect is present in the minds and hearts of those who make Bitcoin Jungle. Richard, who used to be a reporter clinging to the truth and transparency of democracy, continues to go through a personal transformation, though without losing his essence. “I would say my main goal is the spiritual elevation of consciousness about Bitcoin. I think Bitcoin is a fundamental part of this new world we are trying to build, that’s why we created Bitcoin Jungle. It’s our contribution to a more conscious and free future for humanity.” 

Those who are deeply connected to Gaia tend to perceive the cyclical nature of all processes in our universe. Human evolution has also been shown to follow recurring patterns. Many Bitcoiners have been pointing out for over a decade that we may be on the verge of a major paradigm shift. This sense of hope is palpable throughout the Bitcoin Jungle community. There is a deep shared belief there that after the inevitable collapse of fiat currencies under the weight of their own debt, there will be a new beginning. 

“There is a large community of international seekers here. They believe in freedom, peace and prosperity. Values that are deeply aligned with Bitcoin’s culture. They understand how money printing and inflation create poverty and inequality. They understand how traditional institutions and governments extract value from working people. All of us believe in the sovereignty of individuals and the power of decentralized communities. This is why Bitcoin and Costa Rica are made for each other.”

Govinda no longer sounds like a shaman; he now speaks like the leader of a movement. He probably has a little bit of each. Either way, both he and Richard are very clear in their motivations. “We’re not just doing this because we love Bitcoin. We’re doing this because we want to change the world. But to do that, it’s important that we also change inwardly. It’s a fusion between our spiritual quest, a new philosophy of life and a technology that facilitates it. There is no way we can sustainably raise human consciousness unless we liberate the way we store and transfer value between us,” Richard concludes.

When people cannot control the soundness and ownership of their money, their vital energy can be abused and manipulated. This also applies to sovereign countries when they see their foreign currency reserves being diluted by the issuers of those fiat currencies. With Bitcoin, individuals and nation-states become truly sovereign entities, with the ability to protect their wealth from potential confiscation.

“Bitcoin protects your energy in a way that no one can mess with,” Govinda enthuses. “Before Bitcoin, we were truly free only in our souls. We have energy sovereignty as spiritual beings, but on a physical level we were completely controlled by the elites, their politicians and their armies. Now Bitcoin has extended our freedom to the physical world — that changes everything! It also enables sovereignty, celebration of life and healing on a global scale.”

“Bitcoin is the liberation of humanity from ancestral abuse.”

A Circular Economy Network

In the case of Bitcoin Jungle, as in all other Bitcoin Circular Economies, their first contact at the beginning of the project was with the friends of Bitcoin Beach. In addition to that first inspiring trip to El Salvador and the opportunity to use their wallet code, both teams have a permanent communication channel to collaborate and share ideas. On the educational side, Bitcoin Jungle has also received support from My First Bitcoin.

“We have a very good relationship with Mike and the Bitcoin Beach team. We are also very grateful to Napoleon from My First Bitcoin,” Richard punctuates his mental list of collaborations. “I myself dictate his materials to the kids here at school. Whenever we meet at any conference we try to organize a dinner between the circular economies. Thankfully, that table is getting bigger and bigger every time. Bitcoin is very powerful.” 

The Bitcoin Circular Economies play a unique role in the ecosystem because they demonstrate on a small scale how global Bitcoin adoption can benefit people and communities with different needs. 

“I’m a big fan of the Bitcoin Ekasi team,” Richard sums up, in a demonstration of the strength that traces the invisible thread. “How a poor village in South Africa has been able to create a Bitcoin Circular Economy that is becoming known around the world.” Richard even dreams of the day when we have conferences totally dedicated to studying these early adopter case studies. “I would love to see a conference totally dedicated to Bitcoin Circular Economies. With projects from all over the world coming together to share their experiences, their stories and their lessons learned.”

What role will a Bitcoin Circular Economy play in the future? Will these early communities be the birth of a new way of organizing society? Will we see an exponential growth of pari passu BCEs with the mass adoption of Bitcoin? If today’s overcrowded cities continue their decline along with fiat governments drowning in debt, is it possible that a decentralized way of living could offer a better quality of life, greater community livelihood and deeper connection with nature? For years, the Bitcoin community has predicted the emergence of luxurious Bitcoin citadels in the future. Can a Bitcoin Circular Economy be a more heterogeneous and inclusive alternative to those citadels? 

“To me, a circular economy is the lifeblood of Bitcoin, even if many bitcoiners haven’t yet realized it. Bitcoin strongholds will be elitist places, designed from the top down and only for a lucky few. The great thing about a Bitcoin circular economy is that we have not been designed out of luxury,” Richard expounds. “We have simply emerged from social, not-for-profit efforts, with the goal of improving the lives of everyone in our communities.”

Gabriel Kurman is a blockchain entrepreneur with more than a decade of corporate finance experience. A co-founder of several projects such as Rootstock, La Bitcoineta and Blockchain4Humanity, he dedicates his life to Bitcoin innovation and education. His first book, Bitcoin Circular Economies, is out this month by Bitcoin Magazine Books.

Bitcoin Jungle can be found on IG, or via www.bitcoinjungle.app and the festival website. Donations are welcome via: www.bitcoinjungle.app/donate

BM Big Reads are weekly, in-depth articles on some current topic relevant to Bitcoin and Bitcoiners. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine. If you have a submission you think fits the model, feel free to reach out at editor(at)bitcoinmagazine.com.

Discover more in Bitcoin Circular Economies

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