We had the chance to interview the man known as "Paco de la India" who decided to travel almost exclusively with bitcoin.
He decided to travel the world using only Bitcoin (as much as possible). This means he pays for his food, accommodation, and other necessities with Bitcoin whenever feasible. He often takes the initiative and explains to small businesses how to accept Bitcoin. He shares his travels on YouTube through his project " Run with Bitcoin ." In reality, traveling with Bitcoin isn't easy, as his videos demonstrate, and perhaps that's what makes his challenge so interesting and worthwhile.
He has visited more than 25 countries including Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Qatar, Kenya, Rwanda , Tanzania, etc.
Beyond this challenge, Paco de la India organizes numerous meetings and workshops in remote regions, sharing and spreading the benefits of Bitcoin ever further.
The interview was conducted in English but we have translated the answers into French here for the greatest pleasure of our French-speaking community.
Hello Paco, can you introduce yourself?
Hello, my name is Paco and I'm from India. I had a normal childhood and was born into an Indian family, so I'm a devout believer and a gold worshipper. I graduated and got a well-paid job in Muscat, the capital of Oman. At 23, I was reading a lot of books and had just discovered the concept of Couchsurfing. That's how I hosted my first group of travelers at my home. After 2 years, my boss gave me a 2% pay raise, so I quit my job and decided to take a 6-month sabbatical, which eventually turned into a 3,5-year vacation.
Then, I launched a YouTube channel in January 2020, just before the pandemic hit. In short, since then, I have become passionate about travel :)
You had this (crazy) idea to travel around the world only with bitcoin. How did you come up with the idea?
In August 2021, on a full moon night, I received a call from my friend Pareen, asking if I wanted to travel with him. I said yes immediately. He set me a challenge: I had to travel using only Bitcoin. I had no idea what Bitcoin was, and he asked me to read "The Bitcoin Standard" (Editor's note: the book by Saif Ammous ).
I devoured it in three days. And I accepted the challenge. Since I love running, I called the project "Run with Bitcoin ." The plan was to travel to 40 countries in 400 days using Bitcoin. The goal of the trip was to share, through vlogs , that there's real adoption of Bitcoin worldwide. I also wanted to raise awareness through Bitcoin Meetups. I also wanted to show that there are some great things happening in the community.
Today, I have been able to travel to 25 countries and the upcoming plan is to travel through the Americas. I will travel to 15 LATAM countries in 12 months starting in February 2023. (Editor's note: He will, for example, travel to El Salvador in April 2023).
What was your biggest obstacle in completing this project?
The biggest obstacle I faced was the language barrier. When I was traveling in Africa and as I went to French or Arabic speaking countries, I couldn't make myself understood easily. All my meetups are in English.
Every country in Africa has more than 50-100 languages and some countries in Central and West Africa are also at war, so it becomes a bit difficult, as paranoia can also set in. These are places where I preferred not to talk about Bitcoin because it could be dangerous. The first 200 days, I lived 95-100% on Bitcoin. When I reached Africa it was reduced to 20%. I was able to do Peer-to-peer in 16/18 countries in which I traveled in Africa.
What was your greatest reward/memory?
I have so many great memories. There's one I particularly like from when I was in South Africa. One morning, I went for a run and noticed a hole in my pocket. My GoPro camera had fallen out and the screen had shattered. I was so sad because it was a brand new GoPro I'd just bought. I carried on with my day, and that evening, while walking around Durban, I bumped into a guy called " Hashmoney " who recognized me from the T-shirt I was wearing. It turned out I'd contacted him on Twitter seven months earlier.
We went for coffee and the next day we met for our Bitcoin Meetup. Everything went well. On the 3rd day we met for breakfast and he asked me what the plan was for the day, I just said I was going to walk around town. He then suggested that we go get a new camera instead. Of course I refused flat out. And since he insisted I asked him why he wanted me to have a new camera so badly. He said "Would you fund a war with your own money?" I said no, he said "me neither". He added "you are a bitcoin soldier and we need you on the ground. Good luck". The moral is that there is a great solidarity within the community. We have the same fight. I broke a Gopro but I got a new one in less than 48 hours.
What do you like most about Bitcoin? Freedom? Decentralization? Something else?
Bitcoin gives us the freedom to move money that cannot be manipulated or sanctioned by any government. In 1970, passport and visa were introduced which stopped/restricted the movement of human beings and now in 2020 one cannot even move one's money freely between different countries.
Since we live digitally, it makes sense to have money on the internet and bitcoin is the best form there is. Decentralization is why bitcoin is still going strong and creating it again would be almost impossible. And today we already have CBDC rolling out…
If bitcoin fails, humanity fails. When I started my journey $1 = Rs 73 (Editor's note: "Rs" stands for Indian Rupee) ₹ ), and a year later $1 = Rs 80, a nice devaluation of 10% in one that melts my savings. The strong fluctuation of bitcoin will disappear in the months/years to come, thanks to hodlers. (Editor’s note: The hodlers are those who hold their bitcoin for a long period of time, without selling).
Do you have any advice to give?
The author Mark Twain aptly put it: “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed.” There 's a lot of noise out there; do your own research on Bitcoin.
Please tell your friends, your enemies about Bitcoin but not your parents 😀 , but if every Bitcoiner can distribute the orange pill to at least 1 person, we would have doubled the number of Bitcoiners in the world and then that would double and so on…
It's important to talk about and share information about Bitcoin. One suggestion would be: how about starting to tip your server using Lightning Bitcoin ? This way, you can even start creating a circular economy.
How can we follow you and help you?
It would be an honor to chat and connect with others and share the journey with you as it progresses.
Here are the links to follow the adventures of Paco De la India:
- Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/c/pacodelaindia
- Twitter – www.twitter.com/runwithbitcoin
- Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/runeverycity
- Telegram – https://t.me/runwithbitcoincommunity
- Blog – https://pacodelaindia.substack.com/
If this interview has inspired you, feel free to like and share. If it has sparked your wanderlust, you can read our guide on how to travel with cryptocurrencies or watch our video on the topic of travel.
If there are other people you would like us to interview, please let us know by emailing us at info@zonebitcoin.co
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