ZoneBitcoin EditorialWe 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 that he pays for his food, accommodation and other needs in bitcoin whenever possible. Often, he forces it and explains to small businesses how to accept bitcoin ,). He shares his travels on Youtube through his project " Run with Bitcoin" . In reality, travel with bitcoin is not easy as we can see in his videos and perhaps that is what makes his challenge so interesting and so useful.
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 am from India. I had a normal childhood and was born in an Indian family, hence a devout believer and worshiper of gold. I graduated and got a well-paying job in Muscat, the capital of Oman. At 23, I read a lot of books and had just discovered the concept of Couchsurfing. This is how I welcomed a first group of travelers to 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 ultimately turned into 3,5 years of 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 me if I wanted to travel with him. I said yes, immediately. He challenged me: I have to travel but only with 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).
In 3 days, I devoured it. And I accepted the challenge. As I love running, I called the project “Run with bitcoin". The plan was to travel to 40 countries in 400 days using bitcoin. The purpose of the trip was to share through vlogs that there is real adoption of Bitcoin around the world. I also wanted to raise awareness among more people through Bitcoin Meetups. I also wanted to show that there are beautiful things being done in the community.
Today, I have been able to travel to 25 countries and the upcoming plan is to travel across America. I will travel to 15 LATAM countries in 12 months starting in February 2023. (Editor's note: He will, for example, travel to 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 a lot of great memories. There is one memory that I like from when I was in South Africa. One morning, I went for a run and I noticed that I had a hole in my pockets. My GoPro camera fell and the display screen broke. I was very sad, because it was a brand new GoPro that I had just acquired. I continued my day, and in the evening while walking in the streets of Durban, I happened to come across a guy called " Hashmoney " who had recognized me by the T-shirt I was wearing. In fact, I had contacted him 7 months before on Twitter.
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 said it nicely: “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do, you're informed. you read the newspaper, you're misinformed”.). There is a lot of noise, 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 is important to talk about it and share around Bitcoin. A tip would be, how about starting tipping your server with Lighting Bitcoin ? This way you can even already create 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/
In case this interview gave you wings, don't hesitate to like and share. If this has made you want to travel, you can read our guide to find out how to travel with cryptocurrencies or see our video on the subject of travel.
If there are other people you would like us to interview, please let us know by emailing us at info@zonebitcoin.co
