A general view of El Zonte beach. El Zonte is a town in La Libertad Department in El Salvador, and is a popular tourist destination that has been described as a "world surfing mecca". Playa El Zonte, known in English as El Zonte Beach and nicknamed Bitcoin Beach, became one of the first locales in El Salvador to accept Bitcoin cryptocurrency as a payment method, and inspired the country's adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender. El Zonte is a town with a population of 3,000 that is visibly poor with dirt roads and a faulty drainage system. El Zonte is located 26 mi (42 km) from San Salvador, the national capital. In Summer 2023, the roads in El Zonte were updated from dirt to brick, as well as an improved drainage system. The local economy is heavily dependent on tourism, particularly surfing. El Zonte attracts tourists from United States, Canada, Europe, and Brazil looking to surf, with surfing classes costing between $10 and $50 an hour. When an anonymous American began sending Bitcoin to nonprofits there, nonprofit workers began an initiative to start a local Bitcoin ecosystem. The beach became one of the first places in El Salvador to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment. President Nayib Bukele cited the town as an inspiration for the law recognizing the cryptocurrency as one of El Salvador's two official currencies, alongside the U.S. Dollar.
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