The father of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach received an anonymous donation of a cryptocurrency fortune – now the local economy runs on it

The father of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach received an anonymous donation of a cryptocurrency fortune – now the local economy runs on it

47-year-old Michael Peterson fell in love with El Zonte, a Pacific-coast beach in El Salvador, 17 years ago when he visited for a surfing trip. The town grew on him, and he and his family started splitting their time between their home in California and El Salvador, where they supported missionary groups and small development projects through their Evangelical Christian church. That church put him into an unlikely scenario that transformed El Zonte into Bitcoin Beach, and made Peterson its father figure. A June 16 Bloomberg Businessweek article, titled " ," documented how Peterson helped convert El Zonte's payments to cryptocurrency. Now, nearly all of the town's households and four dozen local businesses use Bitcoin. "It's crazy how fast Bitcoin has caught on," Peterson told Bloomberg reporter Ezra Fieser. Peterson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for the story. The concept came about in 2019 when an anonymous Californian offered to donate his Bitcoin fortune to El Zonte to create a local economy run on the cryptocurrency. Peterson was introduced to the donor, who remains unknown, through church. At first, Peterson thought it sounded like a scam, Bloomberg said, but then the thought of transforming El Zonte