A Caribbean island has fully accepted Bitcoin as a method of payment for both residents and locals – a first in the world.

Adoption increases in the cryptocurrency industry as one of the Caribbean islands accept crypto as an appropriate method of payment. The island of Bequia will be accepting Bitcoin payments to avoid financial concerns in the region.

According to a report, this island will be the first community to be fully backed and supportive of Bitcoin as an accepted transaction tender. Both residents – over 5000 of them – and visitors will be able to use Bitcoin to pay for goods and services using cryptocurrency.

Property for sale using Bitcoin

The One Bequia, a project headed up by entrepreneur and business mogul Storm Gonsalves, is in the process of developing luxury villas on the island – property that will be available for sale using Bitcoin. As per the report, Gonsalves noted that the acceptance of cryptocurrency is not a ploy, but rather something that is becoming increasingly necessary for residents:

“The adoption of cryptocurrencies is far from being a gimmick. It’s a response to the very real challenges faced by island communities increasingly cut-off from mainstream banking facilities. Residents of small island nations are finding it increasingly difficult to send and receive money internationally because of ‘derisking’ by large international banks. Derisking is when these large institutions remove their intermediary banking services from smaller island-based community banks. This prevents the island-based banks from transacting internationally.”

Crypto the resolution to banking problems for the Caribbean islands?

As it stands, Bequia has only one branch of the Bank of Saint Vincent. The Eastern Caribbean dollar is also accepted for fiat transactions. Cryptocurrency seems to be a solution as the islands in the region appear to be fading out from international commerce. While the solution still requires effort to implement and people on the island might take persuading, the technology-based currency might attract large investment opportunities. Gonsalves offered:

“The Caribbean is known for its laidback island atmosphere. It’s not exactly the place you would expect a groundbreaking property development on global proportions to take place. I wanted to break out of this mould and surprise the world by pioneering a new way of project financing, such as the use of alternative payment methods such as Bitcoin.”