An Insight Into Paco De La India’s ‘Run With Bitcoin’ World Tour

Paco De La India is young Indian travelling the world living on Bitcoin only. His mission is to travel 40 countries in 400 days. As of this writing, he is currently in Nairobi, Kenya and I had the rare opportunity of meeting the runner. Kenya is his ninth country on the tour and he has 31 countries to go.

Paco says his journey around the world is inspired by American journalist Nellie Bly who travelled around the world in 72 days 6 hours 11 minutes 14 seconds in 1889 through to 1890. However, the theme of the journey, Run With Bitcoin, is inspired by a book titled “The Bitcoin Standard” by Saifedean Ammous. He says that the book changed his way of thinking and his view of the world.

Run With Bitcoin tour is uniting Bitcoin plebs withing cities, in countries, and across borders as Paco is an avid connector of people and ideas. Since Paco’s journey is set to use only Bitcoin, he is always looking for people and places that accept Bitcoin payments for food, accommodation, transport, and gear.

His journey is a world wide experiment for Bitcoin adoption. He has proven that one can bank their money in Bitcoin and spend it across 9 countries so far. It was amazing watching him purchase airtime for his newly registered SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card using Bitcoin on the lightning network. He is consistently documenting his journey via his YouTube channel.

Paco says his journey is not short of challenges. In some places, he has tried accessing joints that accept Bitcoin to buy food and other items only to find that they are closed or that they no longer accept Bitcoin. In other places, people have tried to swindle him cash as they have this perspective that a Bitcoin tourist is loaded with plenty of cash.

In Kenya, the Bitcoin community was able to assist him with links to P2P escrow apps for switching Bitcoin for Kenya shillings such as Benkiko and Localbitcoins. In addition, Paco realized that every Bitcoin pleb is a walking exchange and they are okay swapping Bitcoin for fiat to help a fellow pleb exercise their freedom to transact.

Run With Bitcoin tour is funded by well wishers on the go. It is fascinating how he manages to move from city to city not knowing where his next meal may come from or where he will lay his head in the evening. Paco largely credits Bitrefill for its donations towards his journey, the global Bitcoin community that generously donates to his tour, and the people he meets that offer him food, accommodation, transport, and connections.

The runner is a different kind of gravy. He doesn’t live in five star hotels nor live a top class kind of lifestyle in his journey. He uses a cracked Android phone, eats budget food, uses bus to travel, practices couchsurfing (Sleeping at a stranger’s house on your travel, usually on a couch, for free or for a small fee), and is sometimes forced to use a motorbike ride-hailing service to move from point to point.

The most impactful part of his journey is how he introduces people to Bitcoin. He will simply ask a random stranger that he met on the first day to download a non-custodial lightning wallet, send them a small amount of Bitcoin, say $5, and if they want to spend that money, he goes ahead and shows them how to convert to fiat via P2P exchanges, direct purchase using Bitrefill, or wallet to wallet via the Blue Wallet. He explains why it is important to keep your wallet keys hidden and offline. He also demonstrates the almost zero transaction fees for sending Bitcoin via the lightning wallet.

I felt that this is a traveler who is planting seeds in each and every person he meets by showing them kindness and an avenue to achieve freedom through Bitcoin. With Bitcoin, you only have to learn once. He opens people’s eyes to the power and ease of use of Bitcoin. Paco once met a deminer (a guy that digs up landmines to make the world a safer place) in Cambodia and donated some Bitcoin to him. The guy would later find Bitcoin to be an effective avenue for receiving support from donors.

Borrowing from the lessons he learned from “The Bitcoin Standard” and “The Fiat Standard” books, Paco feels that people shouldn’t be buying Bitcoin for speculative purposes. He has met a lot of Bitcoin plebs who are largely in Bitcoin for speculative purposes. He is of the opinion that people should buy and HODL (A 2013 typo of hold by GameKyuubi on the Bitcointalk forum which later became the term for holding onto your coins no matter what happens) their Bitcoin.

In regard to crypto adoption, Paco says that India is enjoying strong growth with over a hundred million Bitcoin users though the government has started taxing Bitcoin profits. He says it was very easy to live on Bitcoin only in India. In UAE, he says that crypto adoption is growing rapidly especially considering that the UAE government has recently licensed Binance, the biggest crypto exchange in the world. In Thailand, he says the environment is crypto friendly and that there is 0% crypto tax. The P2P transaction volume is reportedly very high and the growth is strong.

A lot of Hong Kong banks have moved to Singapore. This has put the Singapore government in a stalemate where promotion of Bitcoin would make the banks run away. On the other hand, if the Singapore government promotes banks, then it will kill the booming P2P market for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to Paco De La India.

Qatar is considering adding regulations for Bitcoin especially in preparation of the oncoming football World Cup. Paco adds that Cambodia is a gray area and that nobody has taken a stand in anything. This has allowed the Bitcoin community to grow without interference. Lastly, Sri Lanka is facing an economic crisis and a period of currency devaluation that has led to hyperinflation. This has pushed people to buy more Bitcoin to preserve their store of value.

By the end of his tour in Africa, Paco is looking to connect the African Bitcoin plebs to make it possible for the first Africa Bitcoin conference held by Africans and for the Africans.

Disclosure: I own bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.