A YouTuber set out on a journey in September to see if he could survive solely on Bitcoin as a means of payment while traveling through 40 different countries.
Speaking to Cointelegraph on Monday, YouTuber Paco De La India, or “Paco from India,” said that although the spread of the omicron had somewhat altered his original travel plans, he was still surprised by the number of people who had accepted Bitcoin (BTC) in the countries where cryptocurrencies were in a legal or regulatory gray area. Starting your journey in the Indian city of Bengaluru, Paco sold his belongings in September 2021 and relied primarily on BTC donations to fund his trip, which has, so far, taken him through India, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and Cambodia.
The YouTuber, who said that he preferred to use non-custodial wallets and Lightning for BTC transactions, She was originally planning to visit 40 countries for 10 days each, but COVID restrictions have altered her itinerary a bit. Paco is dodging mandatory quarantines, the requirements of many countries for tourists to stay within their borders for at least 14 days, and the added costs of polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests.
According to Paco, dPeople who got COVID tested in India to travel to the UAE accepted BTC instead of fiat rupees without hesitation. Additionally, he was able to negotiate with test takers in Thailand for a PCR test to travel to Cambodia. The YouTuber attributed part of the reason for the acceptance of crypto payments to officials being more concerned with verifying vaccination certificates than COVID tests.
“At the end of the day, it’s a piece of paper,” Paco said. “It’s just a piece of paper that can’t be verified in any way. The only thing they check right now is the vaccine, by the QR code.”
Although many countries have announced plans to verify the authenticity of COVID-19 test results using blockchain technology, there appears to be no international standard for immigration officials to recognize tests conducted in foreign nations. For example, travelers flying to the United States are required to complete a rapid COVID test within 24 hours of arrival, but not all recommended health passport applications by US airlines can recognize QR codes provided by foreign test centers.
In addition to the COVID tests, Paco said that he had been able to get by with Bitcoin as a payment method often by sheer chance, never forcing the cryptocurrency on a sucker and surprised at how many random vendors were open to it. According to the YouTuber, he had been forced to avoid most public transportation in these four countries and use his debit card to refuel his bike, but he was connecting with more people on the ground.
“Thailand is super crypto friendly,” Paco said. “Cambodia is another place [súper amigable]. United Arab Emirates, it looks like it, but I feel like it’s only among the richest.”
He added:
“I have changed my approach a lot. I have gone from talking to older people, who have already lived their lives, to finding young people who know a lot about technology […] They are very curious about [Bitcoin]. It’s always: they want to make money. Everyone sees bitcoin as a way to make money.”
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