Every transaction.
Reported.

Q1 · Money before bitcoin

01:13 Marek What was money like in Paraguay before Bitcoin?

01:19 Jan Well, the legal tender in Paraguay is Guaraní, which is one of the most stable, longest-running currency in Latam. It was basically created in 1943, and since then it, of course, went through some periods of inflation, higher inflation, but still compared to other countries like Argentina, it was relatively mild and thanks to that the economy and the environment here is very stable compared to some other countries in Latam.

02:06 Marek You came from Czech Republic what surprised you most about money in Paraguay?

02:17 Jan Well, I would say that Paraguayans are used to use several currencies. They don't just use the Guaraní, their legal tender, but they are also using US dollars, which is very common here in South America or Latin in general, but they also often accept Brazilian reals because there is a lot of trade going on between Paraguay and Brazil. So oftentimes you can go to the shops and you can see the prices in US dollars or in the reals because those shops are, for example, targeting the foreigners. so this is one of the things that very surprised me and aside of that it's very cash based society cash is really strong here still it's not as digitalized economy as in as in europe and even though the banking sector is evolving really fast but still people often prefer payments in cash. And also what is really interesting from the perspective of someone from the Czech Republic is that a large part of the economy is informal. So there is a lot of smuggling of the products from neighboring countries. You can get a lot of stuff and a cheaper price, for example because you know this is the informal trade that is going on but it's not that much common in Europe because the police and the customs they are much more restrictive there than in here.

04:16 Marek That's very interesting. I think that about half of the people in Paraguay have no bank account how do they save?

04:29 Jan Well I would say at the moment it's probably less it largely depends how do we see it because oftentimes for example one family member has the bank account and basically but all the all the family members they are kind of using it so you know they don't have direct access but they have some access to the banking services uh so this is one of the things but um as i said like last two three years there was a massive campaign uh from the local banks to to bankarize the the population so i would say at the moment it can be maybe third or even less people who actually don't have access to to the banking services are fully dependent on cash. So they did a lot of marketing here, which, yeah, maybe it could be great from the perspective that more people have access to digital payments. But at the same time, it's harder for us as a Bitcoiners to convince those people, you know, that are just depending on the cash to actually start using Bitcoin. But yeah, in general, I would say that there is still a large portion of the people that don't interact within the banking system. So there is still, I would say like 20-30% at least, who are living in the interior, in the countryside of the country. And they still fully depend on cash.

06:07 Marek Do people trust more guaraní or the dollar or the brazilian real

06:15 Jan Historically i would say more dollar but last year it started to change because uh there was a large depreciation of us dollar uh compared to to guaraní, um, just the guaraní, it, it gained or well dollar lost like 20-25% of its value in the last year so it was a massive depreciation and I think this made many people think if they really should save in dollars as they were used to do historically or if they rather should save in guaraníes, so I think the last year it really shifted and we will see like in the in the following years if the trend will continue but i think it will probably continue until a certain point where the exchange rate finds its balance but yeah as there is a lot of investments coming to the country and foreigners are based here and spending their US dollars here it of course creates a lot of pressure on the US dollar.

Q2 · When bitcoin arrived

07:28 Marek When did Bitcoin came to Paraguay and who brought it?

07:36 Jan Well I think first people who actually started doing something in the Bitcoin space they started in 2014 2015 locals I know some some local people that were involved back then and who were contributing to the space but it wasn't really organized much there were no regular meetups there were always some some some groups online or you know forums or or telegram discussions but it was very small and I think that shifted two and a half years ago when we started Bitcoin Paraguay, which was basically out of this need that we wanted to we wanted to meet in the physical space right and not just in some online discussions or on on X or on you know the social media but actually create something where people can talk and where people can learn in the meat space. I was participating in Jednadvacet in Czech Republic. It's a very, I would say, successful Bitcoin community in Europe, also based on the Einundzwanzig Movement from Germany. And I was thinking, okay, maybe we can replicate this here in Paraguay. and can offer people a place where they can regularly meet and where they can learn. So we started a WhatsApp chat where we were discussing in Bitcoin and sharing news and inviting people. And after that, I built a webpage and opened the social media. And we started to publish more content and then organized the meetup base. So we started doing meetups every month. First, in the beginning, we did them in English because we mostly were attracting the foreigners and the expats living here in Paraguay. But over time, there were more and more locals that were joining the events. and then we also started doing meetups in spanish and started onboarding people really like systematically i would say uh with uh workshops focused on the beginners and uh later on this year uh we uh we started offering courses for for the beginners so it's like three days, every evening two hours, there is a focused course for the beginners from like really beginners that never heard about Bitcoin to the person who actually understands Bitcoin and can operate with Bitcoin. So this was a big shift and basically right now we are even doing one step up because we're planning to organize a conference about sovereignty. So we don't want to longer focus solely on the Bitcoin, but we want to also offer other topics that the people are really interested in and that kind of relate to Bitcoin from the perspective of someone that really seeks freedom and sovereignty. Right now we have like 650 people in just the WhatsApp groups that are following us that went at some point to our meetup and stayed interacting with the community. And on the social media we have several thousands of followers. So many people are following us and helping us grow.

11:40 Marek Can you tell me what the other topics are except for Bitcoin, what people are interested in?

11:47 Jan I would say privacy is a big topic, especially right now after the DNIT resolution that was enacted in March this year. but also aside of that a lot of focus is on security because as we can see in France for example there are many attacks on the Bitcoiners or crypto people in general so OPSEC then of course other freedom tech like Nostr and private messaging also AI is a big topic at the moment because a lot of people are thinking about how to keep interacting with the AI and leveraging AI without losing the privacy.

12:40 Marek When did you come to Paraguay and why Paraguay?

12:45 Jan It was in 2023. And first I just tried to get more financial freedom, I would say, because I was paying taxes in Europe, but I was traveling a lot. I was nomading across the world. And I didn't want to pay taxes in the European country where the tax levels are already pretty high. So I was trying to seek more alternatives elsewhere. So I came to Paraguay to get my residency and get my tax residency to optimize my situation. and but I stayed like a couple of weeks and I kind of understood that this is actually a pretty good place to be and I met so many nice people I became part of the community from basically the day one it was maybe my fourth or fifth day here and I met Jake and other people that are behind the expat community and that is really uh uh lively uh and how many people participating they also do a lot of meetups and social activities so uh i met them and and i kind of decided to stay over time i spent some time in argentina as well but uh yeah i i found paraguay the the the great base where i was to be for the next couple of years because there's also a lot of uncertainty in the world nobody really knows what's gonna happen because we all feel that something is about to break in the world and i think this is probably one of the best places to be in case that something something really happens in the world

14:36 Marek That's true but you think that the paraguay will be good place because there will be safe water food or like because this is the thing what people should seek when things go in a bad direction.

14:50 Jan Yeah, exactly. It's a very sustainable country. It has food. It doesn't have the traditional energy like a crude oil or a gas, but it has a lot of electricity because of the huge Itaipú dam. So it has a lot of sustainability, it also has a lot of solar power. Eventually there is like 3000 hours of sunshine yearly, which is like the south of Spain, more or less. So this also gives Paraguay a big leverage in the future in case it needs more power.

15:38 Marek So the miners came to Paraguay because of the cheap power and then basically people get more involved in the Bitcoin. Is that true?

15:50 Jan Well yes and no. To a certain degree it helped open the discussion about the Bitcoin here in Paraguay but I think it was much more the people on the ground that were actually spreading information and education about Bitcoin itself.

Q3 · The state · Resolution 47

16:10 Marek Nice. What did the government do about Bitcoin?

16:12 Jan Well, the government storyline is very interesting because in 2022 there was a bill proposal that almost got enacted, but it was vetoed by the former president. And since then, I would say, that was probably like the top from the legislation perspective where after what happened in Salvador and everybody was excited about it. And since then, we are getting more bad news than the good news, I'm afraid. and there was also this new regulation or new resolution from ANDE that, for example, the miners, they have different tariffs than the other industries. So when they consume the electricity, they have different conditions than other industries, which of course didn't help much because many companies they left Paraguay because of that move and of course there was a big impact but from my point of view that that's more a positive impact that that ANDE actually started following the legal mining operations here in Paraguay and And they actually seized a lot of miners from those people. Because, of course, this illegal operation, it brought a really bad spotlight on Bitcoin itself. Because many people, they just thought that we are just committing some crime. And, you know, we are just stealing electricity. But we have nothing to do with those people. You know, those people, they are just stealing electricity. and they use it for Bitcoin mining because they want to get the best money in the world. But yeah, so they crack down on those illegal miners in 2024. And since then, there is still a lot of commercial activity, especially companies like Hive, that are very active here and they still grow their operations even though they are right now starting to focus more on AI for example because it's where the money are at the moment but yeah in 2026 this year in March as I said we had this surprise from the DNIT with their resolution 47, which didn't really make us happy. And it basically says that all the transactions movement you do over the year above $5,000, you should report them to do it. And you don't report just the amounts, but you have to report everything, basically the hashes and all the, basically all the history. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't have any precedent elsewhere in any other country. And we are just like wondering where did this come from? You know, because as I said, like if they just like copy some existing regulation from the US or Europe or somewhere else you know it it would actually do a better job than what they what they did and of course there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment in the space and we still hope that we can somehow revert this but of course i can see that many people are very disappointed me included by by this move and And of course, it negatively impacted the activities. But of course, I mean, myself, I'm an anarchist in my way of thinking, and I don't expect states to help us adopt the best and freest money in the world. I expect that they're going to be fighting that and they will use all means they have to hurt this movement. But of course, it's some wind we have to face at the moment. They say that it's not focusing on collecting taxes, at least at this point. It's just like getting more insights into what is really going on in the space. but I mean it will achieve nothing aside of scaring the people that might enter the space and I think that's actually the whole point to just slow everything down it's not that much about those controls because I don't even think that they will actually develop something that will be actually usable to track these transactions because they are not really capable of pulling off any IT solution here in Paraguay. It's really bad. And if you see all the bureaucracy, if you go to some government office and you see all the stacks of papers and everything, those people, they don't know to work with the digital solutions. And that's also part of the reason why the digital systems here are so vulnerable to cyber attacks because, you know, they are just like using something. They don't have any experts on the cyber security. And many times in the last couple of years, there were leaks from almost all government institutions here. Sometimes even like ransoms that that they were asking for money to unlock their systems, right? And those were like very important systems, like, you know, from Ministry of Education and some other, some banks were also leaked here in history. So even the private institution have these issues. So I don't know, I'm very skeptical. and also as you said like this is part of the reason why people really dislike these moves that are really sacrificing our own privacy and our own security so I don't know I'm just like very very very skeptical and I think it's more to actually damage the local space than to actually achieve some money collection.

23:45 Marek You said about the cybersecurity. I think in June 2025, I think it was Twitter, the president's account said that Bitcoin is now money in Paraguay and it was hacked. Do you know something about that more or if some people on the meetups make fun of that?

24:03 Jan Yeah, I mean that was really funny. well it was hacked for some time and they were asking for donations for their what's the name like the treasury Bitcoin treasury for the Paraguayan government they didn't collect anything but just the fact that the presidential account was hacked and that this happened that was just like so some ridiculous.

Q4 · The crowd follows the price

24:37 Marek The price of Bitcoin went down many times but in Paraguay I think you guys pushing it more. Do you see it also on the meetups or on the interest from the people that it's going with the price as well?

24:52 Jan Like … always leads the crowd you know and And of course, like last year in May, June, 2025, we had really huge meetups. It was like 150 people, for example, at the meetup, which is like almost like a mini conference. Huge crowds, a lot of interest from the new people. And this year it dropped significantly, which is unfortunate, but it is always like that. and especially after the thing that happened in March I'm not really surprised because many people especially the foreigners they are usually a bit more aware about the privacy and security and there are many people even like very known in a Bitcoin space that came to Paraguay but they didn't come here much to build but much more to hide oftentimes you know so they really keep low profile and they don't want to really show up at the meetups show their face so yeah it's unfortunate but we still see many many new faces and many new people joining our meetups and our activities but I must say that it's always very related to the the price movements. When there is a spike in price, of course we always see more people at the meetup. It's just correlated. I would say right now we are like half-half, half-foreigners, half-locals, more or less. It varies over time. But also I must say that for example the foreigners, the expats that live here and that for example where Bitcoin longer time they are also focusing on slightly different topics and they are often a bit more advanced because they are in space for sometimes even like eight or more years so they went through all the cycles you know and they are kind of used to like the price drop so at the moment I would say that they are sticking with the community a bit more than the locals but of course this is just a matter of experience. I mean the locals they also have to go through this and understand how the cycle develops and you know then they get more resistant to this price volatility.

Q5 · The community today

27:35 Marek What does your community do that people outside would never guess?

27:44 Jan Well i think i think the the the for example the asados we often do um in the in the smaller circle of course not for everyone but in the in the circle of people that are active in the community we always do some some gathering where we eat uh when we eat the red meat and we enjoy good times and drink some wine and so on that's probably one of the things we also have a book club that is that is closed it's only for the people that that get the invitation because we don't want to make it a big event to facilitate the discussion and make it more productive but yeah that's that's other thing and what else yeah that's it probably

28:39 Marek Can you tell people which they don't know what is asado can you tell them what is that

28:44 Jan It's part of the culture it's really something that brings people together here it's very strong cultural thing here in in Southern Cone not just in paraguay but in argentina as well brazil too so and it's very nice because you know it's a really high quality time you have with the people because you know you get together with a great food and you can have a great conversation and you have enough time you're not under a stress because you know it takes some time to prepare the meat and then you know you just chat after you fill your stomach and it's really nice I like it.

29:26 Marek Can you pay with Bitcoin anywhere in Asunción?

29:30 Jan Yeah I mean there are many places where you can actually pay with Lightning. I would say there are like 30 businesses, 40 businesses maybe if you if we count even like the online services or people that don't have like the physical space it's probably even more but we don't have any official number of how many businesses are at the moment accepting Bitcoin but if you go to our webpage BitcoinParaguay.org there is a section that has all the information about the businesses in Paraguay it's grabbing data from the BTC Map that we are trying to update.

Q6 · The last question

30:12 Marek The last question, I ask it to every guest. If someone opens this recording in fifty years, what should they know about what happened here?

30:23 Jan I would say we are again in some like transition stage at the moment. Of course, there is this headwind with the DNIT 47 resolution, but I think we will overcome it and the adoption will grow but I just hope that Paraguay will not be scared of being a truly sovereign country

Closing

30:57 Marek Is there something we didn't talk about and you want to say?

31:03 Jan I would like to mention the conference that we are about to organize next month on November 22nd. It's going to be a half-day conference about sovereignty and I definitely want to invite everybody to join us. I think it's going to be a great event. We will discuss Bitcoin, freedom tech, privacy, security, plan B, AI a lot and also we will discuss a little bit of political philosophy. I think it's a great place and great event for the people that are generally interested in sovereignty and in freedom, maximizing your own freedom. So definitely come and join us and you can find more information at sovereign-conference.com. And definitely also follow us on the social media. We have Bitcoin Paraguay Instagram account. We have BTC Paraguay Twitter account. We are also on Nostr. So on all those places you can follow us and you can see all the activities and new events that are about to happen.

32:18 Marek Thank you for talking with me and spreading the knowledge.

32:23 Jan Thank you for having me, Marek. It was a pleasure.