Greenland’s Shift

President Trump has repeatedly called for acquiring Greenland to be part of USA. As US pressure mounts Danish rule in Greenland that dates 200 years could be coming to an end. Greenlanders are not happy with their Danish government after a policy of forced sterilization of girls without their or their parents consent has come to light. Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world, surpassing that of the runner up Guyana by almost a factor of three. If US managed to acquire the world’s biggest island it would jump from being the fourth largest country in the world with 9.8 million square kilometers to being the second largest with 12 million square kilometers. US with Greenland would surpass China and Canada and place just behind Russia with 16.4 million square kilometres.

Solar Disaster

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, located in California’s Mojave Desert, is set to close after just 11 years of operation and a cost of $2.2 billion. The facility is the world’s largest thermal solar power plant with 173,000 heliostats that focuses sunrays onto a 459 foot tower. The 4,000 acre folly is proving not only an energy failure by not delivering nearly enough GWh projected, but also as an ecological disaster on a massive scale. The “eco” solar plant had killed turtles by the thousands and insects by the millions. Ivanpah also became world’s biggest animal incinerator as the facility created a death trap for birds with its heliostat mirrors burning to death tens of thousands of falcon, owls and warblers as the flew by its mirrors.

Honduras Elections

On Sunday March 9, Honduras held its every four years primary elections. While Liberal party’s Salvador Nasralla beat Jorge Cálix, the ruling Libre party’s Rixi Moncada, who is currently Secretary of National Defense and Secretary of Finance, easily beat Rasel Tome. National’s party Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura beat Ana García de Hernández, the wife of US jailed ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández. General elections are scheduled for November 30 to determine the next president and 128 deputies.

El Salvador’s Prisons

El Salvador’s prison experiment with its gang members has made a left turn. On February 4, after a one day visit from US’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, El Salvador’s president Bukele agreed to house violent criminals currently held in US jails regardless of their held nationality. This agreement has little precedent around the world. Some of these criminals will be Salvadorians that are MS-13 gang members, others would be the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members, and also U.S. citizens and legal residents with no US nationality. They are planed to be housed in El Salvador’s CECOT maximum security mega-prison that houses 15,000 currently, but has a capacity for 40,000.

Panama Drama

Upon taking office in January 2025 president Trump criticized Panama for allowing China a growing influence over its strategic waterway canal. According to sources Trump has ordered the military to draw up a plan how it could seize the canal. US acquired the rights to build and operate the canal, but in 1974 sold it to Panama for $1 and its control ceased in 1999. US and Panama agreed however to defend the canal against any threat to its neutrality allowing for a unilateral action to be taken to reestablish it. In March the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. allowed a US based Black Rock-led consortium to purchase Panama Canal ports Port of Cristobal and Port of Balboa for $22 billion.

The Number and Size of Transactions is Rising

Paya Magazine estimates that Roatan’s yearly GDP is somewhere around $840 million. The island’s roughly 100,000 residents spend around $400 million in yearly personal purchases here. The island has around $65 million in cruise ship sales that stays here, and then there is the $240 million brought in by long-term tourist visitors. There is the bit smaller, but growing, $80 million in real estate transactions. To top it off, there is the yearly $60 million in construction investment.

If these numbers are close to being correct, the island’s economy approaches around $1 billion. Paya Magazine estimates that around 80% of these yearly monetary transactions are made in Lempiras, around 20% in dollars, and less than 1% in Bitcoin. These proportions and numbers have grown in the last 10 years and will continue to change.

The percentage of Bitcoin transactions is likely to increase. Bitcoin adoption on Roatan has been rising steadily since 2021. In 2021, five businesses in the Bay Islands accepted Bitcoin, with three of them on Roatan. According to Dusan Matuska, owner of AmityAge, a company that promotes Bitcoin education and adoption on Roatan, there are now over 50 businesses accepting Bitcoin as a payment. “We are helping to bring more Bitcoin users to the island who will use their holdings to purchase various good and services and also real estate,” Matuska said. “Real estate agents should get ready for it.”

The island’s economy approaches around $1 billion.

According to Matuska, over 10 real estate transactions have occurred on the island with Bitcoin so far. This is related to the price of Bitcoin surpassing $110,000, which has some Bitcoin owners cashing out. Some have converted their Bitcoin holdings to land and properties to diversify in case Bitcoin’s price declines.

There were two properties were purchased with Bitcoin just east of Palmetto Bay. Seventy-five acres and 1,100 feet of beachfront are now owned by a Bitcoin investor. “They purchased it as a land bank,” said Steve Hasz, a real estate broker whose company, Roatan Life, was involved in the sale. “They are not going to develop it.” Hasz says that 270 properties were sold on Roatan last year. That translated to $78 million, and 2024 was not even the island’s best year.

When real estate is purchased in Bitcoin, currency conversion service is typically provided by AmityAge. Transactions in Bitcoin has simplified and sped up sales as well. “You don’t really need an escrow, because you can watch the blockchain and see it convert,” Hasz said.

One exception in Bitcoin-to-Bitcoin real estate transactions is the 10% earnest money paid by the buyer as funds still should be held by an escrow company until the closing. “It may make sense to convert the earnest money as there are quite a bit taxes to pay out of the sales typically,” Hasz said. “You have capital gains, you have taxes at closings, […] attorneys’ fees.”

All the peripheral players still get paid no matter if the transaction, or part of the transaction, is done in Bitcoin. ZOLITUR gets paid, the central government gets paid, no matter what. “If you have a buyer and seller in Bitcoin it is super easy,” said Tomas Figueroa, a KW real estate agent. “If the seller wants dollars we have an operation in place.”

Two other properties were bought in Bitcoin in Lawson Rock in the last 12 months, and the agent involved in those sales was Figueroa. “Próspera and Dusan are the ones that are attracting this type of a [Bitcoin] buyer,” Figueroa said. “It’s all about marketing.”

Bitcoin has simplified and sped up sales.

Buyers and sellers using crypto currencies are not only hedging. “A lot of people who are invested in Bitcoin, it’s not a money issue [in property purchases], it is how they promote Bitcoin and adoption of Bitcoin,” Figueroa said, who expects he should complete his third Bitcoin property sale on the island soon. “Próspera ecosystem is attracting this type of buyer,” the KW agent said. “They have their own property institute, which has been recognized by law.”

While all the properties in Honduras are part of the 2005-implemented National Property Administration System [SINAP] and register a national geospatial infrastructure, Próspera has its own property registry. “The title for a Duna [tower] condo is in the Próspera registry they set out from the very beginning,” said Mike Carter, of Roatan Life Vacations Rental. Not only sales of properties in Próspera can be done in Bitcoin, Próspera also accepts Bitcoin for utility payments.

Other Roatan properties are also available for Bitcoin buyers. Fort Morgan Cay, a private resort island listed for about $10 million, is for sale in Bitcoin. “They would really like to take Bitcoin; they would prefer it, actually,” says Hasz, who represents the owners. The 27.5-acre Roatan east end property is not only historic, with the remains of a 300-year-old fort, but it also might make history if it becomes the biggest Bitcoin sale in the island’s real estate history to date.

Optimism for Optimus

The race for releasing general-purpose robots for sale is on. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that his Optimus robot “has the potential to be more significant than [Tesla’s] vehicle business over time.” In December 2023, the 5-foot-8, 125-pound Optimus 2.0 was shown to do perform complex tasks such as dancing and poaching an egg and was reported to be able to carry objects up to 45 pounds. Musk said he is planning a limited production of Optimus robots to be used first at Tesla facilities in 2025 and other companies in 2026. The robots price is estimated to be at around $30,000. The projected first tasks for Optimus are those that are “dangerous, repetitive and boring.” Tesla’s competitor in the field of humanoid robots is Boston Dynamics, funded by DARPA. Its Atlas robot is estimated to be sold for $150,000.

What after Iran?

Fall of Iran will not mean the end of wars in the Middle East. According to General Wesley Clark US military had plans for Iranian regime change as early as September 2001. “We’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” said Gen. Clark about being alerted to the plan. While it took 24 years to completely destroy Syria, Iran regime tippling is well underway. There are signals of plans for continuation of the region’s destabilization. When the Iran regime falls due to US, Israeli and likely Afghani efforts there are other countries that have been moved up on the regime change list. They are Qatar, Pakistan with its nuclear arsenal and Turkey with region’s largest military.

Coincidence of Drones

Operation Spiderweb and Israeli drone attacks on Iran had some striking similarities in never before seen, surprise military drone warfare operations, suggesting Israel involvement in the Ukraine Russian war. The June 1, 2025 Operation Spiderweb utilized quadrocopter drones with explosives that were smuggled in 40 foot containers to the vicinity of Russian long range air force bases. Five bases, some as far as Mongolian border, were targeted and Ukrainians destroyed around 20 Russian airplanes. As many as 117 first-person view drones were used using AI to overcome time delay from such long distances. While president Zelenskyy stated that the preparation took 18 months, only 12 days later, in the night of June 13, Israel’s Mossad launched assassination operations. The drones and quadrocopters launched inside Iran killed estimated 10 Iran senior military commanders and 16 Iranian nuclear scientists as they slept in their homes.

Habemus Papam

On May 8, 2025, Robert Francis Prevost, a cardinal with US and Peruvian passports, was elected pope and took the name Pope Leo XIV. The election took place on the fourth vote of the conclave to elect the pope after the death of Jorge Bergoglio. Pope Leo XIV is the first pope from North America, the first pope from the Order of Saint Augustine and the second one to speak English as a native. Prevost was born south of Chicago in 1955, and he is the first baby boomer pope. He has a bachelor of science degree in mathematics, a Master of Divinity and a Doctorate of Canon Law. Since the 1980s, he lived and served in Peru when and in 2014, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Chiclayo. In 2023, Prevost was created a cardinal-deacon, and in February 2025, Francis promoted Prevost to be cardinal-bishop.bishop.

As Bitcoin price has reached $100,000 Senator Cynthia Lummis has proposed a Bitcoin reserve act for the US federal government. The plan entails the US government to annually acquire 200,000 Bitcoins to total 1 million and hold those for at least 20 years as a strategic reserve. States of Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio have filed similar proposals. The US government holds already 250,000 Bitcoins confiscated from Silk Road and other convicted offenders. With the US debt surpassing $ 33 trillion and possible collapse of the dollar President Trump supports the idea.

Gold and Bitcoin Mining

El Salvador parliament has voted to again allow mining of its gold deposits valued at around $3 trillion. The country’s gold belt spans its north and borders several Honduran departments: Intibucá, Lempira and La Paz suggesting some gold deposits there. El Salvador was the only country in the world that banned all forms of metal mining in 2017 and has also become the first state, in 2021, to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador government purchases one Bitcoin daily, and mines hundreds of Bitcoins a year, steadily adding to its Bitcoin reserves estimated to be at around 5,750 Bitcoin, or $600 million.

Syria Collapse

The US and its proxies have managed to create another failed state in the Middle East. After US military and CIA covert operations costing $ trillions Iraq Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan and now Syria have become another quagmire unsafe for ancient Christians, women and peaceful life in general. Since 2011 CIA coup replace the demonized president Bashar al-Assad with a terrorist head of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham [HTS] Muhammad Al-Jawlani who still holds a $10 million FBI bounty on his head. According to US embassy in Syria statement from 2017 “the core of HTS is Nusra, a designated terrorist organization. (…) HTS is a merger and any group that merges into it becomes part of al-Qa’ida,” incidentally an organization that US government claims killed 3000 Americans in 9/11 attacks. Since December Syria has been partitioned into four parts fighting, or preparing to fight each other: US and Israeli backed Kurds in the East, Turkey’s international terrorists in the North, American Jihadis in the south, and Israeli invading the south West.

Rumania’s Back in Dictature

Rumania Supreme Court has annulled the November 7, 2024 presidential elections in which Calin Georgescu, an independent candidate, won a relative majority of the vote. The court also cancelled the runoff round of the elections scheduled for December 8 and declared that elections would be dome sometime in the spring of 2025. Georgescu is inconvenient to both Globalist and US Military complex as he opposes Russian –Ukrainian war, he wants to outlaw LGBTQ propaganda in Romania, increase role of Christianity in public life and presents two largest Romanian political parties as corrupt globalist tools. Georgescu became an uncontrollable factor in advancement of globalist agenda in Europe, especially as US is building its largest military, 10,000 soldier base in Europe on Rumanian coast.

COVID according to Congress

Almost five years after the break out of the COVID 19 coronavirus US Congress has concluded its investigation into the matter. The 520 page report states that the SARS-CoV virus most likely was released from BSL-4 Wuhan Chinese laboratory. Just so happens the named in the report laboratory that was conducting military gain of function research was funded by US taxpayers. US National Institute of Health has paid $3.7 million to the Wuhan lab that originated the worldwide COVID health operation. Return on investment is impressive as economic toll of the handling COVID operation in the US is estimated have been $14 Trillion.

For a long time now, Santos Guardiola has been the forgotten, ugly sister of Roatan. But lately, that forgotten sister has been getting an increasing number of suitors asking for a dance. Developers are buying up sizable pieces of land and dividing them into smaller lots, creating networks of interior roads with underground wires and services.
On the east side of Roatan, near Mount Picacho, the island’s tallest hill, the views are often stunning. The nature is still relatively unspoiled, and perhaps most important of all for developers, there is a 10.6 kilometer road that is being paved that will reach the very far end of the island.

Paya Magazine has surveyed 18 housing developments in JSG at different stages of completion. The developers here are an international mix. There are Czechs, Danes, Americans, Canadians, and Hondurans. They have backgrounds in construction, sales, furniture, and even veterinary science. Roatan is a cake that has been cut into 20 different pieces. “The advantage that José Santos Guardiola [JSG] has is that it is a cleaner canvas,” said Hugo Coello, a Roatan based architect with 20 years of design experience here. “This municipality has an opportunity to create a great place.” In José Santos Guardiola, one can still find large tracks of undeveloped land. There is plenty of room to grow and the population is relatively small.

Camp Bay Beach for the Famous?

Just like billionaire Kelcy Warren on JSG’s nearby Barbareta island, other rich and sometimes famous Americans have noticed the beaches’ beauty and potential. Actor Michael Douglas has been coming to Roatan for over a decade, and purchased 25 acres of land, with around 1,300 feet of water frontage. According to Erick Anderson, an American who has been living here since the 1960s and knows Douglas well, the actor is looking at a project to potentially incorporate organic gardens and solar power.

Anderson believes that good development is achieved by combining good master planning, good architecture, and good investors. If any one of these elements is missing, bad things begin to happen, especially in the challenging topography and sensitive environment of Roatan’s Far East.

According to Anderson, some developers see the limited in scope and quantity JSG municipal fines as a cost of doing business. “It is a moral failure on their [developer’s] part,” he said. “They need to understand they are destroying a resource that should belong to a community for a long term use.” Anderson says that it is bad for the neighborhood to have developments like that on Roatan. These types of developments discourage potential investors that are looking for pristine, beautiful environment to situate their development.

Diamond Rock Rocks

The Czech investment in land development on the island’s Far East dates back to the early 2000s. Businessman Iri Maska has built a brewery off the main road south of Punta Gorda, and since then has had many Czech investors come to the island.

The biggest of them all is developer Ivan Soška, who came to Roatan 14 years ago. In 2013, he purchased 13 acres with the idea to develop 53 homes in Diamond Rock. “I started to feel the nature here,” says Soška. “The municipal requires a 10 percent green area to be set aside. I set aside 65 percent. If I cut a tree, I plant 20 other.”

After selling out the lots to his fellow Czechs, Soška purchased another 27 acres up the hill from his development and named it Diamond Hill. In 2018, he added another 40 acres to his growing development right on the waterfront.

His sensible approach to developing land is paying off. Soška believes that the green, respectful-to-nature Diamond Hill development has attracted a more varied clientele for his house lots which now include Americans and Canadians. “They are using construction with step-down instead of just counter livered instead and of cutting the hill with big bulldozers,” said Anderson. “That would create erosion and upset the environment.”

The locals have taken notice and warmed up to the tall Czech developer and his three sons. “They are one of the better developments out there,” said Anderson. “They did a good job with landscaping and respect for the environment.”

Santos Guardiola has been the forgotten, ugly sister of Roatan.

Paya Bay for Boaters

Paya Bay has been a sleepy, overlooked, and spectacular beach just west of Camp Bay beach. Now, even sleepy Paya Bay is getting its share of development dollars. The gated, high end community will have access to Paya Bay Resort.

The project consists of two parts: a 180 room condo hotel on the beach and 18 canal front house lots.

Managing partner for the project is Henrik Jensen, a long time Danish Roatan businessman who has build both commercial and housing projects all over the island. The development is located on 19 acres and should be operational by 2027.

Golfing in Luna Azul

Bordering Media Luna to its West, Luna Azul is the largest development ever undertaken in José Santos Guardiola. The 110-acre development, with 380 lots, even surpasses the large 200-acre Parrot Tree development with the number of lots.

Adam Gram, a Danish developer who developed several projects on the western side of the island, is the developer of this now third golf course community project on Roatan. The development is planned in three phases and centers around a golf course, a beach club, a tennis court, and a private beach. As of March 2024, around 60 percent of the roads have been completed, and the golf course design is in progress.

No More Stilts

Scott Miller has stealthily become the man with the most land under development on the island. He is developing three projects in and around Camp Bay: Caribbean Bliss, Camp Bay Estates, and Sunset Vistas. Miller is also developing a project inside West End’s Luna Beach, as well as his biggest project called Sea Breeze just east of Luna Azul. While most of Roatan developers started locally, or came from abroad and focused solely on one development, Miller comes with plenty of experience, cash, and a soon-to-boom vision for Roatan.

Miller comes from a long line a bridge and dam builders in California and Arizona. He has also developed resorts and properties in Belize and Costa Rica. He has three development companies in the US: one in Arizona, one in California, and one in Washington State. He has also developed resorts and apartment complexes all over the Caribbean. “I depend on a really good team of professionals,” says Miller.

They need to understand they are destroying a resource.

In 2013, Miller came to Roatan scouting the island for Hilton Hotels to see if the island was ready for the chain. “I told them it wasn’t,” said Miller, who ended up building a house on the island the following year. “I love it here. People are not after your money like in Costa Rica or Belize,” says Miller. Now Miller believes Hilton and Marriot should be just about ready to invest here.

Back in the US, Miller is friends with quite a few professional athletes potentially interested in having second homes here. With new roads and new airlines eyeing Roatan, he believes the island is on a trajectory to attract a more affluent and demanding clientele made up of home owners from the US. “One thing they will not do is live in a house on stilts,” said Miller. That is the main reason his developments create slab-on-grade type of construction, which require aggressive soil displacement, something some of his neighbors are not always happy about.

Above Punta Blanca

Punta Blanca is Santos Guardiola’s north shore community and dates back to the 1990s. It is surrounded by rolling hills with plenty of development opportunities and fantastic views to the north, south, and east.

Fernando Santana found his 5.5 acre Aroha Estates Punta Blanca development site almost by chance. “As I was walking through the jungle, I found an old ‘for sale’ sign on the property,” said Santana, who was a furniture vendor several years before transitioning to being a home construction supervisor and developer.

The property was originally called Buena Vista, and featured sprawling views in all directions. “I called the person and purchased it even before seeing what I was purchasing. It was a leap of faith,” said Santana, who also helps a local architect with design ideas.

Las Vistas in Camp Bay

Las Vistas is located right across from the entrance to Camp Bay’s public beach. Las Vistas was originally five acres of development by American developer Blaine Bell, who later purchased another six acres adjacent to the property, and the Port Royal National Park. There is an added ecological responsibility to building next to a [Port Royal] National Park. “The idea is to build something in an eco sensitive feel,” said Hugo Coello, a principal at Hugo Coello Architects and also a builder for Las Vistas.

Las Vistas development is planned to accommodate 40 home sites. Underground utilities have been laid in place for the first 25 lots and an impressive entry gate is almost finished. Coello is working with Bell, who has been on the island for ten years and decided to become a developer.

Coello believes the roads should follow as much as possible the contour lines of the topography of the often steep landscape on the island. The idea is to disrupt the soil as little as possible and maintain the location of the site. Acting a bit like a “horse whisperer,” Coello depends and listens to his surroundings to tell him what is appropriate and what is not. “I wait for the land to suggest what is needed,” said Coello.

Coello is known for making master plans, and he created the master plan for Las Vistas and Luna Azul. “Clients hire me because they want something nice, in budget, and something that is respectful of the ecosystem,” said Coello. He makes an effort to give a distinctive identity to each of his projects with materials, colors, and details. Coello has been designing homes on Roatan for 20 years. “We pick the type of home, the type of material that fits,” he said. “I like glass walls, to take advantage as much as possible of the views.”

The Concerns

There are quite a few people concerned with how quickly the land is being developed, and with how it is being done without much regard for the fragile environment of the island. One of these voices is Erick Anderson, an expat who has lived on Roatan since the 1960s. He founded Bay Islands Conservation Association [BICA] from his home in Port Royal.

Anderson says he supports projects that are respectful of the environment, architecturally attractive, and provide a sustainable and long-term benefit to the community. Local jobs are important, but preservation of the soil and vegetation and protecting animals is as well. That, according to Anderson, does not always happen. “I used to push, push for developments and roads and infrastructure,” said Anderson. “What I am worried about is too much development too fast, and that it would spiral out of control.”

East of Roatan has a different climate than the west of the island: different vegetation, different soil. Building here is a bit trickier than on the west side. “They are destroying the exact thing that makes it attractive and beautiful,” said Anderson. “We [BICA] have been petitioning through for SERNA to come and look at these developments so they can understand what is going on.”

The idea is to disrupt the soil as little as possible.

There are new developers, good developers, and sometime not so good developers. Some developers get in trouble on the financing front, others get in trouble working on steep sites that are all over Roatan. “They don’t have a right to destroy this if you have a good master plan,” said Anderson. “They [some developers] are cutting all the trees on site, and cutting them down with bulldozers.”

Anderson believes the JSG development projects should be done with proper master planning, in a way that is sustainable for the future of the community. “Someone who is doing a master plan has to be someone who has a huge experience in what they are doing,” said Coello. “The most important is the approach of the design,” said Coello. “There are several examples [of development] that are just terrible.”

Environmental licenses are given out by SERNA, and typically are not easy to get. “For my lotification [at Camp Bay beach], it took me two years and $20,000 for my development to get all the permits,” said Anderson. “The idea is to protect the reef, mangroves, and all the assets that we have.”

Unfortunately, as copies of SERNA or Municipal permits are not displayed on construction sites, it is difficult for the public to understand what is planned. When work takes place, it is all yesterday’s news. There is no manner to move back hills, uncut roads, replant 100-year-old trees.

The projects that have caused environmental damage are usually an example of the failure of four entities: the failure of supervision on the national Honduran level by SERNA- the Honduran Ministry of Environment, the JSG Municipality’s environmental department, the developers themselves, and the local communities themselves, represented by patronatos.

Unspoiled land in José Santos Guardiola is like Bitcoin.

The Future

What could lie ahead for the island are zoning laws like in the nearby La Ceiba. According to Coello, some more populous municipalities in Honduras developed zoning restrictions and enforcement as they grew in size. Those are principally cities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and La Ceiba. Coello believes building restrictions on Roatan should be done not on a zoning level, but on the consciousness level of the stakeholders involved in developing land across Roatan. The architect believes that more education of people doing master planning and construction should be done.

Much of the land on Roatan’s Far East side remains unspoiled, filled with rolling hills of old growth forests and teaming with wildlife. That is what past generations of islanders have bestowed to the Roatanians in the 21st century. That innumerable resource is not always appreciated.

The Roatan land has served as shelter, food and building resources for islanders for 227 years now. Today, that resource is at risk. If it is destroyed, there will be practically no way of getting it back. The haphazard development of West Bay hopefully will serve as an example of what to do, and what not to do.

For now, the unspoiled land in José Santos Guardiola is like Bitcoin, the longer you keep it as it is, the higher value it will achieve – barring any unpredictable world crisis and catastrophic weather events, of course.

The Bay Islands are the Bitcoin Pioneers in Honduras

There are over 14,100 places all over the world that’s accept Bitcoin as payment – all tracked on-line. While Guatemala City, Managua, and San Salvador are all small hubs of Bitcoin activity, San Pedro Sula has only one location accepting Bitcoin and the Bay Islands have four.

“I knew about Bitcoin back in 2009. I embraced it immediately,” says John Willms a Canadian who is “looking after” Turtle Grass Marina in Calabash Bight while his friends take a break in the US. Back in 2017, only one transaction was done in Bitcoin- it was a purchase of a pizza. “Wallet-ed [cryptocurrency] transactions took 10-15 seconds. Perfect,” says John. The opportunity to spend some Satoshis or Bitcoin presented itself on Thursday and Saturday pizza days and that is when the Turtle Grass Marina gets really busy: 1 pm till closing to be exact.

They treat us like kings and queens

Willms, not only accepts Bitcoin, but also supports businesses that take Bitcoin. “When we go to Utila we use Ecomarine because they accept Bitcoin,” says John. “They treat us like kings and queens because of that.” Gunther’s Ecomarine dive shop and another small hotel accept Bitcoin as payment on Utila. “[Bitcoin] is just another way of paying, and the money emitted by central banks… well they are just a bunch of crooks,” saysWillms.

Sometimes it is Bitcoin that finds Roatan not other way around. Three years ago the president of the microstate of Liberland was visiting a friend on Roatan and run up a bill in the Jonesville Point Marina. “He offered to pay the $120 in Bitcoin and said I can set up a wallet in seconds,” remembers Sheri Visker, manager of the marina. Her Bitcoin customer was VitJedlička, a Czech activist and politician who founded the river island country of “Free Republic of Liberland” on an unclaimed river island between Serbia and Croatia in 2015. “President” Jedlička took a liking to land on Roatan and has made several visits here looking to buy property here… in Bitcoin. One thing still missing is the Bitcoin sale sticker next to Diners Club, Visa and AMEX stickers prominently displayed at the Marina’s bar. “It’s hard to get the sticker off,” explainsVisker. “Both my sons got into Bitcoin early. I think it’s a good investment.”

Pizza and a place to stay are not the only things a few Bitcoins will buy you on Roatan. Roatan Real Estate deals in Bitcoin are in the making. Currently a home in Pristine Bay, a lot at Lawson Rock, and an estate in Sandy Bay are all offered for sale in Bitcoin.

In 2015 the Honduran government had conversations with US based Epigraph company to develop “a permanent and secure land title record system” using the Bitcoin block chain. Mismanagement and corruption of land records in Honduras has caused many conflicts over property rights. Over 80 percent of land titles accumulated over two centuries are either untitled or improperly titled. The deal was called off, however, as not even the most sophisticated blockchain could handle this Honduran land record mess.