The “gringo” waiting for Bukele’s “Bitcoin City” on a beach in El Salvador

When President Nayib Bukele announced the construction of “Bitcoin City”the first metropolis “bitcoiner” of the world, Corbin Keegan left his life in Chicago and decided to go to The Savior. Two and a half years later, he is still waiting for the project to become a reality.

Sitting in a hammock, drinking coffee, Keegan talks to AFP about his dream of being the first inhabitant of ““Bitcoin City” in the patio of a modest fishermen’s house in Playa Blanca, in the municipality of Conchagua – 200 km east of San Salvador.

In Chicago (north-central United States) he did not have a permanent job, he drove trucks or worked on farms, so he did not hesitate to pack his bags when in September 2021 he heard the news that the dollarized Salvadoran economy would become the first of the planet to have bitcoin as legal tender.

“Automatically, the place where I want to be was on my radar,” the 42-year-old American says in English, surrounded by chickens pecking at their food in the yard.

Amid fireworks, Bukele, the big favorite for re-election in Sunday’s elections, announced in 2021 the creation of a high-tech circular city, with an airport, shops, green areas and a monument to bitcoin in its central square.

Then, Bukele explained in English that this city would boost the Salvadoran economy and would be built on the slopes of the Conchagua volcano, whose geothermal energy would be used to power the city and the supercomputers that mine bitcoin.

“There will be Bitcoin City (…) I think it’s good, it’s going to happen. So I’m staying,” says Keegan convinced, with the background sound of the waves breaking on the beach, a few meters from where he lives.

They called him “crazy”

Of the “Bitcoin City” There is not even a brick laid yet. And according to a survey by the Central American University (UCA) released in January, the virtual currency – highly volatile (its price fluctuated between US$16,000 to US$45,000 in 2023) – is not popular among Salvadorans: 88% he did not use it in his transactions last year.

But the government seems not to abandon the idea and plans to finance the construction with part of the funds obtained from the issuance of about US$1 billion in bitcoin bonds, which it intends to do in the first quarter of 2024.

Keegan, who has a father and a brother in the United States, remembers that ten years ago people took him for “crazy” when he said that one day a country would adopt cryptocurrency as a currency.

On the beach everyone calls him “The gringo”. White skinned and thin, he always dresses in a t-shirt, shorts, flip flops or comfortable casual shoes.

There he was welcomed by a family of fishermen who allowed him to build a small 6 m2 room with concrete bricks and a tin roof in the patio of their house.

A “do-it-all”

“We decided to adopt him” as part of the family, says María Antonia de Carballo, 44, owner of the land.

Her husband, Luis Carballo, a 40-year-old fisherman, maintains that Keegan, a lover of seafood and beans, is a “does it all.” One day he goes out in a boat to fish on the high seas and another day he helps a neighbor prune a tree or build a wall.

For this reason, the American receives symbolic payments in dollars that are used to buy food and other basic products.

“He already showed us love as a family, he says that we are his family”the fisherman, whose home is surrounded by private beach ranches, told AFP.

In Playa Blanca, no one uses cryptocurrency, and when Keegan needs more money, he rides a rickety motorcycle that he bought to go to the city of Conchagua, about 20 km away, to withdraw money from an ATM that accepts bitcoin and dollars.

For the American, who does not like to talk about his investment in cryptocurrency, the “Bitcoin is the future of the world.”

And although he says he is looking at opportunities “everywhere”is convinced that “Bitcoin City” It will be a reality. So much so that he is looking for a Salvadoran wife, although she has already suffered a heartbreak in these two years in the country.. “It’s going to happen here. It will be the first bitcoin city. I’ll wait. “I will wait as long as it takes.”he says hopefully.