Paid in Satoshis, his expense was aware and only in what is necessary, without paying attention to the price.
Back in the Fíat world, the consumerist mentality returns and spending the savings in Bitcoin “Duele”
Ernesto Quezada, known for his accrete pseudonym, survived a civil war, scheduled websites for giants in London and discovered his Bitcoiner vocation while driving an Uber through the streets of San Salvador, the capital of the country that became a pioneer by adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal certificate.
This summary of his life might seem the climax of a personal overcoming film, but for Quezada, it was only the beginning of his most intimate battle. Today, with a salary paid in dollars, pound a silent fight against the principles of freedom and decentralization that he learned from the currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto.
“My mentality was becoming Fíat again,” he confesses with honesty the Salvadoran of almost 50 years. “And I had this internal fight that didn’t happen when I started living with Bitcoin.”
Today, Acreonte works for the Ministry of Education of El Salvador, a position that says he has accepted to contribute to the future of his country. However, This entrance to the governmental world has immersed him in a culture that he thought he had left behind.
“Now, working there and seeing the directors’ trucks, I think I need to change my car,” he admits. «When I lived from Bitcoin, I loved my Kia of 2014. I took where I needed, right? I didn’t need anything elegant.
And that discrepancy is the core of his struggle. Because, after being paid and living exclusively in Satoshis (the smallest denomination of Bitcoin), where each expense was a conscious and valued decision, now receives a salary in dollars. «Dollars are, yes, whatever, they will come more. And the expenditure on things that I really don’t need, ”he explains. «Growing my Sats now hurts. They feel beautiful. It is a 100%Fíat mentality ».
The Paradox of Acreonte is, in many ways, a mirror of the contradiction that El Salvador, the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The initial promise, articulated by the Nayib Bukele government, was the freedom of choice. It was thought that Any citizen could decide if he wanted to receive their salary or payments in BTC or in dollars through the Wallet goat, the digital purse developed in the presidential order.
However, the dream of mass adoption and a fluid bimonary economy crashed with reality. In recent years, with the aim of protecting a crucial agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Government modified the Salvadoran Bitcoin Law, eliminating the obligation to accept BTC for businesses.
The progressive dismantling of the Wallet goat was also ordered. And, in this stage of strategic withdrawal, the struggle of an individual as an active, is actually the testimony of a promise that, for many, has vanished.
From the Civil War to the jump with Bitcoin
The history of Acreonte is a reflection of the transformation of El Salvador. He grew up in San Salvador during the Civil War of the 80s, an era of bombs, curbing touches and soldiers in the streets. “I remember that I was about 14 years old during the 1989 offensive. We were all scared, hiding,” he says.
Peace in the 90s brought a new era, and with it, its first contact with technology. «I was at university, learning programming languages, and I thought: My God, I love this. I want to do this for the rest of my life ». And becoming his dream, became one of the country’s few web developerswhich allowed early economic independence.
His thirst for knowledge led him to London in the early 2000s, initially to learn English. And there he decided to stay for a decade. Then it was in the capital of England where he obtained a master’s degree in digital media. And there also worked for large advertising agencies and, crucially, for a casino video game company, such as He told him in a podcast.
«I developed games from scratch. I learned how they work, how the computer has already chosen for you, regardless of your lucky day or if you wear pink, ”he says. “I associate this with shitcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies).”
After returning to El Salvador, feeling a little lost, he started driving for Uber. It was in that car where fate wove his future.
“I saw Jack Mallers at the Bitcoin Conference in Miami, with a T -shirt from El Salvador, and then showed the video of President Bukele announcing that Bitcoin would be legal tender,” he recalls with the broken voice. «I started crying. I thought: ‘That is my president. They are mentioning my country for something good! ‘ It was incredible.
That emotion drove him to explore the ecosystem. He went through a frustrating attempt to buy Bitcoin at a cashier in the zonte and an expensive detour through the world of Shitcoins. “I lost a few hundred dollars with Terra/Luna,” he said before mentioning that fate called his door literally.
During several Uber trips, He transferred key figures of the bitcoin ecosystem in El Salvador. First, a “maxi” that warned him about the Shitcoins. Then, Noe, from the Blink wallet. And finally, Mario, a collaborator of the educational organization Cubo+, who saw him and said: «Do you know about technology? Please apply to this program ».
To drive an uber to program with Cubo+
Acreonte was selected among more than 1,500 applicants for the first generation of Cube+, an intensive Bitcoin training field. He stopped thinking about Texas or returning to London. «I stay in El Salvador. This seems very, very interesting, ”he decided, like several young people from various parts of the world.
The program was a total immersion. He learned from giants in the sector as Giacomo Zucco and Jimmy Song. He traveled to Italy and Switzerland. It was a transformation that consolidated it as a convinced and technically solid bitcoiner.
After graduating, he got work at Plan B Network, where his salary was 100% in Bitcoin.
«I didn’t even realize the change. He won in Bitcoin, so he lived from Bitcoin. I bought everything I needed in Bitcoin. It was natural. He felt so good to go to a place, scan and ready. Without worrying about change ».
Acreonte, Bitcoiner de El Salvador.
Bitcoiner paradox in El Salvador
However, everything changed to accrete with its current position in the Ministry of Education, a position that perceives as a paradox. He accepted the place with the goal of positively impacting 1.2 million students. However, this role is faced daily to a bureaucratic mentality that clashes with freedom And the disruptive mentality that Bitcoin’s world helped him forge.
«When you earn in Bitcoin, you don’t pay attention to price. You simply spend your sats on what you really need. The fight is real. To maintain the mentality, the solution is clear. If you can’t win in Bitcoin, turn your Fiat to BTC into the first opportunity. It is the only way to protect your system from the system ».
Acreonte, Bitcoiner de El Salvador.
Acreonte dilemma, in essence, is reduced to your salary. While El Salvador projects the world a technological avant -garde image with its national treasure in Bitcoin – whose purchases have generated controversy – the internal gears of the country – their bureaucracy, its administration, its administration, its administration, payments to their officials – are still anchored in the logic of the traditional financial system.
All this leaves the doubt of how can a circular economy based on Bitcoin prosper if the largest institution in the country, the government, does not adopt it fully in its operational base? For now, the answer lies in the silent struggle of people as accrete, pioneers in a promised land that, ironically, still pays them with the currency of the past.
