The candidates see it as an “active to sincere” or an “escape valve” for the crisis.
For citizens, it is real money for day to day and an emergency exit of the system.
While Bolivia prepares for a very close presidential return on October 19, 2025, with the centrist Rodrigo Paz Pereira facing the conservative Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, the communities of Bicoin (BTC) of the country advance with a rhythm of their own, outside the electoral uncertainty.
In the midst of an economic crisis marked by inflation that exceeds 20% and a shortage of dollars, with endless lines for fuel and basic goods, many qualify it as The worst crisis of the last 20 years. However, pioneer digital currency enthusiasts show that The adoption of the money they use does not depend on the will of a government or the campaign promises.
In cities such as Cochabamba, small businesses, from restaurants to beauty salons, already accept payments in Bitcoin and are proliferating, offering an alternative to the devaluation of the Bolivian.
This dynamic, driven by a community of common entrepreneurs and citizens, evidence that Bitcoin is consolidating its presence in Bolivia, not by state decree, as in El Salvador, but by the initiative of those who see in Bitcoin a way to protect their purchasing power and claim financial sovereignty in times of political uncertainty.
The next president of Bolivia will inherit a country with a critical shortage of dollars, a galloping inflation and a generalized distrust in the system. However, a bitcoin ecosystem will also inherit whose adoption has grown 630% in the last year, according to data from the Central Bank itself. This is not a phenomenon that stops for elections. On the contrary, it demonstrates that while the policy debate the future, the grassroots communities are already living it.
It means that citizens do not wait for politicians to offer them a solution; They are building it themselves, transaction transaction.
Community action against electoral noise
The electoral contest has even forced the candidates to look sideways, and sometimes from the Bitcoin ecosystem. Forced by a reality that they cannot ignore, they have begun to include terms such as “blockchain” and “cryptoactive” in their speeches and government plans. But his approach reveals a fundamental gap with the movement that grows from below.
Rodrigo Paz Pereira, for example, proposes A technocratic and state approach in its government plan «Agenda 50/50». Its vision is to use distributed accounting networks “to modernize public procurement and combat corruption through intelligent contracts.”
Your proposal also suggests a recognition of digital assets as part of the heritage which can be formalized in a sincere program to stabilize the economy, although exhaustive technical details are not provided about its implementation.
On the other hand, the economic team of the candidate Jorge Quiroga considers cryptocurrencies, especially stablecoins as USDT, as an inevitable “escape valve” before the crisis.
Ramiro Cavero, Economic Chief of Quiroga, admits that the opening of the current government “has helped relieve pressure on the exchange rate.” Their plan is to “integrate them completely, with all the necessary laws” so that they work well, according to statements reported by cryptootics.
Bitcoin in Bolivia: state control or citizen freedom?
The proposals of the candidates, although different, share a common denominator: come to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a phenomenon that must manage, regulate and integrate into the existing system. They see it as a resource to solve the problems of the State, Not as a solution for citizens to escape the problems created by the State.
Meanwhile, in the streets, the narrative is completely different. Bitcoiner communities are not waiting for a law, a decree or a government plan. Driven by the shortage of dollars and the devaluation of their currency, they are educating merchants, organizing meetings and creating small circular and citizel economies. For them, BTC is not an “active to sincere”, but real money. It is not a temporary “exhaust valve”, but the emergency exit of a financial system that they consider obsolete and confiscatory.
In short, Bitcoin’s true power in Bolivia does not reside in his mention in a government plan, but in each merchant that accepts him to protect himself from inflation, in each family that receives remittances without intermediaries, and in each young man who saves in a currency that cannot be devalued by a politician on duty.
Bitcoin already marked the agenda of the next government
Whoever wins the elections will find the reality that the population has already chosen their own monetary policy. The next president will not decide if Bitcoin is adopted in Bolivia; rather, it will decide how your government reacts to an adoption that is already underway, driven by the most powerful force of all: economic survival.
Therefore, the true election in Bolivia is not fought only between two candidates. It is fought between a centralized system that falls apart and a decentralized network that offers an alternative. And in that contest, While politicians tell votes, Bolivians are already counting Satoshis (The smallest Bitcoin account unit).
All this is evidence that political power is temporary and disputes at the polls, but the economic power that citizens with Bitcoin are building is resistant and sovereign.
This dynamic, where the community advances faster than the State, is not exclusive to Bolivia. In fact, the most emblematic case in the world offers a mirror of what the Bolivian future could be: El Salvador. There, the state experiment with Bitcoin did not prosper as expected; However, true adoption flourishes in communities, driven by its people.
The case of El Salvador demonstrates that true adoption does not arise from government offices. An example is Bitcoin Berlin, in Usulután, a vibrant circular economy where the light network is the norm. This ecosystem does not depend on state funds, but on the passion of its inhabitants and anonymous donors. It is the Bitcoin City that does exist, forged from below.
Bitcoin Berlin is not alone. Bitcoin Beach, in El Zonte, preceded Bukele’s law, and emerging spotlights such as Isla La Pirraya and Santa Ana are creating their own ecosystems, those that the world believed that they would arrive with a Nayib Bukele with laser eyes and a bitcoin law that would instantly transform the Salvadoran economy.
El Salvador remains a reference, not so much by the Bitcoin Law signed by Bukele, but for the work of its communities. They are proof that Bitcoin adoption is not imposed; It is cultivated. And that is the same lesson that, from the base, is being written today in the streets of Bolivia.
