{"id":448387,"date":"2022-05-17T16:05:48","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T13:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/madeira-embraces-bitcoin-and-how-the-president-met-michael-saylor\/"},"modified":"2022-05-17T16:05:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T13:05:48","slug":"madeira-embraces-bitcoin-and-how-the-president-met-michael-saylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/madeira-embraces-bitcoin-and-how-the-president-met-michael-saylor\/","title":{"rendered":"# Madeira \u2018embraces\u2019 Bitcoin and how the president met Michael Saylor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a38793e03790\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a38793e03790\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/madeira-embraces-bitcoin-and-how-the-president-met-michael-saylor\/#%E2%80%9D_Madeira_%E2%80%98embraces_Bitcoin_and_how_the_president_met_Michael_Saylor_%E2%80%9C\" >&#8221; Madeira \u2018embraces\u2019 Bitcoin and how the president met Michael Saylor  &#8220;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9D_Madeira_%E2%80%98embraces_Bitcoin_and_how_the_president_met_Michael_Saylor_%E2%80%9C\"><\/span>&#8221; Madeira \u2018embraces\u2019 Bitcoin and how the president met Michael Saylor  &#8220;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"post-content\" data-v-2a0745c6>The tiny Portuguese island of Madeira has \u201cadopted\u201d Bitcoin (BTC) \u2014 but what does that mean? The announcement made during the Bitcoin Miami Conference in 2022 has spurned confusion and misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>The President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, hopped onto the stage in April to announce that he <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JwVKm-7sAM0&amp;t=42s\">believes<\/a> in the \u201cfuture of Bitcoin,\u201d and that he would work to \u201ccreate a fantastic environment for Bitcoin.\u201d However, the details remained unclear.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cointelegraph spoke to Andr\u00e9 Loja, a Madeiran entrepreneur who spearheaded the plan to bring Bitcoin to the archipelago in the Atlantic ocean to find out how Bitcoin is shaping the islands\u2019 development.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-05\/8504d8e3-7fe5-483d-982c-e9fbfcae3831.png\"><\/figure>\n<p>The island of Madeira exploded onto the Bitcoin world map on April 7, when Samson Mow proudly announced that Madeira \u201cwill be adopting Bitcoin.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Upon the announcement, <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> outlets around the world reported that Madeira had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. However, this was not the case. Loja explained to Cointelegraph that prior to Samson Mow\u2019s announcement, Loja would have preferred to use the phrasing \u201cMadeira is embracing Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe embrace it, we support it. We are not \u2018adopting\u2019 Bitcoin because adopting looks like we were making it legal tender when it\u2019s already de facto legal.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Indeed, in Madeira and across Portugal \u2014 1,000 km northeast of the island \u2014 there is zero tax on Bitcoin capital gains. That means any disposal, spending, or use of Bitcoin does <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.publico.pt\/2018\/01\/17\/tecnologia\/noticia\/ganhos-com-bitcoins-nao-pagam-imposto-em-portugal-1799707\">not<\/a> need to be declared to tax authorities by the island\u2019s 250,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>Loja orange-pilled the president of Madeira just a few weeks prior to the conference, sharing his vision for Bitcoin as not only a means to attract foreign investment, but to \u201cprotect my island from the fiat system.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>By h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>enstance, Albuquerque came to visit Loja\u2019s coworking space \u2014 one of the few places that accept Bitcoin in Madeira \u2014 and Loja jumped at the opportunity to share his passion for Bitcoin. Madeira was kneecapped by the COVID-19 pandemic as critical tourism revenue fell off a cliff. Loja, therefore, presented a Bitcoin future to the president as a means to diversify and restructure Madeira\u2019s economy, among other advantages. <\/p>\n<p>Albuquerque was reportedly\u00a0 open to the idea, so Loja quickly sought the help of Bitcoiners around the world, including Daniel Prince, a renowned Bitcoin podcaster; Jeff Booth, the author of <em>The Price of Tomorrow, <\/em>and even Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy. <\/p>\n<p>Within weeks, the Bitcoiner all-star team had contacted the organizers of Bitcoin Miami 2022 to organize the president\u2019s appearance on stage. Ultimately, having the head of state of an autonomous region endorse Bitcoin was an opportunity too big to miss. <\/p>\n<p>Upon landing in Miami, Loja and Albuquerque were invited to Saylor\u2019s flashy Miami villa, \u201cwith the yachts and everything,\u201d Loja jokes. While Loja had already orange-pilled the president, the conversation with Saylor was on another level:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cMichael Saylor sat down with president Albuquerque and well [\u2026] It was more like he sat down with his head!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Saylor told Albuquerque that \u201cyou need to focus on Bitcoin. Everything else is garbage.\u201d A conversation the president is unlikely to forget, the seminar was sufficient preparation for him to step on stage in front of 25,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts. <\/p>\n<p>Loja explained that the announcement that Madeira is adopting Bitcoin would \u201ckickstart an intention\u201d for Madeira to become an island in which Bitcoin prospers alongside the people. For Loja, who has already translated popular Bitcoin books into Portuguese, \u201cIt starts with education: the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-05\/2232abb1-c390-41f0-b8b7-388025057fdc.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><figcaption style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Loja (far right), President Albuquerque\u00a0(center with book) and Knut Svanholm (far left) in Madeira in May 2022. Source: Loja<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Indeed, Loja cut his teeth during the bear market of 2018. A passionate educator, Loja works closely with other educators in the space, such as Knut Svanholm,\u00a0 author of <em>Bitcoin: Everything Divided by 21 Million,\u00a0<\/em>to teach the principles of sound money: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I have a lot of ideas, from kindergarten to schools to adults workshops \u2014 and to bring people from outside the island. The association will have the best people as consultants.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To this end, Loja is founding the Sound Money Foundation, a Bitcoin education center in Madeira. The center has support from Samson Mow and Jeff Booth, among others, and seeks to help locals to better understand cryptocurrency from a young age. <\/p>\n<p>Accompanying the education drive and the focus on improving &#8220;financial literacy,&#8221; Loja&#8217;s hometown also lures Bitcoin companies with attractive fiscal incentives. At the International Business Center, companies pay <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt\/pt\/informacao_fiscal\/codigos_tributarios\/bf_rep\/Pages\/ebf-artigo-36-ordm-a.aspx\">just<\/a> 5% business tax, a highly competitive rate. Portugal was already a budding hub for individual Bitcoiners, but companies could now reap benefits\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Bitcoin, Bukele and a bevy of central bankers meet in El Salvador<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Further down the road, Loja plans for the autonomous government of Madeira to mine Bitcoin with leftover renewable energy \u2014 as the island has abundant wind and sunlight \u2014 and even carry out \u201ca multi-signature wallet for the government to work with Bitcoin financially.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-05\/f29f8b45-6228-4e0f-bbbb-ac8940665b65.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><figcaption style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Madeira&#8217;s international business center. Source: ibc-madeira.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As a result, the government would take full custody of the Bitcoin it mines by taking control of the private keys. Loja highlighted that the electrical power grid is a standalone \u201cpublic company,\u201d so any Bitcoin mined by the grid would go into government multi-sig wallets.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, Madeira&#8217;s approach to Bitcoin goes above and beyond the lauded legal tender status. From public sector Bitcoin mining to education to state-run multi-sig wallets to having Michael Saylor on speed dial, the island is slowly steering towards a Bitcoin future.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, Loja&#8217;s holistic approach to the island &#8220;embracing&#8221; Bitcoin has a low time preference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><template data-name=\"subscription_form\" data-type=\"crypto_biz\"><\/template><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/madeira-embraces-bitcoin-and-how-the-president-met-michael-saylor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8221; Madeira \u2018embraces\u2019 Bitcoin and how the president met Michael Saylor &#8220; The tiny Portuguese island of Madeira has \u201cadopted\u201d Bitcoin (BTC) \u2014 but what does that mean? The announcement made during the Bitcoin Miami Conference in 2022 has spurned confusion and misinformation. The President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, hopped onto&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":448388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/1200_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjItMDUvOGE1ODk0Y2YtMzQ1Mi00OTcwLWIxOTItMTE1N2JkMmEyOGY3LmpwZw==.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74862,81260,122847,75993,74355,117,10574,70954,70934,71471],"class_list":["post-448387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoin-community","tag-microstrategy","tag-portugal","tag-adoption","tag-business","tag-education","tag-miami","tag-regulation","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}