Bitcoin Indonesia, a non-profit initiative, wants to drive Bitcoin adoption in Indonesia and offer people an alternative to traditional financial systems. Bitcoin House Bali stands for freedom, financial sovereignty and the strength of the community. It plays a central role in making Bitcoin better known and more accessible to all people in Indonesia. The Bitcoin House should make Bali a Bitcoin Island again.
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Bitcoin House Bali is at the heart of Bitcoin Indonesia and is located in the middle of Canggu, the island's hot spot. In a converted Bitcoin mining container, we have created a lively community hub and education center. Starting in June 2024, we will be offering regular meetups, various workshops, co-working spaces and hackathons. Inside the container, there is also an “Educational Gallery Wall” with lots of pictures, posters and infographics that invite you to explore the various areas about Bitcoin. Various Bitcoin products (e.g. books, hardware wallets, a Lightning ATM) are displayed on a merch wall for you to try out and learn.
The aim of our project is to raise awareness of Bitcoin and create an inviting place where you can learn, exchange ideas, work on Bitcoin together and have a good time with like-minded people.
With the opening of Bitcoin House, the first Bitcoin circular economy in Indonesia is also launching. Despite legal obstacles, the community has found a legal solution that makes it possible to use Bitcoin as a means of payment within the community.
How does that work? Instead of “paying” in bitcoin, community members redeem their bitcoin/sats. The experience is the same as paying with bitcoin — it only differs from a legal perspective. This allows us to send donations in bitcoin to our team (e.g. community leaders and volunteers). In addition, the community can “redeem” bitcoin to...
The project is now being implemented piece by piece with the aim of gradually involving more retailers, activities, services and community members in this circular economy in Bali and creating a sustainable ecosystem.
Bitcoin adoption is booming in Indonesia, despite the many obstacles and restrictions imposed by the government and central banks in 2018.
What happened? Bali was actually the first Bitcoin island - there were Bitcoin ATMs back in 2014, in many restaurants and cafés you could pay in Bitcoin and even buy Bitcoin in small supermarkets. In 2018, the Indonesian Central Bank took a stricter stance on foreign currencies and declared the Indonesian rupiah as the only legal tender, or in other words: It was forbidden to use other currencies (such as bitcoin) as a means of payment. These regulatory interventions were intended to protect the stability and authority of the Indonesian rupiah. Unfortunately, this has meant that the wider Bitcoin adoption in the country has slowed down. At the same time, the local currency has lost around 29% of purchasing power in the last 5 years (according to official figures, real inflation is significantly higher). Who knows where Indonesia would be today if the government had already understood Bitcoin better back then.
Despite regulatory barriers, the enthusiasm for free, solid money is unstoppable. The local community has found creative ways to provide access to Bitcoin and is not being discouraged. “We're seeing huge interest in Bitcoin, particularly in our free educational offerings and meetups. Started in Bali, we now organize over 20 meetups every month — even on the most remote islands, such as Natuna Island and Sumba. This shows how much the community is growing here,” says Marius from Bitcoin Indonesia.
Bitcoin offers Indonesia many opportunities, particularly in terms of financial inclusion and freedom. In the fourth most populous country in the world, 77% of the population no or only limited access to the banking system. Trust in banks is very low because they are often insecure, inefficient and expensive — it is not uncommon for people to lose all their savings due to IT security gaps and phishing attacks at banks or because the high fees eat up their balances month after month.
Due to regulations, large services such as Wise must now discontinue their e-wallets, which further limits people's financial freedom and, above all, makes cross-border transactions more difficult. Sometimes it feels as though the government is doing everything it can to further centralize its monetary power and build a big wall around the Indonesian currency area. Bitcoin offers an alternative to the restrictive, state-controlled financial system. Corruption and authoritarian structures are also a major problem. Bitcoin offers hope for more transparency here.
Indonesia could become the next big player in Bitcoin mining. With its huge, exploited geothermal energy potential — the largest in the world — and its hydropower, the country has sustainable energy sources that can be ideally used for Bitcoin mining. This could not only strengthen Indonesia economically, but also become a global role model for a sustainable energy future. At the same time, rural communities can be supplied with electricity through off-grid solutions.
In order to tap this energy potential, we will probably build a first mining farm in Indonesia this year, giving the go-ahead for further Bitcoin mining projects.
Our work on site is very diverse. In our understanding, Bitcoin adoption consists of 3 components that strengthen each other:
Bitcoin Adaption = Information x Social x Economy
That is why our work is focused on providing free educational opportunities, meetups, community building, and connecting businesses, the government, and Indonesian workers and developers.
What does that look like in practice? With the support of local community leaders, we now organize over 20 meetups across Indonesia every month. These are clearly structured and include - in addition to the relaxed gathering - lectures, guest speakers, workshops and hands-on exercises (e.g. installation of wallets, Lightning Torches). For our community leaders, we offer monthly train-the-trainer webinars and support them with meetup guides and checklists. We also give lectures at universities and lectures in schools. In view of the geographical challenge posed by the country's more than 17,000 islands, our focus is also on providing easy online access to reliable information. On social media and our Education Hub, we offer content in Bahasa Indonesia and English, compare wallets and local exchanges, for example, and recommend further (international) educational opportunities.
To create economic incentives, we help translate popular Bitcoin resources into the local language (e.g. Wallet of Satoshi, The Little HOdler Cartoons, etc.) and help Bitcoin companies enter the market in Indonesia by giving them access to our community and advising them. At the same time, we see ourselves as a network that enables easier communication with each other.
We are in close contact with the government and are working on designing the legal framework in such a way that Bitcoin can be more widely accepted in the future (fun fact: We even met President Joko Widodo and gave him a few sats). We want to connect people, businesses, and government to secure a future where human rights are respected and everyone can benefit from the digital economy.
Adopting Bitcoin can be truly transformative for Bali and all of Indonesia. With our work and Bitcoin House, we want to set an example for freedom and set a good example. Our focus on education, community building, and advocacy ensures that our work has a lasting and long-term impact. Together, we can shape the future and make the benefits of Bitcoin accessible to everyone.
Financial support from the community enables us to continue our work in the future — we are sincerely grateful for that! Click here for our Geyser project page and here to our website.
Diana is a co-founder of Bitcoin Indonesia and is passionately committed to the adoption of Bitcoin in Indonesia. She is the author of the book “Bitcoin For Indonesia” and co-organized the Indonesia Bitcoin Conference 2023. Furthermore, she is also active on social media at @bulebitcoin, where she provides insights into her life as a Bitcoin Nomad in Bali.
