The South African town where you can pay for almost everything with Bitcoin By Jan Vermeulen

[Nat Quinn]

The small coastal town of Witsand, off the Western Cape Garden Route between Heidelberg and Swellendam, has helped lead the charge for Bitcoin adoption in the region.

Spearheaded by Witsand resident and programmer Edwin Jones, the “Bitcoin Witsand” movement has grown from one or two merchants to most of the town’s businesspeople accepting Bitcoin.

Witsand made local headlines recently after South African journalists discovered a video by travel journalist and Bitcoin evangelist Joe Nakamoto (real name Joseph Hall).

Nakamoto visited the town in January last year and published a video on YouTube about his experience a few months later.

He showed that he could use Bitcoin in Witsand to pay for groceries at a convenience store, meals at restaurants, gym access, petrol, and even entertainment like water sports.

Nakamoto also said that several accommodation establishments accepted Bitcoin and interviewed a local boat captain who adopted the cryptocurrency.

In the video, Jones told Nakamoto that growth was initially very slow, with three Witsand merchants agreeing to accept Bitcoin in three years.

Adoption surged in 2023, with 27 or 28 merchants in Witsand beginning to accept Bitcoin. As of April 2025, 45 establishments in the town are listed on BTC Map as accepting Bitcoin.

Jones said Bitcoin Witsand has little remaining room for growth, as only a few holdouts do not wish to accept the cryptocurrency as payment.

Instead, he sees their role changing to become an example of Bitcoin working in real life, like Bitcoin Beach in El Salvador and Bitcoin Ekasi in Mossel Bay.

In an interview with the Connect the World podcast, Jones also downplays his role in creating Bitcoin Witsand, saying the town’s businesses got the ball rolling.

“Bitcoin Witsand existed long before we gave it a name,” Jones said.

“It was just having conversations with friends, and as the local business started understanding Bitcoin, they actually demanded we start getting the technology in place.”

Jones said local business owners were curious about Bitcoin and were looking for a technical solution to use in their businesses or shops.

Fanning a spark into a bonfire

As curiosity and interest increased, Bitcoin Witsand became more intentional about its approach to encourage onboarding, including tackling people’s fears about exchanging bitcoins for rands.

Details about this part of Bitcoin Witsand’s growth were shared by Jones’ first convert, Eldry Hill, who spoke at the Adopting Bitcoin conference in Cape Town earlier this year.

Hill owns Ellie’s on Main, a local restaurant that she opened with her partner after moving to Witsand a few years ago.

She has taken over some of Jones’ advocacy work and public speaking engagements for Bitcoin Witsand, explaining that he recently became a father.

She explained that a significant concern for shops considering accepting Bitcoin was what they would do with the Bitcoin they receive at the end of the month.

Business owners need rands to service loans, pay suppliers, cover operating costs, or pay their children’s school fees. They don’t necessarily want to hold Bitcoin long-term or deal with converting it frequently.

To help provide local business owners with the assurances they need, Hill highlighted several initiatives they undertook.

The first was providing small Bitcoin-based loans to local businesses. She emphasised that this was not a blanket or systemic solution. It only works in a small community where people know each other and there’s an element of trust.

Using the example of a local gym, Hill said the lender could discuss with the owner how they could improve the gym, perhaps by buying a new treadmill.

The individual hoping to create a circular Bitcoin economy would then loan the gym owner some of their own money in Bitcoin, putting their money where their mouths were.

Hill said the key to the model is the repayment mechanism. The idea is to encourage the business to accept Bitcoin for their services and then repay the loan in Bitcoin directly.

Hill said they also provided a way for people to swap their Bitcoins for fiat currency at a guaranteed exchange rate, which helped people overcome their fear about the volatility of the Bitcoin price.

Backlash against Bitcoin Witsand

The adoption of Bitcoin in Witsand — and the attention it has attracted — has not been without controversy.

Many of Witsand’s 600 residents remain sceptical about Bitcoin and those promoting its adoption in the picturesque town.

Concerns include that a few individuals with vested interests are driving a personal agenda, and that the attention on the town would bring unwanted development.

Several of the townsfolk seem completely against growth and prosperity for fear of what that might bring.

Some are worried the town might lose its quaint charm and character, while others have highlighted the infrastructural problems caused by rapid expansion.

On a Facebook group called Witsand Breede River, a person asked for photos of any places that have remained unchanged in the years since she vacationed there as a child.

“Changing by the day, unfortunately. Houses are just being built when the infrastructure is already failing. Government is just looking for money,” a resident responded.

In 2018, Business Day reported that Witsand had been dealing with freshwater scarcity during the tourist high season, when the population swells to over 3,000 people.

To address this problem, the Hessequa local municipality procured what it said was South Africa’s first solar-powered desalination plant, which was officially launched on 11 February 2019.

The R9-million facility was co-funded by the Western Cape Government’s drought relief fund and the French Treasury through a fund dedicated to implementing innovative green technologies.

At launch, the plant produced 100kℓ of fresh water per day when operating exclusively on its solar panels, which can supply close to 50% of Witsand’s daily demand during off-peak periods.

For the tourist season, the plant is connected to Eskom’s electrical grid, allowing it to run 24 hours and supply 300kℓ of water per day.

Hill, who is also the chairperson of Witsand’s ratepayers association, acknowledged that Bitcoin Witsand faced backlash and had many critics in the town.

However, she was unfazed by them, saying that backlash when trying to start a circular economy was expected.

She believes resistance is natural because people don’t like change and are biologically programmed to resist it.

Hill said criticism is nothing personal and encouraged others hoping to build Bitcoin circular economies not to view negative opinions as entirely detrimental, but rather as an indicator of engagement and potential future interest.

 

source:The South African town where you can pay for almost everything with Bitcoin – MyBroadband

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