2024-11-16 –, Nakamoto Stage
How does Bitcoin change the game for El Salvador's coffee industry? Join us as Gabe from Good Beans, Jorge from Cherito Café, and Jay from Satoshi Coffee Co, dive into this question. We’ll discuss how Bitcoin is making cross-border transactions easier, boosting financial inclusion, and helping local coffee producers thrive in the global market. This panel is perfect for those curious about how Bitcoin empowers businesses and connects people worldwide.
Coffee and Bitcoin may seem worlds apart, but in El Salvador, they’re becoming closely intertwined. This panel will explore how the adoption of Bitcoin is allowing Salvadoran coffee businesses to thrive by enabling cross-border transactions, promoting financial inclusion, and empowering producers with the ability to transact in hard money. Through a moderated discussion, our panelists will share insights on how Bitcoin is not only a tool for financial sovereignty but also a catalyst for connecting people and businesses globally. Whether you're a Bitcoiner, entrepreneur, or simply curious about the intersection of traditional industries with cutting-edge technology, this panel offers a fresh perspective on the potential of Bitcoin to revolutionize the coffee trade in El Salvador.
Satoshi Coffee Co. was founded as a bitcoin-only coffee company in 2022. Recently we have worked with our supplier in El Salvador to send sats back to the farmers when customers purchase our San Pacho, El Salvador beans, thus creating a true circular economy with our fresh-roasted coffee.
We are @satscoffee on x and npub1a6zkqnuwcmjwynuw4u4xyngy9675x8dwgj87z9me4h8mdwmc2a0q8mvhjk on nostr
Gabe formally started his career in coffee in 2009 in a small Swiss coffee shop, but even as a child was immersed in coffee farms and mills in his native El Salvador. After working in the hospitality industry and tech in 2021 he started GoodBeans El Salvador Specialty Coffee with the goal of sharing some of the best Salvadoran coffees to a worldwide audience.
El Salvador is home to some of the finest specialty coffees in the world, grown by small producers who, over generations, developed a unique coffee culture and processes for savoring the tastes and subtle notes of a fine cup of coffee. Our project emerged out of this generational passion for fine coffee culture. Jorge Cruz Rubio, son of Jorge Cruz Sr. a 2nd generation grower, and educated in the U.S. & Europe, learned the ropes at (Worldbank/IFC) and big tech (Microsoft) as a team leader, found himself inevitably drawn back to his native land and culture, with a passion for bringing fine Salvadoran coffee to the markets he had spent much of his life in developed consumer world. The challenge was how?
Coffee, as a commodity is the second most consumed good after water, it became emblematic of the corporate cartels that control global supply chains and, in the name of consumer convenience, squeeze small farmers, who hand cultivate high quality, environmentally sustainable specialty coffee, into the maw of the huge combines that depress prices at the harvest, in order to reward the shareholders of their global food brands. The current system, built on a centralized fiat standard, simply doesn’t work for small growers trying to develop a niche of coffee connoisseurs and aficionados.
Jorge, returned to his native El Salvador, embarked on a new journey. As early as 2017, he sought to develop a genuine P2P system that allowed specialty coffee from the BioKrop Project (2014) and 2M Coffee Roaster to present high quality reserves and process to customers in traceable and transparent way rewarding producers, not squeeze them through unnecessary 3rd party intermediaries who dilute the fine coffee culture. By 2019, he partnered with locals in El Zonte and learned about Bitcoin.
I , Dr Khushboo Khullar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-khushboo-khullar-38251b43/), am a Venture Partner at Lightning Ventures. I am also responsible for Head of Portfolio success at LV. Lightning Ventures(USA) is a Venture Capital fund that has invested in 40+ Bitcoin and FOSS startups till date through its Node 1 fund and syndicate
- GTM and Partnerships Advisor x 2 Bitcoin Startups
- Ex-Banker (Mizuho) - M&A and Economist Specialist
- Venture Capital in Bitcoin Native Startups
- Academic: PhD in Economics - Macro & Energy Security
Quoted in three Bloomberg articles:
(a) “Bitcoin, Ether Tumble in the Biggest Decline Since FTX Collapse" Check out the full article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-04/bitcoin-btc-drops-below-59-000-after-worst-week-since-ftx-collapse
(b) “Bitcoin's Mt. Gox Swings Add to Signs of Rocky Crypto Rebound" Check out the full article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-08/bitcoin-btc-drops-anew-on-fears-of-sales-from-mt-gox-distributions
(C) Sliding Bitcoin Struggling to Harness Rebound in Global Risk Appetite https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-19/bitcoin-s-btc-august-drop-leaves-token-lagging-global-market-revival