To date, SatoshiLabs' CoinMap application - the same company that manages the Trezor hardware portfolio and the Slush mining pool - shows no less than 9,714 businesses of all types that accept bitcoins as a payment method, spread around the world.
There are usually no large concentrations in the same place, with few exceptions, of course, which are usually located in the capitals of different countries. One of them is Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina: with 145 businesses, organizations and professionals that accept bitcoins in the city and the most immediate surroundings of the province of the same name, it wins the title of the bitcoin capital of Latin America.
Although Coinmap's figures are approximate, as the platform allows any user to add sites, these indicators give us an image of Bitcoin's adoption status in the different cities of the world.
To put it in context, Argentina has even surpassed San Francisco and New York in terms of bitcoiners business, as they only reach approximately 98 and 113, respectively. Other big cities famous for their acceptance of the ecosystem, such as Tokyo and Seoul, are also lagging behind: the Japanese capital currently has around 53 businesses, while the capital of South Korea has 42. Sidney, another Bitcoin global centre, has only 45 sites while Melbourne boasts 54.
As far as Latin America is concerned, the difference is also significant. Its closest competitor is São Paulo, the most populous city in Brazil, with 71 bitcoin-friendly locations. In third place is Mexico City with 31 establishments and in fourth place Bogotá, with 24. Of the rest of Latin America's capitals, there is little left to say: only Santiago de Chile, Panama, Brasilia, San Juan and Caracas reach two figures.
Such exponential growth in Buenos Aires is often attributed to the Argentine economic crisis, which would literally throw citizens into the arms of a more practical and better valued currency. However, it can also be said that it is simply one of those places where, for some reason, the concept of Bitcoin has found very fertile soil: like San Francisco, as in Tokyo.
From CriptoNoticias we have given ourselves the task of contacting some of the people in charge of these 145 establishments in the city to ask them about their experience with cryptomonitoring. Let's see the results.