Essaouira is one of my favorite towns to go and get away from it all. "quaint in a crumbly, third-world way" is exactly it. Your descriptions took me right back.
The last paragraphs are a spine-tickling slam dunk! I hope the old man will remember to safeguard and use his bitcoins.
"The payment appeared immediately on his LCD display. No delay. No government-imposed currency controls. No middleman siphoning off a percentage of our money. Paying for a meal with Bitcoin might seem like an insignificant event. But to me, it was everything: two guys cooperating freely, peer-to-peer. A Muslim and a Jew in a Moroccan city contributing to each other’s quality of life."
Thanks