The tiny Portuguese archipelago of Madeira has “adopted” Bitcoin (BTC) — but what does that mean? The announcement, made during the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, has spurned confusion and misinformation.
Miguel Albuquerque, the president of the Regional Government of Madeira, hopped on the stage in April to announce: “I believe in the future, and I believe in Bitcoin.” He also said he would work to “create in Madeira a fantastic environment for Bitcoin.” However, the details remained unclear.
Cointelegraph spoke to André Loja, a Madeiran entrepreneur who spearheaded the plan to bring BTC to the archipelago in the Atlantic ocean, to find out how Bitcoin is shaping the islands’ development.
Madeira exploded onto the Bitcoin world map on April 7 when JAN3 CEO Samson Mow proudly announced that it “will be adopting Bitcoin.”
Upon the announcement, news outlets around the world reported that Madeira had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender; however, this was not the case. Loja explained to Cointelegraph that prior to the announcement, he would have preferred to use the phrase “Madeira is embracing Bitcoin.”
“We embrace it, we support it. We are not ‘adopting’ Bitcoin because adopting looks like we were making it legal tender when it’s already de facto legal.”
Indeed, in Madeira and across Portugal — which is around 620 miles to the northeast — there is zero tax on Bitcoin capital gains. That means any time one of Madeira’s residents disposes of, spends or uses BTC, it does not need to be declared to tax authorities.
Loja orange-pilled the president of Madeira just a few weeks prior to the conference, sharing his vision for Bitcoin as not only a means to attract foreign investment but to “protect my island from the fiat system.”
By happenstance, Albuquerque came to visit Loja’s coworking space — one of the few places to accept BTC in Madeira — and Loja jumped at the opportunity to share his passion for Bitcoin. Madeira was kneecapped by the COVID-19 pandemic as critical tourism revenue fell off a cliff. Loja, therefore, presented a Bitcoin future to the president as a…
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