In May 2022, an apartment in the city of Braga, Portugal was bought for three Bitcoins. This marked the first time a property was directly sold for Bitcoin in Portugal without the need for prior conversion to a fiat currency.
This was made possible due to new regulations of the “Order of the Notaries”, which was launched a month earlier.
The process is quite simple. The buyer gives his Bitcoin to the seller, and through the exchange of the digital money, the ownership rights to the property are delivered.
Portugal is now a hub for technological innovation. With a relatively low cost of living and a Bitcoin-friendly tax policy, Portugal has become a home for digital nomads. With this growing network and favorable policy, Bitcoin refugees from Ukraine have recently flocked to the country.
El Salvador and Próspera: Two Different Paths to Bitcoin Adoption
Bitcoin has seen a large increase in usage since the whitepaper came out. Not only can people use it to save, trade or buy properties, but entire countries and cities such as El Salvador and Próspera (a semi-autonomous city of Honduras) use it as a legal tender.
The difference in how these two government bodies use Bitcoin as a legal tender lies in the scale of the area of usage and how its implementation came around. Próspera is much smaller compared to El Salvador, which is a nation state. Also, the election to use bitcoin as legal tender in Próspera is a choice, not a requirement thus making the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender between Próspera and El Salvador different.
In Próspera, there are only four types of taxes which are a 5% individual income tax, a 2.5% sales tax on goods and services, a 1% corporate revenue tax, and a 1% land value tax. There are no other taxes, not even capital gains taxes, levied within Próspera. This allows residents and businesses to transact in whatever currency they deem appropriate, which makes bitcoin a de facto legal tender. But Próspera went one step forward in May 2021 and released a resolution for the acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
