Not every time I travel I'm able to actually use Bitcoin. But sometimes I discover interesting-enough and unlikely Bitcoin communities that make me want to share regardless, and Stacker News seems to be the perfect place.

I recently traveled to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC, or KKTC in Turkish). I heard grand stories of widespread Bitcoin adoption, and the stories somewhat fit what I knew about the place. A small strip of land, formally independent from Turkey, but recognized by nobody else, with a highly liberal visa regime, no currency of its own, and the geographical isolation of an island, divided in two parts by a concrete wall. The economy relies almost entirely on international tourists from places with poor or no financial infrastructure of their own, the largest bill isn't even worth US$5, which the country doesn't print it itself, but is imported from its only economical and political partner, Turkey.

🛬There are multiple flights a day scheduled from Istanbul every day, but I wasn't able to book most of them through Travala or even the airline directly. I doubt they ever took off. I ended up on a Pegasus flight that I booked through Travala with sats.

🛏️Travala does not list accommodation in Northern Cyprus, and their customer support tells me this is due to their wholesaler (Expedia) boycotting the place. Bitcoin Travel lists a small handful of places, but they are unbookable. I emailed a hotel that I heard accepts Bitcoin, but never heared back. I ended up finding a cheap and nice place in the old town of Lefkoşa (Nicosia) on Booking, but that means I have to pay with a debit card.

🛜Nadanada does not sell specific eSIMs for Nicosia, but their Euro bundle does include Northern Cyprus, and it indeed works. Dracotel does not indicate anything about Northern Cyprus on their website, but the eSIM works. Silent Link fails me, and cannot connect to any network.

There appear to be three payment processors operating in the area: Dynamex, Gatebit and Prowin. Dynamex has an online merchant directory, inconveniently without their addresses, but I can easily find most of the places on a map. Most are scattered around Girne (Kyrenia) and Lefkoşa, about a 45 minute dolmuş (minibus) ride away from each other. I start in Girne, and quickly realize that I might not be getting lucky today. There's no discussion, no checking, no reaching for the cell phones, just a clear and resounding "No we don't take Bitcoin." Some add "anymore."

In addition to the places I specifically sought out, I found a few dozen shops with "Bitcoin Accepted Here" stickers on their door, mostly tacky clothing shops selling counterfeit luxury brands. I asked almost every one of them if they accept Bitcoin. Two of them said yes:

☎️A cell phone shop that claimed to accept "Tether, Bitcoin and Nigerian Naira (???)" said they would take my Bitcoin, but when I tried to buy a phone charger, all they could give me was a screenshot of a Tether on Tron address.

🚙A luxury car dealership didn't hesitate when I asked, but I figured my channels aren't girthy enough for the latest BMW 7 series.

I am reassured by local Bitcoiners that most car and yacht dealers, real estate brokers and anyone selling and brokering high-value items will accept Bitcoin, but I'm recommended to use prepaid debit cards for everything else. Despite Northern Cyprus' political and financial isolation, card payments are widespread and preferred. It's worth noting that I did not see a single Lightning reference on any of the stickers, even though I was told all of the payment processors had embraced it.

However, there are a ton of Bitcoin OTC brokers around town. Almost none of them are open as I walk past, but they seem to be operational.

Bitcoin seems to be highly needed in Northern Cyprus. Most tourists are wealthy, but not outrageously rich citizens of countries that have difficulties obtaining visas for more desirable destinations. It's not just Northern Cyprus that suffers from a dysfunctional currency that isn't even their own, but its visitors do too. Russians, Iranians, Nigerians can all come to Northern Cyprus visa-free, but how will they pay for the goods and services they consume? At some point, Bitcoin payments must have been quite prominent around Girne and Lefkoşa. Some businesses invested significant resources in signage, the variety of stickers indicates organic growth, and the three payment processors all still exist as OTC brokerages. On the other hand, Euro and USD cash payments are widely accepted, and occasionally prices are even displayed in Euros.

If you have better insights into why Bitcoin payments failed on the island, or how they continue to flourish underground, then please let me know. My best guess so far is that the local regulators (who are really just pawns of Ankara) are trying to walk the narrow path between facilitating the inflow of foreign money, while also preventing the "dollarization" of their economy through stablecoins. They continue to allow foreigners and locals to swap their local currency in and out of stablecoins and Bitcoin, while preventing people to stay outside the system entirely.