El Salvador Taxi Driver ‘Used Bitcoin to Become Entrepreneur’

Salvadoran man claims Bitcoin price rises helped him build a BTC-powered car rental and taxi company

Author Tim Alper Author Tim Alper About Author Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked... Author Profile Share Copied Last updated: September 8, 2024 19:30 EDT

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An El Salvador taxi driver used Bitcoin (BTC) to help him create a car rental company and spread awareness of the coin’s credentials as a payment tool.

Per AFP (via Mileno), Napoleon Osorio (39) used BTC adoption to go from unemployment to running his own firm in three years.

El Salvador Taxi Driver’s BTC Success Story

Osorio told the news agency that he has 21 drivers working for his BitDriver taxi firm. He also said he has made enough profit from BTC price rises “to buy four rental vehicles.”

Thank you @AFP for calling us rich! 😄

Jokes apart this is a great article about how we overcame hard times with #Bitcoin and a lot of work !@elisuademo you're the best! 👊https://t.co/PMX12vATVo — Bitdriver (@bitdriver_sv) September 7, 2024

The business owner has also become something of a Bitcoin evangelist in the first nation to grant BTC legal tender status.

He claims that his firm is “the first taxi company” to accept BTC in El Salvador. He also claimed that his BTC success means he “no longer struggles” to pay for his teenage children’s education.

Osorio claimed that the American BTC advocate John Dennehy, founder of the NGO My First Bitcoin, “encouraged him to accept payment in the cryptocurrency.”

The BitDriver founder has since become affiliated with My First Bitcoin (known as Mi Primer Bitcoin in El Salvador).

This journey appears to have taken him to high places. Osorio recently updated his Instagram account with an image showing him sitting in a Salvadoran Presidential office.

The NGO is mainly active in El Salvador. It says that it carries out BTC “education drives.”

We've taught 35,000 students about #bitcoin.

Learn how we plan to reach 100,000 students. 👇🏼

We've brought bitcoin to tens of thousands of students in El Salvador in less than three years. But this is just the beginning! 🇸🇻🌍

🔗 https://t.co/zhkyb5c1Ms

Help us with a… pic.twitter.com/ncAzfajGaf — Mi Primer Bitcoin (@MyfirstBitcoin_) August 13, 2024

Caveats Aplenty

However, as is the case with many mainstream media articles focusing on Salvadoran Bitcoin adoption, the AFP report also carried no shortage of caveats.

The news agency quoted University Institute for Public Opinion Director Laura Andrade as saying:

“From the beginning […] it was clear that [Bitcoin adoption] was […] an ill-advised measure that the population rejected.”

The report’s author noted that “while Osorio has grown relatively wealthy with Bitcoin,” a study by the same body “showed that 88% of Salvadorans had yet to use it.”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, the architect of the nation’s BTC adoption plans, has claimed the government is holding around $400 million worth of Bitcoin in offline (cold) wallets.