I am from Trinidad and this has been My First Experience with Bitcoin

I was given a gift of TT$3 worth of Bitcoin (1000 Satoshis or 0.00001 bitcoin) and I used the Wallet of Satoshi to receive my gift. This is my first experience with bitcoin. I am in the process of learning more and I decided to share my experience and understanding in this blog post.

A wallet gives you access to your bitcoin and you can send and receive bitcoin. There are different types of wallets. Wallets have a public key (this is like your bank account number) and private key (this is like your online banking password).

The Wallet of Satoshi app is a zero-configuration custodial wallet. A custodial wallet means that they have control over the private keys. The Wallet of Satoshi uses the lightning network. The bitcoin network can only process a limited amount of transactions per second. The lightning network was created to overcome this. The lightning network has lower fees and allows micro-payments. A bunch of transactions can take place and then at a later time a net transaction is written to the bitcoin blockchain. You can receive payment by creating an invoice and this can be shared as a code or QR code. You also have a Lightning network address.

A term I came across is altcoin which are alternative cryptocurrencies to bitcoin like Ethereum. Then there are bitcoin exchanges that allow you to buy and sell bitcoin for other currencies. When I select Buy Bitcoin in the Wallet of Satoshi app, it redirects to using the moonpay.com api which states "your region is not supported". When I Google "how to buy Bitcoin in Trinidad?" I can see experiences from different persons using different services and apps. I also read that some local banks are blocking some crypto purchases.

I figure eventually in years to come there will be more bitcoin usage locally and I will hope that I can buy bitcoin with my local visa debit card. Some Caribbean countries are experimenting with digital currencies and Digicel is developing a mobile wallet. There is growth taking place in the regional fintech space. Share your experience with us in the comments below.

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