Feb 13, 2022
For those of you who may not be aware, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021 and I wanted to check out this first-of-its-kind financial experiment on a nationwide level with my own eyes.
As part of my stay, I had the pleasure of meeting former CNBC reporter and current Youtuber Uptin Saiidi, who spent one week here documenting what happens when a country adopts Bitcoin as a legal tender. As I traveled with Uptin around different parts of the country watching him film his upcoming documentary, I got to have a first-hand look at what it takes to make videos on the road and tell compelling stories that make complex economic and technological issues more relatable to an audience (what Uptin likes to cover most in his videos).
Before the pandemic, Uptin was based in Singapore working out of an office three days a week. However, as the world shut down during the pandemic, and field reporting moved to Zoom, Uptin decided to strike out on his own and start his own channel. Suddenly a guy who had previously announced in a CNBC video that being a digital nomad was probably not for him was now able to go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted. The only problem? Making money was now going to be solely reliant on how much Uptin wanted to hustle. Let’s get on the road with Uptin and dive into his story now.