This will be the first Bitcoin community where goods, services and the houses themselves could all be paid for through Bitcoin.
Concept art for the clubhouse will have pools and shops (Image: onebequia.com)
The housing devloper Storm Gonsalves plans to build 39 luxury villas complete with shops, a clubhouse and other buildings which will all accept Bitcoin as payment
Mr Gonslaves said he is happy to be "pioneering" the technology and says other developers and countries will be watching how to replicate his successes - stating it could be a very normal thing in the years to come.
He said that while some developers and sellers have sold houses through Bitcoin, his development will be the first which will accept it as payment at shops, for maintenance fees and other costs on the island.
Cryptocurrencies could also provide a solution to financial challenges in the Caribbean, where island communities can be cut off from mainstream banking facilities.
Mr Gonslaves said : “Residents of small island nations are finding it increasingly difficult to send and receive money internationally because of ‘derisking’ by large international banks” – a practice of removing intermediary banking services from smaller community banks.
He said: “This prevents the island-based banks from transacting internationally. If this trend continues it means small island nations will be essentially cut off from international trade and commerce. For tourism-based economies, this will be devastating.” Caribbean countries are adopting blockchain and cryptocurrencies more quickly than elsewhere as a result, Mr Gonslaves said.
St Lucia, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis launched DCash, the world’s first digital currency union in the world, which is backed by a central bank.
More information is available here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/bitcoin-caribbean-bequia-island-cryptocurrency-b1848070.html