Bitcoin, an accounting unit? Prospera (Honduras) on the way to financial freedom

Prospera may not be as popular as El Salvador in terms of adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, but it has not missed the spotlight since April 2022. At that time, this ZEDE took a new step forward with the queen of cryptocurrencies: its acceptance as a unit of account.

Bitcoin becomes a “unit of account” at Prospera (Honduras)

Influenced by El Salvador, Honduras embarked on the Bitcoin adventure in April 2022 after seeing its first BTC ATM installed on its soil a year earlier. Certainly, it does not have the same magnitude as the initiative of President Nayib Bukele’s government, but the idea of establishing a special economic zone favorable to Bitcoin, like Prospera, a city located on Roatan Island, is quite original.

After adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2022, Próspera, a special economic zone in Honduras, has now recognized Bitcoin as a unit of account. https://t.co/aRZGLwIAZI

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) January 8, 2024

“After adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2022, Prospera, a special economic zone in Honduras, now recognizes Bitcoin as a unit of account.“

Cointelegraph reported that Jorge Colindres, the tax commissioner of Prospera, considers the classification of Bitcoin as an “unit of account” as a financial and monetary emancipation for the people living in this employment and economic development zone (ZEDE). In other words, BTC now has this new status: a unit of measurement of the market value of goods and services.

“In the ZEDE Prospera, we believe in the right to financial freedom and monetary freedom. People should be free to transact, keep their books, and report their taxes in the currency of their choice,” says Mr. Colindres, the initiator of this project.

Thus, Prospera ZEDE is increasingly becoming one of the “most competitive special regimes” in Latin America as dreamed of by J. Colindres. With 100 million dollars coming in over 3 years, and more than 3,000 jobs created, the idea certainly doesn’t lack benefits.

An economic paradise in progress

For its president Joel Bomgar, Prospera is both a “Bitcoin (BTC) friendly environment” and “a regulatory certainty that allows people to build with Bitcoins without worrying whether a regulator will come in one day and change all the rules.” In other words, a libertarian city by the sea.

However, this waking dream of ZEDE has its limits. Firstly, there is the conflict with the neighboring villagers of Crawfish Rock over access to running water. The Honduran congress, led by Xiomara Castro, had to side with them and voted unanimously to end ZEDEs. But several million dollars have already been invested. The tug-of-war promises to be very tough.

Yet this new step taken by Mr. Colindres and his team means that, in some way, Prospera wants to evolve alongside Madeira (Portugal) as a promoter of Bitcoin.