Manila, Philippines

Angela Bernardo

I believe in Bitcoin for acceptance.

Angela was first introduced to Bitocin in 2016. At the time, she found herself uninterested and skeptical about the new hype. “Here in the Philippines, there are many Bitcoin investments and most of them are scams,” she told us about her initial introduction. With persistence from her friends, Angela found herself finally diving into the world of Bitcoin and she hasn’t looked back since.

Hesitant yet again

Fast forward to 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic when the market value of Bitcoin went down. Angela’s friend invited her to another Paxful event in hopes that she would start using the platform. “I don’t have the money to start because I pay lots of bills and our business had to shut down because of the lockdown,” she told her friend. But against all odds, Angela took a leap of faith and used 10,000 PHP of her salary that was meant to pay her rent, and she bought her first piece of Bitcoin.

Acceptance is key

Most transactions in the Philippines take place digitally, so Angela firmly believes that Bitcoin can be added to the payment roster at any time through existing platforms like Paxful. “I believe Bitcoin can do anything like what our current money does,” she told us, and she’s made the switch to paying her bills using Bitcoin.

Bitcoin acceptance starts with education, which Angela is continuing to do herself. “I believe Bitcoin is for everyone. I’m still at the stage of expanding my knowledge about this digital currency, but I believe that through continuous learning, my belief in Bitcoin will also deepen,” she told us. 

With her friends and family now a part of the Bitcoin community, Angela firmly believes that the people are in control of Bitcoin’s value, “as long as they know how to use it in the right way,” she said.

The future is bright

With Bitcoin’s use cases spanning far and wide, Angela thinks that everyone she knows on the Internet will own Bitcoin in the future. “Some of them will keep it as their asset while some of them will use it for trading. Some of them will exchange it while some of them will use it as their digital money to pay for stuff,” she went on to tell us how she envisions her circle of friends and family to use Bitcoin in their futures.

Angela looks forward to when she travels and how she won’t need to use physical cash or her bank to pay for things—she’ll have everything she needs in her Bitcoin wallet.