Espirito Bitcoin: Fostering Crypto Education and Adoption in Espirito Santo, Brazil

Project Overview

Espirito Bitcoin is an initiative to foster Bitcoin education and adoption in Espirito Santo, Brazil. We will host monthly meetups at universities and innovation hubs while onboarding local businesses to accept Bitcoin and stablecoins as payment methods.

What We Do

Our events start by explaining our purpose of fostering the crypto ecosystem in Espirito Santo. We make a Bitcoin and blockchain 101 presentation and provide QR codes for downloading our branded ebook. Then we can have a presentation about Ecosystem and Adoption in Brazil/Latam, which is research that I conduct annually for Sherlock Communications, or we can have a debate with local builders about any specific topic that would be interesting for the audience.

For example, we can talk about extreme sports onchain at a marketing university, or how Flows empowers an infinite impact machine in a post-graduation course. It all depends on the audience we're talking to, but we always bring real use cases. I presented Flows at the ReFi Costa Rica meetup in March and they were amazed. I'll be presenting again on July 8th, this time online.

Team

Luiz Hadad (Community Builder): I am a community builder with a proven track record at EOS Rio (2017-2019), Muda (2019-present), Ethereum Brasil (2022-2023) and Gnars/Nouns (2023-2025). I've hosted several meetups, organized hackathons and conferences all over Brazil. Now it's time to give back to my home state, Espirito Santo, and create educational content that will be open source to other Brazilian states that would like to foster grassroots adoption too. LinkedIn

Bernardo Nassar (Operations Lead): Gnars athlete and content creator who will lead operations for the project.

Marcelo Silva (Education & Fundraising): From Blockchain na Escola and former ReFi DAO member, helping with educational efforts and fundraising.

Revenue Model & Path to Break-Even

We have a sponsorship model with companies joining as partners. Our break-even target is $2.5k USD monthly, and we're already making strong progress:

• Binance: In talks to be main sponsor for $1.2k
• InvestorTech Ventures: Already committed $100 monthly plus coffee breaks and media coverage from their marketing team
• Apex Partners: Expected to commit $300-$500
• Additional sponsors: We expect to secure more leads at upcoming crypto conferences (Blockchain Rio, DevConnect Argentina, and ETH Latam)

Launch Timeline

Our first meetup is scheduled for July 16th at 7pm at Na Capital Coworking space. We already have 5 businesses onboarded and we're preparing to publish a press release about the Espirito Bitcoin movement.

Goals & Metrics

• Monthly Meetups: At least 30 people per meetup, hosting one meetup per month
• Business Adoption: Onboard at least 50 businesses by December 2025

Unique Value Proposition

• Tailored Educational Content: Adapting presentations to specific audiences while always bringing real use cases
• Educational Resources: Publishing 2 educational ebooks - one about Bitcoin and blockchain basics, and another about how to accept crypto in your business
• Strategic PR Campaign: Comprehensive media strategy to amplify our impact across the region
• Open Source Materials: Creating content that other Brazilian states can use to foster their own grassroots adoption initiatives
• Real Use Cases: Showcasing successful projects like Flows to demonstrate practical blockchain applications

Challenges & Solutions

The biggest challenge will be educating and onboarding businesses. I plan to gather a group of university students to help us educate and give support to local businesses. They'll also help with marketing and operations. I would like to hire 2 or 3 of them as interns.

Connection to Vrbs Values

I like this project because it connects our high-tech initiatives to grassroots adoption, educating and bringing people onchain. It matters to me because crypto gave me freedom in many different aspects of life, and I am stoked to share experiences and knowledge that I think can help bring freedom to other people too.

Showcasing Flows' impact on our community shows a real use case and inspires investors and other builders to join the Vrbs community. We're also very active on Gitcoin, and we believe we can help with eventual Vrbs Gitcoin grants fundraising as a way to give back.

Why Vrbs Accelerator

I think the Flows experiment is an amazing use case of AI and Blockchain serving impactful projects. As an early Flows builder in the Nouns ecosystem, I would like to continue experimenting with the platform, giving feedback, learning and iterating.

In regards to Vrbs Accelerator, I like the idea of being funded by a crypto native community and giving this example to the local community at Espirito Bitcoin. Mixing funding sources from Vrbs, Binance, and InvestorTech will give our project financial resiliency but also different backgrounds that we can learn from.

Note: Recipients are fully responsible for tax obligations arising from grants received.