Two new faces at FREE Madeira

Mark first heard about FREE Madeira at a Bitcoin conference in Amsterdam, where he met its founder, André. That meeting is a big part of why he came to Madeira at all, so this episode was a bit of a full-circle moment for him. Our guests were Marília and Charlie, the new directors of FREE Madeira, the association that has been putting Madeira on the Bitcoin map. We'd never met them before we pressed record, and they joined us with clouds rolling over the hills behind them. Not a green screen, they promised.

Marília is Portuguese, from the mainland, but with uncles and a grandmother on Madeira. She was baptised here and spent a good part of her childhood on the island. Charlie spent the last three and a half years in El Salvador. The two met at a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, and they're now engaged.

When they had to decide where to build a life and start a family, Madeira simply ticked every box. Marília's family was here, it's an idyllic place to live, and the island already had a growing Bitcoin community. They came over for Christmas, then for a whole month in July, and by the time we spoke they had been living here for just over a week.

From social media job to running the association

Marília started working for FREE Madeira remotely at the start of the year, looking after the social media, graphics and videos. A few months later, over dinner at a conference in Lisbon, André told the team that he wanted to step back to focus on his family and his other businesses. The next day he turned to Marília and Charlie and asked whether they would take over.

Their first answer was no. It's a huge responsibility, Charlie had his own business, and there was a wedding to think about. But over time they "got their ducks in a row", and after a few months of handover they stepped in. Even with the title of directors, they see it as teamwork: around four or five people on the island, plus helpers on the mainland who give workshops and run events.

What FREE Madeira and Bitcoin Atlantis are

FREE Madeira is an association for economic education. It grew out of André's idea of showing that Madeira could become a place where Bitcoin flourishes and where people learn more about what money actually is. Its high point so far was Bitcoin Atlantis, a conference in a football stadium on the island that brought more than 2,000 Bitcoiners to Madeira, including big names such as Jack Dorsey and Michael Saylor.

It was not the common Bitcoin conference you're used to. People were calm, chill. It was such a good vibe.

Mark was there, and that's how he remembers it. Charlie pointed out something that's easy to miss from the outside: the conference was strictly "Bitcoin only". There's a lot of money floating around in other crypto tokens, so turning down those sponsors and still putting on a show that size was a real achievement. It's still one of FREE Madeira's core values.

The conference made a profit, and that money now goes into three things: Bitcoin education, helping local businesses accept Bitcoin, and making that education available in Portuguese, so people in Brazil, Mozambique and Angola can learn from it too. The workshops cover the history of money, the technology behind Bitcoin and how the financial system works. As Charlie put it, once people understand that today's money is built on debt, "they start to go a bit crazy for Bitcoin".

What they're working on now

Their week was packed. Their priorities right now:

  • Reaching more locals. Not only expats and visitors, but Madeirans who are curious about Bitcoin.
  • Looking after the merchants. Checking that the businesses that accept Bitcoin are still doing so, and doing it properly.
  • A headquarters in Funchal. A physical place where Bitcoiners can drop in and merchants can come with questions. They have a promising location and interested sponsors, but no green light yet.
  • Better systems. Testing tools for merchants and dropping the ones that don't work.
  • Bitcoin Atlantis 2028, which is already on the horizon.

And on top of all that, they were still house-hunting for themselves.

Can you actually live on Bitcoin in Madeira?

This was Catherine's big question. Charlie's honest answer: not completely, and he can't give a timeline. Businesses here have to pay taxes in euros, and Bitcoin's price moves around, which makes the bookkeeping tricky. So a business owner either has to see more customers because they accept Bitcoin, or believe in it enough to keep the Bitcoin and put euros into the business themselves.

Still, there are some lovely examples. The night before our recording, Charlie's family went out for espetada in Câmara de Lobos. The owner came down, pulled out his phone and took Bitcoin for the whole meal. He even asked them to bring him a hardware wallet so he could keep his Bitcoin safely himself. He told Marília he also pays for his own shopping with Bitcoin. That's what a circular economy looks like.

Mark uses Bitcoin on Madeira all the time. In Funchal, if one café doesn't take it, the next one does, and he's found that the best restaurants and the cafés with the best cakes often accept it. He has rented a car with Bitcoin too. Charlie and Marília rented their car with Bitcoin and are about to pay their rent with it. You can even buy your beer in the Coral shop and get your hair cut with it.

The next step is the less glamorous stuff: petrol, groceries and building materials.

According to Charlie, a few ingredients decide how fast this grows:

  • Safety. People need to feel safe saying "I'm a Bitcoiner".
  • Convenience. If paying with Bitcoin is harder than tapping a debit card, why would anyone bother? The tools have to be quick and work every time.
  • Pressure on the euro. The higher the inflation, the more reason merchants have to look at an alternative.
  • Stubborn Bitcoiners. People who only spend Bitcoin, and only at places that accept it, make a real difference.
  • The island itself. Being remote, small and semi-autonomous makes Madeira a good place for this to happen.

El Salvador versus Madeira

In El Salvador, Charlie built up a Bitcoin economy in Berlin, a small mountain town about three hours from El Zonte, the country's best-known Bitcoin beach. He watched it grow from 20 to 200 merchants accepting Bitcoin. There, people already saw Bitcoin as an alternative kind of money, and everyone had a Lightning wallet on their phone, buggy as it was. But education levels were much lower, infrastructure was patchy, and there was no expat community to fall back on. It was, in his words, a bit like the Wild West.

Madeira is the other way round. Bitcoin as everyday money is a newer idea here, but people are well educated, things mostly run on time, and there's already a lively expat community. That makes it much easier for Bitcoiners, and especially families, to settle in. What carries over is the practical side: which tools work best for merchants, and which doubts people have, wherever they live.

Mark added that people across Europe are noticing that their groceries cost far more than a couple of years ago, so more of them are open to the conversation. Marília sees the other side in her own family: they feel it in their wallet, but they're comfortable with the system and don't always ask questions. Getting people curious is a big part of the job.

How they each fell down the rabbit hole

Marília's brother Carlos kept telling her to learn about Bitcoin until she gave in. She ended up creating a Bitcoin course in Portuguese with him, and it changed how she sees the world. It was Carlos who brought her to the conference in Las Vegas, so it's also how she met Charlie.

Charlie studied maths and finance and trained as an actuary. A cousin got him into crypto, but the more he dug into other tokens, the emptier they looked, "just smoke". Bitcoin was the one that kept going. That led him to Austrian economics, to helping older people buy and save in Bitcoin while he lived in Australia during COVID, and to running a Bitcoin ATM with his father in the south of Spain. When the rules for Bitcoin ATMs tightened, he sold it and moved to El Salvador.

What Bitcoin means beyond money

To finish, Catherine asked what Bitcoin stands for besides money. For Marília it's about time: if your savings hold their value, you can spend more of your time on what you really enjoy. Charlie said it respects the individual and the family. It gives people sovereignty and privacy, and the ability to save without their money losing value. For him, it's also part of a spiritual journey.

Mark described money as stored energy. You trade your time and work for it, and when it loses value, your energy leaks away. He also pointed out that the old system brought a lot of good things, including many of Madeira's tunnels, but it has gone too far. Portugal is one of the poorer countries in Europe, so people here feel it sooner, and in a small community like Madeira the word spreads quickly.

How to get involved

Charlie's invitation, especially to expats: reach out to FREE Madeira, ask questions, and if you feel inspired, see what you can bring with your own talents. You'll find all their links below.

We'd love to do a part two one day and go deeper. Until then, if you have questions for Marília and Charlie, or your own Bitcoin-on-Madeira story, leave a comment under the video or email us.