Saint Martin Bitcoin Cash trip and guide

Recently I had the great opportunity to visit Saint Martin for five days, one of the goals was to visit as many bitcoin cash accepting locations as possible; our visits ascertained whether the merchant accepted payment in BCH and exposed how the local population generally viewed crypto, and accepting bitcoin cash as payment. My hope is that through this guide others can also be informed about some of the merchants that accepted crypto as a starting point for future travel to the island.

When visiting the island we used maps.bitcoin.com to find potential businesses and asked questions about the use of crypto to gain a general understanding about the feeling of the space. Not every merchant (even though they were listed on the bitcoin map) accepted BCH, and some even had some negative sentiment about accepting the currency. For this reason, we have divided each merchant into one of three categories based off of our experiences, and tried to ask questions to understand the reasoning behind each:
✅Accepted Bitcoin cash for payment
🥈 Positive sentiment for BCH, but ended up not accepting for various reasons
❌ Negative sentiment about BCH or against accepting Bitcoin cash (or unaware of its existence).

1/14/2023, Day 1: Simpson Bay

Smart car rental✅:
Our first stop in Saint Martin, we had pre confirmed a vehicle over Whatsapp as the website for registering a vehicle had some errors. The owner had one bitcoin cash sticker posted on their window, after inspecting the vehicle we asked to pay in bch, and with no hassle he was able receive funds through the bitcoin.com wallet. At the end of our trip we also were able to drop the car off at the airport and the rental company retrieved the car in the airport drop-off lane. Great experience overall and great prices on the rental vehicles, would highly recommend them to others!

Roxxy Beach Bar and Restaurant❌:
After sitting down and asking for some food, we asked the waiter if they accepted bitcoin cash, they had no idea what it was, they went to chat with their manager to find out and came back saying they did not accept it, or had not heard of it before.

Astra 🥈
Initially the waiter had said they would accept Bitcoin cash and knew about the technology. After the meal however, they went back to check about payment and told us the phone that they were set up on (probably a bitcoin cash register) was currently not working, and did not accept payment through bitcoin cash. We were told though that the owner had a positive sentiment about accepting Bitcoin cash. The waitress apologized but told us we’d have to pay with cash or credit.

1/15/2023, Day 2: Philipsburg & Grand Case:

Landmark Variety outlet✅
The store had one bitcoin cash sticker on the outside, and also had a BitcoinCash ATM inside that we successfully withdrew $50 from. The owner, Sunny, was really wonderful to chat with and super supportive of Bitcoin cash, even going as far as helping some other businesses on the island to start accepting the currency. We also bought a pair of sunglasses here using BCH as well. Sunny let us know about an Airbnb he was managing and would accept Bitcoin cash as payment there. I would highly recommend anyone planning on coming to Saint Martin to check him out!

Desire Fashions ❌
We saw three bitcoin cash stickers at Desire Fashions, one on the outside of the store and two near the checkout. The owner had lost faith in crypto in general, due to price fluctuation, and knew people who had lost funds; he was against accepting bitcoin cash and wouldn’t take payment in BCH.

Music Man: Electronics and department store❌
Music Man had one bitcoin cash sticker on the outside of the store. One of the sales persons had told us that they had previously accepted BCH, but because no one had come in to purchase anything with it in a few months, and because of the volatility requiring immediate conversion to local currency, they stopped supporting it all together. We were unable to purchase anything with Bitcoin Cash.

Maison Chocolat✅
There were no Bitcoin Cash stickers on the store, but the owners were very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about bitcoin cash and crypto in general. We were their first customer in 5 months that had wanted to pay with BCH, and they graciously accepted payment with the bitcoin.com wallet for a bunch of truffles and a chocolate bar. They were delicious! They had told us they wanted to buy some Bitcoin Cash stickers for the front of their store and gave us recommendations of other shops accepting BCH in nearby Marigot.

Rainbow Cafe❌
There were no bitcoin cash stickers here. We asked the manager of the cafe if they accepted BCH, he said they did accept it once for a promotion, but it was very long time ago, and is no longer accepted.

1/17/2023, Day 4: Marigot & Philipsburg:

Chez Ferdinand🥈
We saw multiple bitcoin cash stickers around the register and store, the cashier had a positive sentiment about accepting BCH and mentioned that they had accepted it previously. However, after not receiving a customer wishing to pay in BCH for five months, they did not have the application set up on the phone and did not accept payment in it.

Bold Buddha❌:
We found one Bitcoin cash sticker on the front of the store, the waiter did not know why they had the sticker anymore, since they had not seen a customer in awhile, and did not accept BCH. The waiter insinuated that they may be taking down the stickers.

Nulove cafe🥈:
We found three BCH accepted here stickers around the store, the owner was positive about accepting BCH, but we were their first customer in months. He went to the back of the store to find the receiver app they were initially set up with to receive BCH. They discovered the phone in question was not at the business but rather at their home; they couldn’t accept payment.

The Shell grill and restaurant🥈:
We saw two bitcoin cash stickers on the main sign, and spoke with the owner. He let us know that he lost the phone with the Bitcoin cash application a flood, and did not currently accept payment.

Dirty Sanchez bar❌:
We saw a small BCH accepted here sticker, the bartender had mentioned the initial person who had set them up had not come by in awhile to help, and he did not accept bitcoin cash.

Ultimate jewelers✅:
We were their first ever Bitcoin cash customer. The business was set up to receive BCH payments about one month ago and had the bitcoin.com wallet on their phone. The phone had to be charged however, so there was a slight wait. Fortunately the phone booted up, and I was able to purchase a brand new Citizen watch for a great price!

1/17/2023, Day 5 Philipsburg:

Omni Jewelery — lost funds🥈:
This was the last — and perhaps the most unfortunate — stop before we headed to the airport. The owner was reluctant to accept BCH at first since the Bitcoin cash register app they had received was not charged. They eventually decided to give it a try. We were the first customer to ever ask to pay in BCH. The business was set up to receive over a year ago. After charging the Bitcoin register app for a couple of minutes, the app booted up, and I selected a gold bracelet for $1,100 (9.376 BCH).

The amount was input in the register app (a separate phone given to the business owner). I selected the qr code with my bitcoin.com wallet and sent over the funds. Although I received a notification on my own phone that the transaction had gone through, the business’s phone had no notifications on it. After a few minutes, we began to wonder whether the payment to the cash register app had been successful.

At this point we tried to figure out what the problem was, and learned that over the course of the past year, the owners’ previous phone (that was previously linked to the Bitcoin register app) was damaged, and the owner had transferred all of their data onto a new phone, including the bitcoin.com wallet app. This unfortunately reset the private key which was not linked to the current register app. Due to this technical issue, I had lost all of the funds for the transaction. The previous 12 recovery words were also not written down or backed up.

This was the largest mistake of the whole trip, and going forward, I likely would send a test amount to any register apps to make sure those are fully set up correctly (especially ones that haven’t been used in a while) before sending over any other funds. Fortunately all of the other merchants were using the bitcoin.com wallet directly and those transactions were fast and reliable.

In summary:
the businesses that accepted bitcoin cash:
Smart car rental✅
Landmark Variety outlet✅
Maison Chocolat✅
Ultimate jewelers✅

The businesses that did not accept bitcoin cash, but had a positive sentiment about the technology:
Astra 🥈
Chez Ferdinand🥈
Nulove Cafe🥈
The Shell Grill and Restaurant🥈
Omni Jewelery🥈

The businesses that discontinued accepting bitcoin cash without favorable opinions of the currency:
Roxxy Beach Bar and Resturant❌
Desire Fashions ❌
Music Man: Electronics and Department Store❌
Rainbow Cafe❌
Bold Buddha❌
Dirty Sanchez Bar❌

Everyone we visited was either tagged on map.bitcoin.com, or had bitcoin cash stickers on their store. We found generally that those that accepted BCH ✅ for payment were:

• More knowledgeable about bitcoin cash and crypto in general
• Enthusiastic about bitcoin cash as a means for payment
• Set up to accept bch within a recent time frame.

However some of the main drivers ❌ away from acceptance were:

• Long gaps (2–5+ months) without any customers paying with BCH
• Initially being set up to accept BCH, but then being abandoned in support
• Not using phone/receiver app in a long time, and therefore not having the phone setup or charged, or potentially damaged
• Low interest in crypto/BCH
• Sentiments of volatility due to high fluctuations in price and knowing individuals that had lost substantial money due to the crypto market.

There were some places we had an interest in visiting but not enough time, including: Robbie’s lottery (we saw one sign with BCH sticker, and were told they accepted it), and the Beirut, Avantika, and Movida restaurants.

One might also have more luck calling ahead with some of the locations that had positive sentiments, in order to allow them time to find the older register apps, and set them up again.

I hope this was a helpful guide for anyone planning on visiting Saint Martin! If you feel this was informative I would greatly appreciate any donations due to some of the lost funds at the Omni Jewelery shop. Hopefully I can visit Saint Kitts, or Townsville Australia next to give some updates and happenings there! My Bitcoin cash address is posted below:

Thank you so much!