Rethinking Inclusion and Territorial Transformation in Surf City, El Salvador

Abstract

The adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador and the subsequent expansion of its digital-asset regulatory ecosystem configure a socio-spatial paradox that challenges imaginaries of dematerialization associated with digital finance. This qualitative critical essay examines Surf City,
located along the coast of La Libertad, through critical economic geography and social studies of infrastructure, drawing on legislation, specialized regulations, institutional documents, technical reports, and scientific literature. The analysis shows that the operability of digital capital requires simultaneous processes of technical, territorial, and legal sedimentation. The trajectory initiated by the Bitcoin Law and subsequently expanded through the Digital Assets Issuance 
Law incorporates issuance and tokenization mechanisms capable of inscribing rights associated with territorially situated assets within
digital financial circuits. Available indicators also reveal a persistent gap between technological availability and effective financial inclusion, reflected in low levels of account ownership,  limited continued use of the Chivo wallet, low commercial acceptance of Bitcoin, and the marginal use of cryptocurrency wallets for remittances. Surf City illustrates how digital  infrastructure, regulation, tourism, investment, and real-estate valorization converge in new forms of differentiated spatial production. The essay argues that digital finance does not eliminate geography but rather intensifies the material, institutional, and legal mediations through which capital acquires territorial depth in the Global South.