Weaver rereads the Grameen Bank cost-benefit paper he wrote with Baigalmaa Darambazar at Indiana University in 2004 and follows Muhammad Yunus through the Nobel Prize, his ouster, and his time leading Bangladesh's interim government. His conclusion: Grameen opened credit to the poor but could not protect them from a currency that loses value.
He points to Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte, El Salvador, as a trust-based community built on money that cannot be debased. The hard work, he says, is local merchants and off-ramps, and he names churches and Fedimint federations as natural anchors for circular economies like the one he is starting.
Paul Weaver published this essay on his Substack on May 22, 2026. He is part of the Brilliance Labs network and has given us permission to share his work. This summary is ours; the essay is his.