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The Almighty Buck Bitcoin Government

El Salvador: World's First Country to Adopt Bitcoin as Legal Tender? (msn.com) 83

Posted by EditorDavid from the money-matters dept.
CNBC reports that El Salvador "is looking to introduce legislation that will make it the world's first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar." In a video broadcast to Bitcoin 2021, a multiday conference in Miami being billed as the biggest bitcoin event in history, President Nayib Bukele announced El Salvador's partnership with digital wallet company, Strike, to build the country's modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology.

Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers said this will go down as the "shot heard 'round the world for bitcoin...."

Speaking from the mainstage, Mallers said the move will help unleash the power and potential of bitcoin for everyday use cases on an open network that benefits individuals, businesses, and public sector services... While details are still forthcoming about how the rollout will work, CNBC is told that El Salvador has assembled a team of bitcoin leaders to help build a new financial ecosystem with bitcoin as the base layer. "It was an inevitability, but here already: the first country on track to make bitcoin legal tender," said Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream.
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El Salvador: World's First Country to Adopt Bitcoin as Legal Tender? More

El Salvador: World's First Country to Adopt Bitcoin as Legal Tender?

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  • Let's see how they can stop a bank robbery now. With Bitbullets?

  • Seems Unfortunate (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Saturday June 05, 2021 @04:45PM (#61458108)

    Was their economy not sufficiently fucked already?

    • El Salvador elected a pro-life populist conservative millennial to drain the swamp.

      Isn't that what the power-brokers in Washington wanted? It's all going to plan.

    • Apparently not.

      In anger about paying 1.75% to credit card companies they adopted a "currency" that charges 8% to move money anywhere.

      And for the pedantic crypto supporters that will attempt to point out that you don't have to pay 8% I say you don't have to as long as you don't care if your transaction takes a month to process. And for that 8% you can expect the transaction to complete in about 2-3 days.

      Cryptocurrencies are a way to divert money from stupid poor people to rich people with deep pockets.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        In anger about paying 1.75% to credit card companies they adopted a "currency" that charges 8% to move money anywhere.

        Ah, but the big difference is that with bitcoin, the payer pays the fee, not the recipient. So as far as anyone is considered, they're saving 1.75% in fees. Who cares if it costs you 8% more?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 1s44c ( 552956 )

        It sounds like you are on the small block bitcoin fork, the one that sadly stole the bitcoin name yet really isn't bitcoin anymore.

        Bitcoin cash is bitcoin that works as cash, it's a continuation of the Satoshi scaling plan from before the time when banksters brought the project and prevented all capacity increases.

  • Or an attractor of high tech ventures and green energy companies. All of the above? Nothing? It should be interesting to see the effect of this. One thing is certain, the bitcoin bulls will lowing high praise on Twitter.

  • Gotta get some local drug money and turn it into cash for clients.

    Of course Bitcoin worshippers don't care about the MOTIVES.

    https://theconversation.com/el... [theconversation.com]

  • Should have adopted Ethereum which will have Proof of Stake soon. It wonâ(TM)t have insane CPU/energy requirements.

    • nah ethereum is garbage tech.

      • LOL @ bitcoin boomer logic (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        bitcoin boomer: "Bitcoin is the best. All fiat is shit!"

        Bystander: "Uh, Ok boomer. So how do I get Bitcoin then?"

        bitcoin boomer: "You can mine it with an ASIC, or buy it."

        Bystander: "So how do I get an ASIC to do that?"

        bitcoin boomer: "You can buy one, they cost several hundred $USD, plus electricity costs to mine the Bitcoin".

        Bystander: "Ok, so how do I 'buy' Bitcoin instead? How much is it?"

        bitcoin boomer: "You can buy it with money (duh!). It's over $35000 USD right now."

        Bystander: "Wow, ok. Uh

        • -1 Troll

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 1s44c ( 552956 )

          Assuming all fiat is shit and that bitcoin isn't for a moment, doesn't it make perfect sense to convert shit into something non-shit?

          The absolute price of one of anything doesn't matter in the least if you can buy and sell fractional parts. Bitcoin isn't a BRK.A share.

    • Ah yes, Ethereum Proof of Stake that's always been at least 18 months away and has been delayed again until at least the end of 2022 [tokenist.com]

      So it looks like CO2 will still be pumped into the atmosphere and GPUs will remain in short supply to maintain this useless ponzi scheme.

    • Proof of stake is a ponzi scheme. Early adopters gain new profits forever without risk.
  • Oh good, the dumb boomer politicians are trying to be trendy and modern without knowing what the hell they're talking about. The transaction fee to send ANY AMOUNT OF BITCOINS is around $15 USD right now. So it costs $15 to send $5. Anyone with a brain will tell you to use Litecoin since it's one of the top 10 largest except that has a safe confirmation time of like 30 minutes. So move on to one of the ones that confirms in seconds...oh wait, there's hundreds of them and they're all small enough for a 51% a

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Ah yes, the 39-year old "boomer" president of El Salvador

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ghoul ( 157158 )
      All solvable problems. Sell something real in Bitcoin and the price of Bitcoin stabilizes. I propose Guatemelan coyote gangs start charging a flat 1 BTC to smuggle someone into the US. Bitcoin can be as cheap as Litecoin by coupling the 2 together. Send payment in Litecoin lightning network while storing value in Bitcoin. The Altcoins will consolidate on a few that have real advantages. The rest will die. There is no need to keep savings in exchange. You can keep it on a hardware wallet. Heck you can wri

  • Publicity Stunt (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mamba-mamba ( 445365 )

    This seems more like a publicity stunt than anything else. What does it even mean for bitcoin to be legal tender if the US dollar is also legal tender in El Salvador? Nobody is going to buy and sell stuff denominated in bitcoin. They are going to buy and sell denominated in US dollars. They may calculate an exchange rate with bitcoin at point of sale, but that does nothing to stabilize bitcoin.

    What is holding back bitcoin (apart from public relations over energy consumption) is that the price of bitcoin is

  • The start of the American $ downfall (Score:3)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Saturday June 05, 2021 @07:35PM (#61458452) Journal
    Unless America quits running up a massive deficit/debt, we will be replaced by bitcoin or some other neutral money.
    Then watch our interest rate.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ghoul ( 157158 )
      You have cause and effect reversed. America is able to run a deficit without causing hyperinflation as the dollar is the reserve currency. As long as oil is sold in dollars , America has a blank cheque. it can print all the dollars it wants and people will accept them as they need dollars to buy oil. USA gets 600 billion of real stuff from China each year in return for which China accepts IOUs called US Dollars which are not backed by any real goods. Thats a deal too good to give up.

    • Unless America quits running up a massive deficit/debt, we will be replaced by bitcoin or some other neutral money. Then watch our interest rate.

      You must be sorely misinformed as to the purpose of American military dominance. What America has done with quantitative easing alone would have already caused hyperinflation several times over without the rest of the world trading commodities in US dollars.

  • ...history it only makes sense that governments would fall in love with them. All the big players are working on creating their own.

  • A country whose economy depends on kidnapping, money laundering and black market operations on the dark web run by gangs needs cryptocurrency to keep these trades anonymous. It is not going to mind the high transaction costs.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by hene ( 866198 )
      Lightning network will solve speed problems and transaction costs on Bitcoin. And yes. Everyone is allowed to use it, even bad guys. Those problems are better to be solved on different level.
  • 70% of people in El Salvador have no access to banking services, but on average they have 1.46 phones per person. Seems pretty ideal place to try Bitcoin. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
    • The typical El Salvatoran makes $7,000 per year but on average the salary is $41,000 per year. Do you understand the difference?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by hene ( 866198 )
        All I meant is that many people have phones, not that all people have phones.
        • Many people don't have money to put in the bank and so don't have access to one.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by hene ( 866198 )
            Okay, I guess those people are still screwed. This one guy once said that typical El Salvadorian makes $7,000 per year, maybe those might benefit from this.

  • What's missing from this discussion is that El Salvador is already using a currency outside its control. As a user of the US dollar it has no ability to raise money by inflation, or to prevent the US from devaluing its currency by inflating theirs. There isn't much lost by accepting some other currency as well.

    What this gives El Salvador is more exposure than any other country to a great amount of money.

    • Because the price of bitcoin can, does, and will swing wildly for no apparent reason. One day you may have $7000 and the next you may have $3000 because of no discernible reason. One day, you get paid and have enough to live on for the week, then next, you can't even pay your rent. Still sound good to you?

  • Just fire up a nuke just to do their bitcoin transactions. Yea, I'll buy a stick of gum...
    People that know about BC will know what I'm talking about.

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