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El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

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41–50 of 421 posts

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#41
post #5

Though not mentioned in the article, the President of El Salvadore apparently also mentioned that the country plans to hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset.

He didn't! It was mentioned later by other people on the conference, but the official announcement only mentioned legal tender

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#42
post #8

> Bukele said the country is partnering with digital wallet company, Strike, to build modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. Wow, this seems like an incredibly shitty situation for the people of El Salvador. It looks like some lobbyists got hired by a wallet company stacked with angel investors willing to pour money into the idea of being integrated into the government at such a low level. I wouldn…

Their work is open source and they are using standard Bitcoin protocols. Zap is their wallet https://zaphq.io

Strike is a payment app that uses Bitcoin Lightning network internally to settle payments between financial institutions. It's useful for sending fiat currency denominated remittances instantly and without fees. https://strike.me

When they released Strike in El Salvador, it was an instant success. The president himself contacted Jack.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#43
post #40

My prediction. This won't be used hardly at all. Why use bitcoin when the USD is also legal tender and superior as a currency in nearly every way? About the only thing you can do more easily with bitcoin is buy other cryptos and send it across borders - sometimes. I would also predict that the failure here would finally get people to stop thinking it's a currency. But I doubt it.

It's pain in the ass and quite extra bit of fees to send money from US to El Salvador. Even when the currency is the same. So using Bitcoin is presumably much better in this situation. 23% of El Salvador's GDP is from remittances, so this is a large use case.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#44
post #42
post #8

> Bukele said the country is partnering with digital wallet company, Strike, to build modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. Wow, this seems like an incredibly shitty situation for the people of El Salvador. It looks like some lobbyists got hired by a wallet company stacked with angel investors willing to pour money into the idea of being integrated into the government at such a low level. I wouldn…

Their work is open source and they are using standard Bitcoin protocols. Zap is their wallet https://zaphq.io Strike is a payment app that uses Bitcoin Lightning network internally to settle payments between financial institutions. It's useful for sending fiat currency denominated remittances instantly and without fees. https://strike.me When they released Strike in El Salvador, it was an instant success. The preside…

To add on to that, it's been used pretty nicely in the El Zonte beach town [1].

1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2020/07/14/this-...

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#45
post #40

My prediction. This won't be used hardly at all. Why use bitcoin when the USD is also legal tender and superior as a currency in nearly every way? About the only thing you can do more easily with bitcoin is buy other cryptos and send it across borders - sometimes. I would also predict that the failure here would finally get people to stop thinking it's a currency. But I doubt it.

USD has this little problem and it hasn’t even begun to manifest yet.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#46
post #4

Here's the emotional announcement by Jack Mallers (founder of Strike) who worked with the president of El Salvador to make this happen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V8y_IV7XU8&t=76s It's worth a watch to understand the story.

I only skimmed through, but it looks astronomically light on details with lots of Pathos tying it all together. If I was a journalist in that audience I'd be terrified.

I was in the audience and was rolling my eyes at the theatrics. Maybe his emotions were genuine but I felt I was seeing an attempt at clear emotional manipulation. That being said a country (even a very small one like El Salvador) choosing to accept BTC as legal tender is a huge step forward for its utility as a currency and made me optimistic again about a crypto future that’s not just focused on “number go up” and cult-like herd mentality.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#47
post #40

My prediction. This won't be used hardly at all. Why use bitcoin when the USD is also legal tender and superior as a currency in nearly every way? About the only thing you can do more easily with bitcoin is buy other cryptos and send it across borders - sometimes. I would also predict that the failure here would finally get people to stop thinking it's a currency. But I doubt it.

USD requires either a bank account or physical cash. This just needs a network connected device.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#48
post #40

My prediction. This won't be used hardly at all. Why use bitcoin when the USD is also legal tender and superior as a currency in nearly every way? About the only thing you can do more easily with bitcoin is buy other cryptos and send it across borders - sometimes. I would also predict that the failure here would finally get people to stop thinking it's a currency. But I doubt it.

They want to limit their reliance on the US dollar. Also, 22% of their GDP is remittances, and remittance fees can be up to 50%.

From the bill:

- Central banks are increasingly taking actions that may cause harm to the economic stability of El Salvador

- That in order to mitigate the negative impact from central banks, it becomes necessary to authorize circulation of a digital currency with a supply that cannot be controlled by any central bank and is only altered in accord with objective and calculable criteria

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#49

As someone who readily admits to not fully knowing what legal tender entails, I have a question for the optimists: As I understand it, legal tender status forces creditors to accept bitcoin as debt repayment. Given the volatility of bitcoin, wouldn't this impact risk assessment of loans? Being obligated to accept a high volatility asset as a repayment sounds like a nightmare for creditors. Wouldn't interest rates ris…

You can sell Bitcoin the second you receive it, I don't see it as a big risk.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#50

I'm sure the people of El Salvador won't mind having 20% of their wealth wiped out every time Elon Musk tweets something that changes his mind in some way. Certainly if I was selling something I'd denominate it in something relative stable and then change Bitcoin asking price to match the exchange rate to that stable currency. Since the currency there is the USD... Yeah, I'd still be pricing my goods and services in…

Historically, Bitcoin appreciated 300% YoY whereas the dollar is in a constantly depreciating cycle, I know which one I'd prefer.

What evidence is there that the USD is depreciating?
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