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El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

bbc.com

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Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

#11
post #2

Are they being the first country for the sake of being the first country?

No, they really just like wasting 4 bucks on every transaction.

And waiting 10 minutes for confirmation

Edit: Lightning networks are bandaids on a prototype cryptocurrency.

Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

#13

Is the government accepting it for the payment of taxes and fines? Or are they just forcing businesses to take on the risk of accepting it? I can't imagine what an enormous pain in the ass this is going to be for businesses, given the volatility of BTC.

it's more of an issue when economic actors around you don't operate in the same currency

I fully expect people to keep USD on the side, it's already part of the culture all over Central America

Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

#14

Is the government accepting it for the payment of taxes and fines? Or are they just forcing businesses to take on the risk of accepting it? I can't imagine what an enormous pain in the ass this is going to be for businesses, given the volatility of BTC.

They guarantee spot rate to dollar for every transaction - so businesses never need to take that risk if they don't want to.

They are mandating that merchants must accept it as a means of transaction though.

Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they really just like wasting 4 bucks on every transaction.

And waiting 10 minutes for confirmation Edit: Lightning networks are bandaids on a prototype cryptocurrency.

Regardless of your opinion of BTC or of crypto in general, 10 minutes to confirm significant monetary transactions that all parties can agree on, without the need for a central trusted authority, anywhere in the world, at any time of day, is a pretty significant achievement.

Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they really just like wasting 4 bucks on every transaction.

And waiting 10 minutes for confirmation Edit: Lightning networks are bandaids on a prototype cryptocurrency.

y'all most not have heard of https://strike.me/ which operates on the lightning network to send whatever local currencies through btc instantly for little / no fee

Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

#18
> The El Salvador President has previously said the move will open up financial services to the 70% of Salvadoreans who do not have bank accounts.

Right. People who can't even afford a bank account would now all be using financial services by paying 10 dollars per transaction.

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