I don't see how this is going to benefit Salvadorans. As much as I try, I can't find a use case beyond money laundering, ransomware and extortion.
The dominate usecase is speculation, why are you missing that one on your list?
El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
41–50 of 732 posts
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Going to help the kidnappers get paid. A fair bit of those in El Salvador: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/el-sa...
Why do you feel like it'd be better than cash in this case?
You don't have to pick bitcoin personally, obviously.
Yes, after that you have to launder it, but that's a smaller problem comparatively.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#43Other governments are already accumulating BTC silently. Way too many eyes on the topic lately. There will be some FUD along the way (maybe even El Salvador banning/unbanning BTC up to few times - the classic) but I believe at some time news will start popping left and right that other countries hold BTC on balance sheets. Will eventually start with ETH too if it hasn't already. Re people below: I don't have any sour…
Do you have any sources for "Other governments are already accumulating BTC silently."?
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#44> 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.
What the normal people will use in the beginning is going to be non-custodial LN based solution like strike. Minimal fees, easy to use. If you get a bit more, move to custodial LN wallet/onchain transactions. More fees, more security and less trust. And once you have too much BTC start storing them in an offline cold storage.
I don't think LN is easy to use. Common trope is that most Bitcoin maximalists have never used it.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#45Other governments are already accumulating BTC silently. Way too many eyes on the topic lately. There will be some FUD along the way (maybe even El Salvador banning/unbanning BTC up to few times - the classic) but I believe at some time news will start popping left and right that other countries hold BTC on balance sheets. Will eventually start with ETH too if it hasn't already. Re people below: I don't have any sour…
Do you have sources about other countries accumulating BTC?
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#46.
Not a dupe. The earlier thread from 3 days ago is about the announcement that a bill would be proposed to make bitcoin legal tender. This thread is from the news from several hours ago that the bill officially passed into law by Salvadoran Congress.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#47I don't see how this is going to benefit Salvadorans. As much as I try, I can't find a use case beyond money laundering, ransomware and extortion.
Government buys 10,000 coins at $30k/coin
Announces it's legal tender
Price increases to $40k/coin
Government sells
Government makes $100m it no longer needs to raise in tax
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#48> 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.
What the normal people will use in the beginning is going to be non-custodial LN based solution like strike. Minimal fees, easy to use. If you get a bit more, move to custodial LN wallet/onchain transactions. More fees, more security and less trust. And once you have too much BTC start storing them in an offline cold storage.
I can see someone explaining to their grandmother about having to move her BTC to offline cold storage and storing her private keys securely or she could lose her life's savings in an instant with no recourse
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#49I don't see how this is going to benefit Salvadorans. As much as I try, I can't find a use case beyond money laundering, ransomware and extortion.
Avoiding the high fees of remittances when families send money to their loved ones back home.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#50> 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.
The poor always pay more than wealthy for services. E.g. if you have a poor credit history you are unlikely to get the same rate as someone who doesn't