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Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

foreignpolicy.com

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Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#91
post #9

Color me shocked that a globalist website advocates against Bitcoin in an alarmist "news" story.

I'm sorry, but to me, Bitcoin sounds like a globalist wet dream. Besides, I find if wired when people use globalist like some sort of insult. As if wanting the whole world to be better and more connected is a bad thing.

What do you think about Monero? I agree Bitcoin has big privacy problems but Monero seems to solve them.

The other downside to Monero is it's proof of work, which means it needs lots of power to mine. I suppose the ideal crypto would have privacy like Monero and be proof of stake, but proof of stake is still in its infancy.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#92

Bitcoin isn't the lone currency in the country and the dollar is still widely used there. Expect more of this as the president of El Salvador has invited the ire of the US government by exposing the US's involvement in corruption in his country: https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1469045510442864642 The media is about to go full court press on this guy, BTC is just one angle they'll use.

So, you think it is about the US...

Let me guess, you are from the US...

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#93

So the key reason for btc adoption in El Salvador is cheaper remittance payments, I find it odd that an article that sets out to criticize btc in El Salvador doesn't even mention the original intended use case.

Bitcoin doesn't solve the remittance problem any more than any government subsidized app solves it. People still end up using dollars for buy things with. This means for imported goods, dollars still leaves your country. However, only Bitcoins are coming into your country, so government ends up being a bigger and bigger bagholder.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost! And speed! I did a transfer wise last week and it cost me $15 in fees. What is this, ethereum?(a joke cos ethereum is too expensive to be useful for the retail user). I could have sent BTC and it would have been quicker and cheaper.

$15 is right in line with current btc transaction fees. Maybe a tiny bit higher, but not much.

No it isn’t. You are making this up. A BTC tx costs $0.07 1 sat/vbyte (mempool.space) right now.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#95
post #26

I’m exhausted by cryptocurrency. There’s a kernel of neat tech innovation and a reasonable argument about monetary policy obliterated by an avalanche of greed, hype, fraud, and magical thinking.

There's a lot of hype but there's also a lot of potential to revolutionize commerce. imagine if you could pay 10 cents to read an article or tip a web site. How badly does this torpedo googles ad biz?

Crypto is not necessary for micropayments and they have been tried several times already including by Google as well. It’s not a technical problem.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#96
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agenda? Hit-piece? Are people allowed to have opinions any more, allowed to draw conclusions and take a side? As if Albert Einstein authored anti-quantum hit-pieces, had a classical physics agenda (or choose any other contentious issue in history where people had divided opinions).

It's a reflex I see a lot when crypto comes up. Instead of refuting any claims of the article (which almost nobody in these comments has attempted to do!), any negative commentary on crypto is dismissed as the self-preservation attempts of doomed globalist elites or bitter people who missed the boat. If only people applied the same media criticism to crypto trade publications, which are awash in conflicts of interest…

>Instead of refuting any claims of the article (which almost nobody in these comments has attempted to do!)

That's the bullshit asymmetry principle in action. Let's go ahead and fact-check the first claim in the article.

>More than 91 percent of Salvadorans want dollars, not bitcoins.

Following the source, we see this quote (google-translated from Spanish):

>University indicates that, when presenting the option of both currencies, 91.4% of Salvadorans favor the dollar, 4.9% for Bitcoin and 3.7% do not. answered.

We also see:

>However, when asked about the decision to adopt Bitcoin as a currency, 35% said they were in favor and 40% against.

These both make perfect sense. Since my landlord won't accept bitcoin as rent payment, I would rather have dollars than be homeless. But in the future, maybe my landlord will accept bitcoin? If the poll is to be believed, 35% of the country wants that future, 40% do not, and 25% are undecided. I think that's a pretty amazing level of public support, accomplished in only a few months, especially in a country where 70% of people don't even have a bank account.

However you feel about it, I don't think a 35%-40% split in the polls is enough to call the president a con artist and declare it a failure one week after the law passes. The author's bias is clear.

---

I'll leave the rest of the article as an exercise for the reader, since (1) no one would take the time to read a fact check of the whole article, and (2) I don't have the time to write one. See also: bullshit asymmetry principle.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#97
post #26

I’m exhausted by cryptocurrency. There’s a kernel of neat tech innovation and a reasonable argument about monetary policy obliterated by an avalanche of greed, hype, fraud, and magical thinking.

There's a lot of hype but there's also a lot of potential to revolutionize commerce. imagine if you could pay 10 cents to read an article or tip a web site. How badly does this torpedo googles ad biz?

> imagine if you could pay 10 cents to read an article or tip a web site.

This doesn't need crypto. This can be done with something like Paypal.

> How badly does this torpedo googles ad biz?

A solution based on spite is a bad solution.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#98
post #9

Color me shocked that a globalist website advocates against Bitcoin in an alarmist "news" story.

I'm sorry, but to me, Bitcoin sounds like a globalist wet dream. Besides, I find if wired when people use globalist like some sort of insult. As if wanting the whole world to be better and more connected is a bad thing.

“Globalist” is also often used as a codeword by antisemitists, which always raises the question of intention when you see someone using it:

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-how-did-the-term-gl...

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#99
post #26

I’m exhausted by cryptocurrency. There’s a kernel of neat tech innovation and a reasonable argument about monetary policy obliterated by an avalanche of greed, hype, fraud, and magical thinking.

* 3% taken by credit card companies from merchants shows a rigged economy. It must get fixed

* 3% interest should be paid on savings accounts (like 1900 - 1980). ~0% today is a rigged economy

* Many other examples of the financial system being the root of the rigged economy (2008 Mortgage crisis, Libor rigged, front running trades, etc.).

Crypto brings the freedom to compete. We need to fix the rigged financial system by using competition.

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