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El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

ticotimes.net

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Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#241

Post by lr4444lr »

mlcrypto wrote: post #216
stephen_g wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite that interference, from everything I’ve read though it’s hard to describe the bitcoin experiment as anything else than a massive failure…

Massive success actually for anyone holding. Did you forget the price is $100k?

Yeah, but what about when the country has to make good on bond payments to a cryptocurrency becoming stronger, entirely out of their control?

It was a terribly dangerous move for a sovereign country, worse than surrender to the Euro.

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#242

Post by kragen »

do_not_redeem wrote: post #79
Mengkudulangsat wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair demand by the IMF. Presumably they require their loan to be repaid in fiat because of their internal charter. If Bitcoin adoption eventually removes El Salvador's ability to issue fiat, their loan can't be repaid.

El Salvador can't issue fiat. They use US dollars. Only the US Federal Reserve can issue USD.

They could. Ecuador does in fact mint its own US-dollar coins, and El Salvador could dedollarize.

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#244

Post by throw101010 »

daedrdev wrote: post #95
desumeku wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did this to receive a loan from the IMF. The IMF was withholding the loan because of BTC and would not disburse it until they got rid of its status as legal tender.

The IMF probably rightfully sees a structurally deflationary currency (bitcoin) as a massive risk should it gain widespread adoption

It is structurally disinflationary, not just deflationary. Bitcoin is still emitted every ~10 minutes with currently an average inflation rate just under 1% of its supply per year.

The "massive risk" the IMF sees is that without central banks or even less influential central banks the IMF existence would be threatened.

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#245

Post by JumpCrisscross »

portaouflop wrote: post #188

IMF gave them 1.4 billion to abandon the “experiment”: > The IMF made this a condition for a loan of 1.4 billion US dollars (1.35 billion euros). In December of last year, the IMF reached an agreement with President Nayib Bukele’s government on the loan of the stated amount to strengthen the country’s “fiscal sustainability” and mitigate the “risks associated with Bitcoin,” as it was described. —- I dislike cryptocur…

> this was clearly something else than a failure of the currency itself

They needed the loan. The original thesis was taxes on crypto bros’ business and tourism would increase revenues while crypto-based lending would provide an alternative to the IMF. Neither panned out. This was a failure of Bitcoin to provide any of the international benefits of the dollar financial system.

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#246

Post by Filligree »

redundantly wrote: post #230
tapoxi wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you're not supposed to hold legal tender, by design you're supposed to spend it.

gestures at all of the billionaires

A currency that encourages people to hold on to it instead of spending it is a disaster for the economy.

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#247

Post by karlgkk »

kylebenzle wrote: post #207
stephen_g wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite that interference, from everything I’ve read though it’s hard to describe the bitcoin experiment as anything else than a massive failure…

Yeh, it failed so hard no one even uses it anymore.

It’s being “used” as a speculative asset. That’s not a firm foundation to run a governmental monetary system on. Maybe there are other cryptocurrencies better suited to the task, but BTC isn’t

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#248

Post by JumpCrisscross »

chungy wrote: post #232
redundantly wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gestures at all of the billionaires

I dare you to come up with a single example of someone that has a billion dollars in liquid assets. They probably don't exist: "billionaries" are worth billions on paper, thanks to stocks, investments, real estate holdings, etc. All in all, billionaires are a bad example of holding legal tender, because that just doesn't happen.

> a single example of someone that has a billion dollars in liquid assets

Lots of billionaires manage their portfolios conservatively. Your equating currency with liquid assets is unnecessary and tanks your argument. Almost nobody holds billions of dollars in legal tender other than those who have to, e.g. sanctioned countries and criminals.

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#249

Post by kragen »

the_af wrote: post #27
Mengkudulangsat wrote: post #2

> The government, she assured, will continue buying bitcoin and having reserves in this cryptocurrency Sounds like the term "Failed Experiment" is the writer's assertion and not the government official position.

From the article: > Salvadorans, with the exception of a few, never embraced Bukele’s initiative, who enjoys enormous popularity for his war against gangs, which dropped homicides to historic lows in El Salvador. A recent survey by the Central American University (UCA) revealed that 92% of Salvadorans did not use bitcoin in their transactions in 2024. I would say this points to an actual failed experiment, if true.

Homicides are at historic lows because they stopped counting bodies found in mass graves and murders in prison.

Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

#250

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ToValueFunfetti wrote: post #203
awnird wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If bitcoin was such a success then why did they need an enormous loan?

If the USD was such a good currency, why does the US operate at a deficit?

> If the USD was such a good currency, why does the US operate at a deficit?

If the U.S. needed a bailout, the dollar would become a trash currency.

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