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El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
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Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#572An overview of a subset of the myriad issues that contribute to bitcoin being a very bad currency: https://github.com/theborakompanioni/bitcoin-spring-boot-sta...
These are much more technical and don't even mention the more obvious issues: Block settling time: If a transaction isn't complete until 1 (or n) blocks have been committed, and mining a block takes meaningful time, then this places significant constraints on spending. If I go to the store, and buy something with bitcoin, but it takes 20 minutes for the next block to be mined, does the store need to hold the goods in…
Didn't you get the news: BTC is no longer new money. It is new gold now.
Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#573IMF 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…
> a failure of the currency itself this is a really ambiguous phrasing. Is bitcoin a "currency"? is el Salvador adopting bitcoin as a ___?____ a currency?
El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as one of its national currencies.
Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#574IMF 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…
If you need to go to the IMF for a loan of ~3% of your GDP to mitigate the risks associated with Bitcoin, well, that's a pretty good sign that adopting Bitcoin as legal tender was a pretty disastrous failure.
> mitigate the risks associated with Bitcoin
The IMF gave them 1.4 billion dollars to mitigate the risk of bitcoin to the IMF. A subtle but important difference.
Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#575Earlier quoted context omitted.
The loan was not to mitigate the risk of the Bitcoin. They needed the loan for reasons. The IMF deemed the high involvement in Bitcoin risky for the loan. The IMF text has a "meanwhile": https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/12/18/pr-24485-el-...
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Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#576Earlier quoted context omitted.
So your claim is that US administration through the IMF is forcing El Salvador to drop Bitcoin as a national currency. The same US administration that proposed creating a "national digital asset stockpile"??!? (per https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/23/trump-signs-executive-order-... )
The IMF agreement requiring them to do this was from December, i.e. the prior US administration.
And, regardless, "you do this, we do that" in no way unusual for the US's foreign policy. Eg, the US military insists on democracy onshore and is mildly opposed to democracy in the middle east. Neutral at best. Any democracy they like in the ME as long as it never votes for any policy that inconveniences the nearest US general.
Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#577This could be the IMF fighting fire with gasoline.
The IMF is afraid of Bitcoin because it threatens the Dollar.
The IMF bribes El Salvador to reduce their support for Bitcoin.
El Salvador uses the bribe to buy more Bitcoin.
If Bitcoin catches on around the world and the IMF is fighting it by throwing money at it, that could lead to an accelerated adoption curve.
Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#578Here is the retained purchasing power of each of the coins since the law was passed in September 2021: Legal tender 1: -15% Legal tender 2: +115% Guess which one has been deemed a "Failed experiment".
I would guess "Legal tender 2" was deemed a failed experiment, since rapid deflation is extremely undesirable in a currency.
> since rapid deflation is extremely undesirable in a currency
What do you mean, why should my money NOT go up in value?
Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#579IMF 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…
No country with its own money ever needs to get the IMF involved. Largely because the only place the IMF can get your money is from you. Currencies are public monopolies. The problems always arise when a state starts issuing state backed liabilities in other denominations - as there is no way for a state to absolve itself of that debt without paying it back. It becomes a debtors prison.
Even if you have your own money you need stable foreign currency to operate.
It's not like you just choose to issue debt in foreign denomination cause it's fun.
Re: El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender
#580Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ might temper your enthusiasm towards modern fiat currency.
I’m not sure what exact point or points you want me to care about, but none of these charts seem to suggest _why_ we and every other country moved to fiat. I’ll admit I didn’t look at them all, you didn’t give me nearly the effort in your comment that you’re asking from me…
We moved to fiat because politicians like the indirect taxation through inflation. It's free money for them, what's not to like?