Topic: Bitcoin Legal Tender in Panama (Read 818 times)

The El Salvador president faced a lot of opposition from IMF and other international agencies, but still decided to make BTC legal tender. When he takes such a risky step, he understood that it could go both ways. Unfortunately for him, now the situation doesn't look very promising. The investment has more than halved and he is facing a lot of tough questions from the public. That said, I am not sure whether Bukele or El Salvador got the expected support from the Bitcoin community. Personally I believe that we could have done a lot more.

I couldn't agree with you more but at the end of the Day, whether El Salvador forced it on the citizens or not, we must continue to give El Salvador the praises that they deserve because they Boldly and courageously took that first leap which others are learning hopefully from their "Mistakes" I believe it is great news all around and Panama being a tourist destination will definitely have an impact mostly on people that haven't already understand Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency in general.

Of course we hope it can have a positive impact but I am a little pessimistic considering the current conditions are not very supportive and coupled with high volatility,
but what is clear is that we better see what happens to Panama later,
To become a legal tender in the world, of course, it needs consideration

Unless the prices recover, I don't expect anymore countries to make Bitcoin their legal tender. President Bukele is facing a lot of rebellion in El Salvador, as the Bitcoin investments have gone done by almost 60% in value. And worse still, El Salvador is not a rich country which can afford such volatility. The same can be said about the second country which has awarded legal tender status to Bitcoin - Central African Republic. I just hope that the prices will recover by the end of this year. Or else, the critics may use the example of El Salvador, to scare governments away from Bitcoin.

There are still debates about bitcoin used for fraudulent activities and also the volatility is so much questionable because we experience a heavy ones which exist at the moment maybe this is one of the reason why we see a hard time for cryptocurrency to became a legal tender on 1st world countries. But since Panama is already almost into it now maybe lets just see the result because if this could give positive effect to them maybe this is one of the ladder for other 1st world country to also do it.

i want to understand this thing fully, this panama does it mean that they have legalized cryptocurrency as a tender or they are still with the process of legalizing cryptocurrency as a legal tender. Because i know very well that bitcoin is not generally accepted to every nation, some countries is still scrutinizing if the adoption will be world recognized or not before they will follow another way of making it a legal currency. Bitcoin is a currency so many countries government hate, but I'm surprised after campaigning wrong about bitcoin Salvador still accept it

...but so far, NO ONE person has explained how an absolutely speculative asset will help the economies of countries that simply ineptly manage their economies?! What benefit will this give to the government and the economy of a particular country, and will it save us from mistakes in governing the country?! Can someone dare to explain and prove with reason? I am absolutely sure - no! Because this solution doesn't have SOLUTIONS for problems

Obligatory Van Halen 'Panama' playing in the background Until this becomes a trend with countries whos economies are on better grounds, this mean little for crypto in general. It's a cool experiment, but I'll say it again, it won't solve the countries longstanding economic issues.

Panama President President Laurentino Cortizo refused to sign the Panama crypto bill into law. Cortizo said he partially vetoed the bill because he wanted to be sure that the laws comply with global anti-money laundering standards. The bill will now go back to the country’s National Assembly for further debate and amendment. The difference between the Panama’s crypto bill and El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law as crypto is that Bitcoin became a legal tender in El Salvador. While Bitcoin would not be a legal tender in Panama but rather businesses would have a choice whether or not to accept digital assets for payment. I am really optimistic that the the bill would be signed after necessary adjustment.

It is a long and difficult journey the of Bitcoin adoption. We have seen in El Salvador that things are not as smooth as many want us to believe. In addition to that, every country has to find their own way of implementing Bitcoin (CAR; for example, chose a different approach), based on the peculiar characteristics.

It looks like President Cortizo wants strict money laundering controls to be enforced. This is one of the major problem other countries that had adopted cryptocurrency is facing and I believe that that could be a minimal effect to that if he actually wants to legalise Bitcoin as a legal tender. Looking at the whitepaper of Bitcoin, it tend to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system without a need for a third party in-between.

The government are trying to alter the aim and objectives why the Bitcoin network was established. Looking at it, even before the Bitcoin network was established. The problem of money laundering had been a major problem to the use of fiat currencies, so why is the government trying to be paint Bitcoin with a bizzare colour when the issue of money laundering can never be encumbered.


https://news.robotshib.com/panama-president-demands-strict-anti-money-laundering-measures-in-new-crypto-law-11749.html

I think it is high time we need to change our mentality when it comes to the use of Bitcoin. Bitcoin was never create for the use of money laundering. It was established for a purpose and if bad people tend to hijack for their own gain, should we now see it as a gift? Bitcoin had made many investors and traders escape poverty and financial stability. I think the president of panama needs to concentrate on the major benefits of adopting Bitcoin rather than the weakness.


This is a good move but he should not makes it look like Bitcoin could be a big detriment to the economy of the panamanian sovereignty. If the president wants to tackle money laundering and other illegal use of Cryptocurrency with a strict rules through the use of KYC, then that's a good move. It will be publicly accepted but that should not delay the adoption. All those rules can be put in place with time and should not elongate the adoption processes.
The adoption of Bitcoin could boast the panamanian economy because miners will find a good fountain there and the government will earn good funds from taxes and cryptocurrency regulations.

There are many reasons why most people come into crypto and without much emphasises, money laundering is one of the reasons. Especially for some of the top political office holders out there, following the anonymous nature of the cryptocurrency field. Putting out measures for the crypto regulation as per preventing money laundering is almost impossible as, there are so many exchanges an wallets out ther that runs without any form of KYC and crypto lovers aren't a good to go people with KYC enabled platforms. Therefore, it's almost impossible to look towards the for a criteria for crypto adoption in Panama. Somehow, it's likely not to come to realisation but at least, it did make the news and that's good for crypto too.

A cold shower is coming for those of you waiting for an immediate domino effect to Panama. The president wants all the checkboxes ticked before approving the crypto Laws.

Panama Pulls Back On Legalizing Crypto, President Wants Compliance With AML Laws


To be honest, Panama is not famous for its strict AML/KYC measures. Still, the president probably recognises the stakes are pretty high here, as the cost of a "reaction" from other regulators could be detrimental to the country's interests.

That means crypto currency (Bitcoin) is gradually going to be used in the whole world. Panama adoption of crypto currency which is bitcoin is an encouraging move to other countries. The number of Countries that will adopt bitcoin  in this year 2022,  before the year will end. It will be more. But I am just praying that more Countries in Africa should adopt bitcoin more than any other Continent in the world. Because the inflation rate Africa is something else. And bitcoin will save the African petrodollar Economy from the Capitalist elites. Panama Being the 3rd country to adopt bitcoin is a very good idea.
But I want Nigeria to adopt bitcoin so things will be very easy for the bitconners in the country. But my question is if 95% of the Countries adopt bitcoin will the total number of bitcoin available at the market wil be enough for all the Countries? Because if the total number of bitcoin is 21m. And the rich Countries adopt 20 what will the poor will use.  Will the rich Countries allow the poor to use it because there is a way the rich Countries will do to starve the poor Countries with bitcoin. The capitalist tendency in the world is very high.

This will need to be public knowledge for that to happen. I mean it is great that we are seeing a lot more nations doing legal tender work but in order for this to get a lot more attention, we need to actually do something much bigger and better.

Think about it this way, if panama and El Salvador gets "rich" all of a sudden, not like world power level of course because even bitcoin can't do that, but a decent level then we will see other nations follow them. But if nothing happens, which didn't happen so far since price is not good, then we will not see other nations jump on this that quickly and that seems to be the main reason for slow adoption rate so far.

Bitcoin will offer them such opportunity they couldn't get from using fiat over inflation in the economy, bitcoin has been helpful in areas of employability, decentralization, anonymity, fast, secured, reliable, and trust confineded which all these were absent in fiat currency, and aside the most reserve currency USD, bitcoin is also a world wide global corrency that is not tied to a particular country, location or region which also includes to making its uniqueness outstanding in playing a significant role on the economy.


I disagree with this because investors funds aren't government or public money, if the fortune in bitcoin rises after a year will the government claim all the investors rights, i think the governments were as well thinking alternatively to secure the future with bitcoin whenever it rises and take good advantage to pay their loans and bills as when needed, and the goodness is when another bullrun occur or ATH which is their main target for adoption.

I think, this is a welcome development that will attract other countries to make bitcoin legal, and to enable the business men to accept bitcoin as a payment in their businesses. Panama youths will really use this opportunity to reduce unemployment from the land because their youths are very good in technology which will really help them to grow higher in the land. I believe their government will create a suitable environment for all business men and women in the land to be part of the benefits other countries that made bitcoin legalized are enjoying.

That will never happen at least they won't let that happen. It is true that some small countries legalize bitcoin not only to avoid inflation of the petrodollar but also to attract crypto investors to open up crypto-related businesses there. They are just trying to represent themselves as more crypto-friendly than others so that investors came with ideas into their country.

These will increase in number no doubt. All the poor nations of the world will see bitcoin as a way to get out of trouble, I mean even dollar loses value and it is one of the biggest reserves in all of the world, probably the biggest ever as well. If bitcoin is used instead of dollars, then we could have reserves that gain value while staying there and that would be very helpful to pay the debts and that will be amazing.

I believe that we could turn a poor nation into a decent nation if they end up buying more and more bitcoin instead of using that money to buy dollars or something else. At the very least it would profit them over dollars at the very least.

It is not passed yet, it is basically offered and will be accepted but looking at who is supporting it, they have the power and they will pass it, so it is basically as good as done and that is why it was reacted this way. Legal Tender and what this approves is basically the same thing while giving people options to decline it if they do not want to use it.

This is why I believe that the best case to be made about the situation would be to make a profit if they want to use it, but if they decline it as a whole nation and just ignore it then this would provide of no use to any of us. Even the central Africa and El Salvador deals didn't help us, maybe helped them at best.

I don't think the bill has been signed yet. For sure when it happens, we will know trough an explosion of Twitter messages (price, not so sure).

The fun thing when hearing more and more countries legalized Bitcoin, this increasingly makes Bitcoin's position strong and I will make it as a long -term asset and investment, it is time for investors to be patient and continue to buy because of the great potential of Bitcoin in the future.

Has this been signed into a law already? I have yet to read a news stating that this bill has already passed into a law. I think this remains to be a bill until today as President Cortizo has yet to affix his signature on it. So we will know in the coming days if this will be approved or vetoed or will be resubmitted to congress for specific amendments before being reconsidered.

So far what is clarified is that Bitcoin is not to be declared as a legal tender in the country, but a lawful currency which is to be accepted in private transactions as well as in government transactions such as paying taxes.

It remains interesting to know how the likes of XDC Network, Elrond, Stellar, IOTA, Algorand, and others have been included in the proposed law and whether they will pass the review of the president. 

at the beginning of adoption there will always be pros and cons from within the country itself. but over time everything will start to accept slowly.

and I see this country panama can be better than el salvador Due to its strategic location, Panama's economy is based on services, leading to banking, trade and tourism. and of course these sectors are very suitable when adopting cryptocurrencies.

and because the country of panama is also a transit country as a starting point for the cultural meeting point of all countries. which also means significantly facilitating communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean coasts and global trade. then their step in adopting bitcoin could even be something that more countries will follow in the future.

Panama has considerably small population so implementing this kind of initiative is not hard to communicate with its people. It is relatively a small country as well so it is not very hard to see the impact of this move. Big countries are too cautious because there's a lot at stake. But with countries like Panama, they can try a bold move and if they failed, they can easily go back to where they are. I am guessing, more and more smaller countries will take a dip in crypto market. And see if there will be changes when it comes to their economic status.

Probably both the countries at present have some difference in the way of adoption as well as with its regulation process. This could end up both learning from each other. The adoption by El Salvador is stated as a failure, but that isn't the truth. Immediate impact out of bitcoin adoption could've happened if the price of bitcoin have touched $100k by now and there is complaint that majority of the people just make use of the bitcoin and never use the chivo wallet anymore. With Panama, there is private transactions that can be made makes it better and acceptance of more cryptocurrencies could make people use cryptocurrencies.

Its really interesting phenomenon. The countries which were in the backdrop pf international economic scene are the early adaptors of bitcoin as they are trying to solve their own unique economic challenges with bitcoin. These countries are taking calculated risk, they know that over time the bigger economies will adopt bitcoin and this will significantly increase the value of their holdings in future. But the larger economies are following same stand. All of them too weary, cautious and in line of their common understanding. Wait and watch
Anyways kudos to panama for being early adopter, this will go long way in strengthening your economy

even though the condition of el salvador is like the one in the news.

but in fact many countries are motivated and inspired by el salvador in taking this big step. and that's what makes me proud of el salvador despite the problems in his country. It is evident that several countries have followed El Salvador.

even in my own country crypto has started to be legal. and taxes for trading crypto have been in effect from May 1 yesterday.
which means the government has taken part in the development of crypto in my country. (Indonesia)

Fair enough that you may well believe some of the El Salvador critical contents of your earlier post.

In any event, I will stand by the content and assertions that I already made within my response post, yet I had not seen that Ratimov thread that you linked above, so I will try to look at that thread later (hopefully within the next week)..

I placed a tab of that Ratimov thread in my "get to it later" section (note: sometimes I have lost my "get to it later" tabs.. so I cannot promise for sure that I will succeed to read through that thread soon).. ..

I doubt that anyone reasonably could proclaim that Panama is "more effective" than El Salvador because they are more shitcoin inclusive. Opinions definitely are going to differ on that angle, and surely government choices end up being a balancing of interests that may or may not end up with anything close to perfection or even sometimes questions regarding whether policy changes or implementations actually end up adequately reflecting the balancing of constituents or the interests that they might be attempting to serve, and I am attempting to be more descriptive rather than judgmental.

Ultimately, I would concede that Panama's way of recognizing bitcoin (as well as other forms of crypto currencies/assets - aka shitcoins**) will cause it to have differing dynamics, and whether future jurisdictions gravitate more towards Panama's way or El Salvador's way is still to be seen - or maybe Panama and El Salvador end up learning from each other and move more towards the middle (or some hybrid version of their current selves)?

**By the way, whether you consider my use of the term "shitcoin" to label non bitcoin projects as judgmental would also not necessarily be any kind of a clear-cut unambiguous answer.

The Latin American country approved bitcoin along with eight other cryptocurrencies as legal tender within the country. Accepted cryptocurrencies include BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, XDC, EGLD, XLM, IOTA, and ALGO. Panama isn't the first Latin American country to adopt bitcoin, there is more news mentioning the adoption of Panama to be more potential than the one by the Latin American country El Salvador.

It is stated that El Salvador, which only recognizes Bitcoin (BTC), Panama is introducing regulations for a total of nine cryptos, including Bitcoin which makes it more effective. As part of the regulation there is no capital gains tax. Businesses in Panama have been given the access to accept bitcoin and it isn't mandate according to the regulations. More good things happening in Panama and the same needs to get spread around.

Where are you getting those dumb-ass talking points Lubcub62?  Did you come up with them on your own?

Some of the foundational simplicity aspects of El Salvador's law was holy shit amazing, and yeah of course, there are frequently going to be implementation issues and surely not everyone is going to agree either, but I doubt that there was as much opposition to the law as what is being portrayed in various mainstream renditions  - or that even the opposition that actually does exist in El Salvador have been opposing on grounds of actually understanding what bitcoin happens to be. 

I am not even going to suggest that there would NOT be concerns regarding various implementation concerns in El Salvador or that there are not various risks and/or problematic areas - including custodial issues.. and even potential power transition issues, including who's holding the value.

Surely, this thread is about Panama and Panama has a different take - including some aspects that may well seem to be way more receptive to various shitcoins being treated similarly to bitcoin, and likely we are still quite early in terms of watching how Panama implements and the extent to which Bitcoin might end up being increasingly used and/or held within it's jurisdiction.  For sure, there can be many benefits in terms of seeing how various earlier jurisdictions vary in the way that they start to allow for bitcoin within their jurisdictions - and  perhaps various gold standards (or Lindy effects) will start to show themselves with the passage of time.. but we do seem to be in pretty damned early stages, and I already anticipate that some jurisdictions might well end up having rug pulling actors that end up contributing to ongoing learnings, but also some possible early-stage growing pains.. that had previously been done at more individual levels then transitioning to large institutions and governments carrying out some behaviors that we had seen in earlier times through individuals, smaller and more simplistic players.

Hopefully the steps taken by Panama are not too hasty and too pushy like El Salvador.

and after reading about panama above. it turns out that Panama is better in this way of administering bitcoin.

while in el salvador the approach was too sudden and led many of the citizens to take to the streets and refuse. although it's only a matter of time until the citizens accept this bitcoin adoption. behind the good news for bitcoin, it turns out that there are problems that are not good in el salvador itself for its citizens who do not understand cryptocurrency.

Another good news for Bitcoin, the way in which some countries recent Bitcoin adoption as a legal tender is going is becoming more interesting.
There is going to be a particular point in the future, I think it will enter into a competition stage where some countries wouldn't want to be left out or seen as the last to do so, so the earlier the better because fiat is going down and BTC is the future of money and way forward to escaping the rising inflation around the world.

I very happy to hear that panama will legalize bitcoin soon, it will make bitcoin's position even stronger and harder to get banned anywhere, i hope the people of panama get prosperity after the government legalizes bitcoin.

that's awesome, if bitcoin legal tender in panama is successful it can allow citizens to pay taxes, fees and other government obligations with digital currency and bitcoin has taken a step forward  higher, I hope more countries will continue to accept bitcoin.

@fillippone if this is Twitter, I started following you.
I just finished reading about the Central African Republic thread and now this. Dude, you are updated really fast and I appreciate you sharing it with us with complete compilation of what needs to be read for fact checking. Thank you.
Welcome Panama and I wish this keeps up. Slow but steady. Bitcoin will crawl on every country. We are not in a rush.

Central Africa just recently did as well, right? What does this change in the tax situation? I mean if I earn crypto by trading, how does it see? Is it still same as me turning my fiat to dollars and back to my fiat and profit from it? Or is it seen as a way that I profited like if I were a company and sold a product?

In any case, we are talking about a proper increase in the level of bitcoins reputation because we are getting more and more attention and that is a great thing for us. I personally love it when bitcoin is taken seriously because when I first got into crypto, we weren't taken seriously at all and now we are legal tender in 3 nations.

It means Panama only legalized Bitcoin as legal payment, not legal tender which is still good but the news article site seems to understand this part when they wrote their news.
It will be hard to see Countries with national fiat currency legalizing Bitcoin as legal tender.

Yes, no matter the legality the Panama government signed for Bitcoin it's still a piece of good news but there's already hope about the good future to hold Bitcoin for a long time even before El Salvador legalizes Bitcoin as legal tender although all the legalizes Bitcoin is experiencing is strengthen the enthusiasm of Bitcoin holder.

It’s good to see how countries are now starting to realize that Bitcoin is a good currency and they are also adopting it. I’m also looking forward to when other countries around the world will start adopting Bitcoin, it’s really going to push up the price and also move the community ahead.

Apart from Panama, and El Salvador, Central African Republic is another country that have also adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender that as of recent. So, right now we have three countries that are fully supporting cryptocurrency. BTW, in Panama, people are not obligated to make use of Or accept cryptocurrency, so it's not like it’s a real legal tender in the country.

Such a news does not really move the market, although I would say it is because that the countries that has been adopting cryptocurrency so far are not really like the big countries in the world, and is just some small countries, which is El Salvador, Central African Republic and Panama. So, these countries are not really like the world powers, and are just smaller countries.

So, their adoption is not really making any impact at all. Let’s say for example that the US decides to adopt it as a legal tender, I believe that it will really have an effect in the market for sure.

A good step for Panama to immediately follow el savador who succeeded in legalizing bitcoin, I'm sure many citizens will benefit greatly from the legalization of bitcoin, and of course this makes us more optimistic about the future of bitcoin.

In fact, since Panama has wanted to legally bid for bitcoin since 2021, its crypto laws have been reviewed in accordance with the country's economic circumstances and conditions.  They have certainly been closely monitoring the situation and moves from El Salvador.  If they do end up becoming a very ideal standards( Technology Center) development organization in Latin America.  But it seems a bit rushed because when it comes to news they accept cryptocurrencies for payment.  Need to wait for the final approval result.
The strength of bitcoin is sovereignty and ideology.  It won't affect the value all of a sudden.  What are you hoping for the best for bitcoin???

Will we mention Brazil or Cuba there?  It will definitely be interesting

Some things are clearer considering the posts that shed light on some things, but sometimes it is not easy to figure out how the laws are formulated and what exactly they refer to. Panama is definitely a very interesting case and an environment in which Bitcoin will be in a position to show what it can offer in relation to fiat currencies.

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For me quite expected, because if you do not have your own national currency, it is very easy to add Bitcoin as one of the options. However, I emphasize as one of the options - because Bitcoin is only an alternative, even in the ES, which imposes it as a legal tender, but with the choice of everyone to use the USD.


I wouldn't say that this kind of news is not good, but people have realized that it is no longer something that can move the market in a positive direction. On the other hand, a war that could escalate into anything more than a conflict between the two countries at any moment, and unstoppably rising inflation certainly affect the way investors think when it comes to investing in Bitcoin.

It's really good to see another country taking friendly step ahead for legalizing bitcoin and Panama has done this in reality.There were rumours around for it but now the smoke has been cleared with passion of the bill but however i see some misconceptions over the net and Twitter also where people are assuming that BTC is legal tender in Panama which is not so true.

In actual case they have legalised the use of bitcoin payments in the country with passing of the bill and the best thing I liked about is 0% capital gain tax over it but the bill is still to be signed by the President as cleared by this tweet also :



But still it's good approach as Panama might be changing some rules giving it legal status in future but according to me if you are free to use bitcoin as payment system which is the base model for it then it's much better.The Panama's 50% population don't have a bank account and this could be game changing for them if they accept it.We have seen many people strikes and protest in El Salvador when it passed the legal status law.Hope people understand it and at last btc is free money but we can't impose it on people as it dematerialise the whole concept of freedom.

Speaking of US dollar then you can easily use it in Panama without even exchanging it as foreign currency as it's used in coexistence with the Panama legal currency Balboas in ratio of 1:1 which means 1 Balboas is equal to 1 USD .


For more details head to this file to check out the Dollarised economy Panama

This image speaks thousand words if you clearly understand it from depth :



The world is recognising the importance of bitcoin and how could it embrace themselves to rise against poverty to some extent and counter inflation.But still many will oppose this in fear of just losing control out of their hands but there are more important things than this.

The Bukele speculation about two more countries following the same step are turning out to be true slowly as @fillippone's thread about various countries accepting btc increases so hope this projection goes on mass scale soon.

Most likely, nothing will change much in Panama in the coming year. Perhaps within a few weeks after this news there will be some changes, but then everything will go into decline. A large number of countries are needed for a full-fledged global cryptocurrency system. Now you should not hope for any strong changes in the world.

Some folks around me kept asking me why is that the countries that are adopting bitcoin as legal tenders are developing nations. They argue that bitcoin would remain a financial underdog. I simply told them that it is only the sick that needs  physicians. These nations have simply discovered a remedy for some of their financial woes. CAR recently knew that they were dealing with the wrong physicians and they needed to change. And the wrong doctors are unhappy that the patient is now seeking an alternative cure. Bitcoin adoptions recently might be insignificant to skeptics, but El Salvador, Central African Republic and Panama is a huge win for bitcoin. Bitcoin adoption might not be the total cure of these nation's economic challenges, but it is a positive option.

This is great news. I recently heard about the Central African Republic adopting btc as a legal tender which you can transact commerce and pay taxes with and now Panama is doing same.
I think the adoption would be more successful in Panama cause of the volatile situation going in in the African nation. Panama itself is an ideal spot for bitcoin as it favours cryptocurrency.
This is the slow gradual adoption of bitcoin worldwide and I'm loving it.

Legalised of bitcoin was sounds good,but their was a doubt of how much it will works.Because the El people moves create this opinion to me.It was total twist in that country.The bad one of the El government was,they had forced to use of the bitcoin.But here panama had just make the bitcoin as a legal tender.So hope their will be some good response among the people of panama in the bitcoin price.

To understand what is happening in a Panama you must first realise that they have monetary freedom enshrined in their constitution. This means NO currencies can be legal tender.

Panama has no central bank either. By de facto the majority of the population currently bank and transact in USD. And there are no capital gains on USD appreciation. And there are no capital gains on appreciation of any other 'lawful currency' used for transacting or accounting purposes. Panama has a version of what is known as the 'free banking' model in monetary economics.

However not just any old token can be used as a 'lawful currency'. Major national currencies like USD, EUR, CHF, YEN, etc are all able to be used as 'lawful' currencies in the Panamanian banking system. But they cannot use Chuck-E-Cheez tokens or Canadian-Tyre tokens.

It appears that Bitcoin will be given 'lawful currency' status in Panama by this new bill which places it on par with other international currencies used there.

NOT 'legal tender' but 'lawful currency'. This is the ideal situation imho.

Does that mean Panama is only legalizing bitcoin as legal tender but not as legal currency?
Whatever the legality of bitcoin there, I think that is big news that needs to be welcomed by the "bitcoin" crypto community around the world. Over time adoption is getting better and this gives us hope about a good future to hold bitcoin for a long time. If Panama succeeds in doing so, then we can also expect other countries to follow suit in the near future.

That's right, according to satoshi's goal of creating bitcoin which is for freedom...

a good step from the panama government not to force their citizens to use bitcoin and give their citizens a choice whether they want to make bitcoin an alternative transaction and investment or not. With this news, I see that the big countries are a little behind from Panama and El Salvador.

As always, we don't have anyone from Salvador, nobody from CAR, but I'm used to it, we didn't even have anyone to translate the CCB statements from Chinese back in the days. Probably this will be the indicator for the next country that does something big when it comes to Bitcoin, it will be a country with no subforum on bitcoinktalk  

Back to the news itself:


I love this, this is how things should be done.
Not declaring overnight every business needs to adopt this, not forcing merchants to accept it, not forgetting to tell them they will need a bank account to instantly convert those BTC is they want $ and they will have to use a bank or an atm to get the cash, and so on and on.
On top of that, not spending government money trying to boost popularity!

Bitcoin means freedom and bitcoin should not be imposed, if you're forcing this I see it just as an attack on freedom.
With this move you respect everyone's decision, if they want to use it they will use it if they don't they won't, it's just like how shops are allowed to operate and choose what they are willing to accept, it's either "no cash" or "no cc' or "no checks". Boosting all day long about buying the dips, giving away millions in airdrops, using a government centralized platform for this, issuing bonds for some city that will never be built, this is not about bitcoin usage and freedom those are politicians' publicity stunts.

One thing, we had three countries to date, none of them had actually their own free floating currency, interesting pattern.

LE:
And of course, the price keeps dropping, the first time I was checking it today and as usual, again down -2,74% last 24h, I'm starting to wonder if we might need some country to ban bitcoin in order for it to go up!

In Reddit I got an answer that reiterates the view about the Constitution:


https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ue8f8s/comment/i6o5840/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

So yes, this is basically saying the legal tender is determined by the market, not by law. They state that the information on the banking website can be misleading (this seems strange to me, honestly) but they might want to discourage customers from depositing any currency but dollars (they might not interested in getting PLN or HUF, or possibly CHF).
But I am only playing the guessing game here.

Nice one Panama, bitcoin is really growing. Recently central African Republic adopted bitcoin as currency and am getting to hear the same news about Panama adopting bitcoin as legal tender, I can't wait to hear good news like this from top countries. We are about to round up the first quarter of the year and we have had several news about several countries accepting bitcoin , by the time the year runs out more countries will accept bitcoin.

I have also read a little bit about it and it seems that for what I have read Panama is unable to confer legal tender status, but the post of Rikafip may seem to call that into question, however it seems Panama has taken an approach similar to what we saw back then when merchants still used gold coins, instead of forcing each other to use a gold coin minted by a single government merchants knew the weight and the purity of each coin, so they just accepted the coins minted by the governments and transacted with each other with no problem by willingly accepting on their own all of those coins.

I would never make such a baseless accusation.

They definitely have a different approach than El Salvador and they clearly define that in their strategy :


In other words, anyone who wants will be able to use Bitcoin completely legally, and this will by no means be an obligation, as is the case in the ES when it comes to all legal entities. Panama is likely to be much more attractive to investors because of its very favorable tax laws than Malta, Gibraltar, or perhaps Madeira, which each wants to become a kind of crypto paradise (or at least have had such plans in the past).

I can confirm that. To be fully effective the law needs to be signed by Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo. Only when it is signed the law will be in full effect and able to produce an impact.

For now Wiki shows PAB and USD as currencies in Panama, but not Bitcoin.

I've also read today (but sorry, I cannot find it now) that the Bitcoin-as-legal-tender may have not passed yet?
Also the English text in OP tells:

The best thing I could think of was to post your question in the Reddit thread and ask that to the user who posted the original content.
I will post it the answer here.

I tried to find some more  info about status of US dollar in Panama and this is what I found on the website of some Panama bank, and similar thing (dollar being legal tender) is stated on Wikipedia. Too bad we don't have anyone from Panama active here (I guess) to clear this out.

I do share your doubts, and I agree in principle that the meaning of “legal tender” as known in the “civil law systems” is closely resembling to what you stated above: law imposes over the free will of individuals forcing them to accept a specific currency.

In Panama things work in a slightly different way. I am following the developments over multiple channels (do you think my posts come out of copy and paste??), and this comment raised my attention, as it is pretty explanatory of the situation:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ue8f8s/panama_bitcoin_bill_are_zero_taxes_better_than/i6mfu8d/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3

I am trying to double-check this information. Bear with me.

Keep remember Bitcoin is a freedom, anyone have their own choice to use or not. It's a right move from Panama giving an optional for businessman and their citizens to use Bitcoin. Take a look with El Salvador, even their president doesn't force them to use Bitcoin, but many people e.g. retires still protest against Bitcoin.

Don't mind them this is just a captivation to gain the interest of the people trust me government will only support what it will benefit from and i believe they will levied the tax later after the adoption would have been circulated, this is politics they want to bring into bitcoin and it will not work, because we all know how they have been taking the issue of task with all seriousness, and as for Panama, i want to congratulate them for making it to the third place in adoption of bitcoin for payment in businesses but they have to make that in an official statement that will indicate the claim "legal tender" in other to clear all doubts and  i see more countries following as well.

This way is much better than forcing it on the people of panama, btc despite being around for more than a decade is still a new tech to a lot of people, some are still struggling to understand the whole concept and how to use it.
with this option in place, those who feel comfortable and understand it enough will begin to accept it as part of their payment option. one step at a time, for now smaller countries are taking the bold step. Hopefully in the near future some of the big countries will pick up the slack.

@fillippone are you sure that bitcoin became legal tender in Panama, as stated in the title of the topic? I am asking this because in that text that you linked its stated that businesses may accept bitcoin, but are not forced to do it. From what I know, if some currency  is legal tender that means business have to accept it, they can't refuse it like its the case here. I mean, its still good news nevertheless and one step forward, just wanted to clear that out.

How is that a bad thing exactly, people using bitcoin for what is initially intended for?

Highly likely that you just saw one of those "X country/state planning on making bitcoin legal tender"; we've had a good number of those lately, as I'm guessing some countries are trying to join in on the hype. At least this one seems to be official.

The 0 capital gains tax is very good news that may encourage people to spend bitcoin as a currency, although there is still another part that may make people think twice before using it as a currency: waiting for the price to go up. However, I think bitcoin will gradually have less returns (sadly) and less volatility, so this second part will also push people to spend.

Panama has been a tax heaven for the rest of the world since a long time. Multiple billionaires and millionaires use Panama to channel out their money to various shell companies so that those can be invested abroad and create fortune for the riches. It's good that Panama has finally added cryptos to the available list of avenues.

Small countries like Panama, El-Salvador, Curacao don't have infrastructure to build factories and can't produce mass employment. This is how they try to make money themselves. Good progress!

Interesting, it seems that Panama is more into attracting the foreign investors rather than accepting the bitcoin locally. I mean if you read the quotes then they are focusing on “opening the doors for foreign investors” through bitcoin channel which is obvious to increase Money flow. I assume they have plans for this because fiat is something that exists and yet businesses not crossing the borders freely. This could be just nominal thought. But as they said the key difference between El Salvador who is more focused on bitcoin being the currency of locals, Panama stands out for investor based relation. Would be interesting to see how it works out.

Yes, this is great news but according to the research I did and the content provided by the OP. Bitcoin was not legal tender in Panama but it was signed and as a legal payment method.
Read this message which was translated by the OP.
"Panama will venture into the legalized digital economy" and "This action of the deputies opens the doors to bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies, proposes to give legal stability to these digital elements, in addition, it is made explicit that the proposal does not oblige the use of bitcoin as a means of payment because it is presented in an optional"
They never said Bitcoin was legalized as legal tender.

Not surprised to see more countries following El Salvador to make Bitcoin a legal tender. The point is, how good El Salvador survives and continues its Bitcoin adoption as a legal tender. If everything looks good and no massive bad issues related to their decision, more countries will trust them successfully in adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender. As the pioneer, El Salvador has a big role to trigger other countries like Panama joining Bitcoin adoption (BTC as a legal tender).

*Great news, we have another country to adopt Bitcoin fully.

Apparently @OP, its become a trendy in recent times with Central Africa, Russia and Ukraine  before the war and now, Panama as you have it. Even at that, we still get news of the fail of bitcoin in El-Salvador that all started this adoption. I don't know if I'm to get a mixed feeling about this as, orher nations just wants to try it out to see if it would work or them or they've got a hidden agenda to adopt and the  rub it in the mud as something that doesn't work.
Which ever it is, I would still continue to use bitcoin and I'm sure these serious of adoptions is sure to help someone find some usefulness in the system.

That's too say Panama officially becomes a legal tender after El Salvador, Central African Republic both.
Great move as we await world wide Bitcoin adoption. What I don't like is using Crypto for Bitcoin which I know very well are not same.
Anyways congratulations to Panama, Citizens can now download the App and make transfer of transactions.

I am not so sure I am understanding this correctly, but even if the legislation that was passed at Panama seems to be very positive and favorable for bitcoin, it does not really give it legal tender status, bitcoin can be used as a currency and businesses are free to accept it but it is optional, however if bitcoin was legal tender then businesses will actually be forced to do accept it, but in any case this is a good enough law and the fact that you do not have to pay capital gains on your bitcoin earnings will be very attractive especially for the whales that can relocate themselves to Panama.

It is good for the country residents, and the population of the country is 4+million. With the adoption of bitcoin the economic conditions will strengthen. As for now there is no proper income distribution. Almost 55% of the income goes into the hands of 20% of the richest residing in the country. It holds the high human development index with which we can expect good number of people using bitcoin compared to the countries that have adopted bitcoin earlier. Majority of the population resides in the rural regions which shows that job is accumulated in specific regions. The adoption is also aimed with more jobs, let's see what all things gets fulfilled through this new law passed.

I think I already see a thread like this, or its just another country?
Anyway, this is a good news in Panama where crypto investors can easily use their Bitcoin to buy anything they want since its already legal. Panama serves an important role in sea shipments/tourist cruise, they might also introduce this on collecting fees, well this is a good start. Educating more people about Bitcoin should also be the concern, hoping to see more countries to make Bitcoin as a legal tender.

welcome to the club panama....with 3 million people who certainly already have a good knowledge of bitcoin and also have the natural wealth that is one of the world's tourist destinations, panama will be very successful with their bitcoin adoption.  what i see in the future about this is! that there will be more and more countries that recognize bitcoin, just wait one by one.

Is this a deja-vu? These threads are becoming more and more every day!

The game theory is hitting hard, and more and more countries will adopt bitcoin.



Panama is an exciting country for bitcoiners because of... reasons.

Quote Actualidad, 28 Abril, 2022 DAN VIDA JURÍDICA A LA CRIPTOMONEDA Por Bienvenido Mojica / Fotos Erick Santos Panamá incursionará en la economía digital legalizada en la iniciativa de Ley 697, que regula la comercialización y el uso de criptoactivos.   La norma que regula la comercialización y uso de criptoactivos, la emisión de valor digital, la tokenización de metales preciosos y otros bienes y los sistemas de pagos será factible por la decisión del Órgano Legislativo de aprobarla en tercer debate.   Esta accionar de los diputados abre las puertas al bitcoin (BTC) y a las criptomonedas, propone darles estabilidad jurídica a estos elementos digitales, además, que se hace explicito que la propuesta no obliga al uso de bitcoin como medio de pago porque se presenta de forma opcional.   En ese sentido, se planteó que si el comercio quiere la cripto la puede recibir y no existirá problema alguno. Por ello, el Banco Nacional de Panamá actuará como ente supervisor de la actividad.   El proyecto de ley fue producto de una fusión de las iniciativas que emanaron de los diputados Cenobia Vargas y Gabriel Silva.   Para entender, el proceso, hubo docencia al indicar que cualquier ciudadano con un celular podrá descargar una aplicación y desde allí realizar transferencias.   También se abren las puertas para que empresarios internacionales o locales inviertan en diferentes sectores del país.   Pages: Bitcoin Forum>Economy>Economics Jump to: Please select a destination: Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion ===> Legal ===> Press ===> Meetups ===> Important Announcements => Development & Technical Discussion ===> Wallet software =====> Electrum =====> Bitcoin Wallet for Android =====> BitcoinJ =====> Armory =====> Mycelium =====> Hardware wallets => Bitcoin Technical Support => Project Development => Mining ===> Mining support ===> Pools ===> Mining software (miners) ===> Hardware =====> Group buys ===> Mining speculation Economy => Economics ===> Speculation => Marketplace ===> Currency exchange ===> Gambling =====> Games and rounds =====> Investor-based games =====> Gambling discussion ===> Lending =====> Long-term offers ===> Securities ===> Auctions ===> Service Announcements =====> Micro Earnings ===> Service Discussion =====> Web Wallets =====> Exchanges ===> Goods =====> Computer hardware =====> Digital goods =======> Invites & Accounts =====> Collectibles ===> Services => Trading Discussion ===> Scam Accusations ===> Reputation Other => Meta ===> New forum software ===> Bitcoin Wiki => Beginners & Help => Off-topic => Serious discussion ===> Ivory Tower => Archival ===> Chinese students ===> Obsolete (buying) ===> Obsolete (selling) ===> MultiBit ===> CPU/GPU Bitcoin mining hardware ===> Корзина => Politics & Society Alternate cryptocurrencies => Altcoin Discussion => Announcements (Altcoins) ===> Tokens (Altcoins) => Mining (Altcoins) ===> Pools (Altcoins) => Marketplace (Altcoins) ===> Service Announcements (Altcoins) ===> Service Discussion (Altcoins) ===> Bounties (Altcoins) => Speculation (Altcoins) Local => العربية (Arabic) ===> العملات البديلة (Altcoins) =====> النقاشات ===> إستفسارات و أسئلة المبتدئين ===> التعدين ===> النقاشات الأخرى ===> منصات التبادل => Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) ===> Mining (Bahasa Indonesia) ===> Altcoins (Bahasa Indonesia) ===> Trading dan Spekulasi ===> Ekonomi, Politik, dan Budaya ===> Topik Lainnya ===> Marketplace (Bahasa Indonesia) => 中文 (Chinese) ===> 跳蚤市场 ===> 山寨币 ===> 媒体 ===> 挖矿 ===> 离题万里 => Hrvatski (Croatian) ===> Trgovina ===> Altcoins (Hrvatski) =====> Announcements (Hrvatski) ===> Off-topic (Hrvatski) => Français ===> Vos sites et projets ===> Hors-sujet ===> Actualité et News ===> Débutants ===> Discussions générales et utilisation du Bitcoin ===> Mining et Hardware ===> Économie et spéculation ===> Place de marché =====> Produits et services =====> Petites annonces =====> Échanges ===> Le Bitcoin et la loi ===> Wiki, documentation et traduction ===> Développement et technique ===> Altcoins (Français) =====> Annonces => India ===> Mining (India) ===> Marketplace (India) ===> Regional Languages (India) ===> Press & News from India ===> Alt Coins (India) ===> Buyer/ Seller Reputations (India) ===> Off-Topic (India) => Italiano (Italian) ===> Guide (Italiano) ===> Progetti ===> Discussioni avanzate e sviluppo ===> Trading, analisi e speculazione ===> Mercato =====> Mercato valute =====> Beni =====> Servizi =====> Esercizi commerciali =====> Hardware/Mining (Italiano) =====> Gambling (Italiano) ===> Accuse scam/truffe ===> Mining (Italiano) ===> Alt-Currencies (Italiano) =====> Annunci ===> Raduni/Meeting (Italiano) ===> Crittografia e decentralizzazione ===> Off-Topic (Italiano) => Nederlands (Dutch) ===> Markt ===> Gokken/lotterijen ===> Mining (Nederlands) ===> Beurzen ===> Alt Coins (Nederlands) ===> Off-topic (Nederlands) ===> Meetings (Nederlands) => 한국어 (Korean) ===> 대체코인 Alt Coins (한국어) => Русский (Russian) ===> Новички ===> Бизнес =====> Барахолка =====> Обменники ===> Идеи ===> Кодеры ===> Майнеры ===> Политика ===> Трейдеры ===> Альтернативные криптовалюты =====> Токены =====> Бayнти и aиpдpoпы ===> Хайпы ===> Работа ===> Разное ===> Oбcyждeниe Bitcoin =====> Новости =====> Юристы => Română (Romanian) ===> Anunturi importante ===> Presa ===> Offtopic ===> Market =====> Discutii Servicii ===> Minerit ===> Tutoriale ===> Bine ai venit! 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