The IMF Just Improved El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law
The IMF yesterday announced they have reached a $1.4 billion loan deal with El Salvador. In return, the Central American country that in 2021 made bitcoin legal tender had to remove some of its pro-Bitcoin policies.
I spent about three months in El Salvador around the time the Bitcoin law went into effect. I thought then that it was a positive development for the country, but there were aspects of the law that I strongly disliked. Exactly these aspects are now being removed.
Source link:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/takes/the-imf-just-improved-el-salvadors-bitcoin-law
El Salvador has become known worldwide since it adopted Bitcoin in 2021, as it has chosen Bitcoin as the only way to reach higher levels. Which has been successful so far, although in the past El Salvador should have accepted Bitcoin for everyone.
Those who have accepted Bitcoin have benefited the most in the present, as El Salvador is now backed by any loan agreement.
Imagine being called by the higher-ups in McDonald's to comply to accept BTC as the means of payment.. Great world we live in
It is not that difficult to imagine.
Any company doing business in any country would have to accept their official currency (or currencies). In the case of El Salvador, since August 2021, it has been the dollar and bitcoin, yet apparently they have not been very strict on such requirement in regards to bitcoin especially with smaller companies, yet if a company is a larger company, then they would be more capable of complying with such a requirement.. especially if they have several business locations in El Salvador. Sure some McD locations might be company owned and others might be franchises, so it is not necessarily an easy process, even for a BIGGER company that might have operations that are not directly owned by the company but are operating under the company's name..
The obligation to accept payment for goods/services for businesses in bitcoins was prescribed in the article 7 of the "Bitcoin Law".
Probably, this legal norm was partially in effect in the country and many business entities did not comply with this norm and accepted payments only in dollars. But the country's legislators did not establish any sanctions for failure to comply with this legal norm. In my opinion, this state of legislation in this financial issue is quite normal. And such a practice of legally prescribed responsibilities of an economic entity without sanctions even in the form of an administrative offense or a fine, or a warning is of a recommendatory nature and allows developing such a sector of payments in bitcoin without actually breaking the law.
If, at the request of the IMF, this norm, as inoperative, is excluded from the "Bitcoin Law", this automatically changes the status of bitcoin as a national payment unit of El Salvador to just a certain currency, which is also used in all other countries in the same unofficial status. And yet, making Bitcoin official is exactly what Bukele has been planning to do since the very beginning of Bitcoin legalization.
In short, I believe that Bukele has more to lose in the long run from fulfilling these conditions of the IMF agreement and from the fact that he is rather recklessly and radically limiting the use of Bitcoin both among economic entities and in government budget payments.