There are many countries that has serious motive in adopting bitcoin but this is not that easy because they must lure their people first to support this like what happened in EL Salvador that their people is divided from the favor and the disagreeing party.
It depends in the way it is done, governments do not need to lure their citizens to accept bitcoin, some will do and some will not, that is life while dealing with multitudes. Countries do no need to have to make bitcoin a legal tender before they are adopting it, they can also still accept it as a form of payment. Also there is nothing like luring citizens to what you think we be good for the country, that is why he is the president, to lead the citizens righty. But we should know that if accepted as a way of payment or as legal tender, if bitcoin skyrocket again, it will have a great positive effect in El Salvador.
I just came across a very interesting website that depicts the experience and vicissitudes of a couple of travellers, well versed in bitcoin, who took it upon themselves to travel El Salvador solely using bitcoin as a means of payment, on a trip that describes an approximately 45 day experience doing so.
The article summarized some of their experience as:
- There still seems to be a lot of misinformation on bitcoin amongst the population, to the point that many confuse it with the Chivo System as being essentially the same.
- Efforts to properly educate the population on using the Chivo System seem scarce and even lower when it comes to bitcoin itself.
- There are still many places that still do not accept bitcoin, and this is even more so once you move out of the centric touristic areas.
- If you want to travel the country on bitcoin, be prepared to route your itinerary based on where they actually accept bitcoin, and not necessarily on where you intended to go.
- Museums and other Heritage related places still seem to currently only accept fiat.
I’ve read about a dozen or so of the entries in the diary, and each one was worth the time to get more insights on the day-to-day over there. The entry for day 28 was particularly shocking, since they claim that it seems feasible to withdraw USD (by selling BTC) on their ATMs, and perform a RBF. Not sure if this is really true, but it would be one hell of an oversight if so.
see:
(diary – Italian left/ English right)
https://bitcoinitaliapodcast.it/missione-el-salvador(article)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/around-el-salvador-in-45-days-a-bitcoin-only-travel-storyThis is one thing about people. Taken this for example, what funny me most is that the religions in the world do not believe in evolution but believe in creation, how would creation could have occur without evolution, instead to say they do not believe in a particular evolutionary theory and they can have theirs. People speak against what they do not about even if it is correct or not.
What is most important is that the citizens of El Salvador should know that if they do not want to use bitcoin, they can decide to only accept dollar and pay also only with dollar.
Read the entry for day 28 to properly understand the ATM thingy: According to the travellers, they used their wallet to retrieve 20$. The cash was dispensed immediately, without waiting for the TX to be confirmed. They could still see their TX pending in the mempool, thus they highlighted that they could have performed a RBF and got away with 20$ for free. It this is true, it’s something to highlight clearly.
If the ATM can accept payment also from wallets like electrum and the ATM dispense money before confirmation, that means this have to be chnaged, the advantage should only be given to people that are using Chivo wallet for a transaction not to be revered because it will be possible on noncustodial wallet. Or if the ATM can detect RBF transactions and delay payment until 1 confirmation, it will be good.