Topic: El Salvador has become the first country to make #Bitcoin legal tender! 🇸🇻 - page 126. (Read 36686 times)

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Peru might be next, but NOT as legal tender.  Last I looked, leftist whacko Pedro Castillo (graduate of the Hugo Chavez School of Government) has a small lead in their presidential run-off election.  Castillo is not a run of the mill leftist.

Peru has been fairly much a laggard in adopting BTC, but I have bought bfrom two ATMs there, both of which might be gone (at least one of them is, I'd have to check coinatmradar to see if the other is as well).

I know Venezuelans here in my city.  It is horrible what is happening there.  They use BTC (and another crypto, Dash?) more than one would expect.  In some cases, BTC/crypto saves lives...

If the Peruvian people choose to go down that road, may the Lord save them.  Bitcoin would help Peru in such dire circumstances, but not that much.

They are talking about bitcoin, so you seem to be making a lot of assumptions that various shitcoins and shitcoin projects are going to be able to flourish there, which might not be incorrect, but seems that you are both going quite a ways beyond the announcement in terms of seeming to mostly be focusing on bitcoin and lightning network at the moment.. and surely more directly from those developments some shitcoins are likely to try to come into the space too.. so it could be interesting if there are attempts to protect citizens from various shitcoin related scams.. which is sometimes hard to do and also can be seen in the bitcoin space that a lot of shitcoins do leech off of bitcoin and try to present themselves as offering something of actual value... but can do so because bitcoin does provide some level of legitimacy to the whole space and then the shitcoiners can come in and act like they are either the same thing or something similar.

Anyway, if they fail, they can always go back to where they are. No harm done. But people will now be open to other possibilities when they start to orient themselves with crypto. Maybe, find another means how to earn money on their own. Because during this pandemic, a lot of people rely on crypto market to earn a lil bit of income like doing these bounty programs, participating on crypto tasks, getting airdrop, doing programming works and the likes, selling their artworks via NFTs, and many other things. This will open more jobs to people and so it will help their economy in return.

I have to agree, indeed, too. I have always been told to look for the catch in anything because most of the times there is always a catch. Maybe this is the time in which there is not but better wait some more before having to re-think our enthusiasm. It happened with Elon too.

Of course this will be a very long process and a doorway to even more complex blockchain elements. All countries can start to observe and evaluate the development of Bitcoin and El Salvador as the country that first made Bitcoin a legal tender.
This study can of course be used as initial data for the implementation of blockchain technology on a wider scale in other countries. I strongly support this.

Exactly.  I have felt similar reservations straight from seeing Jack Maller's Miami presentation that included the El Salvador president's statement.  Right from the start Maller and other commenters upon the topic were presenting the matter as if it were a "done deal" - even the President seemed to proclaim that it will be done in the coming week - and I have hardly known any government to get things done that quickly, especially the more complicated the legislation or rule that is going to be passed.

Another devil in the detail matter would be if the President sends over a draft legislation and the congress looks at the matter and decides if they want to pass it "as is" - something like "the sky is blue" would be easy to get agreement, not have any debate and then pass without amendment, but if there are stake holders with varying interest, including potential pressures from outsiders, then surely there might be some considerations regarding whether some of the language of the draft legislation needs to be changed or if they are able to agree to passing the draft exactly as proposed.

So, at this point, we not ONLY have a lot of presumption that whatever was proposed would just go through without modification and then even questions about what is being proposed exactly - though I presume that some links have been shared about what is being proposed.

Surely, I am going to become more interested if something does actually pass (and to see what that is, exactly), and surely surprised if something actually passes this week as seems to be a kind of presumption towards the President's statement that he is "sending something to parliament on the topic this week".. what is he sending exactly?  Did he already send it?  Define this week.

I'd rather wait for the bill to go through before adding to the hype.  I suspect there are people in this world with vested interests, who occupy positions of power and influence, who would prefer this didn't happen.  If this goes through and other countries did follow suit, it changes certain paradigms.  So it would make sense that anyone who doesn't want those paradigms to shift will react swiftly to this development.  Maybe don't treat it as a foregone conclusion just yet.  There is still time to exert pressure on those in the El Salvador Congress.  Nation states have proven time and again that they aren't above meddling in the affairs of other nations.


//EDIT:  Seems I was being overly pessimistic.  Multiple news agencies are now reporting the bill has passed (9th June 2021).

 It is great initiative taken by Nayib Bukele the El Salvador president and great news for all the residents who already are not having much bank accounts for the country population as per reports.This decision has came up in the time btc was struggling with all the FUD in the market and prices were tumbling.They are making it as legal tender which means giving it status of use like fiat and reserve assest instead of fiat and gold.So this can truly have major impact on the other small African nations as well in the coming time.Just HODL your coins safe with you.

Here comes the answer from Unites States as Trump just announced that Bitcoin is a scam, but this looks to me like someone is afraid that other countries may start to do the same as El Salvador.
Russia already removed dollar for all trading, and I am expecting that many other smaller countries will follow example of El Salvador accepting Bitcoin as legal tender and backup currency.
If something like this continue to happen it would be totally unstoppable, and no politician would be able to stop Bitcoin with false claims that it's a scam, because there is no bigger monetary scam than dollar now.
We surely don't need central global government to survive and prosper with Bitcoin.

This news has spread very quickly throughout the world...

we all have to agree that el salvador is the richest country in the world today. I don't know what obstacles the president of el salvador faced when he wanted to ratify this but he has managed to bring his country's reputation very well.

I feel sad reading your response and I am not kidding or spreading jokes. No need to be so agressive if you didn't recognise the message I told you.
That country has/is one of the most dangerous places in earth. If you really want to open a real business there (not virtual), you better study very well the situation there in addition to the market.
Good luck to whatever project you want to run. I am sorry for the misunderstanding and for thinking about your safety. I might be very influenced by the media and reports I read about the situation there.

Edit: /quote, for obvious reasons.

Nothing is official as of yet, and I would be rather cautious. All we have is a statement form the president (Nayib Bukele). A bill needs to be introduced in the parliament and passed, in order for Bitcoin to be declared as legal tender in El Salvador (it should not be a problem for Bukele, as his party is having a majority in parliament). But I will be vary of delaying tactics from the parliamentarians and regulations from the authorities. If in the end they impose all sort of restrictions on the usage of Bitcoin in remittance, then very few people may use it.

Please spare me from this shit. This is the most stupid comment I've received during my bitcointalk life.
If you wanted to be funny, well you weren't.
I'll take my risks in case and I don't need nobody to patronize me on what could I do or not.
Jeez.

Great news and very impressed to see a country like El Salvador is going to do that and the initiative came from its president which is exceptional.

Just a correction, it is no El Salvador the first country to legalize bitcoin but they're the first country to declare bitcoin as a legal tender. Being used legally and being declared as a legal tender are different or am I wrong with my understanding, cmiiw. But over all of it, very good news.

How will hey address the issue of people not having access to bitcoin though, I am sure that not everyone have a phone or electronic device in their country and probably they have a really big population that are below or in the poverty line. It's important but the problem is if they take it too hasty, they will probably experience the effects which are opposite of what they are trying to do.

It was only a logical thing to do. A large part of the Salvadorian population is working in other countries and they send billions of USD worth of remittance every year back to their home country. Bitcoin makes these remittance payments more affordable when compared to other services such as Western Union and Moneygram. For medium sized amounts, these services charge as much as 10% of the total amount (if we take in to account the fee and currency conversion charges). With Bitcoin, the these expenses go below the 1% level.

If the bitcoin bill is passed and becomes El Salvador's legal tender, it will be a great progress in the cryptocurrency and bitcoin industry.

Starting from El Salvador, it gradually influences other countries and finally the whole world. This is an important part of social and human development.

Can you share the source where you got 70% majority?

In any case, it appears Buleke is idealistic but backed by practicality. According to this article, to solve gang crime, his administration makes deals with gang leaders to help the country limit crime themselves. For his support in bitcoin, it appears that instead of criminalizing users, he wants to make it legal tender. This is very much similar to decriminalizing drug use in countries like Portugal.

Bukele’s move might also encourage other Latin American and South American countries to follow El Salvador. This might also unite them. This is something America does not want. The last person who wanted a united South America was Che Guevarra. The CIA killed him.



But there seems to be yet more to Bukele’s approach than a mix of tough enforcement, community development, and personal chemistry. In September, reports of secretive visits by government representatives to high-security jails, and unexplained movements of jailed gang members were confirmed in a bombshell story from the online news outlet El Faro, which cited concrete evidence of ongoing conversations between Bukele’s government officials and jailed MS-13 leaders. El Faro’s report added names and dates to the International Crisis Group’s findings published in a July report that questioned the government’s explanation of its security achievements — namely, that these were due to the Territorial Control Plan — and argued that a gang decision to scale back the use of violence was possibly part of an informal understanding negotiated with authorities.

Source https://warontherocks.com/2020/12/a-bargain-worth-making-bukele-and-the-gangs-of-el-salvador/

Depends on the laws of the country.

In the US the dollar might be viewed as legal tender but not every merchant is forced to accept your coins and bills, in other countries like France or Austria, or the Czech Republic every merchant has to accept any banknotes issued by the central bank as a form of payment, they are the only recognized legal tender, the only thing they can refuse is payment in more than x coins, same for China and Japan although I don't know their policy on coins.

Those laws vary even inside the eurozone (well, a bit less now with the whole UK mess out of it ) so god knows what Honduras policy will be and what legal tender will mean there.

Legal tender does not mean that it must be accepted for goods and services.


In the U.S., for example: