After El Salvador regulated Bitcoin as legal tender, other countries are tempted to follow in its footsteps:
Brazil Set To Adopt Bitcoin As Its Legal TenderPanama unveils bill to make Bitcoin legal tenderUkraine could soon become the second country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tenderObviously these are countries that have seen an opportunity, but it is much more difficult for countries like the USA, EU countries, Australia, etc. to do so. So far Bitcoin has been regulated in most countries as (intangible) property. Consequently, it has also been taxed so that every time you spend Bitcoin you should declare and pay taxes. If you buy $1,000 of Bitcoin, the price goes up 10% and you buy a $5 coffee at Starbucks, you will owe taxes on 10% of that $5. If the next day the price of Bitcoin goes down and it is only 5% above your initial investment, when you make a purchase you will also owe taxes but only on 5%.
This, as I explained in
another thread, makes it difficult for Bitcoin to be used as a day-to-day currency. In order to keep track of all transactions and pay taxes correctly you should rely on some App or some kind of software that keeps track of transactions and does the calculations for you. This means giving up your privacy and giving your purchase data to a centralized entity.
However, if Bitcoin is recognized as a legal tender, you will no longer have to pay taxes for buying coffees. In the same way that you don't have to pay taxes when you shop at the supermarket in dollars because the dollar has appreciated 2% against the euro in the last day.
I understand that the governments of the most economically powerful countries are going to be much more reticent than El Salvador and others who are seeing an opportunity.
On the one hand, if they make it legal to tender, they will lose money to be collected in direct taxes, and on the other hand they will lose at least part of the power they have with the massive printing of currency.
That is why I wonder if in the future, more and more countries will pass legislation that considers Bitcoin legal to tender and in the end the more economically powerful countries will have to capitulate and do the same.
What do you think?
I think other countries will watch El Salvador closely, in order to make their move. If adopting Bitcoin as legal tender becomes a long-term success, you can rest assured that countries in Latin America will do the same. For developed countries like the USA, UK, and Australia, that's another story. Their economies are going well without Bitcoin, so there would be no need to make it legal tender. Especially the US, where the US Dollar is going strong. It's hard to believe governments will give up Fiat in exchange for Bitcoin, since the latter is decentralized and outside of their control. As long as Bitcoin cannot be controlled by the government, the chances of being adopted as legal tender are slim. I'm fine with that as long as Bitcoin remains a decentralized and censorship-resistant cryptocurrency anyone can use worldwide. Just my opinion