I've just read about it in the news, and it's a big step forward. I don't know how this will function in reality in El Salvador, but the sentiment is nice. However, it seems that this country has a lot of big problems like high levels of violent crimes, extremely unfair distribution of wealth with 30% being in poverty, and only about the third of population even having Internet access. These problems cannot be fixed by making Bitcoin legal tender, and I hope Bitcoin won't exacerbate them by becoming the money for the elites.

Wow I was not expecting to see such news about any country and government because bitcoin came to make everything is payments decentralized and border-less, while the governments are always trying control everything and make everything centralized just the opposite of bitcoin goal. I don't this country and don't know about the the living condition, but, if there is a good living condition mane bitcoiner will be attracted and this this will even help this country economically.

What an amazing news that shocked the world,  El salvador is really doing well and I wasn't expecting the president of that country to implement this in the 2021 conference.
Does this implementation means that the adoption of cryptocurrency is coming to reality and it will be starting clearly from now on which will be influence other countries to do the same.
Congrats to the El salvador citizens

I don't know what to say reading this Greatest news i ever read since the 2021 arrived. There are so much fun inside of me and i can't express how grateful it is.

imagine that there is finally a country that will let Bitcoin to become a legal tender , meaning in some part of the world Bitcoin will be their Currency(literally)

Wondering how this will give the El Salvadorian people a best benefits a human can have and that is using Bitcoin even in paying your condom 

thank you El Salvador and Congratulations..

That's not correct. Japan recognize bitcoin as legal "property". They do not recognize it as "legal tender". El Salvador is the first in this regard. "Legal tender" has a very specific definition which make the wide reaching implications of this significant, such as the knock on effect on how other countries treat bitcoin. Lots of countries have some kind of definition of money or currency which includes the legal tender of other countries. And as soon as bitcoin is classified as money and no longer as property or an asset or something similar, then it becomes exempt from a wide range of taxes, it becomes far easier to buy and sell, there is far less accountancy headaches or paperwork for large firms and businesses to buy/sell/trade it, and so on.

Wow. The author really did a lot of work to be the devil's advocate.

Yet, I think it is important to see the background against which this has happened. Jack Mallers of Strike went and helped spread LN payments as a method for remittances, which are like 20% of their GDP and people get charged a lot for transaction etc.

Most people don't have access to banks and a country that just 3 years ago was fighting mad violence in the streets can't be expected to suddenly put the pedal on financial inclusion. (branches, bank staff, ATMs, getting people onboard). All of that is possible with a mobile wallet in an instant.

So, when the President decided to put his weight behind BTC, he is essentially just declaring the country Bitcoin friendly and even ASKED the bitcoin community to invest in BTC infrastructure (which Blockstream and others have already committed to). This isn't like they are suddenly buying a lot of BTC and will put them in their reserves to fight debt.

The idea is more about promoting financial inclusion and letting the BTC warriors (Not the 'number go up' degens of the past years) fight the good fight to make positive economic changes to the people's lives. I think, to begin with, this is going to be about the Bitcoin community helping out the people in terms of knowledge and infrastructure support.

To that end, I suppose it'd be a good idea for @Theymos to have a dedicated sub for the El-Salvadorians, if there are any on the forum, or if they ever catch up and come here.

Pretty decent stuff. Thanks for sharing. I'm still never really truly convinced about this "banking the unbanked" stuff. People who need financial services or banks usually don't find Bitcoin as the probably solution for many reasons, technology and access at the heart of it. I've seen in East Africa for example where mobile phone fintech has worked wonders (talking about SMS -based $5 phones on GPRS network, not even smartphones that Bitcoin wallets need right now). Nevertheless, El Salvador isn't a place I know a lot about and if Bitcoin works there, certainly a case study for the naysayers.

And yeah, Japan's not quite "legal tender" apparently as even Reuters had to retract their earlier statements suggesting the same. So yeah, El Salvador CAN take the "first"... but they're not nearly there yet until it's set in stone in the legal books.


Let's see if legislation (or legislators) does indeed catch up. Can see the US Feds keeping an eye on it too. They might prefer LatAm to remain in the financial dark age.

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


In the U.S., for example:

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/