Bitcoin Forum

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Does making it legal tender mean stores have to accept it there (that's not a thing in Europe so idk - you can get turned away with 50s in the UK if they're not comfortable accepting them).

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The crash, also, was ultimately quite slow. Residents could probably have pulled their funds out in time. But, if they hadn't, that might be something the government were trying to do to get people to borrow money or buy a surplus of goods (to stock up on food for example). It could also be to put their economy up of it's dying quite badly as most who stayed expect btc to do quite well for the rest of this year.

I am quite suspicious about these protests. It needs to be seen who is provoking the people. As far as ordinary El Salvadorans are concerned, I guess they will be better off with Bitcoin, rather than with the US Dollar (the national currency - Salvadoran Colon is no longer in use). Fluctuation in the exchange rate is a concern, but at least BTC is not losing its purchasing power as badly as the US Dollar. It is beyond my comprehension why some people prefer to use the USD, despite the big spending plans announced by Biden recently. The purchasing power of the USD is going to drop like a rock.

The opposition is always against the government, and these protests are just a continuation of political resistance by the opposition - Deputy of El Salvador’s Opposition Party Sues Country Over Bitcoin Law (https://www.coindesk.com/deputy-of-el-salvador-opposition-party-files-lawsuit-against-bitcoin-legislation).

Of course there are risks with Bitcoin, but a country that doesn't have its own currency and needs a solution can't just wait for it to fall from the sky - they take risks, but not exactly as some think they haven't prepared and are doing everything overnight. Bitcoin Beach is a project that has been going on for some time in El Salvador, and has been successful so far.

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El Salvador is the first country in the world to pass such a law, a legal tender means that every buyer must be allowed to pay with Bitcoin if he wants to - what exists in Japan and Germany is not the same, which was already discussed (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5342087.msg57170199#msg57170199) at the beginning when this news went viral.

El-Salvador is a democratic country and not a Monarchy. So it is evident that opposition exists! So it's no wonder that some people are trying to mess with the government. That happens in every country where democracy exists. Also I don't think that their government didn't make it mandatory for the citizens to use bitcons. They have added bitcoin as an additional method along with the existing ones. Whoever finds it useful, will use it. It just a political agenda showcasing as a public protest by the media.

Otherwise it just doesn't make sense! If something is not mandatory for the citizens to follow, citizens can simply ignore it!

I understand the opposition's sentiments regarding bitcoin, though if it's evidently working on initial data, then it's suggesting that it could work in the long run with enough tinkering, adjustments, and support from the government and the public. As of the moment, it appears that the El Salvador government does not have any plans to fix their economy and offer a robust and long-lasting solution to not rely on band-aid supports such as introducing a cryptocurrency as legal tender in their country. It's good for us bitcoiners, but probably not for the country as a whole, most especially since bitcoin is still a highly volatile asset albeit being widely-regarded as the 'real deal' of cryptocurrencies.

77% is a lot of people, that's probably the reason why some people including me that expected the price to go up because of the declaration that bitcoin is a legal tender didn't happen. I think this will take time and all it needs is for the government to not budge and stick to the plan, people will adapt to it in the end.

We cannot really expect unity so soon from a changed system. We should also take consideration on the type of government El Salvador has wherein it is democratic so it is much expected that the voice of people would matter a lot to the country's current situation. Also, bitcoin is not something everyone is patronizing and supporting, there are many people who are against the legalization of it still as different factors gets considered. Maybe, after a few adjustments and making people see how helpful it could be, standing against the government would not happen again.

I must confess that I'd have preferred that Salvadorans would have started accepting bitcoin because they wanted to. Any form or coercion, even if it's done with good intentions, it's bad to me. September's a bit far away so we don't know whether Salvadoreños will be ready or not when Bitcoin's legal tender.
I'd like to see the data behind the poll to get a sense of who were the people interviewed because 77% is a big number.

For complaint 1, I have nothing to say really, it's been a usual argument used to defame Bitcoin and so isn't really worth it bringing up anymore imo. Complaint number 2 though, it's not like stores are being forced to ONLY use Bitcoin in transactions no? They can still use fiat side by side so I don't see any reason why it's even a complaint. Sure, stores would most probably have an issue with it, but can be handled quite easily if managed well imo. Customers would have no problem at all since it's their option whether to pay with Bitcoin or fiat.

The last one though clearly shows abuse of power. Kind of happy about the adoption, but not through something like this imo. There's at least a 90 day breather time though, so I hope something chanes within that time span.

It's a bad idea if people must accept BTC, but okay if they can freely choose what's best for them. Probably this issue arises because the government forces the people to accept BTC where: (1) still expensive, (2) adoption problem especially for older people.

I don't think their concerns are unreasonable, the biggest case against BTC as a day to day currency is volatility. I don't expect the low wage earners of El Salvador to understand why their local currency might even be more unstable than Bitcoin given the currency is attached to government and politics, but the easiest rebuttal is to expand the time frame they look at. BTC had its price cut in half over these last few months. But look over the course of the year? Where is BTC now?

it seems that they have negative thoughts about BTC and most of them are not knowledgeable about the real technology of BTC. they are the people who do not accept innovation or are the anti fans of BTC.

Every policy that is implemented, there will always be parties who do not like it. that's normal, considering that in El Salvador not all people will accept crypto as a legal payment. Especially at the beginning of the adoption of the Bitcoin payment system it was clearly a habit that would cause some resistance.

The government needs to use other options for those who really don't like the new policy, so that they have the freedom between using Bitcoin or not. The government needs to think about the future impact, because if El Salvador becomes a country that fails to implement a payment system with Bitcoin, Bitcoin's bad image will automatically spread to all elements of society. And of course other countries will withdraw their adoption plans to follow El Salvador.

The people that are protesting might be doing that for majorly another reason. If a government is not performing well, the people won't happy with there policies. Perhaps introduction of the use of bitcoin may be one of the policy that the people don't understand. El Salvador government can't just make policy and force it down the throat of the people. The government need to build trust by sensitize and reorientate the people about the use of bitcoin and the benefit especially investment opportunities.

I doubt that.  It's the same thing in the US with larger denomination bills; merchants can choose not to accept them if they don't want to.  Making something legal tender just means that businesses can accept it for payment if they want to, not that they have to--but again, that's coming from my knowledge of how the US does things.  I don't have any idea what it would mean in El Salvador, but I don't think it means anyone's being forced to accept bitcoin.

I'm not surprised that bitcoin isn't a very popular alternative to cash, even in a country like El Salvador.  As OP pointed out, its volatility means that it's generally not a great hedge against a fiat currency that's failing--at least not in the short term.  That's why I'd never want to accept bitcoin as an alternative to cash for my paycheck.  The week-to-week swings in value make it impracticable. 

I said there are going to be problems if you rush head in first and you don't give merchants even a breather or release a program to help them with the transition, I assume a lot of the business owners protesting have little knowledge of bitcoin, don't have skills to implement this by themselves and don't even understand what they are supposed to do. We have a shop with a lot of customers at retirement age, although they do use WhatsApp and video calls and other apps on their smartphones, some even play games, I almost never see them using a card, so I understand it's quite a shock to find overnight you need to accept something as payment that you didn't even know existed before.

He could have delayed this and added some extra steps but probably he saw himself in the spotlight, everyone googling his name and every news station in the world wanting an interview and went full steam ahead.


Well, it just made the experiment more interesting.
 

This is good for bitcoin!!!!

Does the law really obligate businesses to accept Bitcoin? That will probably justify the protest if true.
Bitcoin is voluntary currency and no one should be compelled to accept or use it.
I hope the government takes the issues highlighted by the protesters seriously and help create a safe platform for safe use of Bitcoin.
I don't see why Bitcoin and the national fiat shouldn't exist together on the platform, and people can choose to use it or the other or both.
They could use Bitcoin mostly for international transfer and for storing some values while fiat takes care of mostly local needs

So I see this will not be realized well if almost 77% still think that the new policy has given birth to a fairly large demonstration. By opposing government policies, it means that the people there are still not fully aware of the use of Bitcoin. The government should have prepared some anticipation if such a thing happened. We certainly urge the government in the economic sector to respond quickly. If not and left for too long, the impact will be very bad for the growth of Bitcoin as a legal payment. Because so far El Salvador is a reflection of other countries to follow.

These protests coming from different groups are what I consider as part of the birth pains from the approval and implementation of the Bitcoin law. Let's face it. Many of the citizens are most likely unfamiliar with BTC so how do we expect them to react? The actual numbers may be much higher than the 77% in the survey.

It's required. Refer to the article 7 of El Salvador's Bitcoin Law https://freopp.org/el-salvadors-bitcoin-law-full-proposed-english-text-9a2153ad1d19

The government are trying to balance the live of it citizens but is like things are going out of control looking at there claims of the protesters of them being the losers if eventually their salaries are paid in Bitcoin and it price falls suddenly, the effect will be much on them especially to a family man that has huge responsibility to handle.

They'll have the right to protest against the policy because Bitcoin is not stable and the tendency of waiting for the price to come back to it  original value might be time consuming causing severe problems to individual workers who has something to do with money.

This problem need to be resolved if care is not taken, it could lead to conflict that can escalate to something else. The government has to look into this policy to adjust it, prohibiting the payment of workers salary in Bitcoin.

For a business, a shop, the fact that Bitcoin price fluctuates by a wide margin is not good. It can easily lead to loses.
For a small business accepting Bitcoin can mean headaches and possibly more expenses.
Afaik, if done right, any business accepting Bitcoin can actually get USD from the state. I don't know how that works and probably El Salvadoreans don't know either.

And while the things are not explained nice and well by the government, some may have their own agenda (bashing the govt) and pick the "Bitcoin is bad" route.

They still have a choice not to accept bitcoin, they've got cash. People there still have the freedom to embrace accepting bitcoin or they shall accept cash.

It's understandable that they worry about the fluctuation as they're still new to bitcoin and the bitcoin's they accept might be their dependable day to day living and they need not to hold it as an investment.

This is the massive problem that bitcoin has to tackle if bitcoin wants to settle as a currency. One of the way to tackle this would be to use an app that will convert the bitcoin received instantly into fiat so in one sense its pretty much just like accepting a stable fiat but in the customer's POV they are paying it with bitcoin instead so its good for both sides though


Its a legal tender in their country so if someone wants to pay with bitcoin that means they cant refuse it because it is considered as one of the legal currency.

Yes it is.

But with what I've watched with actual interview there, they are giving choice to the people if what they're going to pay. It's either cash or bitcoin.

So if they don't want volatility, they can just simply use cash.

"El salvadorans" are repeating word for word the same negative criticisms the media published on bitcoin, since Jamie Dimon called it a bubble. I'm surprised they didn't say bitcoin is bad for the environment.

I think if they actually had experience with bitcoin, and used it. Their opinions and views would change significantly. Rather than most el salvadorans disliking bitcoin. I think this indicates most have not tried bitcoin and have no real world experience with it.

Going so far as to march through the streets and protest with anti bitcoin banners and signs would seem to indicate someone hired them to make a public anti crypto demonstration.


Joe Biden's admin gave billions in aid to honduras, el salvador and guatemala. I would guess that money was used to pay el salvadorans to hold signs protesting bitcoin and crypto.

For people who use Bitcoin to pay wages, the large fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin are not good for them, and sudden drops in prices can easily lead to losses. And accepting small payments in Bitcoin, it may mean paying more. Bitcoin prices are very volatile and risky. For many people, the next Bitcoin dump may cause a crash.

Yeah, I thought it was about time to get the tinfoil had mode activated.
So he sends them money for the protest even before Salvador announced the plan for it, 6 months in advance!
Of course, we need some reptilians overlords, some Bilderbergs or Illuminati, some Rothchilds oh wait, forget those, they own bitcoins.

Why can't some people understand that some don't think like them?
Do you remember the cell phone protests? All the drama about those towers giving you cancer and killing you in a year? The fear people have for everything new?
https://i.imgur.com/l3GysTv.jpeg

Those people who haven't heard of bitcoin before were suddenly faced with something they didn't understand and thought they are going to be forced to use a new currency, read the polls, some of them think it's an actual real-world coin as in metallic coin!
A few years ago here in Europe, we had a project about imposing merchants to accept debit and credit cards, a thing invented decades ago, which 50%-60% of the population using them, yet there was no way of imposing those, small merchants didn't want in any country to accept making cards mandatory so in the end, some countries just backed out and some simply imposed this only on business with a revenue of over x, depending on the country.

And you expect people in one of the poorest countries in the world, out of which probably 95% never ever installed a wallet to simply accept it and cheer for it?
There is a different reality out there when you step out of your little universe.

Rather than posting laser eyes meme he should have spent more time on informing them of the advantages and plan some courses on both technical and economical advantages and make them free to attend in every town, he could have done this in schools after class hours, there would have been enough volunteers to teach people especially with all the companies trying to get in and have a piece of the pie.

It's not some CIA plot, it's the normal consequence of lack of knowledge and information.

This is one issue that I have heard. For example, if someone wants to purchase an item from the shop and makes the payment with BTC, the shopkeeper can't reject that mode of payment (since Bitcoin is the legal tender). I suspect there will be people who misuse the elevation of Bitcoin and it can create issues for less tech savvy people. The shopkeepers are not going to be happy, because of the extreme volatility of Bitcoin and the security issues related to the storage of coins. Being legal tender means that the vendors need to accept BTC, in case the payment is made using that method.

Time will come and they will accept, people in every will be like that as time goes by. Also, their arguments are pretty stupid and a bit repetitive because I think I have heard some of them already in the past plus don't they like that 30 dollars worth of free bitcoin, that's a lot of money in my opinion.

The claim that El Salvador is the first state to accept bitcoins as legal tender is incorrect. Japan legalized bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies back in April 2017, and since then, cryptocurrency has been considered legal tender there. To date, many states have already done the same. In El Salvador, they went much further and for the first time at the state level, bitcoin was declared the national currency of the state.
In truth, bitcoin is not designed for this and such an experiment, if it fails, could damage its image and the entire cryptocurrency. We also see that such a decision was made very hastily, without preliminary preparation and taking the necessary measures.
In society, there are always those who are dissatisfied with any government decision, in this case it cannot be said that people's protests are unfounded and therefore compromise options are needed.

Not all Salvadorans have mobile phones. For example, the elderly and children can't operate it, and most people don't understand Bitcoin.
They should consider that Bitcoin is unstable. If you buy something, you should be priced according to Bitcoin. If your mobile phone does not have Internet, then you will not be able to make payment transactions.

El Salvador is not a rich country, many people know little about Bitcoin. They protested  were instructed. This behavior cannot change the fact that Bitcoin will become the country's legal coin.Power is always in the hands of the president。

Meaning El Salvador does not create a Poll about accepting of bitcoin as legal tender ? and they have just forced this to happen for their own interest?(The government)

77% is too much high comparing to 23% that favors to this accepting.

I am not happy with this turns out because while the crypto community is rejoicing for this event,the people on the country itself is not joining the fun and regretting this occasion .

Even if , The government must conduct first spreading of information and ask the sympathy and pulse of the people before making it a Law.

The volatility itself won't be the only reason for rejecting or protesting but just like you mentioned in your first paragraph that people are not educated  and will find it very difficult to adapt and adopt the use of bitcoin. The government should make it optional so that older people and uneducated can keep using there Fiat until a time they can understand.

Bitcoin might be a good hedge fund against inflation or as a store of value but good to handle the economy.
Let all be honest for once and tell each other the truth, it will not work as money perhaps stable coins might even be close just the way Chinese digital yuan is been regulated.
Just imagine, bitcoin fell by - 50%, how do you handle that within a short period of time and long bear period.
Perhaps, if they have accepted bitcoin when it was around $10, they would be happy now not now that it has overpriced.
Microstrategy isn't a country.

Obviously, the Salvador government is not ready yet.
1. Infrastructure: mobile phones, network and other equipment
2. The government should deal with people's doubts (such as how to calculate prices, how to weaken the impact of currency price fluctuations on prices, etc.)

wasn't Bitcoin just an option for them but they still could use the dollar. and their app i believe has stablecoin in it which they could immediately convert their BTC if they hate the volatility and besides they didn't completely reject the USD. BTC is just their option, they don't have to make it a problem. what do they do then if the price starts going up are they also going to blame because of volatility? the survey was conducted on 1233 people. nice representation of the country.

Merchants have to accept it if the customer says so, that's what I know. If you want to buy coffee with Bitcoin in spite of yourself, it is mandatory for the payee to give you a lightning invoice. If the customer doesn't want to keep his BTC, he's allowed to convert them instantly to fiat which is highly ironic but anyway.

What?

As I said, and it looks no one is thinking about it, bitcoin adoption should happen on a VOLUNTARY basis. I don't want to be forced to use or accept bitcoin I want to do that because I decide to do so.
The history of bitcoin shows that slowly and steadily adoption's inevitable. No law, no regulation can make that happen. If you and I accept bitcoin that's it, deal done.

The sudden implementation of the decision could well be a reason for the discomfort being caused to the people. I'd hate to think that it was done to coincide with the Bitcoin Miami conference. The idea worked in the small locality of El Zonte, the famous Bitcoin Beach as it was funded by an anonymous donor to begin with.

Yet, it is pretty obvious that a lot of parts of the country wouldn't be having good access to internet and some people may not even have phones. So while, it was made mandatory that merchants should be able to accept BTC, if offered by the customer, quite a few of the old-school merchants would fear losing potential business. There definitely is a learning curve for bitcoin and I think this was what Chico wallet and the bitcoin airdrop was supposed to kickstart. All depends on how this is executed. The bewilderment with a radical change like this is natural for the public; so the protests may as well just be opposition parties taking the chance to channel that discontent. Well, its a democracy so these things should be welcome.

What would have been great is some actual feedback from Salvadorians themselves. There aren't many from there on the forum though. Are you?

The opposition has always a say in everything most especially in a democratic country. They have all the right to voice their opinion anyways. However, I just don't understand the need to protest against the new policy since I think it is just optional for the El Salvadorians to use bitcoin as an alternative mode of payment. They can always use the other available modes of payment if they want to. Why bother to protest when you can opt to ignore the newly implemented law because you are not interested? I think the law about bitcoin adoption as legal tender in El Salvador is not really mandatory, meaning they are still responsible for what kind of tender they would use to pay. If they are so worried about bitcoin's volatility which I totally understand, then they can just not apply for it. The volatility of cryptocurrency is indeed a big factor to consider, but I guess their officials have thought of that too already. It's a risky move, but it can benefit their economy after all.

I consider that this rejection is due to the people's unpreparedness with the risks that will be accepted but they ignore the good potential that BTC has.  As in other countries that almost went bankrupt were saved by a number of cryptos.  Because if they understand financial management, they will be very happy and helped if the government supports them.  It's just a lack of literacy and socialization to the community about the potential that BTC has, resulting in rejection.

People aren't prepared which is a true fact. By the time what the citizens of El Salvador have in the mind also needs to be taken into consideration. People of El Salvador have clearly mentioned it has good potential to grow high, and it also could get dumped. This dump could crash the life of people, because some might be in a situation to use it at the loss.

Better is to give them the access to use it, and whether they use it or not is upto their mind. Lack of literacy can be found throughout the world. When a government plans something it needs to be for all.

Another important thing mentioned is the manipulative structure of Bitcoin. Even governments that are against El Salvador can make plans to manipulate the market. This could have drastic impact over the country. This is something like a digital war on a country. Maybe the people are fearing for all this and standing against it.

They could also use dollars as well, it is easy to turn bitcoin into dollars, it is not really a hard thing to do, so all those "volatility is an issue!! my salary could turn into 50$!!!" type of people are lying about their protests or they are idiots, if you are worried about volatility, just turn your bitcoins into dollars, I have done that every single time I got my salary, for the past nearly 5 years I got a salary and then I turned that salary into dollars right away, this caused me to lose sooooo much money because if I kept them in bitcoin I would have been a super wealthy person right now, but I still did it and they could do the same, so if anyone is saying they are worried about volatility is either a liar or an idiot.

There is nothing to actually protest about this, this is "addition", so if you do not want it, just ignore it and move on, they just wanted to protest the head of the country which is understandable because I hate every president in every nation, I just hate the "idea" of a president, but bitcoin is fine.

A country doesnt need to make a poll regarding this because this is pretty much decided by the government.


El Salvador was basically trying to get the whole world's attention to their country by accepting bitcoin as their legal tender. Their long term goal would be to attract investor by making their country into some sort of safe haven for crypto. Even if their citizen is not happy with it, that does not matter as long as there are investment pouring into their country after they made this announcement

I don't know if that 75% is the real representative of the citizens or not.
But, we should know that every law decision will always result in two: Agree and disagree, like and dislike.
So far, we have seen some protests about this.
Legalizing Bitcoin as one of the payment tenders in the country, does mean that every merchant or store must accept? I think that if people don't accept Bitcoin, they can still continue it.
But if it is a must in the country, it may make sense how the government offers that rewards for the registree to get BTC

Some forms of ionising radiation emitted by airport scanners and cell phones are considered higher risk due to them penetrating the skin layer. Its basic science and medicine.

Al Gore said climate change would destroy the world in 10 years, in 2006. Is climate change fake due to it not happening? If you're going to make these arguments you need to be more specific and accurate on things.



If you look at a map of el salvador, cuba and venezuela.

Those 3 nations aren't that far from each other. 2/3 of those countries are large supporters of crypto. It isn't beyond the realm of possibility that el salvadorans know something of bitcoin that is positive.

Wrong mate  because more than the Government it is the people who must decide for this so making a Poll is a Must if they wanted the best turn out because look what happened as they denied asking the people first?

And that is what I'm pointing as they forced this event towards legality when the truth is their own people is not satisfy and favor of this? how BS government do El Salvador has when this is what they wanted?

They aren't forcing them though, the law stating that bitcoin becoming a legal tender isn't shoved in the face of the people, they even got to have some free bitcoin to try and use, I don't agree that they are forcing them, isn't that the support that we are looking for bitcoin.

Lolol, Bitcoin is down 50ish% in a couple month and the dollar has lost maybe 1% in that time due to inflation?  In order to advance such an easily defeatable argument you have to completely ignore reality and resign yourself to sticking your head in the sand.  People who prefer the US dollar to bitcoin prefer the stability of knowing their assets aren't going to depreciate 10% overnight, because that happens with bitcoin all the time and it never happens with the USD.  You look like a clown trying to say bitcoin is more stable than the USD, and you know who doesn't have any margin or error for price fluctuations of their savings?  Poor people, probably like all the El Salvadorans protesting this law.  Thinking you know their economic circumstances better than them is the height of arrogance.  Listen to the people who are telling you why they're against it, they're the vast majority in this case (77% is an overwhelming majority).  This is not an outlier situation.

Well that's just like your opinion man, like mine is too.
I want to stress again that Bitcoin needs no LAW, no REGULATION, nothing to be accepted. It's a decentralized network, a decentralized community, it started on a voluntary basis and started to be accepted for what it was rather than for what it brings.
Using bitcoin means trusting something, rather than someone. But when it comes to currency, trust is key.
And with bitcoin you shall trust nobody, not even your rotten country.

Such protests are organized by opponents of bitcoin, because ordinary people, due to their low awareness of BTC, cannot know about the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency payments. I think that there is a large capital behind these protests, which is not yet technically ready to accept payments in bitcoins and does not want to incur additional costs.

I had the same thought after reading it. How much were paid for this protest? Who is the benefactor? USA maybe?
Another crazy thought that I am having is they just don't know it yet. They are innocent about it. Or could it be that because of too much bad exposure of Bitcoin with scammers using it as means of payment.
I don't understand much because I am not from there but something fishy is behind all of this. Do people just meet in one place to fight against government plans about a thing they have not much idea yet?

Im not sure which country you are from but you should probably check El Salvador's governmental system before you post this question. The president as well as the Legislative branch are the representative of the people so they get to decide whats the best for their country. Aside from that, a crucial issue like accepting another type of legal tender is something that is decided by the government and not the people of the country ( I think this applied to all countries )


Probably none and If you actually read the OP, their protests actually make sense. If you received $100 in bitcoin today, that could be worth less the next 3 days or even the next day. For a business POV, that is not something that you would like to accept as a payment because it would hurt the sustainability of your business in the long term

I think that the people who protest to repeal the bitcoin Law of El Salvador is a minority.
The argument expressed by the organization that calls itself "Bloque de Resistencia y Rebeldia Popular". It is as follows:


But we know that the Bitcoin Law of El Salvador can be effective for any country in the world. If we have already bought it individually.

I have also been able to notice on Twitter that the Protestants is an anti-Bukele group.
As is well known, however good the measure that President Bukele takes, those who are against his management will not see his achievements as positive.

This is exactly what it means, basically if a person enters a store and they want to pay with bitcoin the business owner has to accept it and cannot refuse it, that is what it means to be a legal tender.

It is obvious those protesters are being paid or do not really understand what is happening, it is unlikely a business owner is going to want to pay them with bitcoin so they are not going to be affected by the volatility, the ones that are affected by this are business owners as they are the ones that will have to find a way to accept bitcoin if the client wants to pay with it.

If you enforce people to use anything you should expect a huge protest and that is what we are witnessing, i thought it was an alternative payment option for the citizen and here they are saying about enforcing the use of BTCitcoin and it is not going to work. Either they need to explain to the merchants that they can always convert their coins to the coin of their choice instantly if they do not want to hold them for long. I am also not a huge fan of enforcing these to everyone, just give them the option and everything would work well and no one would protest.

Again one of those claims that 106% of Venezuelans are using bitcoin, right?

Because every time we go over the numbers be it bitcoin nodes (https://bitnodes.io/nodes/):
Cuba - 0, Venezueala 1, Salvador 0
We take ATMs (https://coinatmradar.com/countries/):
Cuba - 0, Venezueala 1, Salvador 5
Let's look at  LN statistics (https://1ml.com/location/south-america):
Slovakia  Capacity 2.051476870 BTC (0.103%) $70,404.70 Node Count 18 (0.14%) Channel Count 172 (0.29%)
vs:
South America Capacity 4.19278091 BTC (0.211%) $143,996.62 Node Count 23 (0.174%)  Channel Count 281 (0.476%)

Pretty hard to believe that 2/3 of people are using BTC in those countries when a country with 1% of the population is beating the crap out of an entire continent in statistics.


Really? When was that?

I didn't really consider that as an option really. Why would anyone pay so many people to protest? What would be the reason to protest El Salvador accepting bitcoin and while we are at it why would it be something to protest to begin with. I really can't make a decision based on what is going on with this, I mean sure it looks shady and a bit weird but even the protest itself is very weird, it is just an option and it is not the official money of that nation, it is an alternative that you can use if you want to or not use at all if you do not want to and that’s about it, there is really nothing that shocks me at this point because it is weird as a whole package.

Does this mean someone may have ended up paying all these people? Sure that is not like any weirder than people making a whole protest over something just an optional deal, so I guess even though it would make zero sense for anyone to do that, nothing here made sense to begin with anyway.

I think some people in El Salvador who oppose it don't like the volatility and unknown nature of Bitcoin, and even some people there can't afford smartphones at all. They must be given time to understand it. Bitcoin will have a predictable value every day in the future, and perhaps the situation in El Salvador is a bit early. If someone wants to pay you, if the price drops by 20%, people will get angry. Or the price increases by 20% before you need to pay the bill. Volatility makes the use of currency a huge obstacle. Ordinary people do not understand market cycles and asset appreciation.

indeed there must be hard work from the government to be able to provide a detailed explanation of their intentions and purposes for using bitcoin as one of the recognized transactions.
it is clear that many people do not know because of the limitations of technology which may not be widely spread.
Apart from that, the government can provide at least a smartphone so that they can learn about the nature and use of bitcoin, because if they know they can be sure that the people will not refuse.

everything must be preceded by an introduction, although it is possible that the government's aim is good, but for those who do not understand it is impossible to give an explanation without a tangible form that can be proven. but it could be that this has brought the political sphere because if it leads to it, of course the government needs to work hard again to be able to embrace all of them. so it's not pure that what you don't like, is society itself.

Recommendations, good intentions and words of encouragement used from the government will not be able to change these dissatisfactions because the people here don't need to hear about a great plan bitcoin details, they have a life and a job, their time is not to learn about a new technology, the time to go to school for many people has long passed, the young people of EI Salvador also don't have a good attitude about this. Listening to society is the most important thing for people to trust the government more but this country is making arbitrary decisions

That is understandable. Right now people in El Salvador receive salaries in dollar and they have a choice: to convert in Bitcoin or use dollars, depending on the situation on the market. If they all just automatically get paid in Bitcoin and the salaries are fixed to amount in dollars - they won’t make much profit.

in addition, at the times of high volatility it would be impossible to adjust all the prices according to the current Bitcoin value, so one time a bottle of water can cost half of someone’s salary (hypothetically). People need to have a choice. Evading fiat completely isn’t a good plan.

One moment! El Salvador has years in this informal process of receiving bitcoin and processing them as a means of payment, but basically almost everything based on remittances.

There was (is) an exploitation in the currency exchange, this is experienced by countries like Argentina, Chile, etc. And in Central America even more still, there is a literal theft when the change is made to dollars, up to 20% below the average change or even more, so the measure in El Salvador, rather than being an adoption, was a solution to the $ <=> BTC exchange speculation.

But as I mentioned (other post) and stated again, such a measure has political and demagogic overtones rather than social, but in any case, for those who receive bitcoin, there is now a legal part to demand, but in practice nothing has changed, there is still speculation in it, exchange $ <=> BTC.

That is, those who make life with bitcoin continue in their daily lives and the new law is an option and they do not take it as an obligation.

These protests have more political overtones than anything else, El Salvador is a complex country in its internal politics and anything is good roots to protest.

Every year on July 30, a march is held in commemoration of some tragic events in 1975 that occurred at the University of Salvador(*). And it is a traditional time to protest against the government.

Edit:
(*)https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masacre_estudiantil_del_30_de_julio_de_1975

As long as Bitcoin is not enforced on anyone, these points don't hold. I agree that volatility is a big issue with Bitcoin (but people will complain only when the prices go down) and there may be a very few who don't have access to smartphones. If you use third party payment processors such as BitPay, they immediately convert the Bitcoin at the time of making the payment. There may be a lag of 2-3 minutes, but I don't think that the exchange rates would go up or down by as much as you have claimed.

That's the real reason even if it's not from El Salvador, there really are people that don't like bitcoin's volatility. You give them bitcoin for free, they're happy but as they hold it and when they witness the plummet.
They're going to be unhappy, that's the reality of bitcoin's volatility. Not every people that owns it are happy and willing to face its high volatility.

So did that 77% of EL Salvadorian collected that part of the $140m worth of Bitcoin that was distributed initially? if so, why are they now protesting if that was not a planned thing hopefully by some opposition? I know that when you don't have other means to take care of your needs and the market is in a Bear trend, Bitcoin becomes a thing they may not like as a means of payment for whatever because it also becomes stressful for the business owners and also the workers. You get paid some amount in BTC as salary or for a service/goods and before you turn around the market is 2% down. People will mostly appreciate this in a Bull trend and I think cryptocurrencies should be more of a complementary form of payment to Fait other than a replacement. 

It takes some time and the people will eventually accept plus the government is still the authority and they will enforce it no matter what plus incentives is a good thing, I mean they just have to use the bitcoin goven to them to do some daily transactions right? Also, El Salvador should make a some way so people can fully accept it like installing bitcoin ATM ad having stores and markets integrate a crypto payment system, it doesn't have to be complex because there's existing apps out there already.

Let's accept it. Bitcoin is not practical for every day use. Not for the consumer not for the seller. It seems to be a good store of value but that's it. While credit cards are working perfectly fine, why make things harder for people? I know VISA and MC are getting rich from those cards but look what happened, VISA actually started to issue crypto cards and in the they still benefit from it.

What will installing Bitcoin ATMs have to do with the price volatility? and the Government is not the one to put up the store where Bitcoins will be accepted. I believe that the problems are not even the ATMs and the stores because I believe that there are stores already but it is the acceptance due to the main problem of Bitcoins volatility that is the issue. Even when they do accept Bitcoin and with the financial situations of El Salvador, their concerns will be how much they will be losing during the bear season and we know that Bitcoin is not yet as convenient as Fiat. I guess these are some of the problems that will keep Bitcoin from being fully utilized as a general currency until it is figured out.

Majority of them doesn't know about bitcoin so for sure many of them got panic when bear market hit the same what happen these couple of days. But I believe this is temporary problem unto them since its normal to see people dislike some things which they don't understand but once they know how bitcoin really works for sure they can the sudden changes to the market and they can earn fast cash once bullish season starts.

You have a point because bitcoin is one of the payment methods, but what about the price, right? Is this subject to change? I believe not, because the price of bitcoin is volatile, which is extremely unfair to the consumer because it is the only way to pay. Using bitcoin to make money is a great idea, but I believe bitcoin was created first so that it could be easily paid online and tracked, rather than as an investment that will provide you with a lot of money.

There will never be a solution unless btc replaces the dollar and btc will never replace the dollar because the whole world won't change their minds over night and start valuing things in btc instead of dollar. Like I said, it is a good asset to grow your money but don't really work as a currency and I am not sure if it ever will.

You need not to fall for this propaganda, these could be the handiwork of international bodies and sponsor these set of people, these people need to understand that there is no future with Fiat, if you want to stick to a sinking ship good luck, the world has started waking up to this and Crypto is becoming unstoppable

It is an opposition rally at display. Bitcoin is supposed to be freely accepted, used and cherished. The people who are organising the protests no do not know the actual benefits their economy will be having. Time will tell.