Bitcoin Forum

Since El Salvador became the first country to approve Bitcoin as a legal tender, it has become international news and has attracted attention from the market, especially the cryptocurrency market. Many countries are paying close attention to this big move.
Using Bitcoin in El Salvador can bring meaningful social benefits to many people who do not have a bank account and cannot access basic financial services. People can benefit from the potential of low-cost remittances and durable savings accounts that are not affected by money supply expansion and hyperinflation. And with the advent of the Lightning Network, using Bitcoin as a payment method has become more feasible.
The whole world is watching the important first step taken by El Salvador. Using Bitcoin is not just a trend, other countries will eventually learn that Bitcoin can increase national wealth, and some even keep it in their treasury reserves. With Bitcoin the longer you wait, the rewards will start to decrease. Countries at a disadvantage may consider taking measures as early as possible to give them an advantage over other larger economies. So will more countries follow El Salvador to use Bitcoin as legal tender?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2021/08/05/could-developing-nations-follow-el-salvadors-move-to-bitcoin/?sh=e930afe28b70 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2021/08/05/could-developing-nations-follow-el-salvadors-move-to-bitcoin/?sh=e930afe28b70)

Some countries are Bitcoin friendly while some countries are not. After the El Salvador move by accepting bitcoin as a legal tender, there has been two bills already in two countries to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment. The first was propose by a sanator in Uruguay (https://www.coindesk.com/uruguay-crypto-bill-legal-tender-juan-sartori) to make Bitcoin as a means of payment in legal businesses, while the other is a new cryptocurrency-related bill in Ukraine (https://cointelegraph.com/news/new-bill-in-ukraine-to-allow-payments-in-cryptocurrency-says-official) which will allow payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). But both are not recognizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a legal tender.

It is very possible some countries will become more bitcoin friendly, but some will be hostile against Bitcoin, even if not to comment much on China which is a developed country already, we can still comment on developing countries in North Africa and also Nigeria in the west Africa. Nigerian government generally are not hostile against Bitcoin, but the central bank is against crypto transactions. Some countries see Bitcoin as a means citizens can have privacy, able to make use of money without them (the government) involved, and because of this, they will against bitcoin. But no matter what, Bitcoin gives privacy and also appreciative, the reason people like to buy it.

I personally think it is possible. For smaller countries, this is a very possible move, and larger countries will move forward.It's good news that's for sure but concerns regarding network congestion, cyber attacks, and offline transactions are important elements too. I hope El Salvador gets the infrastructure to counteract these, but these factors need resolution for developing countries to see BTC and cryptocurrencies as viable tenders。We cannot ignore the potential of BTC as a centralized currency.

All the countries are monitoring the BTCitcoin market for a long time to come out with rules and regulations and i am not a big fan of any country forcing the citizens to comply with anything as i have seen many protest from El Salvador regarding this.

We are talking about people who are not having a bank account and you think BTCitcoin will make a change and how is that ? If you are talking about a free market then it is well and good but if you are talking about people who are finding it hard to make ends meet and they are not having a bank account because they are not having enough money to hold them in the bank and how you think a highly volatile market can save them :P.

The president of El Salvador is a populist so it's not difficult for him to win the bill. With the price of BTC today going up, I'm sure the president is held to be a hero once again. It may be different from other countries but there is news about Uruguay and some Latin countries already using cryptocurrencies even before El Salvador such as Venezuela.

If El Salvador country plans to operate mining farms, it's not unusual for other countries to also mine BTC.

They would probably start with a city first and see what's the effect. Not every country can follows El Salvador since their demographics, gdp, etc are not the same. Even if it's similar, their ideological choices might be different. I think most government would only allows trading for bitcoin though, no more than that.

That's more likely to happen, not making bitcoin as legal tender but allowing it to exist in the market. They will legalize the crypto-exchange business and other related crypto businesses. But to the point of making it as legal tender, that I think, will be a long way to go for other countries. As you said, countries have different aspects to consider.

I think that countries that will find it very easy to adopt as legal tender at this new phase may be countries that are already using the USD as their official currency. Countries like Zimbabwe and El Salvador at least. In the case of El Salvador whose local currency is DXY started the adoption of dollar in 2001, meaning they have put the currency in dollar rate and understanding the bitcoin process won't be much challenge.

We should look only with the current USD value since the main issue here is the price changes of bitcoin, although we can say that this is a good choice for a country to adopt bitcoin but they need to know first the technicalities since I'm sure this could be their downfall if they will not do deep digging on bitcoin flaws. But I'm curious to know right now on which country will adopt next to El Salvador since this will create another big news to bitcoin.

It's very risky, almost as if it's a leap of faith. You can't really tell if it'll work or not because El Salvador is honestly just a testing ground for bitcoin and if its possible to helped developing countries. So far it's working okay-ish, though still far from the success that everyone is expecting off it, it's still something to be had. I'm just keen to know which direction should El Salvador take this if it proved helpful on its usage of bitcoin on its coastal communities and tourist spots.

Unpopular opinion: What El Salvador did was actually nothing special and shouldn't really be celebrated.

Fact of the matter is that they are essentially selling cheap citizenship tickets to their country. It's first and foremost a publicity stunt on their side, and second a revenue raising scheme, much like how the Petro worked in Venezuela.

But yes, I think that the best strategy for most developing countries is to embrace innovation instead of stifling it, and that includes any form of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin. They have so much to gain from a corporate taxation perspective than to lose from doing so.

No, I'll definitely not put my money on that happening, I mean with all the talk of CBDC's and regulations, I'm pretty sure many countries do not have Bitcoin in their plans at all, what you need to understand is that Bitcoin is decentralized and can't be controlled by the government, neither do they appreciate the idea of making something they can't control or print a legal tender in their country.

I think it's only normal for governments to be hostile to Bitcoin, they do not want people to control their funds, neither do they want individuals to keep their privacy by being their own bank, thus nursing the hopes that soon many countries would make Bitcoin a legal tender is more or less like raising false hopes. But mind you that despite all the negativity from the government, Bitcoin is definitely going mainstream as sooner or later many more people would take up the responsibility of being their own bank through Bitcoin.

You really don't have to say that, also how can you be so sure that it's not special or insignificant, I mean a lot of people have heard of the news meaning that the media outlets see it as significant and they are many so your opinion doesn't really count. Also, does it have to be a big country to significant, I mean it can start this way and little by little it influences bigger countries.

I think they will benefit so much doing so, it's not like it's going to be a big change but it's still a fine addition in a country that they support crypto because that only means that those countries can be hub for crypto businesses and people that are interested in crypto is going to have freedom on what they should be doing.

Before anyone follows El Salvador, it's wise to sit tight and observe how things go there. I'm sure that this experience is interesting to many countries that are also looking for ways of improving their economies, but why rush if it can go terribly wrong or at least prove to be useless? It's better to learn from someone else's mistakes than from one's own, right? For now, El Salvador spent a lot of taxpayers' money on these $30 'welcome bonuses' in BTC, and the World Bank refused to help El Salvador on their adoption way. So it's too early to assess whether it's worth it and how it can affect the economy. I think that at least a year must pass before such analysis is applicable. And if the experiment is successful, I'm sure that other countries will try it as well.

They can but why would they?

Using bitcoin as a currency is not practical and businesses can already accept bitcoin if that's what they want. They don't need their government's approval. That's the whole point of cryptocurrencies. You don't really need permission from anybody to use them.

I also don't think bitcoin can handle that much demand. The fees would rise and the network would become unusable.

I have to correct you, many poor third-world countries that are looking for a way out of debt bondage into which they have been put by the IMF and the World Bank so that they can control them more easily. As I wrote before, a country that has neither its own currency has no choice but to experiment with Bitcoin.


The emphasis is mostly on foreign exchange remittances coming from the US, which are estimated at about $6 billion a year, and a way to avoid money transfer fees. Bitcoin on-chain transactions can sometimes be quite expensive and this cannot be a solution unless everyone uses LN which would then really allow for fast and cheap real-time money transfers.

However, you should know that Bitcoin is still just an option in addition to the USD, which is the official currency in that country, and that a legal tender only gives people the opportunity to use BTC, but does not force them to do so.

I don't think it would be ideal for other countries regardless if it is a developing one or not to follow El Salvador's footstep right away. It would be best if they would first observe and analyze the function of bitcoin so that they may know if it can give their country an advantage or cause detrimental effects later on. It indeed made a huge noise around the world as El Salvador becomes the very first country to legalize bitcoin as a legal tender but the effects or the outcome of their decision cannot be visible yet and even other countries are surely observing over it right now or ever since they started it.

This is a valid point but it is understandable only for the people who are aware of all the aspects of bitcoins; I mean countries who never bother about studying the basic economics of bitcoin may wait infinitely or until tier-1 countries stake their stand on bitcoin legality.

Anyhow, I am sure most counties must be doing both following how El Salvador  is economically doing and studying the pros and cons of adopting bitcoins. Unfortunately bitcoin is designed to benefit individuals and its pros are not government concerned. Hence, I am afraid what most countries will decide about the adoption bitcoin; moreover we can expect countries to accept bitcoin as a digital asset in extreme worst case.

I know every crypto lover would want this but unfortunately, it's too difficult. It was easier for El Salvador due to a very basic reason, it didn't have any other currency of its own so its bank was not regulating the very primary function of controlling currency in circulation. Other Central banks, on the other hand, have a huge role in controlling the currency in circulation of their own legal tender and this plays a major role in the economic growth rate. So countries already with their own currencies aren't going to keep bitcoin as a secondary currency, it just defies their own currency too much. Developing countries are much more serious about this because they have to keep fiscal deficits higher to keep the economy going at a fast pace.

Let’s just say that El Salvador had a bigger motivation to switch to Bitcoin as compared to other countries. They didn’t have a currency of their own and were closely tied to the US dollar. Bitcoin is a way to develop an independent financial system for them. No doubt, that it will cost them a lot of money and time to make a complete switch.

For some countries, there’s no reason for such action. Take EU countries, for example, they’re doing fine with the current euro and I don’t see them adopting Bitcoin at a governmental level in the nearest future. The developing countries are more likely to follow the lead, but, I suppose, they want to see how this works for El Salvador first.

El Salvador was an exception. They have adopted bitcoin because about 20% of their income is generated by foreigner transactions from people who are natural from the country, but live abroad and help their families in El Salvador monthly. Those international transactions were heavily tributed by banks, so an alternative was needed and that was bitcoin.

If another developing countries are facing the same issues it's likely they can also adopt bitcoin, but I fear it's not the case of most developing countries. Usually the problem with developing countries are the oligarchies who rule them and at same time foreigner transactions income isn't considerable. So in no way bitcoin will be adopted, because it would prejudice the oligarchies which are already confortable with the currently system.

Why would african dictators or latin american caudillos want their people to have access to bitcoin?

The developing countries are the worst to be friendly to bitcoin especially here in Africa where they should have risk some country reserve like allocating perhaps 2% to bitcoin but they wouldn't, they would rather allow their citizens involved in ponzi scheme and fraud each other and that's why the development remain stagnant.
On a second thought, I think they might fear volatility and since no one can be held responsible for huge loss, they wouldn't want to jeopardise the country reserves.

Where did you read it in a news that world bank and other international financial system gave the platform for smaller countries to adopt Bitcoin? Countries have the right to do what they want, they have the right to make Bitcoin legal in their country irrespective of any international body. But, the good reason why El Salvador make Bitcoin a legal tender was stated, which is because 70% El Salvadorians are not even having bank account.

Because same as the people in El Salvador they need to unshackle themselves and join the battle because cryptocurrency is remaking the system. The regulation laws are being debated in the American Senate these days, it could take more than 5 years before they could catch up the technology. There is enough time for every country to set up its cryptocurrency mining laws.

To whom shall they be with, to China with CBDC or countries using cryptocurrency that has more freedom?

If El Savador can legalized crypto of course other countries can too, bitcoin and crypto are very open and easy to apply, as long as there is a serious desire from the government then crypto can be legalized and of course has a good impact on the country's economy.

I second you there, but I think some of this developing countries are just following in the footsteps of the developed ones like China. China and many other developed countries are working on CBDC's and regulating Bitcoin and other dex crypto, so their citizens do not have to choose the digital currency to hodl, cause the government knows majority would definitely choose Bitcoin; thus what they do is just issue sanctions and increase hostility to Bitcoin.

Having said that, instead of developing countries that are faced with myriad of problems to concentrate on solving them, as well as embrace Bitcoin as a currency that can help their citizens individually, they instead want to act like developing countries and try to create their own CBDC, Nigeria is a very good example, tbh, they really have no reason for working on a centralized digital currency, they rather should be trying to solve inflation issues affecting the Nigerian Naira and other pressing issues, but they want to follow in the actions of developed countries and sooner rather than later they will run out of resources to keep up and thus run into trouble.

CDBC's I think will take a long time before they could really develop. China is ahead of time, they already have planned it a long time ago when the blockchain is at its early stage. Someone from China almost figured what could happen already that is why they are experimenting with digital currency long before their CBDC which used Alipay and Wechat.

Some developed countries are starting late, they haven't even come up with their digital currency name yet. But as of this time, US senate is already talking about their crypto infrastructure bill. Other countries will probably just adopt Bitcoin than having their CBDC launched hastily.

I'd reckon they'd want to watch what happens and then make a move based on that plus other considerations depending on the state of their country. Plus, it's still a questionable decision especially for developing countries since they need to take into account a lot of factors since adding crypto into their system may bring more damage than benefits. They may just be too assed to actually regulate or create laws that surround crypto, or is putting their attention into more important details that must be addressed. There's a lot of possibilities tbh, just that it's quite difficult to identify since each country has their own situation.

I don't think they will except they have a reason that compel them to do so, infact, it also has to do with the mind set and perception of a government, those countries who are not crypto friendly will not consider this option, rather they will try by any means to avoid it, El Salvador is a crypto friendly country already so it was easy for them to make such decision.

The countries who are adopting bitcoins right now are ofc. Going to have an initial advantage. They are going to have way more experience in the long run, there are many places which cryptocurrencies like bitcoins can improve in. There are other countries which are giving cryptocurrencies special advantage also, there are many places who have started bitcoins just because of the huge wave of crypto acceptance.

I do think it's not just the government but also the people who have to ask for their rights, since many of us live in a democratic nation so we can ask for what we might want. For example, in India people actually fought for Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, even went to court !!

But what I heard is, that world bank has denied the request from El Salvador to provide basic infrastructure for adopting and making use of bitcoin in exact similar manner of how people do use fiats but as of now I guess El Salvador might be hiring private blockchain experts to do so.

All republic government must do that. It would be government's responsibility to prevent money laundering and all other problems due to a new payment system but they must work in favour of what are easing day to day life of a common citizen.

Firstly, the LN still has a long, long way to go since it's still in its early stages and its adoption rates are quite low currently which is why your statement regarding it is incorrect op.

Secondly, El Salvador is a small country which doesn't have much to lose by adopting BTC while bigger developing countries stand to lose a lot more(Power over the citizens etc) which is why some of them banned cryptocurrencies completely.

These corrupt governments will probably never change their minds regarding cryptocurrencies at any point in the future.

What happens is that the move by El Salvador was very bold and no one saw it coming and this is creating a ripple effect in which everyone is trying to react to this on the best way they can, I really think we are going to see more countries eventually adopting bitcoin as legal tender but I think it is going to take time, and the reason for this is that it does not make sense for them to do it now, it is better to wait and see what happens at El Salvador and if everything is fine then they can do the same as well.

It's left to developing countries to decided what they want and not, whether they are ready to adopt Bitcoin or not. Bitcoin to me is still going to be the world currency after many countries have waited for it fall. Whether some are interested in bitcoin or not, a time is coming when people will be looking and regretting why thy they couldn't adopt it at the early stage.

EL Salvador is a small nation. So grown countries won't give it a consideration. However the progress in the economic infrastructure and people's upliftment in economy will be watched by the world. If is very easy for countries like El Salvador to move into cryptocurrency usage. The same isn't that possible with other gbig nations. It is too early, let the changes begin El Salvador. Because when changes happen on the positive side automatically countries will move towards cryptocurrency adoption.

Accepting Bitcoin, without providing any special status should be fine with most of the economies around the world. But in case of El Salvador, they awarded the status of legal tender to Bitcoin and it is here things get complicated. Being a legal tender gives special rights and privileges to Bitcoin, as the traders can't refuse payments in BTC. And this is where it gets problematic. It is no longer voluntary, and this is the reason why large number of people are protesting against the move in El Salvador. But the president (Nayib Bukele) has so far refused to make any compromise.

Developing countries like El Salvador can use Bitcoin as a medium of transaction in many cases. While Bitcoin is not a fully-fledged transactional environment, it will in many cases be a lucrative and business opportunity for developing countries. In particular, it will play an important role in dealing with various countries that are subject to various sanctions due to political and military animosity. This would be a good decision, especially for those countries with high inflation rates. However, it is not entirely possible for an economically developing country to follow in the footsteps of El Salvador, as it is difficult for countries with developed economies to introduce a completely new technology exchange and conduct economic activities through it.

its okay if they cant follow the exact steps made by el salvador but accepting or not banning bitcoin is already a big thing .
bitcoin is not new and a lot of countries have been using it before , they can get an example or get data' s in these countries so that they dont need to conduct a manual activity of their own .

After El Salvador accepted Bitcoin as a legal currency, some countries have begun to eagerly try their attempts, trying to prevent the use of Bitcoin. More and more countries in the world are interested in Bitcoin.
In countries with a high degree of economic expansion, the economy is often unstable, and holding the domestic legal currency often means that the purchasing power will be greatly devalued. The supply of Bitcoin is fixed and limited, and the government will not arbitrarily issue additional issuances based on demand to cause inflation. Therefore, most of the problems caused by inflation and subsequent capital controls can be effectively solved by Bitcoin. It provides a more reasonable way of resource allocation for an increasingly large and complex society with uneven resource distribution.

Unfortunately, I don't think this going be happen anytime soon. El Salvador did this because they are a poor country and many people there don't have an official bank account or can not have one ever, also, their fiat money is worthless comparing to USD. While for example, talking about the US, they have strong fiat and will try to increase their fiat value, and accepting bitcoin as a legal currency is totally against it. Also, El Salvador is suffering from economic sanctions, and bitcoin transactions will help the government with this. Time after time, we can see more countries like El Salvador doing the same thing and accepting bitcoin as a currency, but this will take more time for developed countries to do so.

I think you might have it wrong there.... Japan was the first country to accept Bitcoin as a "currency" .....not El Salvador.  ;)  It does not matter, it might be the first 3rd world country to accept Bitcoin as a currency..  ;D

The thing with 3rd world countries are the following.... Many of them are run by very corrupt politicians and these politicians do not want their cirizens to have any kind of freedom. (Bitcoin is synonymous with financial "freedom" and they hate that.)

There might be the odd exception... but I am not going to hold my breath for that to happen in most of the 3rd world countries.  :)

Nah, I don’t think that every country is going to do the same thing because El Salvador is doing it. And secondly I don’t think that bitcoin is going to magically lead them out poverty. All those who are unbanked in the country, how will they be able to make use of bitcoin if they are not able to make use of banks?

Let’s imagine that they have a smart phone to make use of bitcoin, the next question would be whether they have enough money to be able to invest in Bitcoin and make use of it? Because if they don’t have that money, then there is no way they will be able to make use of it. I think their government should put more effort towards making the country a safe place to live, and then look for better means to boost their economy. Corruption is one thing that kills a nation.

Each country has different overview on bitcoin and if the government that is managing the whole country is totally against bitcoin, then there's no way that country will accept bitcoin.

However, with El Salvador, the government is taking new
steps on how to improve and boost their economy and since the government is positive on the outlook of bitcoin, so they provide good concepts about bitcoin to the people which in the end made bitcoin a legal tender in their country. I think its just a matter of good leadership. I'm not saying good leaders should learn to accept bitcoin but rather they should start taking leaps to combat the problems that are mostly the reasons why a single country is not making a progress, even if it means replacing the old government system and taking into consideration accepting new system for the finances to grow.

On the ground, there are many developing and even semi-developed countries in which the citizens are using bitcoin as a daily routine. I am not sure if these countries will ever be as open minded as El Salvador, because at the end of the day having control over your own currency, even if is the shittiest currency ever, allow you to control your economy in a way that is simply impossible with bitcoin. Among other things, you can pay your public employees such as teachers or police with basically cow crap. Going to bitcoin for that is not an option.

There’s a lot of developing countries are open to this possibilities, but still they are not making any decision maybe because they are still studying the possibilities but as along as its not illegal in your place, that’s fine.

I live in a developing country and we can freely use cryptocurrency without violating any laws. Hopefully, they’ll
make it more legal later on so many people will start to adopt, we still need to be regulated because there’s still a trust issues that we need to address.

There are plenty of business that probably have started to accept bitcoin but it is not the same as declaring bitcoin as a legal tender just like El Salvador did. If any other country out there declare bitcoin as their legal tender, it would be huge comparing to businesses accepting bitcoin.

This would cause a ripple effect to other countries out there to start considering bitcoin as their legal tender as well as starting to alert all major countries about the threat that bitcoin might pose. I personally would like bitcoin to stay aside of the equation as a digital asset because those major countries will most likely impose bans on bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general if more of those developing countries start to accept bitcoin

Yes they can follow and they should follow because nothing good will come out if they don't do anything about it. I mean you're country is missing out of the money that crypto has in terms of taxation. Although I can see why they don't want to do that, not enough studies yet to prove the benefits of making bitcoin a legal tender besides watching what's going to happen to El Salvador, they're the experiment on this one.

Now explain - what difference does it make what they take for their currency - even cowrie shells, even US dollars or a Mongolian tugrik, or bitcoin, if the economy is ineffective, degrades, and the whole economy is built on the sale of some one resource !? The question is not in currency, the question is in the economy, an adequate and educated government, non-corrupt all branches of power, the desire of people to work, study, make laws more flexible, more aimed at improving the living standards of the citizens of this country!

Government are very inquisitive when it comes to asset they can't control, this is why they dislike when opposition party tackle their actions, bitcoin will always be something of nothing to them but as money in air just as Donald trump said some months ago on his tweet.
El Salvador is a country with less population with small GDP generated yearly, I think they are adopting that as aeans of making extra cash into their countr for development.

So far nothing relevant has happened after the news, there was some intensity when the IMF expressed its position and the mention of some countries in following "perhaps" legalization as a currency.

If we refer to the article that you mention, it is only setting content in relation to the subject and it gathers something of what has happened after the news, good summary and analysis, but does not add concrete, only speculation.

After this opening of the bitcoin of El Salvador, if you want it announced years ago, it was a surprise for its prompt acceptance in the bureaucratic sense because if you want this country lives a very particular situation where a president, his leadership and a country situation were combined that together with their politicians approved this historical antecedent.

So it is not so much about who is the next country but rather that some of those paradigmatic variables occur.

We shouldn't expect other countries to follow El Salvador, because already Japan had given importance to bitcoin as a currency ans supported vendors to use bitcoin instead of cash. Even it gave support through promotion. So Japan is the one to make it used as a currency. Now El Salvador will be watched. There is opposition from its citizens for the usage as currency and some street protest have taken place. This means people have got difference of opinion about bitcoin. Government needs to come up with systematic review to make them understand.

It is possible to make payments using Bitcoin in Japan, but that doesn't mean that it is considered as a currency there. And it doesn't have the status as legal tender. Only El Salvador has recognized Bitcoin as legal tender. I have heard rumors that more countries are looking forward to give the legal tender power to Bitcoin, but so far there has been no confirmation from any of these nations. Usage as a currency is different from being used as legal tender. For example, we can even use gold coins as currency.

I think in the next few years there will be many countries that will adopt the El Salvador way of giving space to make bitcoin a legal medium of exchange.

although currently the debate continues, the effects of the development of cryptocurrencies continue to grow.

like an article I've read, which states;

2019, Libra – the digital currency created by Facebook-, received official recognition from the US Congress, although there is still debate as to how far digital currency can play in Uncle Sam's financial system. In early 2020, the congress proposed discussing cryptocurrency legislation after Covid 19 devastated the world economy. The road is getting open.

China has been secretly developing a digital currency system, the digital yuan, since 2014 before officially entering the trial phase at the end of 2016. A year later, the Chinese communist government formed a special research agency to develop a digital currency system. In 2019, China introduced a law called the National Cryptography Law. Undeniably, Beijing has carefully prepared the digital currency grand stage.

Not to be outdone by America and China, Russia finally made a breakthrough as well. In 2017, Vladimir Putin announced a project to develop Crypto Ruble, a version of a digital currency that is tightly controlled by the government via a blockchain system. According to forecasts, 2021 will be the year in which the first official law of the Russian government, which regulates the digital currency system, will be issued.

In fact, even a country like Iran is currently developing a digital currency legal system and is cooperating with Russia and Armenia. 2018, Crypto Real trial program did well. In 2019, the Central Bank of Iran officially launched the initial draft of a digital currency law, an attempt that many saw as serious evidence of the desert country's government's intention to enter the cryptocurrency era.

You understand that the problem, for example, of Venezuela is not in Maduro, Maduro has simply by his stupidity "hammered a stake in the economy." The problem of the Venezuelan economy is that it had a foundation (about 70% of budget revenue) OIL and income from it. And this is very bad - you cannot monopolize the revenue side with one resource that in the historical period showed fairly high fluctuations. You perfectly understand that if oil falls 10 times, then the budget will in fact be filled only 37 times from what it was literally last month, and how can the country live with it? Therefore, no matter what "candy wrappers" they take for their currency - an unbalanced and ineffective economy cannot be saved by "re-issuing" the national currency

El Salvador do it because they don't want to rely on USD, they also want to try on what will be the effect of accepting it so hopefully they will not put in danger since we know bitcoin have huge bear market season so hopefully we will not experience this kind of scenario again since many people from that country will lose a lot of money for holding bitcoin to use on their daily living. Yeah I heard that rumor to but for sure they are watching the effect on El salvador and if many country will announce that they will make it as legal tender then provably we cannot see a huge fall the same as before.

Bitcoin already uses by all over the world as a decentralized cryptocurrency, it’s impossible to accept and follow El salvador by all other developing countries, but bitcoin will rising it’s demand day by day in this world.

Recently some protesters from "El Salvador" demand that the government repeal the adoption of BTC, according to them they say that it can cause illicit transactions and the government was not consulted, really this is something retrograde with respect to what the alternative economy that BTC offers.

I think that the countries that can adopt BTC the fastest are those that have many economic problems, and high inflation, Venezuela, Argentina, among others, can be the candidate countries, in addition the prohibitions that the USA has imposed on many countries can also be those chosen to have BTC. I think that the countries that can later adopt BTC are those that have very stable economies, because an economy that can endanger the traditional and already established where everything is for them is not convenient for them.

I thought it brought some courage for them, for these developing countries but seems it looks like they are still not fully taking an action to adopt the system and legalize it. Although to be going that way, as we can see, they are not banning crypto at all which means that their people could still enjoy it even it wasn't legalize already. For me, it was good enough. I may understand their position as well and we can't deny that there are some issues in regards to the spread of fraud and illegalities. May the adoption could take for a while, well, we just have to wait for that moment as it certainly will come sooner or later.

Even in a small country it is not possible to monitor the transactions of bitcoin then how can we expect the countries with bigger population to accept it? I am not against bitcoin but the government's reasons for using and not using bitcoin as legal tender is just for their personal benefits not for the wealth of their people.

On average, developing country currencies have loyal investors, different from poor countries where their currency is not at all interested.  when poor countries start to recognize bitcoin as their legal tender like el salvador then their economy will go up, in the next few years we will definitely see many countries starting to follow el salvador.

I think, Most developing countries are actively learning, adapting and discovering new ways to develop.  So most of the small developing countries in Southeast Asia also have increasing exposure to bitcoin and crypto like Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia,...etc.  Of course, their government remains neutral.  They can look to the results of El Salvado to shape their future decisions about bitcoin legitimacy.

I really think that this is what it is going to happen, other countries right now do not really have any kind of incentive to try to make the very same move that El Salvador made, however they are going to watch very attentively the developments of this experiment, because if this works you can be sure that there are going to be a lot of small countries and even a few big ones that are going to adopt bitcoin in the very same way as they are going to want to obtain those benefits for themselves.

Indirectly El-Salvador has become a lab rat of there own making to the rest of nations of the world and a huge stake for the crypto community as, its failure or progress would go a long way to determining its adoption for a legal tender. Also, it could go a long way to pointing out the issues with the system that could be addressee for its best use. There is a lot that can come out of this innovation and for the sake of the crypto community, we hope its good. Either it would be wise for developing nations to jump in at the moment or not, that is the case study with El-Salvador but, its much wiser to be early than later.

I don't think that other countries will ever think about adapting bitcoin this way, i mean El Salvador using it as a legal currency is great and all but i don't think it will have that much of an impact on its outside economy, and for other third world countries to even consider using it there has to be a powerful country like US or Germany actually making it a legal trend, so my hope is for one of them to do so and they are high for Germany since they have been making laws that favor cryptocurrency use.

Well, there you are absolutely right, although compared to other governments I see that the president of "El Salvador" has a more liberal thinking regarding its economy, of course, it must also be taken into account that countries evaluate their opportunities based on In its capacities, El Salvador is a country that has a great capacity for survival thanks to remittances, the government of "El Salvador" must have its interest in Bitcoin, for example in Venezuela you can trade with BTC without any problem, but if you you are going to dedicate yourself to mining you must register with SUNACRIP, which is the government body to regulate mining activity, this is because the government has very large mining farms and from there it obtains liquidity to be able to support itself, each government will always have its interests first, and the people will always be a subordinate, the advantage is that there are many smart people who are getting to know the technology and everything that BTC stands.

At the dawn of the cryptocurrency boom, I also dreamed that cryptocurrency would be freely accepted as a means of payment, but over time I came to the conclusion that this is a quality goal, and benefits for the economy or society. Here, like many decisions, there will always be 2 sides: positive and negative. So, I do not see now mega benefits from the introduction of the status of a full-fledged means of payment for cryptocurrencies. As a special asset for a limited range of payments - yes, perhaps, but not for everything and everywhere.

Developing countries can actually follow El Salvador's actions about making Bitcoin legal tender. But it is really important that El Salvador becomes successful after this action. Because some people say that El Salvador people still aren't very interested in using Bitcoin. If this is true, this would help the country badly. All the effort can turn out to be in vain.

What's ironic is the countries most likely to let this happen (poor ones) will gain wealth from the rich ones that will be tied down by KYC regulations. What have they got to lose? That's why there was such an uproar from the US and Europe about El Salvador declaring BTC legal tender. Hah!

There may be a wealth transfer from the rich nations to the poor, because of this.

BTC - the great disruptor.

The current system of governance in a majority of nations depends on borrowing money. Such a system depends on national currency, that is susceptible to inflation. Even the US Dollar has seen a sharp reduction in purchasing power recently. If Bitcoin is allowed to be used freely, then the national currency will be unable to compete (since BTC is protected against inflation), and ultimately the government will be unable to balance its budget. Even for El Salvador, I am not sure how they will manage the finances in the long term.

Atleast they have the way for people along with government to make money but they should have dedicated board for monitoring them, asking the KYC details has their own pros and cons but I am not against giving KYC details to government if it is going to stop the illicit transactions happening in your country.

El Salvador's main source of income is from remittances. They have done it easily, but it won't be that easy for a country with many income sources. Every country makes money when people use their bank for the transaction. So if crypto has been used everywhere then this source of income will be cut down. I do not think a developing country would do that.

- As other countries follow a similar path, I don't think economically and socially weak countries can compete for bitcoin buying with big countries, El Salvador with the model as a small country and try to take the first step, other countries will see them as prey and demand a share of bitcoin and that way, tough deals and broken relationships will happen. Tensions are pushed to new heights, it will surely destroy bitcoin when it is the cause of this nonsense, so using bitcoin in countries should be just a billboard and should be less widely adopted

Hm interesting, but where does my logic actually fail? When El Salvador makes most of its income from remittances, why would they want Bitcoin to become legal tender? Doesn't that mean a severe cut to their main income source?

This is basically what we should do in our own finances as well, and when a nation doesn't do it themselves it fails too. Let's say I have 70% of my income from one thing (in investment, otherwise salary is 100% for most people) that means if that income is gone, I will not make any money at all. So, what should I do? Use that income to buy other stuff and improve the profit while having better diversification.

If Maduro or anyone else used that income towards buying more and more from something else that could profit them, that would mean eventually one day if oil worths zero, they will still be doing fine. Look at all the nations around them, they are not making or did not made money like Venezuela did, but they still managed to survive. However Maduro or others before him do have a big hand in this, they didn't diversify their income at all for decades.

EL Salvador is a country which has got population of about 7 million. It looks like an easy thing to implement the usage of cryptocurrency and legalize the same. The country has the low per capita income. After the adoption of bitcoin, if there is increase in the per capita income then it will be a big success for the country. The small country is much affected by volcano and natural disasters. For a country like El Salvador all that required is the usage from the low level people.

I think it won't be easy for every country  to follow the foot prints of El Salvador   which has very narrow base of its economy that is income from Remittances. Generally economies have broad base of income including exports where we deal with large number of countries and payments are made through banking channels by Fiat currencies so how this npayment issue will be resolved if buyer of your exports refuses to pay in Bicoin. In short there are lot of issues need to be resolved before Bitcoin payment system is adopted on Governments  level.

Almost the same as what happened in Bali in the past, all merchants are willing to use bitcoin as payment and legal use because here in bali there are many tourist and international visitor. but all of that stopped and was banned by the government because of the regulation of payment instruments. so it all depends again on the regulations of a country.

Now, if Maduro RE INVESTED the income from oil, when it was a hot commodity, he would be considered the savior of the country. BUT. He used the money for FOOD, and this is the dumbest option, but typical of most countries with a post-socialist / new-communist concept. As a result, it turns out, like yesterday "the people were fed" and even got drunk, but tomorrow came and it turned out that everyone ate, drank, and ... NO MORE MONEY!

He didn't spent all of the money on food. Some of it was spent on food and other essentials, but the majority of it was spent on subsidies. When the gasoline price was $6 per gallon in the United States, the Venezuelan regime was giving it to the citizens at a rate of around $0.01 per gallon. And given how corrupt the system is, most of these subsidies ended up at the hands of those who doesn't deserve it. A large part of the subsidized gasoline was smuggled out to Colombia, with small amounts ending up in Brazil and Guyana.

One of the countries whose president is also studying how to adopt BTC is Argentina, the truth is that El Salvador is giving the example, the Argentine government is trying to give the same treatment to BTC as they are executing it in El Salvador, apparently they think Do the same process, although I do not think that the country will have problems rejecting it, because Argentina has a situation with quite high inflation, not like Venezuela, but if they adopt it, I believe that it could be the way out for many particular economies of its people.

El Salvador is just a testing ground for Bitcoin. Whether other countries use Bitcoin as legal tender depends on the development of their own country and understand whether it will bring benefits to the country and a positive impact on social life.
Using Bitcoin is desirable for many countries looking for ways to improve their economy. And for those countries with high inflation rates, using Bitcoin is an effective way to effectively resist inflation.

For some small countries, they use the encrypted currency to get rid of some major powers. Because they use the encrypted currency, they get rid of the big country, and the big country may launch a war.
If they want to use encrypted currency as a legal currency, they need to consider a lot.
Developing countries hopes to release the statutory currency of their own country, and now because of the fluctuations of Bitcoin, it will not think that Bitcoin acts as a legal currency.

In my opinion, it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a developing nation in the African continent to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender just as El Salvador has done. Most leaders in LMIC would rather prefer to keep borrowing from China than to go the way of El Salvador. I have no hate for the continent but this is unfortunately true Because they are so corrupt, they wouldn’t want to give time to understand how bitcoin works and functions. They wouldn’t want to give it a chance because it will ruin their chances of embezzling more public funds.

Well, until a young leader who is enlightened is in power their idea of bitcoin being a legal tender is already dead on arrival.

The population is possible to be a factor to consider for the reason of adoption of bitcoin this early when countries of highly developed technology are yet. Because of this small population, there is possibility of easy communication and interpersonal personal understanding within the people there. I also suspect that because of the small population, corruption and embezzlement may not be a popular thing there which may be another reason that the president and the people in power choose to try that out. Like fiat suffers the set back of corrupt officials who embezzle the public fund for personal use and with bitcoin, they are not sure of corrupt practices and embezzlement because every transaction can be tracked on blockchain.

El Salvador needs to prove first that their economy will go better before this action take effect worldwide, because we all new how troubled El Salvador is and they are almost the same as venezuela so how can they be a great leader in adoption when  they have not even show the value of this crypto currency right?
it means this will take time , and then before we can conclude if developing countries will adopt or not bitcoin.

This is not a good argument in my opinion. There are highly developed industrialized countries that have a similar population, for example the Netherlands or Sweden. Moreover, Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies are independent of the number of participants in the network, so it doesn't make sense to argue that this would work because Ecuador is a rather small country.

actually the population is  below 7 million


this leads me to belief that it is not about how many people or how small or big the country is to adopt bitcoin and succeed , but it is the county's government on how they will push and encourage their people to like and believe in bitcoin.

it can be said that adoption by many people will have an influence on bitcoin, especially for developed countries even with a low population, then they will be able to also have an influence on bitcoin. elsalvador seems to be an example, but because he is not a developed country then I don't think it will have a big influence on other countries

This is a very significant move especially if we take into account that many countries are trying their best to try to pass very tight regulations against the market of cryptocurrencies as a whole, it is going to be very interesting to see what happens from now because I really think that there are going to be many businesses which deal almost exclusively with cryptocurrencies that are going to be incredibly interested in moving to a country with friendly laws and regulations, increasing the wealth of this country exponentially.

surely a country that has a source of income will not really care about crypto
but for poor and developing countries that have few sources of income will try to use crypto to boost their country's economy

cryptocurrency will not be rejected.  over time when crypto adoption occurs then all countries will be crypto friendly

Because poor countries are exploring more posibilities on to make their economy boom that's why we see El Salvador is trying their luck on bitcoin acceptance. Maybe there are other small or maybe shall we say 3rd world groups will adopt bitcoin and make it as their legal tender if El Salvador will suceed and get a positive result on ita adoption.

Also yeah maybe we can see that all country will became crypto friendly in future but this one will never happen soon due to many reasons.

It's possible for some developing countries especially for people who don't have bank accounts. It's really more convenient for them to transact using Bitcoin but in some countries, it still needs adoption. There are still countries that aren't aware of it. Banks wouldn't allow it too because it will be another threat for them in big countries.

I think that they should do it now, while the pan is still not hot, waiting for the results in El Salvador is going to take some time and when the results in El Salvador show and it's a positive then you get to it, the result for your country may vary meaning that that you can copy all the details of what El Salvador did but your results would be vastly different from El Salvador. I think that developing nations can benefit from following what El Salvador does but I have some reservations with that, favors from influential countries and organization might get colder especially IMF and World Bank.

I think for those who know bitcoin, of course they have bank accounts and people who don't have bank accounts I think are much less, especially for those who follow developments in the digital world. but I think for developing countries and not having a large population, I think it will be able to follow elsalvador faster, at least more people will have crypto, and that will help their welfare later

We can see and hear that many countries are still our from adoption, we don't know why but this probably they don't consider Bitcoin as a helping tool for their economy to grow but just a competitor. If we think that these developing countries will legalize crypto, it might happen in the future but have to agree that these 3rd world countries will make it first than them like El Salvador as an example. Because they are more on the look of better opportunities to give their people but these developing countries are much looking on how to compete other for the sake of taking power.

However, it cannot be denied that every country has its own ego, especially in terms of economic stability.  Currently, the government in almost all countries upholds a centralized economic system and considers things that cannot be fully controlled by them as wild things even though it is not necessarily what is considered wild does not provide benefits for life.

I think that it depends on whether El Salvador will reach their target by making Bitcoin legal tender. As far as I know, they bought Bitcoin which was worth $140m and wanted to distribute them among people as $30 each. But I heard something also that people were still not eager to use Bitcoin in their daily life and for investment purposes. If that's true, then the government should develop new strategies to gain their interest in Bitcoin. It should educate its people about Bitcoin well first. Maybe it stems from the lack of knowledge about Bitcoin and the market.

Depending on the situation, we can't say banks wouldn't allow it but if those developing countries were strict about their economy that would probably happen.
However, if their leaders found out the advantages of Bitcoin adoption I guess it would be easy for them to divert on this Blockchain technology. For those who didn't have confidence towards bitcoin, I foresee their speculations is more tough compared to reality.

The $30 airdrop was not from the government, but from one of the private cryptocurrency businesses. But it is a good initiative. Even those who hate cryptocurrency to the core would have applied for this airdrop and received the coins. A large part of the recipients may immediately sell these coins for fiat currency (US Dollar in this case). But I believe that at least 1/4th of the recipients would be curious about cryptocurrency and will decide to store the coins for the long term. And these guys will benefit from the price increase in future.

They should, every developing country should find a way to get into renewable energy and bitcoin at the same time, those are the future of the world and if they can start first before the big ones then they could get a bit more money. However what people should realize is that many many many "developing" countries are there and not big because they do not have proper politicians and they are corrupt as hell.

Look at USA, they had Trump and many many considered him a bad person, hell they had people storming into their capitol building to maybe even murder the elected officials, nobody can tell me it was "peaceful" because they KILLED A COP there, nothing peaceful murders a cop, they were violent rioters that murdered a cop and wanted to murder more people.

However reality is that even with that, they are still a democracy where Joe Biden replaced, which is the great thing about USA, even if you hate the president, you could go out and outvote him, Trump got the second most votes in history of USA, but Biden got the first, same election, and that is what democracy looks like, many developing countries could get bitcoin supported, but as long as they are corrupted it won't work.