Bitcoin Forum

Introduction : We already know El Salvador become the first country that 100% support Bitcoin because they plan to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender on September 7, 2021 which will bring mass adoption for Bitcoin. As we can see many users spreading good news about El Salvador in this forum, some of them:

• El Salvador plan to make BTC legal tender (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5342169.0)
• El Salvador started BTC campaign in their country (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5345835.0)
• El Salvador rolls out 200 Bitcoin ATMs in a bid to speed-up nationwide adoption (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5356297.0)

I thought there will no bad news from El Salvador to Bitcoin, but I'm wrong I'm really shocked when I see a news talking some veteran, pensioners, and workers from El Salvador protest against Bitcoin as legal tender. The most shocked thing is their opinions about Bitcoin, all is bullshit!

What on earth did they say??? NO CONTROL OVER IT, CORRUPT MONEY LAUNDERING!
Bitcoin = Be Your Own Bank, you have full control over it just like how Bank can have full control of your Fiat. Bitcoin could be used for Money Laundering but do you have an evidence about it? No! You just ignored the fact your favorite Fiat is always be used for money laundering $800 billion - $2 trillion in current US dollars every year!

Not understand about technology and lack of knowledge? You can still to learn, there's no restrictions to study Bitcoin where you from, where you live, how old are you, what you gender, anyone can learn it! A lot youtuber, article, animations, and whatever already make simple definition for Average Joe to learn Bitcoin, you don't need to learn the technical thing at least you know what is Bitcoin, how it works, how to use, etc etc.

They want to be rich, but they protest against Bitcoin used as legal tender LOL does this both picture are hard to understand? please, open your eyes. Bitcoin from 0 went to $47K while USD from $25 went to $1

https://i.ibb.co/hyH4gzS/bitcoin.jpg   https://i.ibb.co/r6TdfVr/dollar.jpg

This is the most thing I fully respect El Salvador's President statement, he doesn't forcing anyone to download their own Bitcoin app named Chivo which I think it's web wallet or the worst case ask KYC of their citizens. So if you have a privacy concern and worried about the credibility/trustworthy about the wallet, you can use non-custodial wallet or hardware wallet.

In the end, I hope El Salvador's President wouldn't postpone or even rejecting the plan to accept BTCitcoin as legal tender


Source :

• https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/
• https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/money-laundering/overview.html
• https://www.visualcapitalist.com/purchasing-power-of-the-u-s-dollar-over-time/
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/retirees-in-el-salvador-protest-against-bitcoin-adoption

According to the news I have read was that 30% of El Salvadorians make use of bank, this is one of the reasons the bill to make Bitcoin a legal tender was proposed and accepted by the Salvadoran Congress.


This would have been the cause of protests by some people that went against the bitcoin law. If bitcoin is accepted, it is by force that every business should accept it as a form of payment in El Salvador. I think the government should not go to this extent, they should let citizens to have their own opinion to make. Even if they accept Bitcoin as a legal tender, it should not be a compulsory form of payment, they should just only accept it as a legal form of payment which I think it is enough and not mandating their citizens to accept it as some do not want to. Bitcoin should give freedom, El Salvadorian government should also think about this before making compulsion move, Bitcoin is better to just be a legal form of payment and not more.

Another BS, money laundering is much easier to get caught if they use bitcoin because there's a public ledger that helps you trace the suspicious transactions. It's normal that the prices are volatile, that's how it is plus why do they make a big deal out of bitcoin, as if it's the only thing that matters in El Salvador.

That's what alternative payments are used for besides Bitcoin. Because we inevitably have to look the other way, how not all El Salvadorans accept the policy that the government is trying to implement that makes Bitcoin a legal payment.

These cases serve as an evaluation before going any further, we know adoption is good, but if anyone feels that inequality in freedom of choice transactions actually falls on El Salvador coercive law enforcement.

Before that, the government should really provide comprehensive education to all elements of society, both young and old, and also the implementation of Blockchain technology-based curriculum, especially the economy under Bitcoin.

This is most probably the result of media/news. The old "bitcoin is dirty money" narrative is still there, I see. Poor misinformed souls are pieces in a game they don't understand, still, they're out protesting.
And if one wants to believe something, no government ad or educational material would get him out of that (just see all what's going on around covid). So educating them won't work.

The only correct move I can see is to move on as planned, provide all the tools and make this program a success. Then they might get out from their bubble.

Exactly, it's as if it's still 2014 in El Salvador, bitcoin isn't just used by criminals anymore and it hasn't been the thing ever since, that's why their worries are all misplaced. And you're right about the part where they can easily track the criminals that use bitcoin for illegal activities.

Because this is indeed an early stage, it is possible that the Government should work even harder to prove that the constraints faced by the community, especially the complaints of retirees, will be given more attention.
It must be continued according to the initial plan, how this goal must be achieved together with mutual synergy between the government and the community in order to reap success.

Despite all the accepted reasons, this is still worthy as input for the government to give more attention.
People really want things that are in accordance with their needs on that day, just as living the economy in the midst of Covid 19 has left many behind. So a fair complaint where it happened in El Salvador which authorized the adoption of legal payments via Bitcoin.

Well, extreme price volatility is not frequent, but if he's talking about mere volatility, that can also be seen in any fiat currency. Fiats typically fluctuate moderately though (but are inflationary), and they infact have extreme price volatility especially during crisis period... and they lose their value long-term due to inflation compared to Bitcoin which increase in price(+value) longterm.
I can't imagine a currency that doesn't fluctuate at all, probably dead currency? Fluctuations are normally in the economic world of demand and supply, and in a world where prices of goods & services fluctuate.

In regards to laundering money, depends on how useful/moral the money laundaring law is.   I think the app could be built in a way that check that without violating Bitcoin important principles.  If the app is centralized then you will probably need a centralized regulators to check that.

To begin with, El- Salvador is a democratic nation and not a Monarchy . So their people have legal rights to protest against anything. So whenever a country tries to being in big change into any field, protest happens! These protests are either natural or ignited by the opposition. The second one seems the case here!

Also I don't think El-Salvador has made bitcoin mandatory. I don't think they have forced their employees to get salary in bitcoin. So if that is not the case, then I don't see any legit reason to hold such protests. That's why the connection with the opposition party seems more obvious.

There are always pros and cons to any decision taken by the government of any country, including El Salvador's decision to legalize bitcoin as a legal tender. We are all not responsible for changing the mindset of people who don't believe in bitcoin or people who are anti-bitcoin wherever they are and whoever they are. Bitcoin is a decentralized currency that has the same function and uses as fiat currency. The misappropriation of bitcoin in illegal acts such as money laundering by certain individuals is not the failure of the currency to prevent illegal acts and it is one of the things that every country that owns the currency needs to think about including the creation of bitcoin.

The government has the right to decide and regulate bitcoin can be used or not as a legal currency after they have conducted an in-depth study. If bitcoin can help the community in terms of the financial system, payment transaction and so on, the legality decided by the government must be supported. There's no need to think about the handful of people who are against the legality decision, they'll find out the truth once they learn more about it.

Unfortunately this is exactly what legal tender means, it is a form of money that has been recognized by the government and by law you must accept it, it is not really an option to not do it.

However I see your point maybe if they recognize bitcoin as a form of money that you can accept but that you can reject as well if you are not comfortable using it then maybe this will not be such a huge shock for a portion of the population that does not want to use bitcoin, however I think that the government of El Salvador is seeing the incredible potential that bitcoin has and they do not want to miss on it while being ambivalent about the issue.

Nayib Bukele is not a tremendously popular president, he and his closest people were accused of corruption many times, so this is where the idea that Bitcoin will be used for money laundering comes from. Also, if the government will decide to store a large portion of its assets in Bitcoin, then volatility is a very valid concern. I would protest too if my government held more than 5-10% of its treasury in Bitcoin, even though I myself have a much higher portion of my networth in BTC.

It would be very advanced if they made Bitcoin mandatory. Because very few people have a good idea about technology and fewer people use it. There is no denying that very few people are accustomed to Bitcoin, and imposing anything on the public without proper knowledge can be daunting. It would be better to keep Bitcoin as a compulsory payment gateway and at the same time make it possible for everyone to be educated on the principles and uses of Bitcoin.

Pensioners are a rather specific stratum of the population ... They almost always and everywhere deny progress, they are afraid of changes, they do not want to study not only new, even simple household, technologies, but they are not even ready for new goods! In this case, they are quite justifiably opposed to an entity that is absolutely incomprehensible to them. They are used to coins and bills in the wallet and not to hashes, transactions and blocks of transactions. Plus, passwords to wallets are a huge problem for them ... In general, they are right, on their part. Well, objectively, from the economic point of view, replacing the national currency with a crypto asset is a dubious program of "healing" the economy ... The only question of the volatility of cryptocurrencies guarantees an outbreak of negativity among the masses, with the next bearish trend - what will you tell them if they are not already high stocks, will be reduced by 10 times, with a fall in the rate of cryptocurrencies? And this is a normal process for the crypto market! ...

This is not the first time I hear some people saying that Bitcoin price is always fluctuating so it can't be made legal tender. But even if they continue to say these things, El Salvador has made it legal tender. And this will stay the way it is as long as the country doesn't start getting harmed by this move. They should be really careful about this situation. Otherwise, all the effort will be in vain.

Being the first state to make bitcoin as a legal tender, then its really expected that not all people will agree on it particularly for those old people who were not able to study on new technology so having to use fiat for a lifetime is already good enough for them. Not just them but also for those kind of people who still believe that bitcoin is a scam and there is no way that bitcoin can be a good currency but for money laundering purposes only.

Good thing about this is that the President is not forcing to use bitcoin for now but i know in time, bitcoin will be mandatory already as only few people only get to oppose the current enforced system. Well, everything can be learn in bitcoin so there's no way people can escape that.

The protesters are probably afraid of change that they know little about. What the government of El Salvador can do is to just continue with the planned start date of the law and place infographics and some flyers re: benefits of using bitcoin as legal tender and how it can help their economy. It will take time for the whole population to understand the benefits of bitcoin but it will come as long as the government is sincere in their efforts to educated the masses alongside making bitcoin a legal tender in the country.

Also, the government isn't forcing its citizens to use bitcoin, so there is still room for pensioners and old-timers to use whatever they want to use in buying things and receiving payments.

For me, the legalization  for bitcoin just got so fast. I do understand the President has  a good intention for accepting bitcoin but the reaction of the citizens seem not in favor about bitcoin. There must be a public education for all about bitcoin, learning the whole benefits about bitcoin and how they will be able to use it and definitely its pros and cons. The citizens are obliged to know all the basic things about bitcoin so that they will not always come up questioning about the current sytem.

I know things might only be worst in the beginning but as time goes by, the problem will definitely be solved. After all, bitcoin is user friendly so all citizens would really love using and having it once they will learn how to use it.

It's unbelievable how some people can use the argument that bitcoin is hard to deal with (they can't understand the technology), but it's the same people who use facebook, instagram and Whatsapp and so many other social networks and apps, it gets comical because people can easily google bitcoin in the same way they do research on singers and movie actors, it is unacceptable to use arguments that would need more time to learn about bitcoin, about volatility they may be right, and it will be very difficult to deal with this high bitcoin volatility

Those old geezers should actually first learn what bitcoin is and how it works. It's sad to see them associating bitcoin with just criminal activities. Funny how they act like fiat isn't being used to launder money at all. In fact, it would be harder to launder money using bitcoin since bitcoin can be traced very easily. I am sure those guys that are protesting are the ones that are corrupted and are scared that they won't be able to continue with their regular corruption using bitcoin. Educate them more about this technology!

They don't understand what it means to accept bitcoin. I guess with these protests, we're now having an idea that the same thing might happen to the next country that will adopt bitcoin as a legal tender.

But I guess there will be an easier mitigation for that government and knows how to take care and handle these protests if ever the next government announces it.

Some people protest even if they have no idea what they are protesting for. I guess, a lot of them haven't touched any crypto transaction yet. The government should find a way how to educate its people about this new technology. Because most of the time, ignorance is the reason why people are hard about on things. If they learn the benefits brought about by this currency, will they still protest about its existence?

Speaking from their POV, its quite reasonable that they are protesting about it because bitcoin is considered as a volatile investment by the average joe.

Imagine getting your $100 pension in bitcoin, only to have the value reduced by 10% in less than 1 month. This is what scares the average joe the most, the volatility. Yeah sure USD value is lower every year due to the inflation but its merely at controllable rate of 1-2% on average per year so people are feel that ' they are not affected ' by it but in fact they are still being affected.

It's funny because bitcoin is precisely the opposite of what they say it is. They seem to still be stuck with their myopic vision of fiat.

I understand that they are frustrated with the wave of potential immigrants that will be flooding the country, but really this is good for the local economy.

The people who are going to be granted visas are likely going to be innovative and carry forward looking values and a ton of capital from their crypto assets. El Salvador has a real opportunity to capitalise on here.

I guess their fears are founded first and foremost on lack of knowledge. This possibility is what I'm also looking at considering that Bitcoin is indeed alien to many people, especially the old ones. A lot of old people could not even manage to send a text message. So it is understandable that they are worried. But I guess the message of the government that nobody is forced to use Bitcoin over USD hasn't reached them. This is what I am also saying in another thread, that the government should strengthen Bitcoin education and information dissemination while gradually implementing the use of Bitcoin as a legal tender.

This is what happens when Bitcoin is suddenly introduced as the legal tender. The president and the parliament could have given 6-12 months for the process. But they chose to implement it all of a sudden. The younger people may still be able to get adjusted, because almost all of them know how to use a smartphone and install Android apps. But in my area, I know a lot of pensioners who don't know how to use a smartphone (even to attend calls). How do you expect these people to become knowledgeable about Bitcoin in a matter of days?

And you think that in the next ten years BTC will grow again x50000 to 2.5 billion a coin?
What would past performance mean to those people, they don't care about the past they care about the future, and at this point, I understand some of them, to be forced to accept something that you don't want would normally lead to protest.
I'm actually scared of the attitude of some bitcoins here, why the hell are you trying to impose on some people your views, wasn't bitcoin about freedom? Now you're the ones deciding they are stupid, labeling them as idiots, and telling them what they should do! The irony in this is almost unbearable!


These might change your view a bit!



Yeah right, people will flock to one of the poorest countries in the world, with a complete lack of infrastructure, medical services, riddled with crime because bitcoin is legal tender. Yeah right! You will give up high-paying jobs in the western world, leave families and relatives behind to enjoy what? Hurricane seasons that level up half of the country combined with earthquakes that killed thousands?

Those protesters seem to be manipulated by someone.
I'm sure that the people of El Salvador will have freedom of choice and the government will not force them to use Bitcoin and to receive their salaries and pensions in BTC only.
It is pretty clear that Bitcoin will be the second legal tender in El Salvador,next to the US dollar.
The protest makes sense only if Bitcoin becomes the one and only legal tender in that country.
Receiving your pension or a salary in the form of a highly volatile currency/asset seems pretty scary for people,who aren't tech savvy. 

They do not recognize Bitcoin because they do not believe in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is still volatile, and they cannot control Bitcoin. They worry that today's $10 bitcoin will be worth $1 tomorrow.
They want to live. But now it appears that El Salvador’s national currency has no value. They are still biased towards the US dollar.

Now that the government made it clear that Bitcoin's not gonna be mandatory but people can choose whether to receive payments in USD or BTC freely, there are no more excuses.
If you want bitcoin, then take it.
If you don't want bitcoin then don't accept it.
This was a great move to avoid further problems, I've always been against making bitcoin acceptance mandatory. Now let the people recognize bitcoin's potential.
As for the retirees, well no comment.

I have older relatives, and they are still very skeptical about me using Bitcoin. In spite of everything, they believe it's a financial pyramid and think it's very unwise of me to deal with it. So, honestly, I'm not surprised it's the case in El Salvador as well. People who've lived dozens of years without cryptos feel like it's an unnecessary risk to take. Then again, I'm mad they're protesting against El Salvador adopting Bitcoin because it's not like El Salvador is saying goodbye to the USD and forcing everyone to use Bitcoin instead. So they're not fighting for their right to use fiat; they're fighting to deprive others of the right to use cryptos.

Bro....first of all, if we're talking about pensioners, which I assume are older retirees, of course they're not going to be in favor of bitcoin, which is a form of money that's only been around since 2009.  I also assume many older folks in El Salvador probably aren't up-to-date on a lot of new technology.  That's part of why they're resisting it.

And I also wouldn't dismiss their point about volatility, because no matter how much you and I love bitcoin, an El Salvadorian with very little money is going to want a stable form of money, not one that they have to worry about fluctuating in value--sometimes drastically--from day to day, if not by the hour.  Put yourself in their shoes and stop thinking like a young (I'm going to assume that about you) bitcoin investor. 

I wouldn't want to receive my paycheck in bitcoin, and I've said that many times--and it's precisely because of the volatility, although there are other factors as well, such as the fact that I can't pay my bills with it or buy food, gas, and most other things either.  So if a bitcoin believer like me doesn't want to completely adopt bitcoin as a currency, why in the hell would you expect the average El Salvador citizen to?

Not sure about the money laundering argument.  I'm sure it happens, but that's not a valid argument against it IMO.

I guess those people who have protested against the adoption of El Salvador on bitcoin to make it as a legal tender were not really informed and knowledgeable enough about the power and benefits bitcoin upholds. Given the range of age of the people you have mentioned: veterans and pensioners definitely belong to the older generations. Maybe these people aren't aware of the new technology such as blockchain that can secure their funds and help them manage them on their own. Perhaps, these people are old-school and weren't just educated properly about bitcoin's nature and how to utilize it. Or maybe they were given the chance to learn, but they pushed the opportunity away because of being close-minded. We can't just really please anyone and let them pick our side despite giving all the information needed.

There will always be opposition, but don't get me wrong, I know opposition also balances and makes the aspect of the economy of a country, rules, and laws to be thoroughly thought upon. Let's just hope that El Salvador's government will take a look at the concern of their citizens and address them properly. May the protest be an eye-opener for their government to review their plans and to be transparent to the citizens of whatever they are planning to do. Hopefully, they will still push through the bitcoin adoption as legal tender the moment every issue is settled down.

After all these internet related scams, it is very difficult to convince the older generation that Bitcoin is not a scam. I have faced this issue in my country (India). Here the media is also spreading FUD against Bitcoin, by claiming that it is a multi-trillion internet scam. Lack of support from the government makes matters worse. However, it is easy to convince the youngsters, as they are more open to new technology. But the problem is that these younger people hardly have any surplus funds, while the pensioners have significant amounts that can be diverted to crypto.

Am I the only one thinking that everything has 2 sides??
I think that it is expected that not all of the people in El Salvador will agree with Bitcoin as a legal tender because after all, the country is a democratic country therefore people can protest if they see that it isn't beneficial for them.

Another reason why these retirees are against Bitcoin as a legal tender. They are under the opposition team.
Another reason into why these people are against it is because of the technical aspects of Bitcoin. They are old people and understanding a concept that seems to be technical for them will be hard.
Another reason is these retirees doesn't have any access to the internet or even smartphone itself where we are accessing Bitcoin. How can they benefit into it if they can't access into it?? These maybe are the reasons why they are against it.

Overall, people that are against Bitcoin is expected already because not all of them will have access into it. These retirees have different perspective too when it comes to Bitcoin and fiat money. After all, I think that they have a choice though into how they will accept their pension. On the other hand, putting Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador doesn't mean that fiat currency will not be used anymore.

Seniors are the perfect environment for manipulation! They already have a weakened thought process, they usually live in the past, they do not have up-to-date information, they are ready to vote for anyone who promises them to do as they want and demand. But, as practice shows, the one who manipulates them, then simply throws them away, saying "excuse me, it didn't work out, everyone around is guilty, they are against you, and did not let me do what I promised you." And old people are such that it is easier for them to believe that there are enemies around, than to realize that they themselves are fools and create problems for themselves. Therefore, the next time they will vote for the one who deceived them the previous time! And this will be repeated many times ... But they will never find the courage to admit the truth.

Of course, people have always the right to protest. But the question is, what are they protesting for? What are they against? What are they worried about?

It seems they are up against something which isn't even in existence. They are worried that their pensions will be paid in Bitcoin. They're worried that USD is going to be replaced with Bitcoin. They are worried that the law will make it mandatory for Bitcoin to be accepted. Which are all but wrong information. So they are protesting based on imagined fears, pointless anxieties, misinformation, and misunderstanding.

Of course, the government should step up its information drive to counter all these misinformation, doubts, and fears.

While I don't deny that this kind of things may not be explained well enough for the elder people, I'm not sure what the government can do.
The posters they held show that they clearly prefer to listen to certain old narratives than government.

More attention? Bitcoin will not be compulsory, so if they don't want it they can avoid it without making so much noise. They've even got some free money, but nobody forces them use that.
I think that it's all politics in this "protest" and Bitcoin is just caught in the middle. By far not a "fair complaint" imho.

To some extent you can't blame them for their actions base on their level of understanding, I think what the government should have propse is make btc an alternative to transact as well as fiat, those who prefer to transact on btc can have the freedom to access it without restrictions and others who prefer fiat will carry on, this kind of transformation should not be carried out immediately, it should be a gradual process thing so the people get to understand it as time passes.

And for sure even in Japan which bitcoin or cryptocurrency is now legally adopted maybe some of the citizens of Japan have also a sentiments over cryptocurrency. I mean not all people could easily adopt this newest trend of finance and we can't truly blame them so it is better to have another option to transact I mean let those people who wanted to transact using bitcoin could use and let those who didn't want make their choices. And I am very certain that bitcoin will be just become a part of the economy but the thought that it might going to replace fiat's existence I guess is impossible.

I am not entirely sure if I am understanding this correctly or not, maybe it is just me and I would like it if someone explains to me what the problem is all about. I personally thought that this was given as an option to people who live there, if it is an option then why are they going against it? If you are a retired person who doesn't want anything to do with bitcoin then all you have to do is ignore it? I mean if it is just an option then do not pick that option. Don't they have their own currency as well?

Also do not get me started on volatility, it usually goes up and it made everyone a lot of money if they stand here and not sell their coins whereas the fiat currency in every nation dropped in value by a large margin, so it is a good thing even for a retired person, they would have been richer. If it is just an option then why are they not ignoring it, could someone explain that to me please?

By concern I mean in the sense that the government must also continue to provide broad insight, not only the sector of entrepreneurs, investors, traders, but every element that has not fully supported Bitcoin as a legal payment. Bitcoin is not mandatory, well I know they are even given money for free as a form of regulatory proof that Bitcoin is only an alternative with a valid license to be used there without compromising the use of money that has been used before.

Back to El Salvador, that at this stage they will surely be successful in implementing this, and the things that are the issues or some of the protests are the obstacles. first used as an evaluation that Bitcoin has an advantage.

I've seen these protesters are afraid of receving their pensions and welfare in bitcoin futurely, so they want to make sure the government keeps the payments in dollar (the country doesn't have local currency), while demonstrating their insatisfaction with the digital currency and the low value of pensions paid to retired citizens by the government.
But of course, I think this protest is following a political agenda from the establishment which isn't confortable with the change in the financial system. The statement from supreme court of justice's member presented in OP gives a good clue about it. It really doesn't make much sense to say no to Bitcoin since no one is being forced to adopt it.

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The man below was selling badanas during the protest. Since the main complaint of the protest was poor pensions, lack of decent income for veterans and pensioners, I suppose he didn't profit a lot... Or is there anyone sponsoring protests like this to uneducate the population regards bitcoin?

Why are you quoting the OP everything, just quote the part you need to comment on and it's better than quoting the whole thing.

Two reasons I can take from your post are:
1. Lack of information or knowledge about bitcoin among the public.
2. Bitcoin price volatility

The two plausible reasons above are the things that determine why some people refuse and protest. I can't find any source as a reason to claim that the government of El Salvador has forced its people to use bitcoin as a legal tender. Everyone can still choose their preferred means of payment including USD or whatever they use all the time. Stompix has explained well how they should get financial freedom including whether or not people agree to use bitcoin even though it is currently legalized by the government.

Abuse can occur with any currency including bitcoin. The government can control abuse by implementing a KYC system. But in the end the people of El Salvador can choose what currency they like. Bitcoin have never forced them to be used as currency. The government can only offer the best solution for a new payment system with bitcoin and the rest of society can decide. Everything takes time and the process of adaptation.

I would say it's a result of propaganda! Old people believe that Bitcoin is used for illegal activities, and now probably these old people think that allowing Bitcoin to be a legal tender will draw people from criminal circles! So now these old people are just protesting against new regulations because they don't see any benefits for them directly! They don't understand crypto, they want something in their wallets! And can we blame them?! It's something new that they don't understand, maybe they feel like left behind again, and they are protesting... as the last chance to change something for them!

the people that are protesting against bitcoin and they still believe that it is used for money laundering that they should have an audit on their income and belonging, because the only people who would go against it have some kind of profit of some transactions going unnoticed, because will transaction being on the blockchain people can see what money goes to whom and that makes any big transaction to be seen and inspected,

The protests are growing in support.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E9-k9z6WQAgiAD9?format=jpg&name=900x900

That is a DEPRESSING picture. But OP, you’re wrong. They are NOT “protesting against Bitcoin”, they’re protesting against the laws that FORCE them to accept Bitcoin. I already said it in another thread that accepting Bitcoin legal tender is OK, but forcing the people to accept it without giving them the right to say “NO” will be a problem. El Salvador should let Bitcoin be used in its own merit.

They didn't see the effect by its usage to there people and implementing it as mandatory option is totally a bad  thing to those people who didn't know about new tech the same like that, old people for sure cannot take the risk and imagine on what will happen to them if they see their money melting due to market bad behavior so government needs to revise the implementation and don't force their citizen to use bitcoin make them decide its either they want or not since once bitcoin circulates successfully in the country for sure those who are not into bitcoins will get interest to try if they see their neighbors earning a lot of money for using bitcoins.

Hasn't El Salvador already made Bitcoin legal tender? Because I've heard that they did it long time ago. And it is not surprising to see that there are Bitcoin antagonists. It looks like their number will never go down to zero. I wonder if Bitcoin price wasn't too volatile, would they still oppose it? Because whoever I see as a Bitcoin antagonist says that the volatility is the biggest factor for not makin it legal tender.

The problem with some people is that they never take their time to learn about something before they start making their comments. All they do is just to create assumptions about the market, which is totally wrong. I have met people who think that bitcoin is bad and by the time I ask them a few questions I come to realize that they have not done any research to really understand bitcoin, rather they are saying that based on what they were told, which is totally wrong. They are meant to take their time and research about it to verify that what they are told is true.

So, the problem with most of these people is just ignorance.Although I am not trying to say that everyone must like bitcoin, but before they criticize or do anything, they should know what they are criticizing.

It has been approved by Congress and made a bill already. But the problem is that the government is somewhat forcing the people to use Bitcoin which makes people out in rallying. They have the rights as well and this is actually hasn't be made like that.
Yeah, I don't tend to agree with such a thing as it is just likes killing our freedom to choose, in fact, the use of Bitcoin is only optional.

El Salvador like all countries has a side of people who oppose the government that is the reason for the anti-bitcoin protests.
If we saw it as if the Bitcoin law of El Salvador was being enforced in our countries, we would also see movements like these.
It is sad and unfortunately because it is the future of young people that are at stake, it is the first thing that comes to mind because we know that bitcoin represents the solution to many liquidity problems, it can also minimize corruption where it is implemented.

New technologies will always face opposition. I will tell you one story. When one of the companies import a computer for the first time in India (if I remember correctly, that was in the late 80s), the communist party workers destroyed the company office in protest. They claimed that computers will result in unemployment. Three decades have passed, and the daughter of the sole remaining communist party chief minister is now the head of an IT company. Same will happen in El Salvador. Those who oppose Bitcoin today will be the biggest proponents of it tomorrow.

What are they gonna do? Raise their canes and rally in the streets with their crutches? These people don't know what they're talking about, the money laundering angle has been used already but they still use that card? It's like bitcoin started the business of laundering money. Just so you know people who still believes that bitcoin can be used for laundering money, there's an advancement in cyber crime prevention where they can track the suspicious transactions and bitcoin makes their job much more easier.

In my opinion, the introduction of bitcoin as the national currency of El Salvador will begin only this month. The population does not yet have any experience in using bitcoin as a national currency. However, everything new is often not accepted by people, especially when it comes to finances and people of retirement age. This category of people wants peace of mind, not experimentation and the dedication of a significant amount of their time in order to figure out how to use this new financial phenomenon for them. This is still the first impression of people. Let's see what will happen next. The whole world is watching this experiment of the El Salvadorian authorities.

I don't agree with that. In every country in the world they force us to accept Fiat, they force us to pay taxes with Fiat, so for a country to do the same with Bitcoin seems great to me.

And the photo you put is a laugh, it is not the first one I see of "massive" protests and there's hardly a soul.

It doesn’t mean that if what the state/government is forcing you to use is Bitcoin, it’s an automatic “OK” decision. The point was no state should force Bitcoin on ANYONE, but let the people use it for its merits.

Did I say “massive” protests? I said it was growing. Pictures shown were from different parts of El Salvador.

We know that the value of Bitcoin will get higher and higher. But some old people still don't understand.
They have not been exposed to Bitcoin, and they still choose fiat currency in their hearts.

No that's not true bitcoin will not go higher and higher as we also need to consider the volatility that's why many freakin out when bitcoin goes dump. And its hard for old people to understand the technology since not everyone have high tolerance for losing a value for their hold money on their wallets so I agree with others that they should not force to use this as many citizen doesn't really understand bitcoin maybe they should set certain timeline regarding and do frequent informational guide so that there citizens will understand the new currencies accepted on  their country.

Yes but my point was that no state should force Fiat on anyone either, that's what they do and I don't see many people complaining about it. I don't see people using the Fiat for its "merits" either, apart from the fact that this is what is accepted as payment.


No, you didn't.

Besides, it seems to me that protests will be closely linked to the price. If it goes up a lot, no one will protest, as soon as there is a drop, there will probably be protests again. It shouldn't be like that, and Bitcoin should be valued for its intrinsic properties but it seems to me that's what's going to happen.

I'm sure this is another political motivated movement and the opposition is on the back of it, imagine that the government supports the most controversial but most favorable currency in the world, but they are still protesting and calling this as scam ?
These retiree know nothing about the situation and they are just being lured to make those comment to back up oppositions stand and make the administration looks stupid.

It's kind of funny that this narrative can still be maintained so successfully. After all, it has been shown in recent years that Bitcoin is rather disadvantageous for money laundering. Cash is much better for that. Even a former senior FBI official said in an interview that Bitcoin is rather a blessing for law enforcement agencies in this matter.

Here is also an interesting article about it:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/haileylennon/2021/01/19/the-false-narrative-of-bitcoins-role-in-illicit-activity/

I am sure that those who protest for this reason have no idea that the main money laundering has occurred with fiat money, I think that people's ignorance has no cavity here, mainly this is because a lot of financial education is needed.

People mainly do not trust the volatility of BTC, Besides that there is a great campaign against BTC, both in the news and in the opposition of the government, all this helps that people do not understand the social problem very well, which, all it gets stuck for me for that reason.
When a person does not understand a technology, it is normal for them to lean towards the bad, which is shown by the news, actually when watching CNN in Spanish they do not recommend investing in BTC in their programs due to high volatility.

Dear stompix
I don't know who you are, but you made a good point of the other perspective to view Bitcoin as freedom and those retirees against Bitcoin. Actually I feel sorry for those pensioners due to health issue and for the disabilities, they're a hero and really motivating to all people. But, El Salvador accept it as second legal tender and didn't force their citizen to use it, so they feel free to choose. The article isn't wrong, but I'm wrong to give a opinion about this protest.

As for the ten years speculation of Bitcoin, I no have any idea to speculate it because we don't know how high the demand with Bitcoin in the future.

Dear The Pharmacist

First, sorry for being blindly pro-bitcoin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5357032.msg57832673#msg57832673) because I really love Bitcoin and hate Banks or Fiat even I still use it.
Yeah the little money aspect is a main problem of their citizen protest, they need to use their money to buy food for daily life and don't have more money to buy Bitcoin. Scalability is also the problem because they forced to buy more than they want, so it will make the fees more cheaper per average. I admit I was wrong and will learn to view on other perspective as well.

---

Dear other users thank you for your opinions.

If the point of the protests are "this is criminal stuff and we do not want it" then I would understand however they made it very clear that they are also very interested in the fact that bitcoin is volatile, if the point is criminal activity then the point of being volatile should be not a problem at all, why would you care if the money criminals use is volatile at all?

They would not say that if it was all about criminal activities. Don't get me wrong I am not saying that they are not caring about that part, all I am saying that if they are saying bad things about the volatility of bitcoin price then it means they must be caring about something more than that and they care about their own money moving up and down as well.

This is why I am asking if they care about volatility, why not just ignore it completely? It is an option and not a forced thing, so volatility shouldn't be cause for protests. Weird situation in and out.

Volatility is not essentially a bad thing. When you are using Bitcoin to make payments or for remittance, if you are using a payment processor then the coins will be immediately converted to fiat currency. Neither the seller, nor the buyer need to worry about the volatility here. And mainstream media has never presented a honest picture of Bitcoin in front of the ordinary people. They would like us to believe that it is the currency of drug dealers and pedophiles, even when they don't have any proof to back it up.

Then do you agree with me when I said that El Salvador’s Bitcoin Legal Tender Law should NOT force users to accept Bitcoin? Because you posted something that questioned why those people were protesting.


Then there will be protests every week? Hahaha.

Someone needs to do an investigation into these protests. Who is provoking the people in El Salvador? There is a lot of FUD and fake news being circulated and it seems to be pretty organized. No one is forcing ordinary people to use BTC. It is their choice whether they want to use cryptocurrency or not. Given this, I don't see any point in protesting against the move. The rollout hasn't yet begun, as the Bitcoin law is effective only from 7th September. And according to rumors, Malta and Panama are next in line.

We don't know what's the real situation happening as we are not living on that country but if their citizen is not really force to use bitcoin then provably this is just a propaganda, maybe this is made by their political enemy so that they can create fud also have something to blame with current administration. For sure we will see like this in future but what good thing is they are starting to use bitcoin and its better to ignore the current news since it will not give any good contribution to bitcoins.

The question arises, how then will all this work?
First, question number
1: bitcoin. How will citizens receive it - after receiving a salary, will they be exchanged for bitcoin?
2. And do they apply - make a payment in bitcoin, which automatically turns into fiat?
If both answers are yes, then the question is: why such a complicated process? If we have fiat at the entrance and fiat at the exit? And on top of that, there is a time between them, during which the stored bitcoin with a high probability will lose its value, which will lead to the loss of such a holder in the wallet!

I just can't understand the meaning or logic of accepting cryptocurrency as a means of payment in order to get out of a difficult economic situation? This is not an option, this is playing to the public and deceiving people! If you are not right - please, bring your thought in a well-reasoned way?

The people who protest and stay against adoption in their country are totally normal. Whenever any adoption happens there will be some people standing against the adoption and El Salvador is one example. Also, there are many organizations that take benefit from the old corrupted and traditional system and bitcoin will not allow them to abuse the economic system and get an advantage so they will make people protest and make a negative atmosphere there. In my own idea, the protest is completely normal and nothing surprising.
 

Man, be realistic ... after all it is absolutely not important what these people are protesting against, this is just a formality. Those who have hired these people have a single goal - to create a negative media background around Bitcoin. At least being a resident of the same corrupt country as El Salvador, I have something to compare with ... when every four years during elections, officials put pressure on people working in the budgetary sectors of the economy, when all the protests are paid from the state funds. Therefore, for me this news is fiction (knowing that such a protest can only cost a few thousand dollars).

I think the only way for them to accept BTC is when the news shows that BTC has risen in price, when you have new highs people will say: "If I had had BTC then I would have a lot more money right now" I think when a Such an event is when they will reconsider, it is normal for many to have doubts, but when they see that they can use it as a savings tool that will generate more per year than the interest offered in a bank, they will accept it, it is logical, when it comes to filling your pocket will not seem like a bad idea to anyone.

El Salvador citizens should be educated on bitcoin first and how it will be functional to the people and how to use it before it will be declare as a legal tender. I really understand the sentiments of the retirees as they have no enough knowledge on bitcoin so they stick on what they believe about its negative impressions. But if given chances to be well educated, i think they will totally change their stand on bitcoin and will accept bitcoin  as part of their financial system.

The change should not be so quick as people are still learning to adopt it. The process will take time for sure particularly with those aged people and retirees so the government should learn how to guide them too.

Not completely. No government should force users to accept Bitcoin, or Euros or USD or any kind of fiat. But yeah, you've got a point there.

for retirees they seem to be old enough to invest again, so there is no more time. when the bitcoin price is at its peak, of course they will scream when they use their pension money, so it seems hard to make money from crypto, it's different when it is used as a means of payment. on the other hand this will be beneficial for young people, because with the government legalizing it, then they will be more free to make a lot of money

No offense - you know poorly the psychology of people and society :) They always remember the worst - this is a fact. There is even an anecdote, a little vulgar, but I will cite it to understand how society thinks (please do not be offended by the content - this is just an anecdote):

An old Scotsman sits in a pub, sits, sips a beer, smokes a pipe.
He sat, sat and said: - This mill, I built myself, alone ... collected stones, mixed mortar and built ... but for some reason no one calls me McFlaren, the mill builder.
He sat there, took a sip of beer, took a drag.
- This garden, which now has the largest harvests of fruits and berries, I planted myself, alone ... everyone rejoices and gathers fruits. But somehow no one calls me McFlaren the gardener.
He sat there, took a sip of beer, took a drag.
- This bridge, I built myself, alone, cut down trees, sanded and made a bridge, now cars drive on it, people walk. But somehow no one calls me McFlaren the bridge builder.
He sat there, took a sip of beer, took a drag.
- But it was worthwhile to fuck this unfortunate sheep once ...

I liked the anecdote but you need to explain it further as many will be looking at this and think that it is a bloody Christopher Nolan movie script  :D.
psychology of people and society is that they always remember the worst but there are many who create a topic in speculation who never owned anything substantial and talks about how the market correction in cryptocurrency burned them as if the rest of the financial market levitates without any correction.

---

When it comes to the protest i stand by the protesters because that is not how a bloody government implements rules. You need to give everyone the opportunity and listen to every parties and clear their doubts and then implement it in multiple phases rather than rushing everything and confusing the general public who have no idea about Bitcoin.
 

I'm not sure why they are protesting this?

They're essentially getting a free injection of capital because of BTC. If any other country was getting citizenship requests that are backed by millions of dollars in pledged investment to my home country I'd accept them in a heartbeat.

Just some archaic thinking. Let it sit for a while and they'll change their minds for sure.

Why did the protest comes month after the acceptance ? why not protest when this was being announced to be legalizing back time?
is this another political motivation ? though i don't really like the president  and even His way of governing yet this is favoring the crypto market so i assume that people in that region will benefits it all.
it is obvious that there is some other power that behind this protest and I'm sure this is about politics .

People don't adapt to change so easily, I guess this protesters are not yet fully understand how the crypto space operates and what benefits they can actually enjoy by using it, perhaps there should more awareness on this fir better understanding to enable easy acceptance.

Some retirees oppose Bitcoin because they do not really understand it and do not know the economic benefits and importance of Bitcoin. They may be more worried that Bitcoin is an unstable investment, and economic funds will be lost when the price fluctuates and falls.
Over time, when they understand the importance of bitcoin and how to use it, they will gradually accept and own it.

When a person comes into contact with a new thing, he will understand the history of the thing.
Retirees may believe some negative news about Bitcoin.
The elderly are relatively weak in accepting new things.
May not want to accept new things.

Tomorrow is the day! Peaceful protests are always OK, people have a right to express themselves, but this will happen anyway! The government signed it and it's a done deal! It will be interesting to see how will this work in reality, this will be an example for other countries, and in case everything is fine, which I hope it will be, we will see other countries following this model!

 

Elderly people just want status quo in their life. So they are not in favor of new innovations, unless they are backed up by the government. In case of pension funds and all, the government gives the guarantee. But in case of cryptocurrency that is not the case. If the exchange rates go down and the user needs to sell the coins, then there is no option other than booking losses. For the pensioners, this is not something they are used to. Most of their funds are in the form of bank deposits and treasury notes, which provide regular monthly payments.

Not when in investment world. I understand that volatility for your fiat could be a bad thing (which we have seen volatility still happen in few nations) but when you are investing into something volatility is not a bad thing. These people are protesting something that has gone up 5x in a year, if they knew what volatility means then they would understand that legal tender being so volatile could bring them so much money.

It is basically El Salvador having a money that is pegged to USD and going up each time USD loses value. How could you not see that, almost all third world nations have a big economical problem and their fiat drops while bitcoin goes up, which means bitcoins volatility could actually be the answer to all problems they are facing.

I'm glad I was understood, thanks! :)
About market adjustments and other "incomprehensible words": these words are absolutely incomprehensible for a layman or a pensioner. For 99% so sure. And here, as expected, fraudsters, and "experts", and other people who are not very clean on their hands, will appear who, by lying, distorting information, or simply manipulating, will simply "pull" bitcoins out of not very knowledgeable people, which as a result, it will create a lot of negativity both to the crypt and to the situation as a whole. Or, on the contrary, they will be sold at an unrealistic price ... In a word, an unprepared audience is an ideal field for fraud

They don't have a national currency in El Salvador. The Salvadoran Colon was withdrawn in 2001 and after that the US Dollar is being used as the national currency. The purchasing power of US Dollar has been only moderately declining for the last two decades, and therefore those who use this currency might not have realized that they are losing their wealth with USD. But that has changed drastically over the last couple of years. As a result of stimulus measures and other government initiatives, the USD is rapidly losing it's purchasing power.

The M1 money supply now stands at $20 trillion, compared to the level of $4 trillion two years ago. That is a massive 400% increase. Only fools would believe that this will not have an impact on the purchasing power of the United States Dollar.

I believe what the El Salvador President is saying is that, since Bitcoin is now a legal tender in the country, Businesses do not have the right to reject it IF IT IS PRESENTED AS A PAYMENT. We understand that some businesses might want to reject it when it is used as a means of payment and we know some citizens will still continue to use the local currency if they are in possession of them but Businesses don't have to reject the collection of Bitcoin When it is presented for payment because businesses in other countries will definitely accept whatever is termed the legal Tender in that country.

According to what I read on the news, legal tender in countries like El Salvador is exactly that, people do not have the right to reject it, but legal tender in some countries like US is not like that, you still have the option to accept it or not but it is a legal form of payment.


But if El Salvador makes it a legal tender, it is enforced by law just as you implied unlike some other countries, the reason to have just make it a legal means of payment in such country instead.

if the state has legalized bitcoin, then private companies must be able to obey it, or it will be against the law, and of course there will be consequences if you violate the law. and it looks like trying to follow in the footsteps of elsalvador, and if this is done by more countries, then we are lucky people because we have known bitcoin from the beginning before many people know about it, and that means big profits we can get

It seems to me that something quite different was meant ... the government of El Salvador does not infringe upon the rights of citizens regarding the methods of payment for goods and services, but only added one more to the existing methods of payment. Correct me if I am wrong or if I misunderstood you.

Well, I kind of get their point though. If I were a retiree in El Salvador, I’d probably join the protest. There’s a saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. In my own opinion the best thing son or daughter or any younger person can do for their parents or the elderly in El Salvador is to counsel them to accept half of their pay as Fiat and half as BTC. It’s a win-win.

It makes sense if a huge protest had other bigger players supporting it to make it look like it is worthy of a cause. Do not get me wrong I am not saying that they would even have to pay for everyone to go out, they do not have to, if they can pay for a certain group and get them to do good enough PR then they could get better results. Look at the anti-vaxx movement way before covid even started, there were people who were against vaccination even before covid started and now there are so many of them dying because of it, but not all of them got paid for it.

There were few big names that got paid for it and eventually they repeated what they said multiple times, plus pay few scientists to say something against the vaccination process and you will get some that will eventually yield and take your money to say "serum version could work too" at worst. So, it is not always about the whole group being backed, just few big names and few goons could lead to thousands following them for free.

in the thread it is very clear that they are retirees which means they are parents and it would be difficult to say that they have to start adapting to this, at least it needs some detailed explanations but on the other hand it is easy for them to understand so they understand and at least they are willing to accept new things.
but I don't think this will have a big impact and it just takes time to finish this because if everyone feels the effects of bitcoin even these retirees will voluntarily accept bitcoin as a good adoption.

A very well put together piece of research. It seems like Bitcoin as an official country currency is a bit gimmicky and the young populist leader of El Salvador is trying to gain favor, however it seems to have backfired. I don't think it is a very rich country and a study from 2017 said only 33.8% of the country accessed the internet - it will have grown since then for sure, but that's still low for such a recent year. Beyond the younger generation who are likely to apply for the free money and use it, the rest of the country do not benefit from it at all. The leader might find himself thrown out of office when the next election comes around, if he hasn't already turned it into an authoritarian dictatorship by then.

It's such a poor way to behave! Not knowing, you know that you don't know and instead of studying to know, you kick against as if that would solve the problem. Perhaps, when the President did say must, I never focused my attention on what that singular word could mean but if there is something I've known about humans, is that, we could be very defiant to unjust rules and policies. We don't enjoy being put under a must this or must that when we feel its got everything to do with our freewill.

El-Salvador's president making it a must was the only mistake in stating that policy. It should have rather been a more transition path to acceptance as, not all forks would be smart to catch up in one glance. Everyone gets to acknowledge bitcoin and cryptos in due time with there interaction with the system and people in the system. This should be the case to a more crypto acceptance.

It is funny that the people in El Salvador are protesting against the move, claiming that Bitcoin is volatile. But at the same time, they are perfectly fine with using the US Dollar (the legal tender there since 2001), despite the fact that it's purchasing power goes down with every passing year. Are these people unaware of the fact that Bitcoin's exchange rate (w.r.t US Dollar) has gone up by 50 million times ever since 2009? Or we can say that the value of USD has gone down by 50 million times during the last 12 years.

You are right, but the El Salvadorian government clarified this recently, I created a thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5358830.new#new) not quite long about this. The payment can be in Bitcoin while the receiver receive fiat. So, I have changed my thinking about this, I do not see El Salvadorian government mandating their citizens to accept Bitcoin, El Salvadorian can decide either to accept Bitcoin or dollar while the payment can be in Bitcoin.

they only see the whole time because even if what you say is true, they are not aware of the real data and facts.
they only see from the point of view of the unpredictable rise and fall of btc and sometimes it rises and falls suddenly (eg yesterday).
This is different from the case of the US dollar exchange rate, which even though it experienced more declines in the data, it decreased little by little every year and because of the gradual decline, they did not feel any impact, but they did not realize that they did it periodically and repeatedly. will get bigger and more dangerous.

The advantage for US Dollar is that it is the reserve and trade currency of the world. Even if the purchasing power of the US Dollar goes down, no one is going to notice it. If that happens, people will just say that the price of gold, crude oil.etc went up, rather than saying that the value of USD has gone down. Even with respect to other fiat currencies this will happen. In reality, the exchange rates for certain currencies such as CHF has gone up in recent times. But ordinary people are unaware of the reason. They fail to see that the exchange rate went up, because the purchasing power of USD declined. On the other hand they assume that the rates went up because the CHF purchasing power increased and this is not true.

Thats the only catch, people can simply use cryptocurrency to by pass the process of getting tax by investing money in the blockchain. El Salvador government can simply coordinate with their local crypto exchange to ask KYC so it can monitor the people who buys huge amount of crypto.

Choosing Bitcoin as a reserve for the elderly is a bold move. Most of the elderly are not knowledgeable about Bitcoin so it is obvious that they oppose the policies of the president of El Salvador and I consider it a normal reaction. I believe Bitcoin will go up in the long term and people have more confidence in the bold move of their president.

El Salvador retirees don't have to vote for bitcoin, president Bukele said in a tweet that for citizens concerned about their retirement funds, they can continue to choose to make transactions in US dollars as usual, using bitcoin not mandatory in the country if they have any doubts about bitcoin.

Actually Bitcoin cannot be accepted by them because they do not understand financial literacy well.  They don't realize that the fiat they've always believed in is actually betraying them.  There are three functions of money, as a means of payment, as a means of speculation and as a store of value.  Are they aware that the current fiat cannot fulfill the third function properly.  If at the time of the gold standard, fiat was stable, then at this time they are less informed that the money they currently hold does not have a clear underlying asset.  Just a guarantee from the central bank.  Has the central bank really worked well so far?  we already know how this inflation was created by them, so they dare to remove the gold standard from the financial system.  Initially god money became government money.  Bitcoin and crypto are the latest innovations that make government money experience a transition period. They should realize that change is not always bad, sometimes there are improvements that are outdated.

it's a bit of an unkind connotation but it's very true, it's like the US dollar is untouched by anything and no one dares to touch it.
and I just realized when you said that and the fact is that, instead of seeing the US dollar increase or decrease, they are more interested in looking at other aspects such as gold, oil etc.
but the reason for the global currency I think is very suitable because it is for this reason that almost all countries seem to be oriented there and without realizing the reasons that you have stated are actually rooted from here

Actually, the reason El Salvador retirees reject Bitcoin is because they lack education about Bitcoin. We do have to understand that old people have
a harder time accepting something new, so they protest something they don't understand. The government of El Salvador should carry out a more
intensive education program about Bitcoin to the residents of El Salvador, especially the elderly population. Maybe the solution is that El Salvador
retirees can choose to use fiat if they don't trust Bitcoin. I agree with you, there is no compulsion from the government of El Salvador to use Bitcoin.

El Salvador retirees have all the right to protest if they think they will find it hard to understand and use bitcoin as a currency. But i don't think they should be bothered by that since their own fiat is not yet eliminated and they can still use it as much as they can. Maybe its just a misinformation.

While most of the elderly have found it hard to use bitcoin but most of the millenials and even those in their mid age are definitely enjoying using bitcoin because as far as i know, some are already into bitcoin investments even before bitcoin has become a legal tender.

They can continue to protest if they still would like but El Salvador has already made Bitcoin legal tender. From now on, there will be nothing changing. I understand that people are afraid of the possibility that Bitcoin can lose its value at a very high rate time to time. An example of it happened recently. But I assume that El Salvador is going to be prepared against such situations. Otherwise, this is a very risky move for them. There is no guarantee that Bitcoin price will stay at these levels in the worst case.

If the retirees use Bitcoin just to make the payments, then it should not be the case. No one is asking them to invest in Bitcoin or to use Bitcoin as a store of value. Let them use USD for these purposes. It is an irony actually. The US Dollar is at it's weakest state it ever was, and still people want to use it. This shows the level of brainwashing and misunderstanding of the financial realities. US Dollar may be the world's reserve currency, but the rate at which the purchasing power is going down, everyone should be cautious while dealing in it.

Dude, you need to pay attention to these people's nicknames, it's retirees and their pension life is what keeps them safe all the way to the next one, and at the time of most need of rest and possible comfort, the new policy of the president of El Salvador abolished their wish, no knowledge will not be their fault, this is a very new update and there is not much time left in their life for these updates, asking them to take extra lessons is unreasonable. Bold move but there are many people who do not have enough time to sacrifice, need to think more about policies and leniency for retirees

El Salvador already must have made a profit by buying more from the drop, on the next increase they are going to be so much in profit as a nation they will be doing a lot better. This is just the start in the future they will be even better. I do not care what 60+ year olds are saying about bitcoin, you do not have to expect them to understand it, and the people behind them are basically ruining the nation and that is why they want that bitcoin law to be withdrawn because they would be hurting financially if this continues, which it will and they will lose.

Crypto is not for the retirees, it is for people who imagine a better retirement for themselves in the future, it is not even for me, it is for younger kids, people who are in college right now, thanks to bitcoin they will be able to live a life that is a lot more just and fair financially.

There are very good things that Bitcoin has brought to El Salvador, in fact the wallet called Chivo Wallet, has many benefits, people can make BTC transactions from goat wallet to goat wallet with a value of Fee = 0, when it is done To another wallet other than Chivo Wallet they only pay the corresponding fee, it is really an advantage that they have, of course the conditions are under government regulations that so far look very good, anyway it is an advantage to be able to make the transactions .

Chivo wallet was taken offline a couple of days back, in order to resolve some technical issues. Everything was restored in a few hours. But the rollout has proceeded without major issues. And regarding wallet transactions, there are certain advantages when they take them off the chain. Direct transactions using the Blockchain takes some time to confirm, and the fee will be higher. However, when they do internal transactions in Chivo, the confirmations are almost instant and the fee levels are low.

El Salvador retirees don't have much time in their lives. It is natural that they are more comfortable with the old policies and resist  the new
rules imposed by the El Salvador government. Retirees don't care about new things, maybe they don't have the motivation to accept new things
in their lives. The most important thing in their lives is that they can live the rest of their lives in peace, therefore the government of El Salvador is
wise enough not to eliminate fiat, and still gives El Salvador residents the choice of using fiat or Bitcoin. The government of El Salvador should
think about the progress of its country, so forced to take a bold decision by making Bitcoin a legal tender. Even though in the end not all
El Salvadorans supported it, I was among those who supported what the El Salvador government did.

I don't think this is how it was intended to go...

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/17/el-salvador-bitcoin-law-farce/

https://foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/BITCOIN-ELSALVADOR-GettyImages-1235277788-1.png?resize=1000,667&quality=90

I don't understand the point in posting such one-sided articles to this forum. I read the article and it was completely biased and devoid of truth. The author claims that the "currency crashed". How? I could see an increase in exchange rates from $45,000 to $48,000. Is he referring about any other form of "crash"? Then the author (David Gerard) goes on with his usual argument - Bitcoin has a money laundering problem (when fiat is used for 99.9% of such purposes), Bitcoin has no trust.etc (but he is perfectly fine with Salvadorans trusting a foreign currency, i.e the USD). Haters are going to hate, but nothing can stop the juggernaut.

Yeah I wouldn't put much stock into "the currency crashed" either.
Many of the articles I'm reading have the government going into forced adoption---and that is the big fail.

P.S. no one wants their currency to fluctuate that much in a day, it's a valid concern.

The people of El Salvador launched a protest in the country on September 15th. They believed that Bitcoin harmed their interests and burned a brand new Bitcoin ATM on the same day. They did not understand the mechanism of Bitcoin. They used traditional thinking. It is not difficult to understand that this is a gambling behavior and will seriously interfere with the national economy. In a backward country, most people may not understand cryptocurrency or Bitcoin, but the country recognizes it in a short time. As a legal currency, it is difficult for them to accept and resist. Perhaps Bitcoin still has a long way to go on the road to international circulation in the future.

So the protesters have come up with this idea and they think that they'll win if they break most of the bitcoin ATMs through burning? what an immature attitude of these protesters.

Their government is trying to adopt and help them out by having this. They're not being put in a cage and they're only allowed to use bitcoin. It's just all about understanding it and there's no need to destroy government-owned assets like this bitcoin atm.

Actually the government has found a middle ground here. The customers have an option - they can pay with US Dollars everywhere. But for the shopkeepers, that is not the case. They need to accept payments in Bitcoin. But even then, they can opt for immediate conversion to USD, so the volatility in the exchange rates don't impact them. But for those who were dealing only with physical cash, this can present a problem. Now they need to deal electronically, and need to visit an ATM or bank to withdraw their cash.

most of those retiree knows nothing about the goodness of technology , meaning they can be mislead easily by those people that hates the government meaning they are being fooled by anti government to make necessary action since they (as seniors) are the group that respected by the government and the country so their presence and participation is a big part of any plans of groups.
hope they will be enlighten and understand that this action is for their own welfare , imagine that their retirement benefits will no longer need to be claimed physically because they can  easily received using cryptowallet.

It looks like small portion of the population is against the move. It is the right for them to get what is necessary, as they're in a democratic country. Maybe they're unaware of the technology, but government should take necessary steps to fulfill the specific group of people. This way government can make the adoption without fail, and without affecting different people with different thoughts.

Yes. Bitcoin is volatile. So what? Volatility of Bitcoin is not the topic here. If they think that Bitcoin is too volatile, then they don't need to use it. No one is forcing them to use Bitcoin or convert their savings to cryptocurrency. Personally I don't really care if a few old farts refuse to use Bitcoin. But here the problem is that these old farts will not allow others to use Bitcoin as well. Their demands make no sense. If someone actually wants to invest in BTC, what gives these pensioners the right to oppose that? I am all for FoE. But here it is more like bullying.

From the looks of it the reason why the retirees are going apeshit about the whole bitcoin adoption process and El Salvador Government authorizing bitcoin as a legal tender is the fact that it hasn't been made clear if bitcoin will be an auxiliary payment option that people could use in order to purchase goods and services, or if the use of bitcoin is made compulsory, meaning even the old-timers like them had no choice but to learn a pretty advanced payment method just so they can facilitate their purchases.

I am in favor of doing it as an auxiliary payment option for now, soon enough people themselves will slowly transition into bitcoin when more people are informed of how things work within and beyond the blockchain. Otherwise let the old people have it, we can't blame them for not being tech savvy. Then again I believe the reason why they are protesting against the use of bitcoin in El Salvador is because it hasn't been made clear by their government if bitcoin were to completely replace fiat within their territory which would mean serious issues for these people who we can't expect to learn a new payment method within a day or even a week. If things have been made clear for these guys I'm sure there wouldn't be discussions about this.

Just sounds like people unfamiliar resisting the hassle of learning and I dont blame them but how are they are worse off if they are equally able to continue as they were before.  Nobody will force the pensioners to accept Bitcoin surely.   The biggest deal about BTC being legal tender is that it no longer makes much sense to be blocking it in some tax capture for its appreciation as commodities have been used as basis for currency previously and similarly appreciated.  The fact that a country is using BTC for common exchange should give it far better standing against targeting for tax in any country really and I can see why the IMF objected as the current meta is to only allow populations to exchange tokens which are losing value constantly and have no value outside of politics.

Well.. this has been posted multiple times. There is absolutely no compulsion from the part of the government. For ordinary people, no one is asking them to use Bitcoin, or to convert their savings to cryptocurrency. It is just that they can do it they want to. And given this, I don't think that the protests are justifiable. The opposition just want to oppose the measure, because it was introduced by the president. They are not opposing it out of merit. Anyway, the picture will become clear only after a few months. At this point, it is too early.

I do think that by making BTC legal tender in El Salvador, it provides an alternative payment for the payment of services, products, or debts which are recognized by the government. Though this may spark controversy among the opposition due to the anonymity factor caused in the transaction of BTC, you should really weigh the pros and cons of it.

Another thing, I also do think that this is the case where people are opposed to change as almost all are so accustomed to the 'normal' way of transacting. While the government did categorize it as legal tender, they are no way coercing or compelling the public to transact using BTC. So primarily, it is still under the discretion of these people if they would like to make use of BTC or not.

As much as we may suspect that these protest in El Salvador because of the bitcoin adoption are politically motivated, it is also fair to view from another perspective and say that the protests are also a result of low orientation about the advantages of bitcoin and why their government suddenly decided to give it a go, to the masses.

 If there is or was a proper circulation of information and sensitisation from the government to all age grades in the country, many will see no reason to protest, because they will understand the benefits this adoption has for the country, if they truly love their country.

They had the option to protest peacefully. If they don't like the president, or think that he is too authoritarian, then what prevents these people from voting him out. But in order to do that they need to wait until the next presidential elections. Burning down ATMs and other private/public property is not going to do the trick. And I am not surprised at the opposition. The communists once destroyed computers, claiming that they would take away jobs. That was three decades ago. Now the children of these same communist leaders are working in IT firms.

In my own opinion, I think these retirees are uneducated or misinformed on how Bitcoin works. They just need to be educated that’s all. I even saw on my news feed about some protestors are burning and destroying a Bitcoin ATM. Plus, the president claimed that adopting Bitcoin isn’t mandatory. It’s just their own option if they do so, but making Bitcoin a legal tender is a huge step in the right direction to massively adopt this legendary crypto.

Maybe but I wouldn't be thinking that they're like that. We can understand if they are misunderstood or still don't know what bitcoin is and it is understandable if they're asking. But coming with some brutal actions, they shouldn't act like that.

Yeah, they must be educated and if they're the one startling riots, burning of things, that's going far and it's no longer bearable and tolerable if such actions has been made if they're just protesting and don't understand what bitcoin is.

It's either they are uneducated and that they lack the information to understand how Bitcoin works or they are just literally closed-minded to the fact that Bitcoin will be El Salvador's legal tender, if these protesters are closed-minded, no matter how much knowledge is thrown at them, they won't give any attention about it, which is something we really can't do anymore.

there will always be a reaction for every condition that occurs and it is not far from the pros and cons.
and maybe when they say that the second reason is the right reason in my opinion, because of the lack of information and they don't want to find out related information about bitcoin that makes this happen.
other than that, I think there are other interests that can indeed cloud the atmosphere, for example, there are parties who seek profit by moving the community to oppose the circulation of bitcoin there.
this can happen because until now bitcoin is still a lot of people who hate it and when there is a movement (such as the elavador protesters) they can take advantage of these conditions to their advantage.

yes it happened because of the lack of public knowledge about blockchain technology and payment methods using bitcoin. if this continues to happen, there will be more and more people protesting the bitcoin payment method and eventually the implementation of bitcoin in the country will fail. and of course this incident can affect bitcoin globally.

If someone doesn't have enough knowledge on how to use Bitcoin, then there are two options. Either he can learn more about Bitcoin and get more knowledge, or he can just ignore Bitcoin and solely use the US Dollar. Now asking everyone else to stop using the BTC is going too far. And I am sure that Nayib Bukele knows how to deal with these sort of people. My guess is that all these protests are only going to last for a few months. Once the next bull run starts, the protests are going to vanish and the protestors will pick up some other topic.

Bitcoin is accepted, every business must accept it as a form of payment in El Salvador. But as far as I know that in El Salvador there are some people protesting using BTC as payment and this is increasing day by day. Become so complicated that El Salvador becomes a mess. I think before announcing BTC as a payment method, the government of El Salvador should really provide comprehensive education to all sections of society, young and old, and implement curricula based on Blockchain technology, especially the Bitcoin-based economy.

I wouldn't blame the retirees for protesting Bitcoin, they would be worse off for it.

Maybe the fact that the government isn't actually using Bitcoin but a fiat currency that happens to be pegged to Bitcoin, the currency requiring constant electricity in order to be usable (at least coins don't need electricity to be used) and the government already having a history of corruption makes the dream impractical at best and impossible at worst.

when talking about ignorance, of course, there are two characteristics that can be taken from here, namely the first is that they really want to find out and catch up with the knowledge of those who are already here and the second is that they do not accept and try to use the old system even though it seems to impose their will and do not want to make something new that can advance their lives.
but this is very reasonable, because in everything there will be things that are between pros and cons. and this is the challenge that the government must answer to provide direction to the public against the policies implemented.

Im not sure how the retirees lose from more then 1 form of legal tender, its not like coins were outlawed people can keep using cash like most countries.    Coins do have a cost not just in making of them but also handling costs are ongoing in an economy and banks will charge most businesses for this service.   Paper money literally wears out and breaks quite easily, dollars in use even digitally definitely have a cost and cost inflation to their use where the value is never 100% true to its original introduction to the country.  The greatest cost of using US dollar is not seen close to its production but in the far ends where it circulates globally, thats part of what drives BTC in its usage as its not produced in any one country alone.

By now it is clear that they are protesting just because they don't understand about Bitcoin. Elderly pensioners are very easy to manipulate, as they always listen to rumors and propaganda without any basis. In this case, they have no reasons to worry about, since the government is only adding one additional option for payment. It is not taking away any of the existing options. But the regime has failed in making the citizens aware of this. If the people really understand what the new law does, then they will have no reason to protest.

For a country, that is not a good thing.

If you rely on a currency that is minted outside your borders, that leaves you vulnerable to foreign interference.

In this situation, Bitcoin merely fulfills the role that the USD had in El Salvador's economy as a way for foreign agents (e.g the US government and Bitcoin Whales respectively) to interfere with its political stability.

Basically, this country has become the Bitch of Bitcoin as it is getting fucked.

Although President Nayib Bukele promised that the measure would benefit the people and save the country nearly $400 million in remittance fees, ensuring more instant and secure transactions. However, a large part of the population including retirees, veterans, pensioners with disabilities, and workers in Salvador are against bitcoin, worried that the government will start paying their pensions in cash. bitcoin in lieu of the US dollar; They worry Bitcoin will facilitate open corruption and the activities of drug, weapon and human traffickers, blackmailers and tax evaders. It will also cause currency chaos, affect people's wages, pensions and savings, damage many micro, small and medium enterprises, affect farming families and affect middle class.

Maybe they even have more idea about it than we do. I mean, they get their pension paid as Bitcoin. Even the retirees haven't missed how volatile Bitcoin can be and accordingly how volatile the value of their pension can be. Pensions used to be paid only in U.S. dollars (as this was El Salvadors currency since they give up their own national currency). While that may not have been optimal for the government to pay in such a hard currency, the retirees knew what value they would receive.

Exactly, as long as bitcoin doesn't stabilize, it is very risky to put the income of people who probably only have the retirement to survive. I think the government should first propose to BTC retirees and not stick it down their throats.

In El Salvador, the pension payments are being made in US Dollar. Payments in Bitcoin are being made only of the recipient specifically ask for it. And those who received their payments in Bitcoin have witnessed a steep jump in their amount that they got. Three weeks back, Bitcoin was trading at $41,000 per coin. Now it is trading at $61,600 per coin, which represents an increase of 50%. On the other hand, USD is currently undergoing massive inflation and those who have their wealth in the form of US Dollar will soon find themselves in trouble.

I think that the citizens who are most against it is because they do not trust the economy that BTC represents, they may have a financial culture where "Safe" is the right thing to do, that is, they trust stable things, where there is no volatility, they They see more disadvantages than advantages in BTC, they do not see the possibility that if they have an investment in USD it can increase when BTC rises, they think that their money will be devalued, it is understandable. The government must take training measures and financial culture of BTC, so that people do not stand against the only tool that will make them financially free and leave a traditional economic system where debt is the main denominator, I think it is a question of time while people enlighten themselves.