Bitcoin Forum

Apologies if this offends anyone here, I didn't mean it to, but we must really tell ourselves the hard truths and have critical forwarding thoughts that will see our yellow coin move forward even as we progress in adoption and growth. Therefore we must really take a look at what happened with El-Salvador and its btc experiment. Are you ready, alright lets have a conversation; here is my findings based on research and my own POV.

When El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021, it sparked global headlines and global questions. The idea was both awesome and controversial, depending on which side of the brainwashing you stand: Use btc alongside the U.S. dollar to deliver financial inclusion, boost remittances, and modernize an economy.

But the reality turned out to be messy later on not gonna lie. Roughly 92% of Salvadorans were not using Bitcoin for transactions, and only about 1.3% of remittances passed through BTC wallets.

Many businesses, despite a law requiring them to accept btc, quietly preferred USD, for speed, simplicity, and certainty.

Among the biggest shocks that discouraged a lot Salvadorans and destroyed trust was: BTC’s extreme volatility. When money drops 30% in days, it stops being a reliable store of value. When payments slow and systems crash, it fails as a medium of exchange.

Eventually, by early 2025, El Salvador had to reverse course, making Bitcoin acceptance optional and ending its use for taxes.

Questions I had to ask myself and ask us:

Does this mean btc can’t become money, or that the world just wasn’t ready?

Is the fault in btc, or the timing, infrastructure, and policy execution?

If we reused this experiment with better tech maybe 'Lightning', can btc shine as both value store and payments medium?

For me, I still very much appreciate El-Salvador idea and the courage to execute it, but then adoption isn't a day journey and can be very hard. Also, money isn’t just tech, it is also trust.

You have brought up some realistic points, so the example you gave of El Salvador in terms of Bitcoin, its approval and universal acceptance in all areas is really commendable. I will try to answer your last 3 questions based on what I think.

Actually, who will use Bitcoin and how will it be used is a purely personal matter. There are many advantages to using Bitcoin in any way. But if you want to see it as a replacement for money, then it will not be possible to just make transactions between one or two people. Rather, the mentality of everyone in this huge community or country should be developed in that way. And along with this, technological development should be taken forward. In this topic, some places or countries (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5548042.msg65524737#msg65524737) have been discussed where transactions can be made using Bitcoin freely. However, even those institutions that still accept Bitcoin do not primarily consider it as a replacement for money. They primarily hold Bitcoin payments and as invest in it to make profit.

There is nothing wrong with Bitcoin. Bitcoin has made its own way. How people will accept it is entirely their personal business. Those who are have learned a lot about Bitcoin and are using it in many ways. Some are investing, some are taking advantage of it wherever Bitcoin is accepted. Many institutions and some countries in the world have accepted Bitcoin as a reserve. However, many countries are not showing interest because if Bitcoin comes instead of fiat currency, they will not have control, that is why the government deliberately does not take any steps to implement the country's technology and policies. And if we talk about El Salvador, they suddenly legalized Bitcoin and blockchain-based systems on the people of a country, but they were not so ready at that time, that is why Bitcoin has not been used in all public areas. 


If we want to start using the lightning network in all areas, the government, businesses, and the public will have to move forward together. However, what I think is that most people still see Bitcoin as an investment medium and those who invest correctly with a long-term mentality basically hold Bitcoin as a security for their lives in the future. Now there will be very few people who buy their daily necessities through Bitcoin. If you compare it with gold, no one sells gold to buy what they need to run their lives and families. Similarly, the growth in Bitcoin's valuation is now much higher than gold. That is why it is less likely that Bitcoin will be used as a money replacement.

Have you went to any online store and couldn't afford to use bitcoin for payments, was it illegal in your country, can't you buy and sell in bitcoin, maybe if all these applies to you, then know that the world at large are in need of bitcoin and that is why you could see the way of it's increasing adoption and acceptance across the world, which is now evident on it value.


There's no fault anywhere, people choose to invest or adopt in bitcoin as they pleases and no one forces them to do so, it's an alternative and wasn't made for everyone, but everybody is allowed to use it if the needs be.


We already have the lightning network and this does not stops anything or have to alter on it acceptance and utilities, neither does it affect it values, instead makes more better use case of bitcoin being made available for a faster and quicker transaction on its network.


El-Salvador already conquered their fear, now left for others to do same or keep watching them progress while they are discussing their affairs.

People are creatures of habit, and generally do not like change.
Bitcoin adoption is going to have to be a generational thing, it's not going to happen overnight and you most certainly are not going to 'make' people like it and want to use it.  It's going to take a generation to basically be born into it to finally grasp it, hold it and run with it.  Same thing with the Car .vs. our beloved horse and buggy, etc etc.  kind of the same thing you are seeing now with electric vehicles .vs. gas ones.  It takes time, and, a generation to embrace it.

the first time the internet goes down and they can't get to their money though, that's going to be a bad day.  I can't buy food or medicine for my kid because the hurricane took out the internet and my btc wont work.  That's not a problem with paper cash, and all it's going to take is one or two stories like that to hit the lamestream media and the hatred will spread like wildfire. 

What about places like Africa, Haiti, hell, even large parts of India, where there are many still living in mud huts, and internet is a luxury, how do they participate in situ?

Perhaps the world is not quite ready yet, just like it's not quite ready for electric vehicles yet either due to infrastructure issues.

Aaron

just a small addition to El-Salvador making legal tender - legal tender doesnt mean shops are required to accept legal tender. A shop (in almost all jurisdictions) can decide to accept whatever form of payment and payment mechanism they want legal tender or not. ie. a shop can refuse cash dollars but accept dollar via credit or debit card.

She biggest problem for El-Salvador was the government backed wallet that caused identity theft problems as people wanted to claim the $30 odd dollars for downloading the wallet.

Legal tender only applies to the settlement of debt

In other not to debate on this, there's a thread for El-Salvador bitcoin adoption as a legal tender on this forum at the bitcoin discussion board, a legal tender means the government has approved the acceptance of bitcoin as a medium for buying and selling and can be as well made available in any of the government payments pathways by the people.

Understood. I think the distinction is that just because its legal tender does not force a merchant to price or accept payment in the particular denomination. Legal tender only applies to debt. So if you go into a restaurant and eat food, you have a debt, the when you go to pay they have to accept legal tender. but if you walk into a shop and the sign reads "we only accept $ or Euro then you will not be able to buy something in the shop with bitcoin as there is no debt element yet, even if bitcoin is legal tender

People that want to use BTC will do it.

it's not like BTC is the cure for all the problems it can and is solving - some would still choose to go traditional way, and that's okay.

I will say that El Salvador made some errors in their approach because they violated some of the norms of Bitcoin such as freedom of choice. Instead of mandating people to use Bitcoin, they would have made it an option or at best add some incentives to the use of Bitcoin, this way there will not be so much pressure of people and businesses and people would have willingly gone for 50% Bitcoin and 50% fiat. El Salvador indeed succeeded in holding but failed on the utility aspect and that shows that volatility will continue to be a big problem with Bitcoin.

But they never mandated anyone to use bitcoin ...

I don't think you have offended anyone but have made a realistic view of your thoughts on the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender which could also be running in the minds of bitcoiners.


I believe bitcoin volatility is a big issue for its use as legal tender. If it is used as legal tender, that's money, then it is expected to be transacted daily from one wallet owner to another just like you send fiat out daily but the problem with bitcoin is that it fluctuates uncontrollably. That means it could rise abruptly or decrease in same or lower. That is the issue and I think that was same issue with El Salvador
If government legalize bitcoin, it is means it is not illegal to use it, to hodl or invest in it.


It is not the fault of bitcoin. The real purpose is for it to be a decentralised digital currency not controlled by government or third party. So you can invest in it and preserve it as an asset.

When El Salvador started its journey through Bitcoin, it is natural that the people of their country would be surprised. You should note that when Bitcoin first started its journey, the people of the country were not at all ready to go through Bitcoin, it took a lot of time to explain Bitcoin to both young and old students and teachers. Nayib Bukele has taken all kinds of steps, he has used various techniques for Bitcoin education in educational institutions to explain everyone and make them aware of Bitcoin.
And holding for Bitcoin has been using this Bitcoin as a holding by purchasing one Bitcoin every day to maintain the country's economic balance and to eliminate economic shortages in the future. El Salvador is best known for the most popular holding and acceptance of Bitcoin at the present time.

They rather mandated BTC to be an option for everyone, so, yeah.

 ;D It's the choice of the people.

Bitcoin has never crashed, in fact it has been the most reliable payment system in existence.
It is also not slow when compared to other payment system where "settlement" can take months! in bitcoin settlement takes 10 minutes on average.

You mean medium of exchange (money is both MoE and store of value). Being very volatile is discouraging usage of bitcoin as medium of exchange, even the long term price rise is discouraging because if you know what you have today worth for example $12k in 2021 is going to be worth $120k in 2025, you would be less willing to spend it.

It's a matter of time.
Bitcoin is currently in its adoption phase and because of that it will remain volatile. When it reaches mass adoption, its market would grow big enough that can absorb panic buys and panic sells therefore decreasing its volatility significantly.

No because it would not change anything about the price.

Not only is bitcoin volatility a big issue, but transaction fees and processing speed are also big issues when using bitcoin as a currency.

For cross-border or large transactions, fees and speed will not be an issue. But how inconvenient would it be if we used bitcoin to pay for a cup of coffee, a loaf of bread that only cost $1, but had to pay additional transaction fees? Or sometimes the waiting time to complete the transaction also causes inconvenience in today's fast-paced life. Meanwhile, we won't have to face those troubles if we use fiat and banks.

Bitcoin is not really suitable to be used as a means of payment, everyday currency, but many bitcoin investors do not accept that, although they do not want to use bticoin for that purpose either.

The world just wasn't ready for Bitcoin as digital cash. El Salvador acted too early and failed miserably as a result. With mainstream media labeling Bitcoin the "next Digital Gold", most people will hoard it with the hopes of getting rich in the future. Besides, volatility and scaling issues are still at large. Bitcoin can't be used for micropayments because of the "high market prices" and often congested Blockchain network (which results in high fees). The Lightning Network is not even a viable solution at the moment. It's buggy and utterly-centralized.

At least, El Salvador tried to boost mainstream adoption for Bitcoin. Maybe someday, BTC will be used as a currency. Sometime within the distant future. Bitcoin often comes with its surprises, so anything's possible.

What you think are bad numbers are in fact pretty good numbers. The percentage is above average, more than the % of people using BTC in the whole wowrld.

The dollar and every fiat currency has lost more value. This is not a valid argument.

No, this is not a reflection of any characteristics of Bitcoin. This was a good experiment and it gave valuable feedback to the world. Do you understand that most people use the currency that they use only because it is mandatory and habits? It is not like they think about the currency that they are using or are analyzing it in any way.

A little bit of everything.

LN helps with fast transactions, but the mere question itself is wrong. A technological improvement can't make improve a money's store of value. The issue of the store of value function is independent of LN.

It's this understanding about the rise of bitcoin value in a long term holding that have actually made bitcoin widely treated as a store of value with less uses as medium of exchange in everyday business even among the average bitcoiners they would prefer to use fiat for exchange of goods and services while holding their bitcoin. With the bitcoin total supply being 21 million, as we go further in future people may never want to talk about spending their bitcoin for any products due to what the value might be by then.

Mainstream media is to blame for this. They've spread propaganda that Bitcoin is the next "Digital Gold", when in fact, Bitcoin is both "Digital Gold" and "Digital Cash". Now people only buy Bitcoin to hoard it. Not spend it. Citizens of El Salvador aren't that much into digital payments, so adoption of BTC within the country quickly failed.

The government already made a deal with the IMF, so we could say BTC as legal tender is nothing more than a failed experiment. Why would any other country follow El Salvador's footsteps? Besides the fact that El Salvador took a step back, Bitcoin's volatility and limited transaction capacity remains at large. And with stablecoins in play, no one would want to use Bitcoin as "Digital Cash". At least, El Salvador made history by adopting a decentralized cryptocurrency as legal tender. Maybe things will change for the better in the future?

Don't blame the media, the government because the fault lies mostly with us. It was the early investors, the early adopters, who used bitcoin as a speculative asset from the beginning. We have considered bitcoin as an asset class before the intervention of governments or institutions.

If I remember correctly, after Laszlo made the bitcoin transaction to buy 2 pizzas on 5/22/2010. Bitcoin was listed on Mt.gox, Bitstamp, and Coinbase in 2011 and 2013, and since then it has been considered a commodity, a speculative asset.

Whatever happened in 2021 with El Salvador isn’t proof or indication that bitcoin can never be used as money. However it should also be noted that the world simply wasn’t at that stage. Since not much else was using bitcoin for daily transactions, those in El Salvador won’t either. And for a developing country, they will always prefer USD because it’s what they know.
I believe the policy execution was what went wrong. They forced bitcoin upon the citizens without the citizens fully knowing or understanding what it was making a gap between the people and the citizens. But almost 5 years later, I believe people are a lot more aware now.

Part of the blame lies with the government of El Salvador for implementing the wrong policies, but we cannot deny bitcoin is really not suitable for use as an everyday currency.

People in El Salvador do not use bitcoin not only because of ignorance but also because of its volatility. Or transaction fees and speed are also barriers that make people less interested in Bitcoin. Let's say you buy everyday essentials for just a few dollars or pay small bills. Are you happy to spend extra money to pay an extra $0.50-$1 per transaction (fee)?

El Salvador’s experiment has shown using Bitcoin as a daily currency comes with many problems and is not truly suitable.

They bravely did something, took action and it's a first Bitcoin legal tender experiment ever in Bitcoin history. Let's appreciate their effort for this, and it is truly a milestone in Bitcoin history. The first nation does it has big challenge but it is a foundation for some other nations doing it in the future, learning from El Salvador and making something better than that.

Bitcoin transaction fee in 2025 is much cheaper than previous years or a latest year in 2024. With Bitcoin side chain developments and more technical upgrades, I believe that transaction fee issue will be resolved in the future.

It's important to say that Bitcoin blockchain is a most secure blockchain and if you pay a little bit more fee compares to altcoin blockchain fees, I think it is worthy to spend for security of your transaction, fund and your trade too.
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Bitcoin can become a currency, but it's not the most preferred currency for most people.

Using Bitcoin will not boost profit from the seller and the customer, unlike fiat the government can print more money and they don't find to give discount/additional interest to attract people to think it's cheaper/profitable.

That's why, even though someday many people are familiar with lightning network, I doubt they will use Bitcoin as currency.

What El Salvador did was of course a big risk to their Economy particularly because they were the first country to adopt Bitcoin this way.  But let us all be serious for a moment.  Bitcoin is generally NOT used as a Currency by most of the Bitcoin owners and Bitcoin owners are not too many.  This means if any body expected Bitcoin to become largely used in El Salvador, they were expecting too much.

I did not have this expectation and I was curious to see how the experiment will work.  But one more thing to be expected was that people will immediately exit Bitcoin as soon as it shows any sign of NEGATIVE volatility.  If many of us Bitcoiners STILL struggle to sit still on the Market during bad years or months, I had no expectation for people completely new to Bitcoin to act better than us.

Does this mean Bitcoin has failed.  In my opinion no.

Bitcoin will in my opinion shine exactly when Economy becomes weak.  When Stocks and non safe haven Assets start dropping to the ground day after day, the volatility of Bitcoin will be nothing.  But it will probably and hopefully continue to protect against inflation.

The truth is.  These are all only experiments.  Bitcoin is still a baby when it comes to its experience in the real world.  It still has a lot of tests to go through.  Only time can tell if it can do what it is supposed and expected to do.  Which is not to protect us from volatility but to be a reliable Asset in the face of this evil Fiat.

Is the world not ready, or is bitcoin not ready and not really suitable to be a currency, even though that was its original purpose? Because as you said, bitcoin is quite volatile and scalability is not yet solved. Meanwhile, the criteria for payment methods or currencies used on a daily basis are fast, free and stable. It is clear that with the current state of bitcoin, it is no longer suitable for use as a currency, especially for small daily value payments.

Many blame the government of El Salvador for acting hastily and lacking strategy, planning. But in my opinion, the reason why people in El Salvador are not interested in bitcoin as a payment method is because of bitcoin's problems.

Transaction fees in 2025 are cheaper than in 2024 because there are not many transactions being done on the blockchain. Just think what would happen if BRC20 or RUNE was revived or something similar were created?

The fee problem is only solved sustainably when blocks are expanded but this will affect the security of the network. That's why it's still delayed and doesn't get much consensus from the community.


When you buy 1kg of tomatoes, a loaf of bread or a cup of coffee for just 1-2 dollars, what do you need security or privacy for? Obviously that is not necessary. Instead, paying extra fees for each transaction is a waste.

Right from the its creation, Bitcoin is money and also an asset; it only depends on what you use it for.
I believe the world is not ready based on the percentage of people who hold and use Bitcoin worldwide, despite the government and institutions acknowledgment of it.

BTC technically shines as a medium of payment and store of value. The fault is not BTC; the major problem is some merchants and store owners who accept BTC as payment but don't use the infrastructure that makes it flexible to be accepted as payment, and don't understand how to profit from the volatile aspect of it

In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country to legalize Bitcoin. It was a bold move, to be sure. But for some reason, it has not been widely adopted in El Salvador.

Fiat money has an external existence and has gained people's trust over the years, and it can be used by anyone, from rural to urban areas, at any time. On the other hand, Bitcoin will gain acceptance in any country if it can gain trust.

Moreover, if the internet is easily accessible and spreads to every corner of the world, its transactions will be easier.
However, if El Salvador had initially used Bitcoin on a small scale alongside fiat currency, it would have been somewhat fruitful.

I don't think we can use one country alone to determine it. For this El Salvador situation, I feel like we do not have all the facts to determine why Bitcoin wasn't widely used even after it was made a legal tender. There are other factors to consider why the use of Bitcoin as money was not as popular as people thought it would. One of them is the digital divide in the country. There is a huge gap between the parts of the country that have access to the internet and those that don't. There is also the matter of trust in the government and no adequate regulatory bodies.

With bitcoin, it doesn't need to be forced down the throats of people for it to be used as money. It has to happen organically. People need to see how its good for money instead of just passing a law and making it legal tender overnight.

We need to remember that Bitcoin is still relatively young. If it were a human being, it would still have been a minor. It will take time to get to a level where people can comfortably use it as money. We don't expect these things to change in just 24 hours or to be forced.

It is true that the world is not ready to use bitcoin as a currency yet because it is still quite new compared to traditional payment methods. Changing habits is not easy, especially those that are ingrained in our subconscious like fiat or gold.

But we cannot deny bitcoin itself also has some disadvantages that make it difficult for it to become a popular currency. Its volatility and scalability are real issues because the payment method people need is fast, cheap or even free. It is clear that bitcoin does not meet those criteria yet.

It's not because Bitcoin is too new, but mainly because governments don't want to lose their power and control on financial system in their nations. You can see that Bitcoin blockchain is decentralized and transactions on it are censorship-resistant and also irreversible. If governments accept Bitcoin as currency, they will lose control on their citizen financial flows that goverments never want to face with.

They want to use the blockchain technology after witnessing mass success of Bitcoin, and aim at developing and launching CBDCs, that's it. Bitcoin will be used globally but not as a legal tender currency.

I would say that even if such entities would - push - for BTC - how much of the people would use it more than fiat?

It's not as established as fiat so there would be nothing to fear for them, imo.

If we compare bitcoin with traditional payment methods, fiat currencies or assets like gold then bitcoin is really new and young. It is like a child when compared to fiat and gold.

I somewhat agree with what BALIK said, because look at what is happening in El Salvador. The government legalized bitcoin as a legal tender, and then introduced friendly policies to encourage and promote people to use bitcoin instead of fiat. But you see, 92% of people don't want to use bitcoin as a currency instead of fiat. Obviously, this is not the government's fault.

The El-Salvador kind of experience is what many of other countries should try and be able to learn something from, because they took the risk, to fit bitcoin and never regret on any of their decisions any longer, even when IMF thought that things could go wrong the more for them, they later see the positive results than shame from Bitcoin adoption.

This is true, but currently scalability makes Bitcoin a challenge for fast transactions and the fees can possibly be expensive. So I recall that they have revised that legitimate payments there have several options that can be used. But I am glad they have tried; this can serve as an example for other countries to learn from. They have started, and other countries can understand the issues and reconsider how to implement better policies. At least El Salvador has become a global pioneer; they are bold with the IMF and brave enough to take the risks.

I don't think countries are afraid to adopt bitcoin because of fear of embarrassment. What they care about is how adopting bitcoin as a currency will benefit their economy. Can you list some benefits of using bitcoin as a national currency? Because in my opinion, it will have more negative effects than positive ones.

First, the volatility of bitcoin prices makes it difficult to price goods, making it difficult for people to spend and save money. Or to put it bluntly, volatility will cause stagnation and chaos in the economy. Meanwhile, using bitcoin as currency will make the government lose its ability to regulate the economy and economic collapse is inevitable.

Using decentralized currency will bring many disadvantages to the national economy, it is not as good as we imagine.

Whatever people say, I take this experience of El Salvador positively. And I think other countries should try from this experience. Every country should use the opportunity to learn something from the practical experience that El Salvador has gained through various adverse conditions. Because they took the risk to fit Bitcoin into their country's economy and they will never regret any of their decisions. Some people regret not buying when Bitcoin was worth one dollar, and some people still regret the price drop and in the future there will be people who will regret when the price is worth a million. The IMF thought that due to their pressure, they might change their decision and regret but nothing happened as expected by the IMF and they will not regret because there will be many ways out of failure in the future when the younger generation will understand Bitcoin.

Glad you understand that people of the world slowly acknowledge or make use of innovative technology, which is also something we saw happen when the internet was introduced years ago, and we see a situation where some people see things as something evil.
Bitcoin has passed the phase of negative and hate speech, but it is currently at the phase of worldwide usage/adoption, and after this phase is when Bitcoin will be used just like people use traditional payment.


Every currency and asset has a disadvantage. Even the USD and other fiat currencies lose value, but the major problem is that the BTC downtrend is easily visible and understandable to us.
Meanwhile, these disadvantages are also a good thing for the chance of getting more profit.
After all the concepts put together by lightning network team, the crypto card creator, and more, anyone who still sees BTC volatility, scalability, and transaction confirmation time span as an issue to use BTC as currency is not yet ready for this innovative

Volatility would not be a big problem if the business owners want to support BITCOIN and are not only using Bitcoin to attract new customers.  Most business owners are not even receiving Bitcoin directly.  They are using payment processors that automatically convert the Bitcoin spent by customer into Dollars or other Fiat currencies.  If they wanted Bitcoin instead, they would know that a 5 Dollar payment could be worth more or less in a matter of minutes.  It is a risk any of us who are holding Bitcoin take.

From Bitcoin adoption to economic collapse is a long way.  The main key point, which was Bitcoin adoption, was not even accomplished.  The experiment has simply failed and it is what it is.

You carefully thought through this.The Bitcoin experiment of El Salvador shows both the promise and the limits of crypto as national money. The problem isn't only Bitcoin itself, but the timing, execution, and insufficient infrastructure. Some citizens were not ready for digital currency with huge volatility and technical barriers, mostly in a heavily cash based economy.

Bitcoin could operate as a storage of worth, but as a daily medium of exchange, it yet struggles without stable pricing and smooth, quick systems such as Lightning. El Salvador has proven that adoption takes more than legal backing, it requires public trust, education, and stability. Therefore the idea isn't entirely wrong, only ahead of where  many people are already.

what happens when a Cat 5 hurricane flattens most of el salvador as an example... and for weeks / months  your 'digital currency' is unavailable. how do you pay for stuff?

there are other logistics that many have not entirely thought through either.

aaron

El Salvador Bitcoin experiment was good test that showed that it was not technology that was problem, but poor putting into place and bad timing execution. Main lessons learned were that huge price volatility of Bitcoin made it bad as way of daily purchases, and that slow technology and making everyone follow law made most of people and businesses to keep using US Dollar since they had to make simple and sure payments. Country was not able to change its currency in short time since money is built on trust and habit. This failure shows that it is wrong to force fast changing, hard asset on people with poor support, but with better technology such as Lightning Network, to make transactions cheap and very fast, future try to implement Bitcoin adoption would be much more successful.

El Savador have legalized bitcoin as currency payment transaction and all shop and store sector not requiring must using bitcoin as payment, they have optional can use bitcoin as payment or not. However its not wrong with bitcoin but El Savador government try to get high intention from tourism come to their country with easily making transaction by using bitcoin. I don't know where exactly data you got about this topic behind many advantage side after El Savador announcing bitcoin as payment transaction make criminal case crime data has dropped drastically behind many people moving from cash transaction to be digital transaction with bitcoin.

In my opinion, El Savador experiment allowing or make bitcoin as legal payment transaction have huge positive impact so far and their government earned much profit after active investing bitcoin around 1 BTC in daily day since price drop under $20k.

Accepting bitcoin as legal tender and investing in bitcoin are two different issues, as they can also invest even without making bitcoin a legal tender.


Nayib Bukele's initial goal in applying bitcoin to the economy was to reduce the cost of remittances, attract investment, innovate and improve the economy. But so far their economy is on the verge of default, and the demand for bitcoin in remittances is only 1.3% as OP mentioned. So it would not be correct to say that bitcoin adoption has had a huge positive impact on their economy.

By the way, crime rates in El Salvador have dropped to record lows and the country is safer thanks to Nayib Bukele's tough anti gang policies, which have nothing to do with bitcoin adoption.

Bitcoin was created to be a form of money, so it won't become that; it already is. What I think is lacking is structure and guidance; people need to be taught how to use cryptocurrencies. In the beginning, it was difficult for us to learn how to handle wallets, private keys, backups, and other information necessary to deal with cryptocurrencies. Imagine for a population less familiar with technology? It wasn't Bitcoin that went wrong, it was the lack of planning...