El Salvador has become the first country to make #Bitcoin legal tender! 🇸🇻

[topman21]

That's how it is! This announcement was left for the end of the 2021 Bitcoin Conference with the participation of Jack Mallers.
Among the most impressive that helped me understand why bitcoin will be the currency that will lead the country of El Salvador is this.

"Over 70% of the active population of El Salvador doesn't have a bank account. They're not in the financial system." -Jack Mallers

https://twitter.com/TheBitcoinConf/status/1401279373223866369?s=19

At the conference the president of El Salvador makes the announcement.

President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele: "Next week I will send to congress a bill that will make #bitcoin a legal tender."

https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1401279550538108933?s=19

ই El Salvador is the first country to legalize Bitcoin. Of course El Salbadal will be and has been the first Bitcoin legal tender in the country.There are many poets in the country who think like him and develop the government. His thinking is really very different from other people.He has already done that thinking of how to move his country forward and to free people from unemployment he has legalized Bitcoin as legal tender in the country.

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[yudi09]

~snip~
As the sale of El Salvador debt bunds discussion and process gotten to a conclusion with the issuance of the bund to prospective investors who may want to invest in the economy of El Salvador and a target of 2025 interest yielding bund a measure taken by president Nayib Bukele for economic recovery projects that aim at maturity in 2023-2025.
This project also includes the building of the bitcoin city and the volcano power project that is designed to power the bitcoin city and some other revenue-generating agencies in El Salvador, president Nayib Bukele also announced the government buying of a total of 54% of the bond at $565 million as a government repurchasing of the entire public bond but what is not clear right now is if the entire bond was sold out to bidders in 100% sale out at the moment.
And with the way things are going the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele if re-elected in the coming election, will surely continue with the developmental plan as he is a pro-bitcoin individual and this will help the Economy of El Salvador in the long run.

$45k is the average purchase price of Bitcoin holdings in El Salvador and is considered a rather unprofitable investment.
As the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender, there is an assumption that the 2,381 BTC owned by them is still less than 2% of the country's total reserves.

Two hours ago cointelegraph published an article about Global Bitcoin Adoption and I think it fits perfectly with the current conditions. They display very accurate data.
When compared to El Salvador, Jamaica has a 56% smaller population, but 30% higher international reserves. It becomes a measure.
Read.


Apart from all that, we should be proud to have a country that dares to take policies like Nayib Bukele did, for me his thinking in developing the country's economy is extraordinary. I don't want to say that El Salvador failed.

[Piesel]

Bitcoin El Salvador adoption has been an incredible journey so far, and recent statistics and data, point to the fact that, Bitcoin has contributed some high percentage returns in some El Salvador agencies and as it has been mentioned before on a thread on a 30 percent increase in the internal revenue of the tourism sector of the economy.

So at this moment, we must give El Salvador a big hug as there have not withdrawn back from their Bitcoin push to becoming the most Bitcoin-friendly country they are determined to continue to provide the support that others are using cryptocurrency as the best alternative.

[Daltonik]

A big research article was published on CNBC "El Salvador's bitcoin experiment: $60 million lost, $375 million spent, little to show so far" The main points are that little has changed since the adoption of bitcoin from an economic point of view, and of course the bearish trend of bitcoin has influenced this. So Deutsche Bank conducted a study according to which, as of September 2022, there are more citizens in El Salvador who have Chivo wallets than those who have traditional bank accounts.
But at the same time, only 20% of those who downloaded and installed Chivo continued to use it after they spent the $30 bonus [ https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29968/w29968.pdf ]. However, the main problem is that in El Salvador only 64.6% of the country's population have access to a mobile phone with the Internet and this is a big problem for promotion.
Everything seems to be true, but what they will say in the event of a market reversal, it remains only to wait for this moment.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/13/el-salvadors-bitcoin-holdings-down-60percent-to-60-million-one-year-later.html

[KennyR]

Something positive out of Bitcoin adoption. Tourism have brought more money into the country. The major reason for which people visit El Salvador is for the surf, bitcoin, volcanoes, and many more. Lot of people have begun to consider El Salvador as a place to visit, which in the past is termed as the murder capital. Many were talking about the value decline from the investment due to the market condition indicating bitcoin adoption as a failure. No one indicates the good transformation that bitcoin have brought to the country. The murder capital turnout to be a big attraction is a huge success of Bitcoin adoption.

[Cryptmuster]

Something positive out of Bitcoin adoption. Tourism have brought more money into the country. The major reason for which people visit El Salvador is for the surf, bitcoin, volcanoes, and many more. Lot of people have begun to consider El Salvador as a place to visit, which in the past is termed as the murder capital. Many were talking about the value decline from the investment due to the market condition indicating bitcoin adoption as a failure. No one indicates the good transformation that bitcoin have brought to the country. The murder capital turnout to be a big attraction is a huge success of Bitcoin adoption.

Bukele notes that bitcoin has helped increase the flow of tourists to the country, but in fact, El Salvador has not made much progress with the adoption. The population does not use cryptocurrency in everyday payments, and even tourists who come to the country, it would seem, because of bitcoin, but even the tourists themselves do not ask sellers if they have the opportunity to pay for purchases with crypto. If there are, then there are very few of them. Therefore, perhaps the true reason for the increase in the flow of tourists to El Salvador is something else ..?

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

I’m not sure where the original 1,8 M visitors comes from. I’ve seem various media articles pointing to Bitcoin Archive (as depicted in the image), but I haven’t managed to see where they base their data on.

The government’s Tourism Corporation (tied to El Salvador’s Government) published some statistics on the matter in relation to the first Semester of 2022, in their transparency portal (see the first downloadable document called "Informe estadístico de turismo primer semestre 2022":
https://www.transparencia.gob.sv/institutions/corsatur/documents/estadisticas

The above image, taken from within the said statistic, depicts the number of visits to the country in 2022 regaining the level reached during the first semester of 2019. In other words, prepandemic figures are more or less back, but one can hardly put a finger down on if and how much bitcoin helped, bearing in mind that the figure on the chart (substantially lower than the 1,8M, though july through to September may be high season) is no big deal in relation to 2019.

[Doan9269]

Bukele notes that bitcoin has helped increase the flow of tourists to the country, but in fact, El Salvador has not made much progress with the adoption.

your point here is contradicting, you're talking about the increase gained through El-Savador's bitcoin  tourism which you applaud Nayib Bukele for these, yet you're saying the haven't make any progress it their adoption, what other progress could come than having good tourist attraction that yield a vast income, the investment is not yet ripe if that's what you meant but i can tell you that tourism alone is a boost on El-Savador's economy through bitcoin adoption.

The population does not use cryptocurrency in everyday payments

have you conducted a research that ascertain this as fact, every average El-Savadoran who is an entrepreneur has had the taste of bitcoin before and they are still using it.

but even the tourists themselves do not ask sellers if they have the opportunity to pay for purchases with crypto

have you been there to experience such? should incase you forgot, El-Savador is majorly deals with bitcoin and not other crypto, bitcoin is the only name you can identify El-Savador adoption with of which every tourist already have that in mind that they are coming for bitcoin tourism and not crypto tourism.

[KennyR]

<...>

I’m not sure where the original 1,8 M visitors comes from. I’ve seem various media articles pointing to Bitcoin Archive (as depicted in the image), but I haven’t managed to see where they base their data on.

The government’s Tourism Corporation (tied to El Salvador’s Government) published some statistics on the matter in relation to the first Semester of 2022, in their transparency portal (see the first downloadable document called "Informe estadístico de turismo primer semestre 2022":
https://www.transparencia.gob.sv/institutions/corsatur/documents/estadisticas

The above image, taken from within the said statistic, depicts the number of visits to the country in 2022 regaining the level reached during the first semester of 2019. In other words, prepandemic figures are more or less back, but one can hardly put a finger down on if and how much bitcoin helped, bearing in mind that the figure on the chart (substantially lower than the 1,8M, though july through to September may be high season) is no big deal in relation to 2019.

Came across this data from the internet searching for the details about the number of tourists visited El Salvador in the previous years. During the pandemic the number of tourists into the country have decreased. Now with the adoption of bitcoin and various other measures taken to improve the tourism and attract more tourists might've boosted the visitors number reach 1.8million(no data available, but prepandemic close number of tourists have visited El Salvador).

[Blawpaw]

That's how it is! This announcement was left for the end of the 2021 Bitcoin Conference with the participation of Jack Mallers.
Among the most impressive that helped me understand why bitcoin will be the currency that will lead the country of El Salvador is this.

"Over 70% of the active population of El Salvador doesn't have a bank account. They're not in the financial system." -Jack Mallers

https://twitter.com/TheBitcoinConf/status/1401279373223866369?s=19

At the conference the president of El Salvador makes the announcement.

President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele: "Next week I will send to congress a bill that will make #bitcoin a legal tender."

https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1401279550538108933?s=19

Actually, this is not correct information. Way Before El Salvador, the first country legally accepting Bitcoin as a legal Tender was actually Japan back in 2016. You guys can check the story here:
https://www.sygna.io/blog/japan-crypto-regulation-history-2014-2020/

Besides, Germany was the first to recognise Bitcoin as private money and later as legal tender. Check it out here:

https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/in-germany-bitcoin-is-now-legal-tender/

[JayJuanGee]

<...>

I’m not sure where the original 1,8 M visitors comes from. I’ve seem various media articles pointing to Bitcoin Archive (as depicted in the image), but I haven’t managed to see where they base their data on.

The government’s Tourism Corporation (tied to El Salvador’s Government) published some statistics on the matter in relation to the first Semester of 2022, in their transparency portal (see the first downloadable document called "Informe estadístico de turismo primer semestre 2022":
https://www.transparencia.gob.sv/institutions/corsatur/documents/estadisticas

The above image, taken from within the said statistic, depicts the number of visits to the country in 2022 regaining the level reached during the first semester of 2019. In other words, prepandemic figures are more or less back, but one can hardly put a finger down on if and how much bitcoin helped, bearing in mind that the figure on the chart (substantially lower than the 1,8M, though july through to September may be high season) is no big deal in relation to 2019.

Of course, one comparison is current as compared with pre-pandemic tourist levels, but isn't another comparison of similar situated countries to see if the curves look different in El Salvador as compared with other similarly situated countries?  Your not mentioning that cross country comparison angle, seem to be implying that the cross country comparison has similar kinds of curves as the El Salvador numbers, so in that regard, you seem to be suggesting that El Salvador does not stand out relative to similarly situated countries.

they are coming for bitcoin tourism and not crypto tourism.

Exactamente!!!

Although, we know that shitcoiners will go down there to try to pump their shit on the coattails of bitcoin.

We also know that bitcoin naysayers will confuse and muddy their assessment of what's going on by talking about "crypto" and who the fuck knows what they mean - especially when they sometimes won't even use the word "bitcoin," so frequently any of us might wonder if we are talking about the same topic or not.

<...>

I’m not sure where the original 1,8 M visitors comes from. I’ve seem various media articles pointing to Bitcoin Archive (as depicted in the image), but I haven’t managed to see where they base their data on.

The government’s Tourism Corporation (tied to El Salvador’s Government) published some statistics on the matter in relation to the first Semester of 2022, in their transparency portal (see the first downloadable document called "Informe estadístico de turismo primer semestre 2022":
https://www.transparencia.gob.sv/institutions/corsatur/documents/estadisticas

The above image, taken from within the said statistic, depicts the number of visits to the country in 2022 regaining the level reached during the first semester of 2019. In other words, prepandemic figures are more or less back, but one can hardly put a finger down on if and how much bitcoin helped, bearing in mind that the figure on the chart (substantially lower than the 1,8M, though july through to September may be high season) is no big deal in relation to 2019.

Came across this data from the internet searching for the details about the number of tourists visited El Salvador in the previous years. During the pandemic the number of tourists into the country have decreased. Now with the adoption of bitcoin and various other measures taken to improve the tourism and attract more tourists might've boosted the visitors number reach 1.8million(no data available, but prepandemic close number of tourists have visited El Salvador).

I am not sure about the relevance of your data here KennyR because it seems to largely say the same as DdmrDdmr's data, except that DdmrDdmr's data goes two years further (up to present)... which largely is showing that overall tourism numbers in El Salvador had been on an upward trajectory and then the 2-3 years of the pandemic effect brought them way back down, and so now the overall tourist numbers are at the same place they were around the time that they started to dip.

There might be some truth that overall BTC tourism cannot be measured, even though we are hearing about all the bitcoiners who are supposedly traveling to El Salvador and who would not have otherwise have gone to El Salvador if it had not been for El Salvador's pro-bitcoin laws. 

We know that bitcoiners are going there and we know that they are attending bitcoin conferences and events in El Salvador, too.. but we might not be able to know for sure about how much of a blip (or measurement) there is on the data in terms of how many more tourists are ending up in El Salvador that can be attributed to the Bitcoin law and even the fact that there could be some contagion too.. so that the more people who go, then the more it could become a destination that people go to or consider going to when they would not have previously considered it or even would not have gone there.

[odolvlobo]

Way Before El Salvador, the first country legally accepting Bitcoin as a legal Tender was actually Japan back in 2016. You guys can check the story here:
...
Besides, Germany was the first to recognise Bitcoin as private money and later as legal tender.

Those articles are not accurate.

Japanese law only makes it legal to use cryptocurrencies for payment. It does not require anyone to accept cryptocurrencies.

Germany declared Bitcoin as a "unit of account" and "private money", but not as "legal tender".

I guess it comes down to your definition of "legal tender". In the U.S., "legal tender" means it must be accepted for payments of debt, taxes, and dues. In El Salvador, not only is Bitcoin "legal tender" by that definition, but it must also be accepted for payments (when possible).

[stompix]

Of course, one comparison is current as compared with pre-pandemic tourist levels, but isn't another comparison of similar situated countries to see if the curves look different in El Salvador as compared with other similarly situated countries?  Your not mentioning that cross country comparison angle, seem to be implying that the cross country comparison has similar kinds of curves as the El Salvador numbers, so in that regard, you seem to be suggesting that El Salvador does not stand out relative to similarly situated countries.

Here you go, the same source quoted by Bukele himself previously:
https://www.unwto.org/news/international-tourism-back-to-60-of-pre-pandemic-levels-in-january-july-2022

Among destinations reporting data on international arrivals in the first five to seven months of 2022, those exceeding pre-pandemic levels were: the US Virgin Islands (+32% over 2019), Albania (+19%), Saint Maarten (+15%), Ethiopia and Honduras (both +13%), Andorra (+10%), Puerto Rico (+7%), United Arab Emirates and Dominican Republic (both +3%), San Marino and El Salvador (both +1%) and Curaçao (0%).

From central America and the Caribbean, you have 7 territories on that list, 6 outranking Salvador in recovery rates!

You can play with the data here:
https://www.unwto.org/tourism-data/unwto-tourism-recovery-tracker
The Caribbean is at 95% and Central America at 92% overall!

[Doan9269]

Actually, this is not correct information. Way Before El Salvador, the first country legally accepting Bitcoin as a legal Tender was actually Japan back in 2016. You guys can check the story here:
https://www.sygna.io/blog/japan-crypto-regulation-history-2014-2020/

Besides, Germany was the first to recognise Bitcoin as private money and later as legal tender. Check it out here:

https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/in-germany-bitcoin-is-now-legal-tender/

Lot of people have got misled by inadequate information on the real situation and the state of things about El-Savador being the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender, here we need to differentiate what Germany or Japan mean by making a statement that bitcoin can be an acceptable unit of account or engaging it use is legal , which mean it is not banned neither does it serve as an offence against the law with the using of bitcoin for transaction and this statement is totally different from adopting bitcoin as a legal tender, of all that has been said, legal tender is the strongest and most recognized means to identify government approval for using bitcoin as a currency.

I actually got scared seing this post at first place which could eventually means that the world entirely and the internet have altogether been misled if truly El-Savador isn't the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender, but thanks to odolvlobo for clarification more better on this and please let try as much as possible to always get the real gist before publication in other to avoid passing wrong information, El-Savador still remains the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender.

[Vaskiy]

Bitcoin have been added into the Guinness World Records. Along with this El Salvador too got into the Guinness World Records for its big step of bitcoin adoption as legal tender before any other country amidst hard opposition from World Bank and other financial bodies.

Bitcoin along with El Salvador In Guinness World Records

[yudi09]

Bitcoin have been added into the Guinness World Records. Along with this El Salvador too got into the Guinness World Records for its big step of bitcoin adoption as legal tender before any other country amidst hard opposition from World Bank and other financial bodies.

Bitcoin along with El Salvador In Guinness World Records

When El Salvador was urged by the IMF to reconsider the rules that formally legalised Bitcoin and when someone showed data that El Salvador failed to adopt Bitcoin economically, it made me share the same view.

With the news circulating that El Salvador entered the Guinness World Records, it is an honour for me that one day the whole world will realise that Bitcoin is the right choice as an asset to advance the economy. 
It sounds exaggerated, but it's a feeling I have.

[wmaurik]

With the news circulating that El Salvador entered the Guinness World Records, it is an honour for me that one day the whole world will realise that Bitcoin is the right choice as an asset to advance the economy. 
It sounds exaggerated, but it's a feeling I have.

That doesn't sound like an exaggeration, because what has happened to Bitcoin for over ten years is a proof that Bitcoin is the best of all other cryptocurrencies.
And what has been achieved by El Salvador after adopting Bitcoin is also proof that El Salvador is still able to develop the country's economic sector in a better direction. So nothing sounds superfluous when it comes to adopting Bitcoin, even if you say it's just how you feel.

[Doan9269]

Bitcoin have been added into the Guinness World Records. Along with this El Salvador too got into the Guinness World Records for its big step of bitcoin adoption as legal tender before any other country amidst hard opposition from World Bank and other financial bodies.

Bitcoin along with El Salvador In Guinness World Records

When El Salvador was urged by the IMF to reconsider the rules that formally legalised Bitcoin and when someone showed data that El Salvador failed to adopt Bitcoin economically, it made me share the same view.

With the news circulating that El Salvador entered the Guinness World Records, it is an honour for me that one day the whole world will realise that Bitcoin is the right choice as an asset to advance the economy. 
It sounds exaggerated, but it's a feeling I have.

Even the entire El-Savadorans will be surprised on where the fake news about their country in coming on what doesn't actually exist, i believe El-Savador have alot to write about since it adoption of bitcoin as legal tender, and over all the warnings and wrong advise with fake news all about El-Savador, it has always been a better day for the country in it continued decision for choosing bitcoin, maybe i was first assumed that El-Savador will kick against the USD after adoption but things weren't just going as others have thought with El-Savador's bitcoin adoption and till it eventually get to more better state, things will remain unclear about the mystery with El-Savador's adoption.

[yudi09]

With the news circulating that El Salvador entered the Guinness World Records, it is an honour for me that one day the whole world will realise that Bitcoin is the right choice as an asset to advance the economy. 
It sounds exaggerated, but it's a feeling I have.

That doesn't sound like an exaggeration, because what has happened to Bitcoin for over ten years is a proof that Bitcoin is the best of all other cryptocurrencies.
And what has been achieved by El Salvador after adopting Bitcoin is also proof that El Salvador is still able to develop the country's economic sector in a better direction. So nothing sounds superfluous when it comes to adopting Bitcoin, even if you say it's just how you feel.

We have absolutely no doubts about Bitcoin from the beginning. The inclusion of Bitcoin in the Guinness World Record (GWR) has further strengthened the belief that Bitcoin is the best investment asset.

Regarding El Salvador which is also included in the GWR book, I have interesting news to share, namely the results of a study by José Simeón Cañas Central American University that 77.1% of respondents wanted the government led by Nayib Bukele to stop spending public money on Bitcoin.
That's a line I got from cointelegrhap.
Maybe this has something to do with the economy of the Central American country.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

The said survey was carried out by the University Institute of Public Opinion (UCA – Universidad Centroamericana), during September, based upon 1.269 valid interviews (confidence interval 95%; error: 2,75%).

The interviews were held at the homes of those interviewed, and according to the last chart on the report, seems well balanced in terms of age, geography, gender and educational level distribution.

The questions strictly on bitcoin are:

1-   Bitcoin qualification given by the interviewed:
4,61 / 10.

2-   Citizen’s approval rate for bitcoin:
38,7% approves it; 61,3% does not

3-   Percentage of the population that have used bitcoin to buy or pay for something:
75,6% have not used it; 24,4% have use it.

4-   Should the government keep on spending money on bitcoin?
77,1% no; 14,9% yes; 8% doesn’t know/answer.

5-   Has bitcoin been a success or a failure?
16,5% success; 65,5% failure; 18% doesn’t know/answer.

6-   Has your family’s economic situation improved, worsened or stayed the same with the approval of bitcoin (as legal tender)?
3% Improved; 77,2% stayed the same; 17,8% worsened; 2% doesn’t know/answer.

7-   Citizen rating for Nayib Bukele’s government’s spending public money to purchase bitcoin:
2% Very much in agreeance; 19,6% In agreeance; 13,9% indecisive; 48,8% in disagreeance; 15,8% very in disagreeance.


What would be interesting to see is the correlation between those that have used bitcoin and the answers, since it’s likely that they are positively correlated (my speculation).

In addition, besides asking for the Boolean factor of whether they’ve used bitcoin to buy/pay, it would be interesting to have some insights that separate those made only using the 30$ BTC airdrop for downloading the wallet, the frequency and recency, as well as some simple wallet adoption questions (i.e. Chivo and/or other wallets) – for example.

<...>

That was in May 2022 (see the date on the article you link).