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

[Doan9269]

Still on the matter with El-Savador and IMF, they made a fresh declaration that bitcoin and it's risk is yet to materialize in El-Savador https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1624478306769797121?t=ysyyvp24ZGttCYYjWabNAQ&s=19 to me they have expected from El-Savador to have grown or shown evidently to the world the danger or risk it has behold from its bitcoin adoption but still yet, nothing is coming up in this regard, which means the image from which the IMF are viewing the bitcoin adoption is from a wrong perspective with El-Savador despite it's countless times warning, this is really encouraging because El-Savador is giving alot of taughts on this, the decision is theirs and not IMF, you take charge and bear full responsibilities for your actions, but the risk associated with fiat monetary system and central authorities which they have with banks has all these years been materialized which is the reason we needed to be more careful with banks while embracing the decentralized network with bitcoin adoption.

It seems to me that sometimes it will seem that concessions are being made, and some of the global financial players are realizing that their direct attacks are not convincing, so they have to work behind the scenes to continue to sabotage and to provide disadvantages to try to undermine El Salvador, if they are able to do it.  Yeah, and maybe indirect and subtle attacks are better than some of the direct attacks.. and surely the IMF/World Bank and outside financial/government institutions are waiting for an opportunity to pounce in the event that El Salvador screws up in their use/transition into greater and greater adoptions/building of bitcoin in their country and El Salvador's ongoing attempts to demonstrate models for other similarly situated poor countries.

Let the adoption continues not only in El-Savador but the whole world and they cannot make any influence on this decentralized digital network of bitcoin, it's excites me better seing that nothing can pull the trigger to hinder the overall adoption no matter how harder they attempted becau the whole network is already well secured with walls of protocols sorrounding it, i also admire El-Savador such a way that despite the distractions all-around it never got carried away by their threat against it decision, all they want is for El-Savador never to see this rare opportunity no matter how small, that can make it free from the hands of indebtedness with central authorities like the IMF and other governments interferances.

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[Z-tight]

I like El Salvador direction towards the continuing bitcoin adoption in the country. The country is patterning with the government of Taxas to open a bitcoin embassy.

If they succeed, this would be the second BTC embassy that El Salvador have opened after the one in Lugano, Switzerland, and i feel this one is a much bigger news with more impact because of the location, Texas, United States. Some people may not understand the idea of a BTC embassy, i too was confused and had to read something about it; BTC isn't centralized, so why would it need an embassy to enlighten people about BTC when they can do that online and get all they need to know virtually, the truth is that while it may not be the most necessary thing needed in the BTC network, but a physical building where people can go in and find out about BTC and do other crypto stuff is not bad.

Like i said, i think this is a big news because it is going to be an embassy in the United states, i believe to get to the next level BTC needs some acceptance in powerful countries like U.S, U.K, etc, and i know we are far from that, but if the talk of this embassy in the U.S is true and it happens, it could boost adoption in the U.S, and maybe in the future some form of acceptance from the government.

[DdmrDdmr]

As far as I can tell, the so-called Bitcoin embassies (*) are a means to boost commercial relations between the two parties (El Salvador and Switzerland or now Texas/USA), with a core focus on bitcoin relates commercial activities. We’ve still got to see how these embassies shape out in terms of placement resources, and business generation, but they certainly look like a strategic element for the country.

During 2022, El Salvador and Texas had an overall commercial trade of over 1244M $, something I figure they hope to enhance by far by opening these offices here and there.

(*) They’re not really embassies are they, but rather more offices that smoothen the creation of business opportunities between the two parties with bitcoin being pivotal.

[JayJuanGee]

As far as I can tell, the so-called Bitcoin embassies (*) are a means to boost commercial relations between the two parties (El Salvador and Switzerland or now Texas/USA), with a core focus on bitcoin relates commercial activities. We’ve still got to see how these embassies shape out in terms of placement resources, and business generation, but they certainly look like a strategic element for the country.

During 2022, El Salvador and Texas had an overall commercial trade of over 1244M $, something I figure they hope to enhance by far by opening these offices here and there.

(*) They’re not really embassies are they, but rather more offices that smoothen the creation of business opportunities between the two parties with bitcoin being pivotal.

Sure.. maybe there could be some questions regarding "who is the target audience?" because there can be needs to increase exposure and credibility in terms of the kinds of transactions that might take place with businesses and other institutions, but also we know that El Salvador has a lot of its citizens as expatriates too, so even if they are not trying to involve their expatriates in terms of using bitcoin for remittances, they can also boost the credibility of bitcoin and benefit (as a country with their citizens benefitting by having more money that they save from costs and spend in El Salvador) more with the remittances  too.. perhaps?

business to business

government to government (government as a business sometimes?)

person to person..

and cross over between the three categories, too.  What is the target audience and does it help to have physical locations in which meetings can take place, information can be shared, or is it just symbolic?

And, Texas is a pretty BIG place (they do say so themselves) including a variety of different kinds of cities, so if they are just going to choose one location in the state to start with their  "embassy,"  or might they end up branching out to more than one location.  The links did not specify which city might be the starting location..so that might be interesting to see which location is the starting point.. There are a lot of bitcoiners already in Austin.. but would that be the starting location for El Salvador's "Embassy".. and the more that I type, I am not sure if I am comfortable with the embassy term, even though it does have some symbolism.. but it is more like a kind of interchange rather than an Embassy because the local and state governments in the USA would likely not be authorized to negotiate actual embassies on behalf of the US Govt... so using that name might get them into "symbolic" trouble, even though it still might be a battle worth making.. perhaps?  Use the name until someone complains.  Am I complaining?  Perhaps? perhaps?

[jokers10]

If they succeed, this would be the second BTC embassy that El Salvador have opened after the one in Lugano, Switzerland, and i feel this one is a much bigger news with more impact because of the location, Texas, United States. Some people may not understand the idea of a BTC embassy, i too was confused and had to read something about it; BTC isn't centralized, so why would it need an embassy to enlighten people about BTC when they can do that online and get all they need to know virtually, the truth is that while it may not be the most necessary thing needed in the BTC network, but a physical building where people can go in and find out about BTC and do other crypto stuff is not bad.

Like i said, i think this is a big news because it is going to be an embassy in the United states, i believe to get to the next level BTC needs some acceptance in powerful countries like U.S, U.K, etc, and i know we are far from that, but if the talk of this embassy in the U.S is true and it happens, it could boost adoption in the U.S, and maybe in the future some form of acceptance from the government.

Well, we can think about it like why and which can it give benefits to bitcoin, but I guess El Salvador's government considers it some other way: more likely they tell not about bitcoin only, but about how it impacts El Salvador's economy and how people can use an opportunity of participating in economy of a country which legally works on bitcoin. It promotes not bitcoin only but El Salvador as well. And I guess bitcoin can be more wide known so it can give El Salvador more in this case. But this story shows how El Salvador's gov takes things seriously and why we can not only hope in success of bitcoin adoption in there but even largely expect it.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

Just a wee reference here to something I’ve read in relation to the quoted post above:

The religious NGO Cristosal has asked El Salvador’s prosecutor’s office to look into the contracts and mishappenings that led to the Chivo System being allegedly abused by means of massive identity thefts, leading to what is estimated to be an aggregate of 12M $ stolen. I presume that the core focus is on the 30$ per person in bitcoin that was given to people when they downloaded the Chivo wallet, which seems to have been massively abused through identity theft.

Not sure how far this will get, but it will be interesting to see what the prosecutor’s response is to the petition.

See (GT):
https://www-elsalvador-com.translate.goog/noticias/nacional/cristosal-solicita-fiscalia-investigar-chivo-wallet/1041534/2023/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[wavessurfing]

salvador crime rate continues to decrease unabated

so the future election should renew the president ? and its btc adoption, as the 2 appear linked:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-02-26/how-cut-your-countrys-crime-rate-97

[jokers10]

salvador crime rate continues to decrease unabated

so the future election should renew the president ? and its btc adoption, as the 2 appear linked:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-02-26/how-cut-your-countrys-crime-rate-97

Building a biggest prison in Americas for tens of thousands prisoners looks risky: they collect criminals from all the country in one place. If all will go right Salvadorians will remember both anti-gang measures and bitcoin adoption as the time when the country started doing better. But in case of prisoners rebellion... it fears me a bit: too many dangerous people concentrated in one small place. Hope better prognosis will come true, not worse.

[oktana]

This seems to be a great one for the cryptocurrency - accepting it as legal but then I thought the decision has caused some controversy and criticism to be raised. I think some experts expressed concerns over the volatility and potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies. We know how this can affect the people if it goes wrong than planned right?

[JayJuanGee]

This seems to be a great one for the cryptocurrency - accepting it as legal but then I thought the decision has caused some controversy and criticism to be raised. I think some experts expressed concerns over the volatility and potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies. We know how this can affect the people if it goes wrong than planned right?

Why don't you start out by rephrasing your response to talk about bitcoin.

El Salvador is not approving or otherwise getting involved in cryptocurrencies or shitcoins, even though surely shitcoins follow bitcoin around and engage in all kinds of affinity scams where bitcoin is involved, but maybe if you (oktana) could at least focus your use of terms a wee bit better, then we might be able to figure out if you realize that there is a difference between bitcoin and shitcoins and to be able to focus your participation in this discussion a bit better.  Are you able to do it?  Are you able to clarify your language in order that we know that you are talking about bitcoin rather than some vague thing that is not made clear in your response?

[Sebas.tian]

salvador crime rate continues to decrease unabated

so the future election should renew the president ? and its btc adoption, as the 2 appear linked:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-02-26/how-cut-your-countrys-crime-rate-97

Yes, El Salvador citizens will definitely renew their president because of the good work he has done in the land that is making other countries to copy from their strategies of economy improvement he has adopted to help El Salvador country. El Salvador president has be the first president to made Bitcoin legal tender, showed he has a lot of things to do to eliminate poverty and unemployment from the country so that he will have a good record that will bring honour to him and to his family at large. I don't think, El Salvador economy will still be shaking with this strong foundation El Salvador president has given to their economy which can help them to sustain many years to come.

[jokers10]

This seems to be a great one for the cryptocurrency - accepting it as legal but then I thought the decision has caused some controversy and criticism to be raised. I think some experts expressed concerns over the volatility and potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies. We know how this can affect the people if it goes wrong than planned right?

Well, we can see that bitcoin rates went down last year, but when we see the available statistics of using bitcoin in El Salvador it looks like it doesn't impact on adoption. Maybe we don't see any big progress in increasing in the percentage of the population using bitcoin but seems like those ones who started to use it understand it enough to use it further. When we read stories about travelling to El Salvador we don't see that Salvadirians are upset with bitcoin: if some of them don't want it they just don't use it, others are curious. And I can repeat that there's a long bear market right now, so it is right time for investigating if Salvadorians become more upset with bitcoin — and it looks like they are okay with it. Maybe my information is incomplete, then please share articles which will expand it.

[AjithBtc]

salvador crime rate continues to decrease unabated

so the future election should renew the president ? and its btc adoption, as the 2 appear linked:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-02-26/how-cut-your-countrys-crime-rate-97

Yes, El Salvador citizens will definitely renew their president because of the good work he has done in the land that is making other countries to copy from their strategies of economy improvement he has adopted to help El Salvador country. El Salvador president has be the first president to made Bitcoin legal tender, showed he has a lot of things to do to eliminate poverty and unemployment from the country so that he will have a good record that will bring honour to him and to his family at large. I don't think, El Salvador economy will still be shaking with this strong foundation El Salvador president has given to their economy which can help them to sustain many years to come.

El Salvador is known as the place for Gangs and this has been completely eradicated. Bukele have made economic reforms and the outcome isn't short term focused. Foreigners fear of travelling to El Salvador, and now the tourism have flourished and in good shape contributing good to the economy.

There are people who are against the adoption of bitcoin and there are people who find this to be an important action for the upliftment of the country's economy. There are controversies upon the public fund used for the buying of bitcoin. After all this President tries to keep everything in a stabilized manner. For this reason he'll be re-elected.

[Fiatless]

This seems to be a great one for the cryptocurrency - accepting it as legal but then I thought the decision has caused some controversy and criticism to be raised. I think some experts expressed concerns over the volatility and potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies. We know how this can affect the people if it goes wrong than planned right?

Why don't you start by rephrasing your response to talk about bitcoin?

El Salvador is not approving or otherwise getting involved in cryptocurrencies or shitcoins, even though surely shitcoins follow bitcoin around and engage in all kinds of affinity scams where bitcoin is involved, but maybe if you (oktana) could at least focus your use of terms a wee bit better, then we might be able to figure out if you realize that there is a difference between bitcoin and shitcoins and to be able to focus your participation in this discussion a bit better.  Are you able to do it?  Are you able to clarify your language so that we know that you are talking about bitcoin rather than some vague thing that is not made clear in your response?

That's one of the problems of most individuals. They always want to use general or vague terms to discuss the specific issue of bitcoin. Many scammers in the cryptocurrency space have always used these vague terms to deceive people and steal funds from them. I have been invited to a seminar in which the organizers used the bitcoin logo to attract participants and when I got to this seminar they were just discussing shitcoins. The organizers began to convince the audience that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the same and that the difference is just the name. But this forum helped me to understand the uniqueness and superiority of bitcoin.

[Doan9269]

This seems to be a great one for the cryptocurrency - accepting it as legal but then I thought the decision has caused some controversy and criticism to be raised. I think some experts expressed concerns over the volatility and potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies. We know how this can affect the people if it goes wrong than planned right?

What is going wrong here, El-Savador is not going to be affected alone if bitcoin fails, the whole world will be, but the goodnews is that bitcoin can't fail, no amount of critics can pull a decentralized network down, not even the IMF, SEC, EU, US, China etc. just name it, bitcoin has over powered them all by being decentralized and blockchain immutable, they can regulate other cryptos but not bitcoin, stop allowing people who were so confused from understanding what volatility means to deceive and stop you from partaking in this awesome opportunity with bitcoin, those that were doubting it some years back are regretting why they had not invested then, it's a currency and not a commodity or stock you buy, trade and it overdue, bitcoin is a legal digital currency.

[buwaytress]

Building a biggest prison in Americas for tens of thousands prisoners looks risky: they collect criminals from all the country in one place. If all will go right Salvadorians will remember both anti-gang measures and bitcoin adoption as the time when the country started doing better. But in case of prisoners rebellion... it fears me a bit: too many dangerous people concentrated in one small place. Hope better prognosis will come true, not worse.

I'm probably hardline when it comes to cracking down on organised crime too, but this one I feel went a bit too far. Just arbitrary rounding up of people (from what I read, you got a tattoo, you're gang, so you come with us) and going to prison for the rest of their lives (reading quotes from the politicians suggest that anyway). People do got rights too, and I'm sure there are many caught up in the dragnet.

It's a populist move, but crime coming down might be at the expense of unbridled dictatorship (read, corruption).

All that bitcoin won't be of any use if one man (or a few) get to decide what to do with it -- remember it was bought with public funds. Need to see proof that those coins are accounted for and transparently audited, with access in hands of the elected.

[JayJuanGee]

This seems to be a great one for the cryptocurrency - accepting it as legal but then I thought the decision has caused some controversy and criticism to be raised. I think some experts expressed concerns over the volatility and potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies. We know how this can affect the people if it goes wrong than planned right?

Why don't you start by rephrasing your response to talk about bitcoin?

El Salvador is not approving or otherwise getting involved in cryptocurrencies or shitcoins, even though surely shitcoins follow bitcoin around and engage in all kinds of affinity scams where bitcoin is involved, but maybe if you (oktana) could at least focus your use of terms a wee bit better, then we might be able to figure out if you realize that there is a difference between bitcoin and shitcoins and to be able to focus your participation in this discussion a bit better.  Are you able to do it?  Are you able to clarify your language so that we know that you are talking about bitcoin rather than some vague thing that is not made clear in your response?

That's one of the problems of most individuals. They always want to use general or vague terms to discuss the specific issue of bitcoin. Many scammers in the cryptocurrency space have always used these vague terms to deceive people and steal funds from them. I have been invited to a seminar in which the organizers used the bitcoin logo to attract participants and when I got to this seminar they were just discussing shitcoins. The organizers began to convince the audience that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the same and that the difference is just the name. But this forum helped me to understand the uniqueness and superiority of bitcoin.

Some people are purposefully trying to use vague language or to obfuscate what they are talking about or to engage in a kind of affinity scam (which is acting like they are either the same as bitcoin, similar to bitcoin or even sometimes superior to bitcoin), and other people do not even realize that convoluting and intermixing such terms.. which sometimes will either go to show that they do not even understand the topic sufficiently or maybe that they are not trying hard enough to understand the topic.

I am not going to completely blame folks for their use of vague language, unless they continue to persist and argue about it, and sometimes we will get members persisting and arguing about their use of language or even trying to defend their vague use of language by saying "everybody else does it" or "I was just citing from the article or the video clip, blah blah blah."

This seems to be a great one for the cryptocurrency - accepting it as legal but then I thought the decision has caused some controversy and criticism to be raised. I think some experts expressed concerns over the volatility and potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies. We know how this can affect the people if it goes wrong than planned right?

What is going wrong here, El-Savador is not going to be affected alone if bitcoin fails, the whole world will be, but the goodnews is that bitcoin can't fail, no amount of critics can pull a decentralized network down, not even the IMF, SEC, EU, US, China etc. just name it, bitcoin has over powered them all by being decentralized and blockchain immutable, they can regulate other cryptos but not bitcoin, stop allowing people who were so confused from understanding what volatility means to deceive and stop you from partaking in this awesome opportunity with bitcoin, those that were doubting it some years back are regretting why they had not invested then, it's a currency and not a commodity or stock you buy, trade and it overdue, bitcoin is a legal digital currency.

I don't really disagree with you Doan9269; however, I do believe that you are overstating the resilience and the inevitability of bitcoin.   Of course, bitcoin was built to be able to operate through various kinds of strong attacks, including potential government attacks and even coordinated government attacks, but it is not inevitable that bitcoin will survive.

Part of the rationale in regards to investing in bitcoin, even for the bitcoin naysayers is that the possibility that it will fail really dwarfs the various upside scenarios for bitcoin, and surely in a variety of senses bitcoin has already won.. so people can fuck off with their claims that bitcoin has failed because it has already succeeded - nonetheless, there are still questions regarding how bitcoin will play out in the future, including the intensities of various likely inevitable battles along the way of its likely ongoing success to continue to expand and continue to experience number go up attributes.. that also should contribute towards normies, no coiners, low coiners, shitcoin pumpers, bitcoin naysayers and fence sitters to figure out that it is likely best in their interest to invest something into bitcoin (including considering that the most that they could lose is their investment, so long as they do not engage in stupid-ass leveraging and other ways of gambling), and the various upside scenarios are quite stupendous.. which is also could be described as bitcoin continuing to exist as one of the better (if NOT the best) of asymmetric bets to the upside that is available to everyone and anyone no matter how rich you are and whatever happens to be your current status in society.

Building a biggest prison in Americas for tens of thousands prisoners looks risky: they collect criminals from all the country in one place. If all will go right Salvadorians will remember both anti-gang measures and bitcoin adoption as the time when the country started doing better. But in case of prisoners rebellion... it fears me a bit: too many dangerous people concentrated in one small place. Hope better prognosis will come true, not worse.

I'm probably hardline when it comes to cracking down on organised crime too, but this one I feel went a bit too far. Just arbitrary rounding up of people (from what I read, you got a tattoo, you're gang, so you come with us) and going to prison for the rest of their lives (reading quotes from the politicians suggest that anyway). People do got rights too, and I'm sure there are many caught up in the dragnet.

It's a populist move, but crime coming down might be at the expense of unbridled dictatorship (read, corruption).

I cannot completely disagree with you buwaytress, and there surely is a bit of injustice in terms of potential lack of due process - yet I have my doubts that there is a complete lack of due process, but perhaps a bit of a "desperate times call for desperate measures," and perhaps it takes a long time to process cases, and surely a lot of injustices have likely already occurred due to lack of process and perhaps will continue to keep occurring due to how long that it might take to process cases, and even the fact that some of the lock ups might be on shaky grounds to prevent crimes rather than for crimes that have had already happened.. so yeah, I am bothered by some of those kinds of matters too.. .  

And, I am not going to proclaim to know all of the details, and surely I am bothered by the extent of sweeping that seems to have had taken place.. and I would also be concerned about making sure that there might be resources to process cases and to even release folks.. and yeah it is bothersome in regards to merely being in a gang or being affiliated would not generally tend to be enough to cause someone to automatically be guilty of a crime.. and again, I don't claim to know enough of the circumstances to presume that some variation of what Bukele did might have had been justified given the extent of the corruption and shake downs that seemed to have had been taking place on regular folks trying to carry out businesses or to live their regular lives prior to the sweep.

All that bitcoin won't be of any use if one man (or a few) get to decide what to do with it -- remember it was bought with public funds. Need to see proof that those coins are accounted for and transparently audited, with access in hands of the elected.

For sure, Bukele is supposed to be acting within the public interest with public funds that he uses to buy and accumulate bitcoin on behalf of El Salvador, so for sure, it would be a calamity if he were to either rug pull or to escape with the coins - yet at the same time, there may well be a certain level of justification too, in regards to his attempting some levels of secrecy.. especially given the international rhetoric that may well attempt to compromise the security of those coins that he supposedly purchased on behalf of El Salvador.

[Wiwo]

All that bitcoin won't be of any use if one man (or a few) gets to decide what to do with it -- remember it was bought with public funds. Need to see proof that those coins are accounted for and transparently audited, with access in hands of the elected.

I guess some government information including economic and fiscal policy is classified information and at that we May not see Information as regards to El Salvador bitcoin holding and we're and who has access to the funds since those bitcoins are bought with public funds.

-If and when Nayib Bukele wins the next presidential election there will be an account for that and if the serving president failed to secure his re-election, the next president will have to continue from where Nayib stopped and if he wins, it will become a continuity for the development and advancement of bitcoin policy and projects such as the Bitcoin city.

[wmaurik]

-If and when Nayib Bukele wins the next presidential election there will be an account for that and if the serving president failed to secure his re-election, the next president will have to continue from where Nayib stopped and if he wins, it will become a continuity for the development and advancement of bitcoin policy and projects such as the Bitcoin city.

That is indeed important to be continued by whoever the president who will be elected in the next term in El Salvador, because Nayib Bukele has been protecting and managing the country of El Salvador quite well and safely now in order to be able to launch the Bitcoin project development in El Salvador.

Even three days ago Nayib Bukele had transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Terrorism Containment Center (CECOT) with the aim of not being able to harm the people there anymore. This is also something that is very impressive in El Salvador because Nayib Bukele wants a Bitcoin city in El Salvador with conditions that are quite safe and comfortable. _{Source: https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1629165213600849920}

[buwaytress]

It's a populist move, but crime coming down might be at the expense of unbridled dictatorship (read, corruption).

I cannot completely disagree with you buwaytress, and there surely is a bit of injustice in terms of potential lack of due process - yet I have my doubts that there is a complete lack of due process, but perhaps a bit of a "desperate times call for desperate measures," and perhaps it takes a long time to process cases, and surely a lot of injustices have likely already occurred due to lack of process and perhaps will continue to keep occurring due to how long that it might take to process cases, and even the fact that some of the lock ups might be on shaky grounds to prevent crimes rather than for crimes that have had already happened.. so yeah, I am bothered by some of those kinds of matters too.. .  

And, I am not going to proclaim to know all of the details, and surely I am bothered by the extent of sweeping that seems to have had taken place.. and I would also be concerned about making sure that there might be resources to process cases and to even release folks.. and yeah it is bothersome in regards to merely being in a gang or being affiliated would not generally tend to be enough to cause someone to automatically be guilty of a crime.. and again, I don't claim to know enough of the circumstances to presume that some variation of what Bukele did might have had been justified given the extent of the corruption and shake downs that seemed to have had been taking place on regular folks trying to carry out businesses or to live their regular lives prior to the sweep.

Yeah, I don't know the details either, but I am following some of it a little more than most. We in Southeast Asia had a similar "experiment" with organised crime in the Philippines -- the ex president Duterte basically gave free reign to citizens, urging them to deal swiftly and violently with criminals. A period marked by increased extra-judicial killings, it also received widespread approval.

But now he's out and the "war" on drugs is relenting, things will resume after a while. And that's for me proof that you got to deal with underlying issues -- what caused that narcostate situation in the first place. And that's corruption, mainly, and the unwillingness to put the state as accountable.

Anyway, as I said also, I'm more likely than not to support hardline stance. Lesser of evils? A few innocents for the many?

It's just for me somewhat incongruent with what Bukele says he wants for his people with Bitcoin...

All that bitcoin won't be of any use if one man (or a few) get to decide what to do with it -- remember it was bought with public funds. Need to see proof that those coins are accounted for and transparently audited, with access in hands of the elected.

For sure, Bukele is supposed to be acting within the public interest with public funds that he uses to buy and accumulate bitcoin on behalf of El Salvador, so for sure, it would be a calamity if he were to either rug pull or to escape with the coins - yet at the same time, there may well be a certain level of justification too, in regards to his attempting some levels of secrecy.. especially given the international rhetoric that may well attempt to compromise the security of those coins that he supposedly purchased on behalf of El Salvador.

Of course, agree. But on one hand, announcing buys on Twitter, and then on another signing off on multi-million dollar contracts with service providers we now know weren't exactly kosher. I see that secrecy benefiting those that have more than those that don't have.

And, as in the case of Duterte... continuity is important. If Bitcoin is to succeed there, it has to be the will of the people, not the will of a man, or a few men.