El Salvador plan to make BTC legal tender

[uneng]

For small poor countries it's a smart move to adopt bitcoin as currency, because they have nothing to lose. For this reason the volatility is an acceptable risk to be taken. On the other hand, if more countries like El Salvador adopt bitcoin as well, the volatility tends to decrease along the time, as millions of people will be consistently entering this ecosystem to deal with bitcoin in a daily basis.
I hope these news coming from El Salvador aren't just propaganda and that the legislative house accepts the president's proposal to make bitcoin official there. The world will be watching this crypto experience closely.

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[Vatimins]

A credible outlet and others have given credit to this news. El Salvador is one of the Central America countries that could be considered a failed state. Little rule of law, an immense number of gangs with thousands of members... The president is probably not the best economist out there, but he may be right in choosing bitcoin as legal tender and even right on the reasons to choose it. After all, having a currency only works if you can print a lot of it and preserves its value and nowadays those are only the USD, EUR, RNM and perhaps the sterling pound to a point.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57373058

The current legal tender, USD, is managed by the FED and ultimately by the US government and perhaps is justified to change that to a decentralised network that has less political motivations under certain perspective.

     I feel sad for the people there. I wish the politicians would do more to improve the quality of life in El Salvador for the sake of it's people specially the children. Although I am impressed by this innovative step, I still do not think that this is enough to fix the economy. If the government does nothing about this and continue to turn a blind eye to the issues at hand, even bitcoin or any other crypto currency won't be able to do much to improve the lives of the people there. I hope the president understands this well and care enough for his fellow countrymen to actually act now.

[Harlot]

For small poor countries it's a smart move to adopt bitcoin as currency, because they have nothing to lose. For this reason the volatility is an acceptable risk to be taken. On the other hand, if more countries like El Salvador adopt bitcoin as well, the volatility tends to decrease along the time, as millions of people will be consistently entering this ecosystem to deal with bitcoin in a daily basis.
I hope these news coming from El Salvador aren't just propaganda and that the legislative house accepts the president's proposal to make bitcoin official there. The world will be watching this crypto experience closely.

El Salvador has been using the US dollar long before Venezuela and if this happens Bitcoin will also be a legal tender together with the US dollar. With that being said I don't think that their citizens will be inclined in choosing a volatile currency like Bitcoin as their main mode of payment as compared to just using USD for their daily transactions. The recognition of Bitcoin will just give them an option but they will most likely see it as an investment rather than a currency. This will also depend if how the businesses will react to this kind of change whether or not they are prepared to adopt Bitcoin as a mode of payment.

[tyz]

Just did some little research after I read the news. On the one hand, it is good to see the first country calling Bitcoin a official payment option. On the other hand, El Salvador is a small country where cash is pretty widespread because the infrastructure for bank or mobile payments are pretty bad and underdeveloped. Thus, the question will be to what extent the vast majority in the country will be able to use Bitcoin or pay with it at all.
It may be an option for tourists, but whether the acceptance in the country itself will be so great, I dare to doubt.

[joniboini]

Overall the reception is quite good, but the price doesn't move much, probably because it's a small country. That being said, it seems like more countries (especially the small ones) are following El Savador in this move. Just read that Portugal is following the same steps, but it's still a rumour. Not surprised if more rumours come up and being recycled later on, just like the China fud news.

[bryant.coleman]

Overall the reception is quite good, but the price doesn't move much, probably because it's a small country. That being said, it seems like more countries (especially the small ones) are following El Savador in this move. Just read that Portugal is following the same steps, but it's still a rumour. Not surprised if more rumours come up and being recycled later on, just like the China fud news.

The price didn't move much. That is not because El Salvador is a small country, but because it is just an informal statement. We don't know whether the president (Nayib Bukele) is serious about it. I hope that he is serious and will introduce the bill in the parliament, but from what I heard he has a history of flip-flops. And getting the bill passed in the parliament is not going to be easy. As we all know, the politicians form one of the most Bitcoin-skeptic group of people in the world.

[Silberman]

A credible outlet and others have given credit to this news. El Salvador is one of the Central America countries that could be considered a failed state. Little rule of law, an immense number of gangs with thousands of members... The president is probably not the best economist out there, but he may be right in choosing bitcoin as legal tender and even right on the reasons to choose it. After all, having a currency only works if you can print a lot of it and preserves its value and nowadays those are only the USD, EUR, RNM and perhaps the sterling pound to a point.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57373058

The current legal tender, USD, is managed by the FED and ultimately by the US government and perhaps is justified to change that to a decentralised network that has less political motivations under certain perspective.

Even if El Salvador is a small country this is good news, big and powerful countries may admit that bitcoin is an asset and try to regulate it as such but El Salvador is taking a step further and making it legal tender, obviously I do not think this means they are going to replace the US dollar as their main currency but maybe we will begin to see some regulation which is attractive to businesses related to cryptocurrencies and maybe some exchanges may decide to move their offices there.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

El Salvador has been using the US dollar long before Venezuela and if this happens Bitcoin will also be a legal tender together with the US dollar. With that being said I don't think that their citizens will be inclined in choosing a volatile currency like Bitcoin as their main mode of payment as compared to just using USD for their daily transactions. The recognition of Bitcoin will just give them an option but they will most likely see it as an investment rather than a currency. This will also depend if how the businesses will react to this kind of change whether or not they are prepared to adopt Bitcoin as a mode of payment.

So they are having issues with their economic structure and so is the reason they are using Bitcoin as a legal tender hopefully to overcome the inflation or economic situation. There are many countries that are struggling to overcome inflation and other economic situations and those governments can come up with the plan of using Bitcoin as well as legal tender.

[qwertyup23]

They can probably just use both, it's a difficult task to convert the population of El Salvador from using fiat to using cryptocurrencies because there's going to be some people that will be left behind because it's not like El Salvador is poverty free country. But nevertheless, both options will always be beneficial for bitcoin.

That is exactly the reason on what hinders a full-blown implementation of BTC as a valid legal tender.

In order for someone to use their BTC for transactions, it is essential that they either have a hardware wallet or at least an electronic gadget in which your coins are stored. Unfortunately, almost majority of the population of the world still live under poverty which lacks the access to this kind of technology.

Seeing that El Salvador has plans to make BTC as legal tender is definitely good news for long-term usage. Other countries might also mimic this move as BTC may be the future of transactions.

[boumalo]

Imagine if Salvador becomes wealthy bc it adopts Bitcoin, the free market and low taxes that will attract wealth and entrepreneurs.

[Xinarae*]

It's a very good plan that El Salvador plans to have a BTC legal tender but it's a very small country and a lot of people may have no idea about bitcoin. This can take a long time but he plans to submit a bill next week to recognize El Salvador’s bitcoin as a legal tender at the bitcoin 2021 conference in miami bitcoin is the greatest reserve asset of all time and a superior financial network. Holding bitcoin provides a way to protect the developing economy from the potential impact of fiat currency inflation.

[Sithara007]

Even if El Salvador is a small country this is good news, big and powerful countries may admit that bitcoin is an asset and try to regulate it as such but El Salvador is taking a step further and making it legal tender, obviously I do not think this means they are going to replace the US dollar as their main currency but maybe we will begin to see some regulation which is attractive to businesses related to cryptocurrencies and maybe some exchanges may decide to move their offices there.

A few countries in Latin America have now resorted to use the US Dollar as the national currency, because they are unable to control the devaluation of the national currency. Apart from El Salvador, Ecuador is one of the countries that have made USD as the legal tender. And in El Salvador, US Dollar is legal tender since 2001. In theory, the Salvadoran Colon is the national currency, but it is very rarely used nowadays (and I guess no longer printed). I guess Venezuela would also do the same, in the near future.

[uneng]

For small poor countries it's a smart move to adopt bitcoin as currency, because they have nothing to lose. For this reason the volatility is an acceptable risk to be taken. On the other hand, if more countries like El Salvador adopt bitcoin as well, the volatility tends to decrease along the time, as millions of people will be consistently entering this ecosystem to deal with bitcoin in a daily basis.
I hope these news coming from El Salvador aren't just propaganda and that the legislative house accepts the president's proposal to make bitcoin official there. The world will be watching this crypto experience closely.

El Salvador has been using the US dollar long before Venezuela and if this happens Bitcoin will also be a legal tender together with the US dollar. With that being said I don't think that their citizens will be inclined in choosing a volatile currency like Bitcoin as their main mode of payment as compared to just using USD for their daily transactions. The recognition of Bitcoin will just give them an option but they will most likely see it as an investment rather than a currency. This will also depend if how the businesses will react to this kind of change whether or not they are prepared to adopt Bitcoin as a mode of payment.

Well, by using dollar as official currency they are already much better than most america's countries. Since they have the dollar stability probably bitcoin will be mainly used as investment, like you said. As I see, the idea of adopting bitcoin by El Salvador's president is due to the fact the country has considerable percentage of its income coming from foreigner countries (probably people native from El Salvador who live in USA and other countries sending money monthly to their relatives) being heavily taxed by banks. They saw in bitcoin a potential solution for this issue, so people can send money from any place of the world paying less fees, avoiding the eager banks' taxes.

[Birb]

This is exciting news and they will be the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender! All of these steps add up for mass adoption! 

[magneto]

Makes a lot of sense if your current legal tender currency is foreign anyway.

But honestly, legal tender status means next to nothing. No one goes to court these days to settle debts. Actual adoption will still depend on grassroots interest as opposed to any sort of bureaucratic legalese.

Though, I do expect BTC being incorporated into a lot of countries' reserve asset portfolios. That is a real possibility given its status of a store of value that has emerged in recent years.

[Haunebu]

Honestly, I have never heard of this country before though it is good to hear more and more countries recognising and accepting BTC as a legal currency regardless of whether the country is a small or big country.

Drops add up to form an ocean basically. I hope this positive chain-reaction that is helping improve BTC adoption rates continues for a long time in the future.

[kesmex]

Honestly, I have never heard of this country before though it is good to hear more and more countries recognising and accepting BTC as a legal currency regardless of whether the country is a small or big country.

Drops add up to form an ocean basically. I hope this positive chain-reaction that is helping improve BTC adoption rates continues for a long time in the future.

It's almost the same as you because that country is not as popular as other big countries, so I think it's only natural that we don't know him.
but apart from that the steps taken by the country by legalizing cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin as legal tender, of course it was good and quite surprised me,
We'll see if other countries will follow suit or not

[Ucy]

A credible outlet and others have given credit to this news. El Salvador is one of the Central America countries that could be considered a failed state. Little rule of law, an immense number of gangs with thousands of members... The president is probably not the best economist out there, but he may be right in choosing bitcoin as legal tender and even right on the reasons to choose it. After all, having a currency only works if you can print a lot of it and preserves its value and nowadays those are only the USD, EUR, RNM and perhaps the sterling pound to a point.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57373058

The current legal tender, USD, is managed by the FED and ultimately by the US government and perhaps is justified to change that to a decentralised network that has less political motivations under certain perspective.

Interesting.

In regards to the bolded, That would be typical paper fiat currencies. Does not really preserve value long-term.
If we use Gold as money (or other similar things) that's are difficult to print or requires hardwork to print "a lot of it" their supply will be limited and the money won't be losing value like it typically happens with paper fiat.
Gold or others like it will be good Store of Value for users mainly because their price would increase long-term, making holders more valuable money rather than less. Typical modern currencies tend to make holders/savers less money long-term even if interest is paid.

[bryant.coleman]

We all need to remember one thing. This is not the first time that El Salvador has made a foreign currency as the legal tender. Back in 2001, as a part of dollarization, they gave that status to the United States Dollar. And ever since then, the national currency (Salvadoran Colon) has become more or less obsolete. So in case they make Bitcoin as the legal tender (which they haven't done yet), then there will be three currencies with the status of legal tender in El Salvador - Salvadoran Colon, US Dollar and Bitcoin.

[palle11]

So by making btc the legal tender of that state means that every citizen will be using btc as means of transaction, am wondering how this will happen with all the possible challenges that could happen like the lack of understanding of using btc, the possibility that many of the people will be prone to scam and phishing site while trying to shop online and all that, that will also means everyone one will be have the knowledge to operate a smart device and understand how crypto and blockchain works.
it is good news but there will be lots of challenges.

Yes this will definitely be a challenge for such country that isn't really technically advanced. For the beginning, the masses with less knowledge will suffer not only about trying to understand and use bitcoin but there will be alot of scam and phishing as you have pointed also. But on the long effect, bitcoin adoption will keep raising with this kind of news anyway.