El Salvador plan to make BTC legal tender

[paxmao]

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.

[BIT-BENDER]

This is a great news, and if actualized it may bridge the gap between government and bitcoin, although this topic was posted on the bitcoin discussion earlier. Here is the link

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5133015.msg57167333#msg57167333
And since then I have been following the news update, and as of now I don't think it has been passed into law, but just the enthusiasm from the El Salvador president is a good encouragement for bitcoiners especially those in that country.

[fiulpro]

Now the thing is, BTC would slowly grow in the future and even if it did not they would succeed in collecting the experimental data of the Crypto community being integrated as a whole in a state, which would help the government for the long run. There is no benefit of the government is not willing to take chances and help their own people. I know it would definitely attract a lot of criticism from other people and governmental bodies but this is necessary, one cannot always expect the fiat to keep going strong, it also have some flaws and they did not make it a national currency etc. They just made it a legal tender which I honestly think is long overdue.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

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.

[NeuroticFish]

I can't tell it's a great news, but it's an interesting news nevertheless.
It's interesting because it's a "good news" about Bitcoin and may convince other countries go on that path (although I do have my doubts).
I won't call it great news because I get on the daily basis news about politicians planning to do this and that, of which very few actually get to get implemented. So it will become a much better news when it'll say "<country name> has just made BTC legal tender".

[danherbias07]

I found out about this news last night and was thinking about it all day.
"Trying" This might be the reason why it didn't reflect with the market. It is just a proposal up until now.
There are even rumors that the President of El Salvador bought Bitcoin at a high price like $60k per piece that's why he is creating a new hype for a pump.
Elon Musk victim.

But I don't believe that rumor. Thanks to BIT-BENDER sharing the old thread.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5342169.msg57171592#msg57171592
It had been proposed years ago and they are just re-opening it because there is no movement about it. What could be the best time to resurface it? Yes, it's now. Counter the effects of what the billionaire did dumping his bitcoins while the issue is still hot.

[crwth]

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.

This part is quite confusing to me. It's redundant. I don't believe that currency should work like that. It gives more power to those who control it and it's just centralized at that point. It won't preserve the current value if it continued to print.

Anyway, I still want every type of support to BTC so that more and more people would understand how it should be. It's still early to tell but it's good to continue buying BTC for the long run.

[Argoo]

Now many states have already legalized cryptocurrency, and this means that in them cryptocurrency has become a legal tender and a means of making a profit, and therefore such activities in many states are taxed, or they are going to do it in the future.
The President of El Salvador is actually trying to make bitcoin the main means of payment in this country. Since there is no national currency there, it is quite possible to use bitcoin for this purpose during some transition period. However, in the future, El Salvador will still have to think about its own national money, since this is how it is possible to raise the economy of the state.

[Vishnu.Reang]

It is great news, but I could see some complexities. The vast majority of the Salvadorian expats live and work in the United States. And cryptocurrency regulations are quite strict in the US. For example, each and every transaction needs to be reported to the IRS, while filing the tax return. So if someone originally from El Salvador wish to send remittance to his family back home, there is a hell lot of paper work involved. Anyway, this is where PayPal could be useful. They have recently approved cryptocurrency withdrawals to third party wallets. So the expat could just purchase BTC using fiat, and then withdraw it to a wallet back home.

[just_Alice]

Great! I'm actually surprised that El Salvador will be the first one, I expected such a move more of African countries, or somewhere in Europe.
The president is right that legislation will attract investors, but I don't see how will that create new jobs.
This is interesting, let's wait to see what Congress will have to say on this matter.

[jossiel]

Good job El Salvador and with that declaration I think that there's no longer tax on it as I've said on a tweet. If there's no more tax on El Salvador I think it's going to be the next bitcoin/crypto haven, a country that's fully welcomed bitcoin.

It's a dream come true for the bitcoin community and finally aside from those countries that welcomed bitcoin and didn't imposed a ban. We've got El Salvador that treats it as a legal tender. Another achievement has been unlocked. 

[Kittygalore]

Great! I'm actually surprised that El Salvador will be the first one, I expected such a move more of African countries, or somewhere in Europe.
The president is right that legislation will attract investors, but I don't see how will that create new jobs.
This is interesting, let's wait to see what Congress will have to say on this matter.

That's my expectations though since Africa has been a big crypto hub for awhile now but this is a pleasant surprise that a Central American country is going to be the first of the many to initiate something innovative and controversial.

[ven7net]

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.

Indeed, this is great news for Bitcoin and the entire crypto community. But this did not happen for a reason. With its foreign policy, the United States itself contributed to the fact that many countries of the world began to look for a replacement for the US dollar and, of course, this news from El Salvador is the result of this policy. I will say more, many large countries are already using BTC and other cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services. So this kind of news is the beginning of the introduction of BTC and crypto in the world as finance in exchange for the US dollar.

[cheezcarls]

This is indeed a history in the making where the government is making Bitcoin a legal tender, while most of the countries worldwide are classifying it as a security along with the other altcoins. It’s not easy for other countries to follow suit, as they are not ready to fully accept Bitcoin as legal tender in open arms.

[bryant.coleman]

This is indeed a history in the making where the government is making Bitcoin a legal tender, while most of the countries worldwide are classifying it as a security along with the other altcoins. It’s not easy for other countries to follow suit, as they are not ready to fully accept Bitcoin as legal tender in open arms.

Acceptance as a legal tender is a bit too much to expect. The step from El Salvador really surprised me. It would be unthinkable in most of the countries, as making cryptocurrency legal tender would make it a direct competitor to the national currency. And in case of countries with weak national currencies, it can lead to fiat inflation. I don't really expect the other countries to follow El Salvador's example, at least not in the near future. Also, it needs to be seen whether El Salvador implements this measure without any obstacles.

[aysg76]

Also heard about this news from another thread in bitcoin discussion topic the other day and was happy to see a government making btc as legal tender and keeping it as reserve assest.El Salvador is a country where most of people don't have bank account but 146% mobile phones meaning 1.46 mobile phones per person which is why Bitcoin is best suited for them according to them.Moreover the market cap of Bitcoin can give boost to their economy with investment in Bitcoin is other factor of attraction for them.They have taken a bold step for which they will have good returns in future as revenue from taxation will also increase and infrastructural development can be made in the country.It's good to hear such news which can push btc prices upwards even if the percentage is less.

[oHnK]

This is interesting news for crypto enthusiast. Finally, there is a country which is serious to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender for the government currency. Indeed, this will not give much difference for market because this is just a little country which have only 6.516.498 population.

The population of the country is only 2% of US population. But, this will be a history for Bitcoin milestone. I'm not really surprised if Elsavador has a pretty out of the box state discourse because they have a president who is still relatively young and can see a lot of potential that not all presidents have.  Why did the government draft a law related to the ratification of BTC because 70% of the country's population does not have a bank account, because the majority of the population is unbanked so that with BTC, this will make it easier for people to have a better financial system in the future.  There is no requirement to have a BTC wallet, unlike banks which have to have many requirements to open it.

This is an example of using BTC as an economic driver for the poor in a small country.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/el-salvador-population

[Nhazwrath]

Great news,  And I encourage El Salvador to attempt to break mangle and corrupt bitcoin as their money!

Why you might ask?


Very simple.   Have you invented all ways to mess with money?  I know I haven't.  So while everyone who says "bitcoin will fix everything!"

I am more sciency about this! lets find all the ways we are wrong.  And fix them if possible.   I am very very much a freemarket of ideas. Bitcoin needs true testing the only way it gets that is heavy application of Reality meets Idea situations.

SO lets GO EL  Salvador.  Do ET!

For science!  of course.

[Bitstar_coin]

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.

[Renampun]

el Salvador even though it is a small country in the eyes of the world but a very big country in my eyes...

Being the first country in the world to make Bitcoin a legal tender was not an easy decision. The big countries around ES will definitely try to disturb them. but I believe the president of El Salvador is a wise man, he knows Bitcoin is the 'way of freedom'