El Salvador retirees protest against Bitcoin as legal tender

[el kaka22]

I am not entirely sure if I am understanding this correctly or not, maybe it is just me and I would like it if someone explains to me what the problem is all about. I personally thought that this was given as an option to people who live there, if it is an option then why are they going against it? If you are a retired person who doesn't want anything to do with bitcoin then all you have to do is ignore it? I mean if it is just an option then do not pick that option. Don't they have their own currency as well?

Also do not get me started on volatility, it usually goes up and it made everyone a lot of money if they stand here and not sell their coins whereas the fiat currency in every nation dropped in value by a large margin, so it is a good thing even for a retired person, they would have been richer. If it is just an option then why are they not ignoring it, could someone explain that to me please?

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[Sterbens]

While I don't deny that this kind of things may not be explained well enough for the elder people, I'm not sure what the government can do.
The posters they held show that they clearly prefer to listen to certain old narratives than government.

More attention? Bitcoin will not be compulsory, so if they don't want it they can avoid it without making so much noise. They've even got some free money, but nobody forces them use that.
I think that it's all politics in this "protest" and Bitcoin is just caught in the middle. By far not a "fair complaint" imho.

By concern I mean in the sense that the government must also continue to provide broad insight, not only the sector of entrepreneurs, investors, traders, but every element that has not fully supported Bitcoin as a legal payment. Bitcoin is not mandatory, well I know they are even given money for free as a form of regulatory proof that Bitcoin is only an alternative with a valid license to be used there without compromising the use of money that has been used before.

Back to El Salvador, that at this stage they will surely be successful in implementing this, and the things that are the issues or some of the protests are the obstacles. first used as an evaluation that Bitcoin has an advantage.

[uneng]

I am not entirely sure if I am understanding this correctly or not, maybe it is just me and I would like it if someone explains to me what the problem is all about. I personally thought that this was given as an option to people who live there, if it is an option then why are they going against it? If you are a retired person who doesn't want anything to do with bitcoin then all you have to do is ignore it? I mean if it is just an option then do not pick that option. Don't they have their own currency as well?

Also do not get me started on volatility, it usually goes up and it made everyone a lot of money if they stand here and not sell their coins whereas the fiat currency in every nation dropped in value by a large margin, so it is a good thing even for a retired person, they would have been richer. If it is just an option then why are they not ignoring it, could someone explain that to me please?

I've seen these protesters are afraid of receving their pensions and welfare in bitcoin futurely, so they want to make sure the government keeps the payments in dollar (the country doesn't have local currency), while demonstrating their insatisfaction with the digital currency and the low value of pensions paid to retired citizens by the government.
But of course, I think this protest is following a political agenda from the establishment which isn't confortable with the change in the financial system. The statement from supreme court of justice's member presented in OP gives a good clue about it. It really doesn't make much sense to say no to Bitcoin since no one is being forced to adopt it.
The man below was selling badanas during the protest. Since the main complaint of the protest was poor pensions, lack of decent income for veterans and pensioners, I suppose he didn't profit a lot... Or is there anyone sponsoring protests like this to uneducate the population regards bitcoin?

Bitcoin law protests break out in El Salvador as Central American neighbours wait to see its success

[BITCOIN4X]

~Snip

Why are you quoting the OP everything, just quote the part you need to comment on and it's better than quoting the whole thing.

~Snip

Two reasons I can take from your post are:
1. Lack of information or knowledge about bitcoin among the public.
2. Bitcoin price volatility

The two plausible reasons above are the things that determine why some people refuse and protest. I can't find any source as a reason to claim that the government of El Salvador has forced its people to use bitcoin as a legal tender. Everyone can still choose their preferred means of payment including USD or whatever they use all the time. Stompix has explained well how they should get financial freedom including whether or not people agree to use bitcoin even though it is currently legalized by the government.

Not sure about the money laundering argument.  I'm sure it happens, but that's not a valid argument against it IMO.

Abuse can occur with any currency including bitcoin. The government can control abuse by implementing a KYC system. But in the end the people of El Salvador can choose what currency they like. Bitcoin have never forced them to be used as currency. The government can only offer the best solution for a new payment system with bitcoin and the rest of society can decide. Everything takes time and the process of adaptation.

[iv4n]

I am not entirely sure if I am understanding this correctly or not, maybe it is just me and I would like it if someone explains to me what the problem is all about. I personally thought that this was given as an option to people who live there, if it is an option then why are they going against it? If you are a retired person who doesn't want anything to do with bitcoin then all you have to do is ignore it? I mean if it is just an option then do not pick that option. Don't they have their own currency as well?

Also do not get me started on volatility, it usually goes up and it made everyone a lot of money if they stand here and not sell their coins whereas the fiat currency in every nation dropped in value by a large margin, so it is a good thing even for a retired person, they would have been richer. If it is just an option then why are they not ignoring it, could someone explain that to me please?

I would say it's a result of propaganda! Old people believe that Bitcoin is used for illegal activities, and now probably these old people think that allowing Bitcoin to be a legal tender will draw people from criminal circles! So now these old people are just protesting against new regulations because they don't see any benefits for them directly! They don't understand crypto, they want something in their wallets! And can we blame them?! It's something new that they don't understand, maybe they feel like left behind again, and they are protesting... as the last chance to change something for them!

[Shenzou]

the people that are protesting against bitcoin and they still believe that it is used for money laundering that they should have an audit on their income and belonging, because the only people who would go against it have some kind of profit of some transactions going unnoticed, because will transaction being on the blockchain people can see what money goes to whom and that makes any big transaction to be seen and inspected,

[Wind_FURY]

The protests are growing in support.



That is a DEPRESSING picture. But OP, you’re wrong. They are NOT “protesting against Bitcoin”, they’re protesting against the laws that FORCE them to accept Bitcoin. I already said it in another thread that accepting Bitcoin legal tender is OK, but forcing the people to accept it without giving them the right to say “NO” will be a problem. El Salvador should let Bitcoin be used in its own merit.

[Taskford]

The protests are growing in support.

That is a DEPRESSING picture. But OP, you’re wrong. They are NOT “protesting against Bitcoin”, they’re protesting against the laws that FORCE them to accept Bitcoin. I already said it in another thread that accepting Bitcoin legal tender is OK, but forcing the people to accept it without giving them the right to say “NO” will be a problem. El Salvador should let Bitcoin be used in its own merit.

They didn't see the effect by its usage to there people and implementing it as mandatory option is totally a bad  thing to those people who didn't know about new tech the same like that, old people for sure cannot take the risk and imagine on what will happen to them if they see their money melting due to market bad behavior so government needs to revise the implementation and don't force their citizen to use bitcoin make them decide its either they want or not since once bitcoin circulates successfully in the country for sure those who are not into bitcoins will get interest to try if they see their neighbors earning a lot of money for using bitcoins.

[jakdanyel]

Hasn't El Salvador already made Bitcoin legal tender? Because I've heard that they did it long time ago. And it is not surprising to see that there are Bitcoin antagonists. It looks like their number will never go down to zero. I wonder if Bitcoin price wasn't too volatile, would they still oppose it? Because whoever I see as a Bitcoin antagonist says that the volatility is the biggest factor for not makin it legal tender.

[tygeade]

The problem with some people is that they never take their time to learn about something before they start making their comments. All they do is just to create assumptions about the market, which is totally wrong. I have met people who think that bitcoin is bad and by the time I ask them a few questions I come to realize that they have not done any research to really understand bitcoin, rather they are saying that based on what they were told, which is totally wrong. They are meant to take their time and research about it to verify that what they are told is true.

So, the problem with most of these people is just ignorance.Although I am not trying to say that everyone must like bitcoin, but before they criticize or do anything, they should know what they are criticizing.

[Questat]

Hasn't El Salvador already made Bitcoin legal tender? Because I've heard that they did it long time ago. And it is not surprising to see that there are Bitcoin antagonists. It looks like their number will never go down to zero. I wonder if Bitcoin price wasn't too volatile, would they still oppose it? Because whoever I see as a Bitcoin antagonist says that the volatility is the biggest factor for not makin it legal tender.

It has been approved by Congress and made a bill already. But the problem is that the government is somewhat forcing the people to use Bitcoin which makes people out in rallying. They have the rights as well and this is actually hasn't be made like that.
Yeah, I don't tend to agree with such a thing as it is just likes killing our freedom to choose, in fact, the use of Bitcoin is only optional.

[verita1]

El Salvador like all countries has a side of people who oppose the government that is the reason for the anti-bitcoin protests.
If we saw it as if the Bitcoin law of El Salvador was being enforced in our countries, we would also see movements like these.
It is sad and unfortunately because it is the future of young people that are at stake, it is the first thing that comes to mind because we know that bitcoin represents the solution to many liquidity problems, it can also minimize corruption where it is implemented.

"This will be what happens on September 7: People will be able to download an application to receive payments or gifts in Bitcoin or US dollars. If they want they will download the app, and if they don't want to, no," I have tweeted today.

That app is the country’s official Bitcoin digital wallet, called Chivo.

https://decrypt.co/79209/el-salvadors-president-insists-bitcoin-use-will-not-be-mandatory?amp=1

[Sithara007]

Hasn't El Salvador already made Bitcoin legal tender? Because I've heard that they did it long time ago. And it is not surprising to see that there are Bitcoin antagonists. It looks like their number will never go down to zero. I wonder if Bitcoin price wasn't too volatile, would they still oppose it? Because whoever I see as a Bitcoin antagonist says that the volatility is the biggest factor for not makin it legal tender.

New technologies will always face opposition. I will tell you one story. When one of the companies import a computer for the first time in India (if I remember correctly, that was in the late 80s), the communist party workers destroyed the company office in protest. They claimed that computers will result in unemployment. Three decades have passed, and the daughter of the sole remaining communist party chief minister is now the head of an IT company. Same will happen in El Salvador. Those who oppose Bitcoin today will be the biggest proponents of it tomorrow.

[zanezane]

What are they gonna do? Raise their canes and rally in the streets with their crutches? These people don't know what they're talking about, the money laundering angle has been used already but they still use that card? It's like bitcoin started the business of laundering money. Just so you know people who still believes that bitcoin can be used for laundering money, there's an advancement in cyber crime prevention where they can track the suspicious transactions and bitcoin makes their job much more easier.

[Argoo]

To begin with, El- Salvador is a democratic nation and not a Monarchy . So their people have legal rights to protest against anything. So whenever a country tries to being in big change into any field, protest happens! These protests are either natural or ignited by the opposition. The second one seems the case here!

Also I don't think El-Salvador has made bitcoin mandatory. I don't think they have forced their employees to get salary in bitcoin. So if that is not the case, then I don't see any legit reason to hold such protests. That's why the connection with the opposition party seems more obvious.

In my opinion, the introduction of bitcoin as the national currency of El Salvador will begin only this month. The population does not yet have any experience in using bitcoin as a national currency. However, everything new is often not accepted by people, especially when it comes to finances and people of retirement age. This category of people wants peace of mind, not experimentation and the dedication of a significant amount of their time in order to figure out how to use this new financial phenomenon for them. This is still the first impression of people. Let's see what will happen next. The whole world is watching this experiment of the El Salvadorian authorities.

[Poker Player]

The protests are growing in support.



That is a DEPRESSING picture. But OP, you’re wrong. They are NOT “protesting against Bitcoin”, they’re protesting against the laws that FORCE them to accept Bitcoin. I already said it in another thread that accepting Bitcoin legal tender is OK, but forcing the people to accept it without giving them the right to say “NO” will be a problem. El Salvador should let Bitcoin be used in its own merit.

I don't agree with that. In every country in the world they force us to accept Fiat, they force us to pay taxes with Fiat, so for a country to do the same with Bitcoin seems great to me.

And the photo you put is a laugh, it is not the first one I see of "massive" protests and there's hardly a soul.

[Wind_FURY]

The protests are growing in support.



That is a DEPRESSING picture. But OP, you’re wrong. They are NOT “protesting against Bitcoin”, they’re protesting against the laws that FORCE them to accept Bitcoin. I already said it in another thread that accepting Bitcoin legal tender is OK, but forcing the people to accept it without giving them the right to say “NO” will be a problem. El Salvador should let Bitcoin be used in its own merit.

I don't agree with that. In every country in the world they force us to accept Fiat, they force us to pay taxes with Fiat, so for a country to do the same with Bitcoin seems great to me.

And the photo you put is a laugh, it is not the first one I see of "massive" protests and there's hardly a soul.

It doesn’t mean that if what the state/government is forcing you to use is Bitcoin, it’s an automatic “OK” decision. The point was no state should force Bitcoin on ANYONE, but let the people use it for its merits.

Did I say “massive” protests? I said it was growing. Pictures shown were from different parts of El Salvador.

[Arvin01]

We know that the value of Bitcoin will get higher and higher. But some old people still don't understand.
They have not been exposed to Bitcoin, and they still choose fiat currency in their hearts.

[arwin100]

We know that the value of Bitcoin will get higher and higher. But some old people still don't understand.
They have not been exposed to Bitcoin, and they still choose fiat currency in their hearts.

No that's not true bitcoin will not go higher and higher as we also need to consider the volatility that's why many freakin out when bitcoin goes dump. And its hard for old people to understand the technology since not everyone have high tolerance for losing a value for their hold money on their wallets so I agree with others that they should not force to use this as many citizen doesn't really understand bitcoin maybe they should set certain timeline regarding and do frequent informational guide so that there citizens will understand the new currencies accepted on  their country.

[Poker Player]

It doesn’t mean that if what the state/government is forcing you to use is Bitcoin, it’s an automatic “OK” decision. The point was no state should force Bitcoin on ANYONE, but let the people use it for its merits.

Yes but my point was that no state should force Fiat on anyone either, that's what they do and I don't see many people complaining about it. I don't see people using the Fiat for its "merits" either, apart from the fact that this is what is accepted as payment.

Did I say “massive” protests? I said it was growing. Pictures shown were from different parts of El Salvador.

No, you didn't.

Besides, it seems to me that protests will be closely linked to the price. If it goes up a lot, no one will protest, as soon as there is a drop, there will probably be protests again. It shouldn't be like that, and Bitcoin should be valued for its intrinsic properties but it seems to me that's what's going to happen.