Tonga to copy El Salvador’s bill making Bitcoin legal tender, says former MP

[Imran232]

Another domino is lined up to fall down the route to Bitcoinization. On Wednesday, a former lawmaker of the Pacific island nation of Tonga shared a play-by-play approach to adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender.

In a series of tweets, Lord Fusitu’a, a former member of parliament for Tonga, released an ETA for Bitcoin becoming legal tender in Tonga. Copying El Salvador’s playbook, the move could onboard more than 100,000 Tongans onto the Bitcoin network.

In his five-point plan, the chairman of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption describes the adoption path:




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Whats your opinion about this news? Is this another ATH bullish news?

I suggest everyone to read the full news to know all details. Thank you.

[jackg]

If it does take until November to be adopted then we mightve seen another crash and a rethink by then.

Realistically a crash might be a good thing, especially because the fees will be lower so the residents there can test out the network better and send transactions through it for cheaper.

It'll still likely take a long time for both countries to fully accept bitcoin too (I haven't seen a time estimate on anything to do with that too - for example getting banks to accept cryptos). .

[Abiky]

Another domino is lined up to fall down the route to Bitcoinization. On Wednesday, a former lawmaker of the Pacific island nation of Tonga shared a play-by-play approach to adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender.

In a series of tweets, Lord Fusitu’a, a former member of parliament for Tonga, released an ETA for Bitcoin becoming legal tender in Tonga. Copying El Salvador’s playbook, the move could onboard more than 100,000 Tongans onto the Bitcoin network.

In his five-point plan, the chairman of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption describes the adoption path:
...

Whats your opinion about this news? Is this another ATH bullish news?

I suggest everyone to read the full news to know all details. Thank you.

Slowly but surely, we're on a path towards "hyperbitcoinization". El Salvador was the "trigger" for other countries to do the same in the future. Tonga considering the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender is certainly good news to long-term "hodlers" like myself. If more countries join the game, then Fiat might die for good. The real challenge would be getting people to use Bitcoin as an everyday currency, especially when not everyone is tech-savvy enough to do this. If governments want to encourage the use of digital currencies, then they need to provide the tools and education necessary to make it happen. Otherwise, crypto adoption will stall. Either governments around the world fully embrace Bitcoin as Fiat's successor or simply switch to CBDCs altogether. No matter what happens, Bitcoin will be here to stay thanks to its decentralized and censorship-resistant design. Just my opinion

[stompix]

If it does take until November to be adopted then we mightve seen another crash and a rethink by then.

When I saw

October/November goes to parliament. Passed!

I tough it the bill was already introduced and voted for, I'm quite puzzled, why does it take till October to submit it to the Parliament if you're so sure it will pass? So it takes 2 months for all the legal procedures but 10 months to draft the bill?

In 2021, it was widely speculated that Tonga would become one of the next countries to adopt BTC as legal tender. Speculation reached a fever peak following a podcast Lord Fusitu’a undertook with Bedford-based Bitcoiner Peter McCormack.
During the conversation, the then-member of parliament shared the remittance case for adopting BTC as legal tender.
~
In a series of tweets, Lord Fusitu’a, a former member of parliament for Tonga, released an ETA for Bitcoin becoming legal tender in Tonga.

Hihi, this didn't go well for him 

[pooya87]

If it does take until November to be adopted then we mightve seen another crash and a rethink by then.

I don't think policymakers are stupid weak hand investors who see a tiny portion of the chart like 2 weeks and think price is shooting up or dying that leads to decisions like this! They definitely look at the whole picture and the 13 years worth of market history to decide whether they should go ahead with the adoption or not.
In other words someone who looks at the whole picture doesn't give a crap about short term fluctuations no matter their size.

I tough it the bill was already introduced and voted for, I'm quite puzzled, why does it take till October to submit it to the Parliament if you're so sure it will pass? So it takes 2 months for all the legal procedures but 10 months to draft the bill?

It is indeed weird but it may be because they need to build some infrastructure first, maybe a Chivo 2.0 govwallet and stuff like that before the Parliament passes the bill.

[sunsilk]

Good news as it is.

As El Salvador has started it, here goes Tonga that's about to make it a legal tender and if it passes then that's good on this small nation to adopt a new currency as their legal tender.

And if it goes well, I think its nearby small countries would also take the example from them and might do the same since it's ideal to them that they're near into the other islands that could be fine using bitcoin as a legal tender.

[Lucius]

Whats your opinion about this news? Is this another ATH bullish news?

I think you should refrain from reposting old news, and then how to properly post pictures on the forum (resize them). It would also be advisable to use a forum search, but this is clearly too much of a task for some who think Tonga is great news for Bitcoin, an island country in the middle of nowhere with barely 100 000 inhabitants...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5375884.0

[aoluain]

If it does take until November to be adopted then we mightve seen another crash and a rethink by then.

I don't think policymakers are stupid weak hand investors who see a tiny portion of the chart like 2 weeks and think price is shooting up or dying that leads to decisions like this! They definitely look at the whole picture and the 13 years worth of market history to decide whether they should go ahead with the adoption or not.
In other words someone who looks at the whole picture doesn't give a crap about short term fluctuations no matter their size.

I tough it the bill was already introduced and voted for, I'm quite puzzled, why does it take till October to submit it to the Parliament if you're so sure it will pass? So it takes 2 months for all the legal procedures but 10 months to draft the bill?

It is indeed weird but it may be because they need to build some infrastructure first, maybe a Chivo 2.0 govwallet and stuff like that before the Parliament passes the bill.

I agree, if any country is going to follow El Salvador they really have to be informed
about all aspects of Bitcoin and have the resolve to stay strong throughout Bitcoin's
journey. I would imagine there will be a lot of consultation, reports and communication
with the El Salvador government for example, this all takes time.

[kryptqnick]

While a former MP doesn't sound like a credible enough source, it's still intriguing to explore the possibility of Tonga adopting Bitcoin. I decided to compare some info about El Salvador and Tonga in dedication to this.
El Salvador:
- population of 6.8 million people
- 23% live in poverty
- 50% Internet penetration
- hybrid regime based on democracy index, but a young president who is aspiring to become a dictator
Tonga:
- population of 100 thousand people
- 16% live in poverty
- 41% Internet penetration
- not on the democracy index, but I'd say a hybrid regime with significant executive power of the king

I'd say that these countries seem pretty similar. They have weak economies and significant poverty issues, are not full democracies but not autocracies either, have similar rates of Internet penetration (lower than global average of 59% but manageable for crypto adoption, apparently).
The biggest difference is the population, but I think it's easier to change things on a smaller scale, so Tonga is not at a disadvantage here. But also, since it's tiny, I think its progress won't be followed as closely as that of El Salvador in the event of Bitcoin adoption.

[cheezcarls]

Okay so that makes it two of them right? El Salvador and Tonga? So it seems to be that this is just a proposal for them to make BTC a legal tender in Tonga, but it may take a long while to be fully implemented in the country. Before they are going to do that, they need some sort of infrastructure first on how every citizen would be adopting and embracing Bitcoin to be used in their country. There’s a lot of work to do for them.

[buwaytress]

They're just joining their neighbours who a couple of years ago offered citizenship for Bitcoin (makes me curious to see just how many new Pacific Islanders are there for their Bitcoin) so they're already up over 100% on those investments if they never sold.

Makes for fancy headlines but their long-term fates haven't been changed. Economic diversification is the only route to salvation, not Bitcoin evangelisation.