Bitcoin Legal Tender in Central African Republic

[d5000]

Hmm, so my dead Sango friend  , does this mean you're a Sango investor or you just signed up for the newsletter?

Well, quoting myself

I'm not an investor but if I was, then I would be upset.

So no, I only signed up for the newsletter, to know about the state and the ideas of the project, if it's really that negative like you and others write. And for now you've a point due to the big lack of transparency.

I'll however continue to follow the state of adoption of crypto/Bitcoin in the CAR. I think if done well it would be an opportunity for the country. For now it's not looking that good, but they can still get it right. For example, I would approve the E-residency plans, but not the resource/land grabbing opportunities. The problem may be that the country is so undeveloped that it may feel pressured to offer "something" to the investors, and land/gold/other natural resources seemed the "easiest" way to do so.

Take into account that the CAR is the first or second poorest country in the world. If becoming a regional Bitcoin hub could help it to reach a level of, let's say El Salvador or even their neighbor Cameroon now, then they would actually have achieved a lot. What's positive is that a digital infrastructure program is also underway, so they'll have decent Internet in few years. Of course, the seemingly still ongoing - on a lower scale than before - civil war in several regions is a big problem.

I'd however also be interested in your question if someone of this forum invested in Sango Coin.

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[stompix]

Well, quoting myself

My bad but I thought, just asking, maybe had a change of mind, the project is still going, maybe he's not a maximalist anymore!
Eh, common, you know I was just teasing you 

I'll however continue to follow the state of adoption of crypto/Bitcoin in the CAR. I think if done well it would be an opportunity for the country. For now it's not looking that good, but they can still get it right. For example, I would approve the E-residency plans, but not the resource/land grabbing opportunities. The problem may be that the country is so undeveloped that it may feel pressured to offer "something" to the investors, and land/gold/other natural resources seemed the "easiest" way to do so.

I'll just quote this, as this is one thing everyone else also needs to understand.
To make money you have to put money first, good, we have an ICO, but those guys are investing because they want that money to grow, so how are you going to invest this in such a way that not only you will recover the investment, you will pay your investors returns, your people will benefit from it, you will build also things that don't give back immediate returns, like infrastructure, and much, much more?

And if somebody has already an answer for this, then the following obvious question arises:
Then, if all they needed was money, what the actual f^%$ stopped them for 20 years to borrow some and build this infrastructure and all of it?

I'd however also be interested in your question if someone of this forum invested in Sango Coin.

I got used to this from the Salvador topic.
Everyone was cheering about how great it is how they would move there, how they would open a business there, how they would move to get away from taxes, and we still have to rely on some bloggers outside the forum to get info despite all of it.

Just like a shop accepting bitcoin, everyone is cheering, when I asked them if they bought something they are all like, my precious bitcoins, there is no way I'm spending them when they will be 100k in a year. Nealy everyone wants adoption usage and the rest to be done by the others, while they get rich by holding and tweeting.
 

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Sorry for the bump but I thought this update could very much well fit in this topic

It's the only news article sating that Central African Republic made a U-turn on bitcoin being their legal tender. unfortunately the article has a paywall on it, so it's not possible to read the whole story.

I have tried to use way back machine, but I am unable to bypass the paywall  - https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/currency/digital-currencies/7956294/car-to-drop-crypto-as-legal-tender


This is what part of it says

The Central African Republic’s parliament has repealed legislation that gave bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legal tender status. A new law amends an April 2022 statute that proved controversial among the CAR’s partners in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa. The CAR legislature adopted the amended law unanimously on March 23.

Quite unfortunate, especially during the time when most banks and national currencies are on the verge of a complete collapse.

[JayJuanGee]

Sorry for the bump but I thought this update could very much well fit in this topic

It's the only news article sating that Central African Republic made a U-turn on bitcoin being their legal tender. unfortunately the article has a paywall on it, so it's not possible to read the whole story.

I have tried to use way back machine, but I am unable to bypass the paywall  - https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/currency/digital-currencies/7956294/car-to-drop-crypto-as-legal-tender


This is what part of it says

The Central African Republic’s parliament has repealed legislation that gave bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legal tender status. A new law amends an April 2022 statute that proved controversial among the CAR’s partners in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa. The CAR legislature adopted the amended law unanimously on March 23.

Quite unfortunate, especially during the time when most banks and national currencies are on the verge of a complete collapse.

Hahahaha

They probably got a lot of pressure (and maybe bribed or bullied) by the IMF and the world bank.

[stompix]

Sorry for the bump but I thought this update could very much well fit in this topic
It's the only news article sating that Central African Republic made a U-turn on bitcoin being their legal tender. unfortunately the article has a paywall on it, so it's not possible to read the whole story.

I made a topic about this back in February:
What's happening in The Central African Republic?

Got zero traction, and nobody had a clue what was happening there, probably since the president is not every day on Twitter with laser eyes nobody gave a damn, just like Salvador seems like every single small country that does something for Bitcoin doesn't have a single user on this board as I haven't been able to find anyone from either Salvador or CAR on this forum to date,

Hahahaha
They probably got a lot of pressure (and maybe bribed or bullied) by the IMF and the world bank.

As far as I manage to get from limited sources it was the ECCAS, and things got very muddy from there on.
It's some sort of economic union a bit like the EU, no, they don't all use the much-hated CAF, and the one members that opposed it are weirdly situated by any criteria, there isn't any real pattern whatsoever if anything, they are all more indebted to China than the IMF, the DRG is one of the Chinese strongholds in the area both in investment and debt and they were one of the against vote.

[Die_empty]

Sorry for the bump but I thought this update could very much well fit in this topic

It's the only news article sating that Central African Republic made a U-turn on bitcoin being their legal tender. unfortunately the article has a paywall on it, so it's not possible to read the whole story.

I have tried to use way back machine, but I am unable to bypass the paywall  - https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/currency/digital-currencies/7956294/car-to-drop-crypto-as-legal-tender


This is what part of it says

The Central African Republic’s parliament has repealed legislation that gave bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legal tender status. A new law amends an April 2022 statute that proved controversial among the CAR’s partners in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa. The CAR legislature adopted the amended law unanimously on March 23.

Quite unfortunate, especially during the time when most banks and national currencies are on the verge of a complete collapse.

Hahahaha

They probably got a lot of pressure (and maybe bribed or bullied) by the IMF and the world bank.

This news is two days old and no other news outlet have reported this news except the website centralbanking.com. I am sure that this kind of news would have gotten a wide coverage because many anti-bitcoin forces would have ensured that it occupies the front pages of most newspapers. Maybe after the President assent to the bill, it might get the right publicity if the news is genuine.

The economy of CAR is very fragile and prone to external manipulation mainly from France. Maybe the couldn't withstand the pressure from these external forces. Nevertheless, it was nice having them as one of the nations promoting Bitcoin and I wish the well.

[Sayeds56]

Hahahaha

They probably got a lot of pressure (and maybe bribed or bullied) by the IMF and the world bank.

Beside pressure from IMF and world world bank, one of the major obstacles towards adoption of Bitcoin is its high level of volatility which can make it difficult for businesses and individuals to adopt it as method of payment. Additionally, lack of necessary  infrastructure and resources  in many Asian and African countries to support mass adoption, which could further impede its wide spread use.

[JayJuanGee]

Sorry for the bump but I thought this update could very much well fit in this topic
It's the only news article sating that Central African Republic made a U-turn on bitcoin being their legal tender. unfortunately the article has a paywall on it, so it's not possible to read the whole story.

I made a topic about this back in February:
What's happening in The Central African Republic?
Got zero traction, and nobody had a clue what was happening there, probably since the president is not every day on Twitter with laser eyes nobody gave a damn, just like Salvador seems like every single small country that does something for Bitcoin doesn't have a single user on this board as I haven't been able to find anyone from either Salvador or CAR on this forum to date,

Ok.  I had just heard about that thread, so I just looked through it, and I am not going to claim to be any expert on the topic of either location or even making accurate comparison/contrasts, but still seems to me that Bukele had been (and continues to be) way the fuck more focused on bitcoin, and there was a lot of information that seemed to show that the CAR was all over the place in terms of their using the word bitcoin, but not really having any kind of comprehensive program that focused on bitcoin, so they were seeming to out do themselves by adding a variety of non-bitcoin focuses.

Of course, words and actions make differences in terms of what might be being said and what is being done and the extent to which any kinds of developments are realistic given the circumstances of any particular country.. the same is true with individuals.. each of us do not necessarily have the resources to approach our investment in bitcoin in the same way, but we still are likely way better served when we attempt to match our actions with our actual capabilities, and sure of course, any government that is needing to announce what it is doing or even attempting to attract funding has different kinds of complications as compared with what individuals usually are doing.

Hahahaha
They probably got a lot of pressure (and maybe bribed or bullied) by the IMF and the world bank.

As far as I manage to get from limited sources it was the ECCAS, and things got very muddy from there on.
It's some sort of economic union a bit like the EU, no, they don't all use the much-hated CAF, and the one members that opposed it are weirdly situated by any criteria, there isn't any real pattern whatsoever if anything, they are all more indebted to China than the IMF, the DRG is one of the Chinese strongholds in the area both in investment and debt and they were one of the against vote.

Fair enough.. I don't proclaim to know all of the various relationships (prior debts, allegiances, partnerships or whatever), even though I do recall seeing some of the early reports that IMF/World Bank did not like what CAR was doing... but I am forgetting some of the details at the moment.

[edited out]

This news is two days old and no other news outlet have reported this news except the website centralbanking.com. I am sure that this kind of news would have gotten a wide coverage because many anti-bitcoin forces would have ensured that it occupies the front pages of most newspapers. Maybe after the President assent to the bill, it might get the right publicity if the news is genuine.

The economy of CAR is very fragile and prone to external manipulation mainly from France. Maybe the couldn't withstand the pressure from these external forces. Nevertheless, it was nice having them as one of the nations promoting Bitcoin and I wish the well.

Of course every country has to deal with their own particulars, and surely it could be that CAR had bitten off more than they could chew in terms of both being able to put forth some policies and practices that would be workable for them and to be able to have some amount of staying power too.. .. So yeah if the news is true, then it does seem like a bit of a flip-flopping, yet I doubt that very many bitcoiners had been taking them very seriously anyhow in terms of their supposedly being "bitcoin focused."  They seemed to have quite a few shitcoin ideas in whatever they were planning to do and what they were doing too.

Hahahaha
They probably got a lot of pressure (and maybe bribed or bullied) by the IMF and the world bank.

Beside pressure from IMF and world world bank, one of the major obstacles towards adoption of Bitcoin is its high level of volatility which can make it difficult for businesses and individuals to adopt it as method of payment. Additionally, lack of necessary  infrastructure and resources  in many Asian and African countries to support mass adoption, which could further impede its wide spread use.

Sure some countries have way fewer resources than others, just like individuals are not equally situated either.  Bitcoin is designed in such a way that anyone can get into it, and the smallest and poorest country has way the fuck more resources than a lot of normal people (even though they also have more responsibilities than individuals, too).

None of us are likely in any kind of a position to figure out exactly the details of any government, similar to our inability to figure out the details of other individuals, even if they tell us several of their details.  Yet, in any event, there are still likely quite a few ways that any country should be able to figure out some kind of a reasonable and meaningful way to build their bitcoin position, rather than going into bitcoin like some kind of a drunk gambling sailor and degenerately betting it all of it on black.

Similar things are true for individuals, and there are ways that individuals could invest into bitcoin at $10 per month or something that works for them, but they should have their cashflow figured out in order that they know that they can afford $10 per month and that their investment might be tied up for several years 4-10 years or longer.  Governments likely have to figure out their budget, and sure maybe they are confused about how much they have or various obligations that they might have, yet even with El Salvador, at some point a couple of months ago, Bukele said that El Salvador would be buying 1 BTC per day.. .. So surely there is a point that has to be figured out in order to have some ideas regarding whether that is a good use of government funds or not... and surely with governments, there is not ONLY the possibility of buying bitcoin itself, but there are also a variety of support systems that might need to be considered and/or enhanced in order to follow through with a statement that includes the promotion of bitcoin.. and yeah of course, CAR seemed to have a wee bit less focus than El Salvador, and perhaps their leaders had forgotten to sufficiently and adequately don their laser eyes in order to stay focused on bitcoin rather than getting caught up in other seemingly shitcoin-related focuses.. ?  Maybe they had not realized that bitcoin and crypto are not the same thing? and they have to learn what the fuck bitcoin is first, before proclaiming that they were "getting involved in bitcoin?"   

King daddy don't give no shits about people, institutions, or even countries, if they don't figure out ways to protect themselves and perhaps to get into bitcoin incrementally rather than trying to either gamble with bitcoin or to confuse affinity scams for the real deal (which means that sometimes there are projects that are holding themselves out as if they are bitcoin or they are like bitcoin, and anyone, whether an individual, institution and/or a government, is likely going to get fucked if they cannot sufficiently/adequately figure out what is bitcoin and what is some kind of a bitcoin imitator.)

[Bitcoin_Arena]

This news is two days old and no other news outlet have reported this news except the website centralbanking.com. I am sure that this kind of news would have gotten a wide coverage because many anti-bitcoin forces would have ensured that it occupies the front pages of most newspapers. Maybe after the President assent to the bill, it might get the right publicity if the news is genuine.

1. maybe because most of the sources were in French, so we weren't able to get so much English news outlets reporting the story

2 CAR is a very less popular country, so many people won't here a lot of news about it.

But the story actually checks out. If you can translate French, here you go


Tweet contains somes documents in french - https://twitter.com/KongoGaetan/status/1638895853913137157

The economy of CAR is very fragile and prone to external manipulation mainly from France. Maybe the couldn't withstand the pressure from these external forces. Nevertheless, it was nice having them as one of the nations promoting Bitcoin and I wish the well.

It's said that there were threats from the French Central Bank.

[Sithara007]

In case of CAR at least they didn't replaced their forex reserves with cryptocurrency. El Salvador regime did that and  suffered huge losses as a result of that. Despite the announcement to make Bitcoin as legal tender in Central African Republic, the adoption never took off in a big way. Unlike the case with El Salvador, the population in CAR has limited access to mobile internet. Also the government has been very slow in finalizing the formalities. Here is a tweet from President Faustin-Archange Touadera, regarding the draft cryptocurrency bill which is yet to be tabled:

https://twitter.com/FA_Touadera/status/1616430057580367875

The approach from CAR is more cautious, while El Salvador was overly aggressive.

[tjtonmoy]

This is great news. It was in a gray area for some times now. Now it is finally official news. China is also showing interest in crypto again. And I believe that this will have a great impact on the whole market. I myself think that this is a great decision for them to legalize Bitcoin.
And soon enough, we will see more countries to join hands in making Bitcoin their legal currency. Congratulation to everyone in the Central African Republic, who have been waiting for this for a long time. It Bitcoin legalization keep spreading like this, other countries will have no choice but to accept it as well. Waiting for that day.

[Sayeds56]

This is great news. It was in a gray area for some times now. Now it is finally official news. China is also showing interest in crypto again. And I believe that this will have a great impact on the whole market. I myself think that this is a great decision for them to legalize Bitcoin.
And soon enough, we will see more countries to join hands in making Bitcoin their legal currency. Congratulation to everyone in the Central African Republic, who have been waiting for this for a long time. It Bitcoin legalization keep spreading like this, other countries will have no choice but to accept it as well. Waiting for that day.

Indeed, it is an exciting news for all crypto enthusiasts who always welcome such developments those can help to increase wide-spread acceptability of Bitcoin. The list of countries where Bitcoin is accepted as legal tender is now 7 and hopefully once regulatory issues are resolved on global level, we will see greater acceptability of Bitcoin as means to  to buy goods and services worldwide.

[JayJuanGee]

This is great news. It was in a gray area for some times now. Now it is finally official news. China is also showing interest in crypto again. And I believe that this will have a great impact on the whole market. I myself think that this is a great decision for them to legalize Bitcoin.
And soon enough, we will see more countries to join hands in making Bitcoin their legal currency. Congratulation to everyone in the Central African Republic, who have been waiting for this for a long time. It Bitcoin legalization keep spreading like this, other countries will have no choice but to accept it as well. Waiting for that day.

Indeed, it is an exciting news for all crypto enthusiasts who always welcome such developments those can help to increase wide-spread acceptability of Bitcoin. The list of countries where Bitcoin is accepted as legal tender is now 7 and hopefully once regulatory issues are resolved on global level, we will see greater acceptability of Bitcoin as means to  to buy goods and services worldwide.

Which countries are the 7? 

[Sayeds56]

Which countries are the 7?  

Sorry, I was wrong, currently there are only 2 countries where Bitcoin is accepted as legal tender and they are EL-Salvador and Central African Republic. However Panama, Cuba and Ukraine are in the process of taking steps towards potentially adopting Bitcoin in future. More and more countries are likely to accept Bitcoin in future as the current financial system based on fiat currencies appears to be on the brink of collapse.


https://coinmarketcap.com/legal-tender-countries/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/countries-may-next-accept-bitcoin-120030865.html

[fillippone]

Which countries are the 7?  

Sorry, I was wrong, currently there are only 2 countries where Bitcoin is accepted as legal tender and they are EL-Salvador and Central African Republic. However Panama, Cuba and Ukraine are in the process of taking steps towards potentially adopting Bitcoin in future. More and more countries are likely to accept Bitcoin in future as the current financial system based on fiat currencies appears to be on the brink of collapse.


https://coinmarketcap.com/legal-tender-countries/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/countries-may-next-accept-bitcoin-120030865.html

I would be extremely cautious with those articles.
Monetary control is one of the most powerful leverage in the hands of any government, so I see extremely unlikely a sovereign government is going to accept bitcoin. El Salvador already was a dollarised economy, as the legal tender was the US Dollar, so the government already lost that leverage. In the CAR case instead the economy was so tiny, corrupt and fragile, that basically every other state apart of the current one would be an improvement.
But I would be extremely cautious on other countries.

[Die_empty]

Which countries are the 7?  

Sorry, I was wrong, currently there are only 2 countries where Bitcoin is accepted as legal tender and they are EL-Salvador and Central African Republic. However Panama, Cuba and Ukraine are in the process of taking steps towards potentially adopting Bitcoin in future. More and more countries are likely to accept Bitcoin in future as the current financial system based on fiat currencies appears to be on the brink of collapse.


https://coinmarketcap.com/legal-tender-countries/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/countries-may-next-accept-bitcoin-120030865.html

The case of Panama and Cuba accepting making Bitcoin a legal tender is just a rumor that lacks substantial evidence. These two countries are very friendly to bitcoin because they have made attempts to attract more crypto investments to their country through some good laws that favor the industry. But I will suggest that these nations focus more on infrastructural, educational, and economic development before they consider making bitcoin a legal tender. This is because the level of human and capital development in a country determines how successfully they can utilize the benefits of Bitcoin.

Ukraine is going through a lot of economic problems and they need all the help they can get. The current openhearted nature of Ukraine toward Bitcoin is because they want to use all financial channels to get support and donations from their sympathizers and sponsors.

[Sayeds56]

I would be extremely cautious with those articles.
Monetary control is one of the most powerful leverage in the hands of any government, so I see extremely unlikely a sovereign government is going to accept bitcoin. El Salvador already was a dollarised economy, as the legal tender was the US Dollar, so the government already lost that leverage. In the CAR case instead the economy was so tiny, corrupt and fragile, that basically every other state apart of the current one would be an improvement.
But I would be extremely cautious on other countries.

I totally agree with your viewpoint that Monetary control is a powerful tool in the hands of governments that they would never like to relinquish, however it is also possible that Bitcoin and fiat system coexist and function in tandem, and giving people freedom to choose whichever system suits them based on their convenience and preferences.

The countries with high rate of inflation are more inclined towards adoption of Bitcoin as it is perceived as solution to the problem of excessive money supply.

[mv1986]

Which countries are the 7?  

Sorry, I was wrong, currently there are only 2 countries where Bitcoin is accepted as legal tender and they are EL-Salvador and Central African Republic. However Panama, Cuba and Ukraine are in the process of taking steps towards potentially adopting Bitcoin in future. More and more countries are likely to accept Bitcoin in future as the current financial system based on fiat currencies appears to be on the brink of collapse.


https://coinmarketcap.com/legal-tender-countries/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/countries-may-next-accept-bitcoin-120030865.html

I would be extremely cautious with those articles.
Monetary control is one of the most powerful leverage in the hands of any government, so I see extremely unlikely a sovereign government is going to accept bitcoin. El Salvador already was a dollarised economy, as the legal tender was the US Dollar, so the government already lost that leverage. In the CAR case instead the economy was so tiny, corrupt and fragile, that basically every other state apart of the current one would be an improvement.
But I would be extremely cautious on other countries.

I just did some research and the level of confusion is high and the seriousness of those sources is often questionable. It says "countries where Bitcoin is legal", but that has nothing to do with legal tender. Saying that more and more countries are considering making it legal tender is definitely exaggeration. For most countries there is no incentive to do at this point. Why would they? What is their benefit from it? The legal implications would be huge because from then on your are allowed to settle every bill or every debt you have with Bitcoin. But just imagine how far we are away from everyone being ready to accept Bitcoin. Yes there are merchants, but it's really not the majority.

Regarding CAR, it seems there are news regarding Bitoin's legal tender status.

[nullama]

~snip~
I just did some research and the level of confusion is high and the seriousness of those sources is often questionable. It says "countries where Bitcoin is legal", but that has nothing to do with legal tender. Saying that more and more countries are considering making it legal tender is definitely exaggeration. For most countries there is no incentive to do at this point. Why would they? What is their benefit from it? The legal implications would be huge because from then on your are allowed to settle every bill or every debt you have with Bitcoin. But just imagine how far we are away from everyone being ready to accept Bitcoin. Yes there are merchants, but it's really not the majority.

Regarding CAR, it seems there are news regarding Bitoin's legal tender status.

Yes, you're absolutely right.

There is a huge difference between Bitcoin being legal, and Bitcoin being legal tender.

Bitcoin is legal tender in only 2 countries so far: El Salvador and Central African Republic.

That means that you can pay any debt in Bitcoin and you don't pay capital gains in those countries.

Bitcoin being legal is another story, that's basically almost everywhere in the world at this point. Only a few countries try to ban it but you can't really do it in practice.

[fadhilz123]

I just came across one of the most interesting articles for Bitcoin today even though it was created years ago. But I just discovered it now so there is one more country that might follow countries like El Salvador and the Central African Republic that have adopted Bitcoin and accept it as legal payment within their countries. Costa Rica could be one of the next countries to adopt bitcoin as a regulated payment method.

This week, Congresswoman Johana Obando introduced legislation to allow bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to function as a form of payment. The bill also proposes that traditional banking institutions can function as crypto exchanges, including safekeeping and wallet services for their customers. Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/costa-rica-might-be-the-next-country-to-establish-bitcoin-as-regulated-currency/