44 countries will meet in El Salvador to discuss Bitcoin

[romero121]

This is something positive about the widening of the cryptomarket. However I'm little skeptic on this move, because of the countries that are being invited and mentioned as flying to El Salvador. Among the list is Nepal which is against cryptocurrency and people from Nepal reach India to make use of it. Bangladesh another Asian country which used to arrest people holding cryptocurrency. India haven't come to any conclusion, but taxed heavily on the cryptocurrency. So, more similar countries will be there on the list. If something happens positive, it'll be really good for the future growth.

[speedy963]

At least we can view this as some good news which would make majority of newbies feel super bullish since El Salvador is mentioned along with other countries and their banks. Well, better than nothing I guess since if the discussion really does work out in favor of this industry then it'll bring good publicity. If it doesn't though, the very first ones to fud maybe the newbies or the click baiting experts. Regardless, the market does need positive vibes after the sharp drops a couple of days ago to somehow alleviate the fear and disappointments of the majority. Hope more positive news comes! xD

[amishmanish]

Hell yeah, now the game is warming up. Interestingly its not Europe or US who leads the wagon I see most of them are the small nations, who are too tired of being restricted by their dollar reserves. Maybe to them bitcoin seems a better alternative
I don't know what others are seeing. I see we are moving towards true economic liberalization. Its the end of economic colonialism 

[P2PECS]

Lol, do you even know what a strawman argument is?

LMAO, yes and I also know what a rhetorical question is. To misrepresent by asking such a question you'd better make the statement directly, as you seem to be afraid to state it.

I asked you one simple question, you made a statement, you said those countries have "most to gain" from this movie, and of course out of curiosity I asked you what they have to gain?

No you didn't. You have changed and exaggerated what I said as I explained in the previous post. I'm fine with you changing what I say and saying what you want about it but then don't address me as if you want to refute me.

Lame attempt to weasel your way out of this but I wasn't looking for a debate either, I was just asking a simple question, debates are made with people who can actually say something meaningful about something or post real data, not just two lines of this will be great cause decentralization.

You wanted a debate, didn't you? Then we'll have a debate.

What do you think? That because I'm smaller than you I'm going to shut up? A debate is not about what you say, a debate is about contributing relevant ideas and exchanging opinions even if you don't agree with them but if you base it on strawman, rhetorical questions and basically playing the pimp then there is no debate, what you are basically doing is barking.

A country like the US, which has a currency that is the reserve currency of the world, has much more to lose than to gain if it considers BTC as a legal currency because it loses the power of currency control, but poor countries, like those mentioned above, have little to lose because their currency is worthless and if they adopt BTC they can attract investments, for example and, as in the case of El Salvador, save money in remittance commissions.

In the case of El Salvador, it did not even have its own currency and used the dollar, as happens in many other countries, which, in some cases, keep their currency but nobody wants it and the dollar is used a lot instead. Well, to use the dollar, of which you do not have the power (as the US does), it is better to bet on BTC, even if it is a risk, as mk4 said.

Is that clear to you? Because you have been on the forum for a long time, I am not going to let you bully me.

[stompix]

A debate is not about what you say, a debate is about contributing relevant ideas and exchanging opinions even if you don't agree with them but if you base it on strawman, rhetorical questions and basically playing the pimp then there is no debate, what you are basically doing is barking.

Exactly, that is why I told you is not a debate, you made a statement and when asked about that you started crying and accusing others of not having arguments. Accusing others of barking when you're out of ideas isn't a debate either.

A country like the US, which has a currency that is the reserve currency of the world, has much more to lose than to gain if it considers BTC as a legal currency because it loses the power of currency control, but poor countries, like those mentioned above, have little to lose because their currency is worthless and if they adopt BTC they can attract investments, for example, and, as in the case of El Salvador, save money in remittance commissions.

So the multiple gains you claim are remittance fees, and nothing else, or nothing that you're able to come up with, and this actually has nothing to do with their own currency, remittance fees are there even if you send money from Japan to the US, and I doubt you can consider Japan a poor country. Btw, you know that a transfer from the US to a bank account in Salvador cost 4$ for 2k? So the amount of savings is negligible at best.
And since I mentioned Angola and you mentioned remittance, seems like remittances in Angola ake exactly 0.02% of the GDP.
So how about you try another one?

Because you have been on the forum for a long time, I am not going to let you bully me.

Oh, I never knew asking people questions about the things they post with their own hands is considering bullying nowadays.
Just grow up, if one question hurt your feeling and made you cry you're going to be in a lot of pain once you reach double digits age.

[Zlantann]

When El Salvador came up with the Bitcoin city project, I told some folks that this bitcoin city project is a misplaced priority. I indicated that except the government of that country has concrete plans and proven pilot study to prove that the project would bring some economic gains to the country, them it is a waste of funds. Like many people have indicted, Bitcoin is not a magical economic tool that brings immediate national economic prosperity when adopted. El Salvador is plagued with gang related crimes, poverty, infrastructural deficit and other economic challenges that should be addressed before its Bitcoin policies would start yielding fruits. Nobody would visit a nation that is unsecured that means the Bitcoin city might not attract tourists. If these countries see Bitcoin as the only solution to their economic woes then they are misconceiving the operations of Bitcoin. There are basic economic foundational policies and programmes that would aid Bitcoin adoption to make the needed impact.   

But basically this is a good news to the Bitcoin community. I am sure they are there to brainstorm and come-out with other economic strategies or policies that would improve their economies. Also this meeting would increase the publicity and awareness of Bitcoin. It is also important to state that El Salvador needs more time to start reaping from its Bitcoin adoption policy hence it might be partially wrong to say that the country has failed.       

[sklopan]

Doesn't any of these countries keep track of the fact that El Salvador's reserves have drastically decreased?

[fiulpro]

Right now I do not think that it would be a good idea to wait for the inclusion of Bitcoins in the economy of other countries because the volatility right now is not really good for the economic situation with the war+pandemic so I do think that what might happen is they might have to delay it for the future reference and El Salvador is not doing so good therefore when they are facing the situation where other banks are excluding them and not giving them financial aid, so I do not think that in this meeting it would be much acceptance but then again it's good to know that other countries are so interested in Bitcoins.

[Slow death]

I honestly didn't even know there was a country called Eswatini

I believe you must have heard this name: swaziland, they just thought that this name belonged to the settler so they decided to change the name to eswatine, something ridiculously worse than this country and my country's neighbor and you can even drive from my country for this country, i doubt that a country like this, and a country like angola and other african countries that are on this list will legalize bitcoin, this would be something the end of the world, at least for now these african countries will not legalize bitcoin

[cabron]

Must be talking about politics.

When a  country's dollar reserve are taken by force, other central banks are going to be thinking it could also happen to their reserves. 44 Banks from all over the world gather around, they must be doing something excluding others. Maybe they are arranging a network like an alternative to SWIFT which they could also escape sanctions.

[TimeTeller]

Must be talking about politics.

When a  country's dollar reserve are taken by force, other central banks are going to be thinking it could also happen to their reserves. 44 Banks from all over the world gather around, they must be doing something excluding others. Maybe they are arranging a network like an alternative to SWIFT which they could also escape sanctions.

That's a nice deduction from this upcoming event.  
But of course, we really don't know their true motive why they unite to have this kind of event.
But if it is for the sake of crypto market in their respective countries, why not?
This development is very welcome to happen. Maybe, they are seeing that no matter what, crypto market will continue to proliferate.

The new Davos meetings /s
Reading those names, man, crème de la crème, I always say, better than nothing but seriously sometimes, it's a close call with this nothing.
Just some trivia, only three of those have a GDP per capita rank lower than 100, with Maldives managing to be the leading one with a rank of 65 in the world and with only 6 of them not in the UN food assistance program.

We can't disregard their possible impact to the crypto community even if we say most of them are in the third world category.
Who knows, they will be the countries which will drive crypto adoption to their constituents?
If nothing else, they can encourage some of their people to go into crypto if their Central Bank is positive towards crypto.

[aoluain]

This is true, but what if anyone of the countries listed eventually got to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender this should at least make some difference in their economy by reducing poverty rate and unemployment, i think bitcoin adoption should still make some meaningful impact even on the developing countries.

No, not really. Bitcoins don't grow on trees and they wont simply become available to the population the day after they adopt it as legal tender. Sure, you can make an airdrop similarly to what was done in El Salvador. But Bitcoin won't land you a job at that auto dealership across the road if there are no jobs available, or no auto dealership at all due to the overall state of the country.

One might argue that Bitcoin offers opportunities of remote work. Sure, that's true, but so does PayPal, WU, Skrill, freelancing sites, and many other ways to get paid in fiat. There is potential for Bitcoin in areas where people are unbanked, but not if they sleep in the dirt, use a rock for a pillow, and don't even have drinking water. Those poor souls have more important things to care about than a decentralized economy.

There is a misconception going around that by simply having access to Bitcoin
guarantees you a way out of poverty. If you have nothing to start with and no
prospects to grow your wealth well Bitcoin isnt going to solve it. If by some chance
you came into some Bitcoin you would probably have to sell it in order to survive.

As Lucius posted above its interesting that all these countries and central banks
can meet together with a common goal or idea and sure Bitcoin can be a big topic
but hopefully there are more topics on the table which together with Bitcoin could hopefully
build trade, sustainability and security for these forgotten and unknown countries.

I find it quite interesting to see Egypt and Pakistan listed.

[molsewid]

For hearing this we can see that there are so many countries are very much interested with bitcoin and blockchain, so hopefully there discussion toward this will get positive result because if majority of the country will announce that they will also make bitcoin as their legal tender for sure we cannot see a huge manipulation on it and might we can see bitcoin grow more because of the adoption it gets.

Yes, at last countries are now open to innovations and adaption of technology. More and more countries will follow this event, El Salvador initiative makes other country to move. But what thing that keeps on my mind is, are they going to regulate it? are they going to put tax on it? I will be surely invested with this event.

[hatshepsut93]

What I see is more poor countries trying to take a huge risk to get out of poverty. Which can backfire if Bitcoin will have a multi-year-long bear market. And overall not a sound plan, because national wealth is created by citizens who produce goods and services, it doesn't come from governments speculative investments. You can adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender all you want, it won't change anything.

[pooya87]

It's funny to see keyboard warriors from their basement make fun of countries trying to improve their economy just because their GDP is low.
In any case @romero121 pointed out something interesting that seems to have gone unnoticed. In the list there are countries that have really banned bitcoin like Bangladesh. Nobody has anything to say about that?! They are all going to a place where bitcoin is going to be one of the main topics of discussion. Is it going to reverse their decision on the ban?

Nobody would visit a nation that is unsecured that means the Bitcoin city might not attract tourists.

About a year ago someone on Reddit claimed that foreigners have already been coming to El Salvador and made investment there before bitcoin adoption. Many migrated from countries such as Sweden to live there and their security was good enough. The crimes are usually focused in certain parts of the country.

I believe Bitcoin City project could also attract more foreign investment which seems to be what they hope for too although I wish someone from El Salvador was on bitcointalk and could give us better information.

[Fundamentals Of]

This is big. This is not just an ordinary meeting. By the looks of it, it seems the IMF and the World Bank will have to call some central bank governors and heads to confirm their attendance to this said event and perhaps relay some subtle threats and bad-mouthing of Bitcoin. But regardless of the possible repercussions of this huge meeting, I’m excited of the output. I’m excited of what’s going to come out of this. Whatever happens, financial inclusion and banking the unbanked should be the top priority. Bitcoin is just here as an alternative technology to achieve this.

[slaman29]

This is something positive about the widening of the cryptomarket. However I'm little skeptic on this move, because of the countries that are being invited and mentioned as flying to El Salvador. Among the list is Nepal which is against cryptocurrency and people from Nepal reach India to make use of it. Bangladesh another Asian country which used to arrest people holding cryptocurrency. India haven't come to any conclusion, but taxed heavily on the cryptocurrency. So, more similar countries will be there on the list. If something happens positive, it'll be really good for the future growth.

I've been skeptical about this ever since El Salvador went into military/police crackdown on the streets. Initially sounded like good news but then as the details of Bitcoin implementation came about and then you saw how non-transparent they were with the disbursement and awarding of company contracts, you understand that this was just another semi dictator playing with his own toys.

In the end, it's still better than borrowing US dollars like they used to and seeing themselves get into debt with the international community anyway I guess.

South Asia (Nepal India Bangladesh Pakistan etc) is not well known for the way they handle crypto for sure, always trying to tax their poor and even on their remittances but I actually think educating the countries about Bitcoin is a good thing. Maybe they change their minds about it and let their workers save money with remitting Bitcoin.

[Kakmakr]

I see most of those Banks come from 3rd world countries, so my thinking is just the opposite of what you guys are thinking. What if the President of El Salvador is asking these Banks to come together to discuss the ways in which these Banks are handling the un-Banked in their countries ...and not to share El Salvador's experience with Bitcoin as a legal tender?

We know the IMF have turned their back on El Salvador..... so they are now seeking other ways to loan money.. and they know that they not going to get it from the IMF. (1st world countries) 

[raidarksword]

This is good news and a breath of fresh air during these hard times in the crypto industry wherein people were really felt negativity all over the place. With so many people have many paper losses with bitcoin situations right now, this news will definetly change the winds of negativity to positivity due to this news.

[Lucius]

Yes, I saw this news all over Twitter and coinmarketcap yesterday, some community members on telegram are even going crazy over this and I think this is probably one of the reasons why BTCitcoin rose over $30,000 usd yesterday or so.

I doubt that this meeting has any impact on the price of BTC, because for days we have almost identical situations where the price changes in the range of about 5% in both directions within 24 hours. Social networks are full of people who do not understand that this is not a meeting focused exclusively on Bitcoin, but obviously any good news creates hope that the price will rise.

I believe you must have heard this name: swaziland...

I checked what it was about and immediately saw that it was the former Swaziland that changed its name in 2018, but I must admit that I missed the news. The Kingdom of Eswatini even sounds better, and if the country has the potential for tourism, I think it can attract more tourists looking for some new tourist locations.

It's funny to see keyboard warriors from their basement make fun of countries trying to improve their economy just because their GDP is low.
In any case @romero121 pointed out something interesting that seems to have gone unnoticed. In the list there are countries that have really banned bitcoin like Bangladesh. Nobody has anything to say about that?! They are all going to a place where bitcoin is going to be one of the main topics of discussion. Is it going to reverse their decision on the ban?

I think that every decision is subject to change, especially if we put this meeting in the context of the time we are currently in. Many have ignored Bitcoin in the past and then changed their minds, let’s just remember what Saylor thought about Bitcoin a decade ago. We can hope that at least some countries will change their hard line on Bitcoin, at least in the sense that they will remove it from the black list if nothing else.