El Salvador amidst its cryptocurrency adoption

[Asiska02]

El Salvador already adopted cryptocurrency as an official currency in the last eight months. Now the lingering part of this still falls back to the market dip going on presently in cryptocurrency. As the market is falling now, does that mean El Salvador will fall too? Many shades have been thrown on this matter. What happens to El Salvador if the market falls!!

In regards to this, great news still keeps coming from the Central American country. Since El-Salvador has made cryptocurrencies an official currency, the country now wants more governments to follow suit. They encouraged 44 countries to embrace cryptocurrencies. Countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

On the last day at El Zonte, El Salvador, a beach event was organized. Many financial authorities and central bankers from all around the world were present to commemorate the concept of a new financial system.

Many debates have erupted online regarding whether or not this is a bitcoin event. However, it was clarified that the event was a financial inclusion event that would aid in the prioritization of funding available to small businesses.

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[DapanasFruit]

Since the official adoption of Bitcoin as a national currency, it would be easy to say that whatever is happening to Bitcoin can be affecting the country of El Salvador. Still, I believe that the people of this country generally are not yet depending on Bitcoin as their everyday currency as there will always be obstacles on this area that must be ironed out. The big problem as we are seeing always is the volatility of the coin...imagine today one can buy a dozen bread with his BTC in his wallet and yet the following day it would only be 10...that would be disappointing by an ordinary guy on the street...no wonder then that many are looking at BTC as something like gold in the real world and a big speculative asset.

[P2PECS]

There are people in this forum who do not give any importance to the news, belittling those countries for being poor, as if it were normal that the richest countries in the world were the most willing to adopt BTC.

I see anything that adds up as good news.

[yazher]

All eyes are on them right now watching how they will gonna survive this bearish market nowadays and if ever they managed to counter it with successful solutions, I'm sure that the other countries that are doubting adopting bitcoins as well will follow in their footstep. That's just how the way it is, sometimes someone needs to take all the blow to warn the other on what kind of thing they about to engage with. I'm sure they will gonna survive and grow their country's economical value since they are the ones who first did it, they will gonna have multiple proposals from big crypto businesses as well.

[stompix]

El Salvador already adopted cryptocurrency as an official currency in the last eight months. Now the lingering part of this still falls back to the market dip going on presently in cryptocurrency. As the market is falling now, does that mean El Salvador will fall too?

The failure of Salvador has nothing to do with bitcoin, but it has a lot to do with Bukele who some have started worshiping here as Jesus, he is a populist who stretched the budget to the maximum to try and basically bribe everyone, from the gangs that were getting paid to stop committing murders to create thousands of jobs for the government to hire everyone, even the 30$ airdrop was just another of his let's rain money one everyone so they call me the best president.
Salvador was in debt, Bukele went one step further and increase government spending as much as he could, the deficit went from 3% to 8.19% and then up again to 9.20, while every other country was seeing the deficit going down after covid, no he pushes more spending.  On top of that, the actual government budget is also way lower percentage-wise around 30% compared to Denmark for example at 53%.

For example, let's say that happens with a GDP of 100.
You have a budget of 30% to GDP, with a deficit of 9.2, it means you're spending 30% more than you have.
You have a budget of 53% to GDP, with a deficit of 9.2, it means you're spending 17% more than you have.

Basically, if Salvador does the same thing in 2023 it will mean he has burned in deficit in three years one year of budget in advance.
The investment in Bitcoin re a drop in the ocean, and even if it reaches 300k it won't be to save the messed-up finances, it needs around 600k/coin.

Many debates have erupted online regarding whether or not this is a bitcoin event. However, it was clarified that the event was a financial inclusion event that would aid in the prioritization of funding available to small businesses.

And of course, we haven't heard anything about it once it finished since it was just one of the propaganda moves done by Bukele, all glitter no substance.

[Slow death]

when I read this post and saw the part where they talk about the president of El Salvador is recommending that African countries adopt bitcoin as their official currency, I sincerely think that the president of El Salvador must not know the history of Africans and how corrupt they are and they use sovereignty, the spirit of patriotism in everything they do to stay in power, the African leader will not adopt bitcoin as an official currency, at most what they can do in the future is accept that people use bitcoin to make payments for goods and services, but with many restrictions such as:

will not accept that people pay bills for water, electricity, wages

In Africa African leaders and their political parties of colonial liberation dominate every area of the state, they will not accept bitcoin and take away all the control they have over the people.

[kryptqnick]

I think the government does own a significant amount of BTC there (and by the 'government' I mean the taxpayers' money), so if the price doesn't improve and these are not the reserves (if they can't afford to just wait it out for a few months), it can be a big problem. I hope they still rely on the USD for regular spending, though, and in that case it's only a temporary issue. As for adoption by the people of El Salvador, I've seen research that it's not that high, so again, it won't affect the majority. But it can discourage other countries from adoption, of course, when the price has suddenly decreased like this.

[Vaskiy]

El Salvador took it in a positive note and adopted bitcoin as legal tender. Unfortunately the market have dropped out of different issues. Even now the country have been working to make the adoption more effective.

El Salvador haven't sold any of its holding, and the problem arises when the country isn't able to hold for a longer time period to experience the profit out of the investment. Coming year seems to be very crucial for El Salvador, because if the market bounce then everything gets solved. If the market remains the same El Salvador will get pressure on repayment of debts as there is no support from World Bank taking into account the adoption of bitcoin.

[hatshepsut93]

People from El Salvador who got burned on Bitcoin investments will certainly blame Bukele on that. So maybe lack of mass adoption is actually a good think for him - less angry citizens to worry about. This crash yet again highlights that storing money that you actively use in Bitcoin is not exactly good idea, you never know when it will decide to lose 25% of its value in one day. It's one thing to HODL it for years without ever touching it, and another to make your daily spendings using unstable currency.

[_act_]

El Salvador already adopted cryptocurrency as an official currency in the last eight months. Now the lingering part of this still falls back to the market dip going on presently in cryptocurrency. As the market is falling now, does that mean El Salvador will fall too? Many shades have been thrown on this matter. What happens to El Salvador if the market falls!!

Bitcoin price is falling now but getting to $100k in long term would most likely be less than 3 years from now. This could just be a speculation, but bitcoin price over long time period never fails, all-time-high is very possible.

El Salvador did not fail, only the price of bitcoin is reducing for now as it will later increase back, most people using Chivo wallet are even converting back to USD

Also in the research, 71% of bitcoin sales are mostly converted to dollar, 17% stored as dollar on Chivo wallet while 10% stored as bitcoin.

People from El Salvador who got burned on Bitcoin investments will certainly blame Bukele on that. So maybe lack of mass adoption is actually a good think for him - less angry citizens to worry about. This crash yet again highlights that storing money that you actively use in Bitcoin is not exactly good idea, you never know when it will decide to lose 25% of its value in one day. It's one thing to HODL it for years without ever touching it, and another to make your daily spendings using unstable currency.

El Salvador did not make bitcoin payment compulsory, you can accept payment in USD. How about people that are not from El Salvador that invested in bitcoin? Is it of any difference? No. Citizens can decide not to buy, sell or use bitcoin for payment in El Salvador.

[Jody.Drummer]

If you look every time Bitcoin goes down, President Nayib Bukele always announces more Bitcoin buying. Since the current decline is expected to last for quite some time, it is likely that in the next few days Nayib Bukele will announce his buy-back. El Salvador is under construction, it's normal to have some problems. Don't pretend Bitcoin is one of El Salvador failures.

El Salvador success will be seen once they make it through a fairly long bear market. Financial income is not only from Bitcoin adoption. El Salvador has additional income that can support long-term needs. However, Bitcoin acceptance of alternatives and when a bear market came along was the opportunity to take a dip that would later lift El Salvador's name once bitcoin returns to the bull market.

[dunfida]

If you look every time Bitcoin goes down, President Nayib Bukele always announces more Bitcoin buying. Since the current decline is expected to last for quite some time, it is likely that in the next few days Nayib Bukele will announce his buy-back. El Salvador is under construction, it's normal to have some problems. Don't pretend Bitcoin is one of El Salvador failures.

El Salvador success will be seen once they make it through a fairly long bear market. Financial income is not only from Bitcoin adoption. El Salvador has additional income that can support long-term needs. However, Bitcoin acceptance of alternatives and when a bear market came along was the opportunity to take a dip that would later lift El Salvador's name once bitcoin returns to the bull market.

For sure people does have that kind of mindset or impression that El Salvador is really failing just considering or looking at on the current price of Bitcoin in the market.Yes, we've seen Bukele is doing some buyback
wherever he do sees some opportunities on doing so.For now there might be no news or being too silent when it comes into their decisions but for sure they are really doing it behind the curtains.
Not anytime they would make out any announcement in regarding into their activity.

Of course they are fully aware about bear markets and speaking of sustainability then for sure the had made out their back up plans and since bitcoin does have that potential for
long term aspect then its no surprise that they would be having this consideration.

[tabas]

Despite the market turning down, El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender still making me think that their focus isn't to actually adopt it as a legal tender but just to adopt it as a legitimate asset for that's what they do. Although it comes with the risk, we all knew that the market is volatile and they still have their own currency but it is that they're open to something like this. So, if ever the market turns bearish and as low as it can get, they'll be affected but not all citizens are aware of it just yet and that's where they should focus with. In educating everyone about bitcoin.

[pooya87]

El Salvador already adopted cryptocurrency as an official currency in the last eight months.

Wrong.
They accepted bitcoin as legal tender not cryptocurrency.

Now the lingering part of this still falls back to the market dip going on presently in cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies, most commonly referred to altcoins or shitcoins have always been dumping. So there is nothing new here.

As the market is falling now, does that mean El Salvador will fall too? Many shades have been thrown on this matter. What happens to El Salvador if the market falls!!

Bitcoin is legal tender in El Salvador, that doesn't mean the life of every person or the whole country's economy depends on bitcoin! I honestly don't know where these silly ideas come from that the livelihood of the country depends on bitcoin just because they adopted it!

Since El-Salvador has made cryptocurrencies an official currency,

You have some false information and you keep repeating it too!

the country now wants more governments to follow suit. They encouraged 44 countries to embrace cryptocurrencies. Countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Wrong.
Just because there was a get together of multiple countries discussing economics and a lot of other matters and the host country has adopted bitcoin as legal tender doesn't mean they are encouraging others to do so.

[raidarksword]

Bull or bear market El Salvador still buying bitcoin and got to admire for this small country make bitcoin a legal tender in their country. For sure they will survive this bear market seasons and I never heard El Salvador struggling during these times. So, adoption is still strong and the world is watching El Salvador for what they had done for bitcoin legalization.

[Nrcewker]

There are people in this forum who do not give any importance to the news, belittling those countries for being poor, as if it were normal that the richest countries in the world were the most willing to adopt BTC.

I see anything that adds up as good news.

I am one of the people who appreciated El Salvador at past , and will continue doing so.
No matter what happens to the Bitcoin price, but really glad to see the immense support from El Salvador towards Bitcoins.
I don't think that they really get any problem by this price drop.
As whenever we see that there is a price drop in the Bitcoins, the governing body there announces about buying more at that point of time.
Seeing this positive attitude of El Salvador, I am sure many countries will come forward and will show interest in adopting Bitcoins.
Let's hope for the best.
 

[poldanmig]

Bull or bear market El Salvador still buying bitcoin and got to admire for this small country make bitcoin a legal tender in their country. For sure they will survive this bear market seasons and I never heard El Salvador struggling during these times. So, adoption is still strong and the world is watching El Salvador for what they had done for bitcoin legalization.

The firm attitude and principles possessed by the president of el salvador deserve our thumbs up, even though the price of bitcoin is currently slumping, but it doesn't make the president of el salvador regret it and even every bitcoin price is corrected, the president of el salvador actually takes the attitude to re-add the bitcoin ownership portfolio they are with price cheap, maybe in the era of the decline of bitcoin as it is today, many people criticize the president courage, but I'm sure if the bitcoin price strengthens later, many people will praise the decision of that the president of el salvador.

[franky1]

back in september 2021-january 2022
el salvador was not really playing with bitcoin with its citizens, upfront

by this i mean:
a. the chivo wallet was not handing out 1million+ allotments of 0.00058824  ($30 at sept 7th rate) upfront
      - instead it was a chivo wallet MySQL database balance of $30, which could only be 'spent' if the citizen registered their full KYC including their face and identity to an exchange. where by they had to send that MySQL balance to the exchange via the government systems exchange account to credit the exchange account int the citizens name with $30. which the citizen could then decide to put it back into chivo via LN gateway as msats to spend locally within the app, or convert to $30 to cash out(cash in bank account/hand), or withdraw as BTC to a BTC address.

b. those wanting to put it back into chivo as balance to then spend around town via LN had LOTS of issues, all about the liquidity problems of routes and the hops/hubs inbetween.

b. businesses wanting to use LN or chivo had issues too. especially in regards to LN. such as routing problems and liquidity.
routing between customers or to pay random vendors and employees didnt work well. the only thing that did work was the channel with the exchange. because it never really used the features of LN(no routing/hops needed) and was just a multisig re-sign of unconfirmed balance between the merchant and exchange(all managed in the exchange hub code). where the merchant got funds from the exchange via customers and paid it back to the exchange to cashout/pay other vendors that are linked to the exchange via the exchanges mySQL database balance


the issues of trying to pay vendors or employees via LN(outside of the exchange hub control) mainly stemmed around the fact that businesses had to manage multiple channels and had to provide liquidity(funds) upfront to fill the channels to allow payments from them to others. (you can already see the bottlenecks and headaches here)

c. the 'HOPE' of 'adopting bitcoin' was that el salvador would see many american relatives take their dollars to a crypto exchange, convert it to btc and then send BTC to their el salv relatives(remitance) whereby the el salv residents would then put that btc into chivo or the exchange and the government then take custody of the BTC and gives the residents $. meaning a 'cheap' way for the government to 'buy bitcoin'
however hardly anyone remitted funds to el salv via this method.

d. a few months later, with all the issues.. el salvador dropped its partnership with its LN counterparts(strike) and moved over to another system that was even more custodial(alphapoint). where citizens just had accounts with the exchange and balance moved from one 'account' to another within the exchange custody, which meant less/no need for LN

yes citizens could decide to withdraw funds from the exchange as BTC or $. but again hardly any are deciding to keep BTC.
withdrawing funds as BTC to an address only the citizen had control over required the onchain fee, which was more then a few hours of minimum wage labour and so they shy'd away from that option

[kotajikikox]

There are people in this forum who do not give any importance to the news, belittling those countries for being poor, as if it were normal that the richest countries in the world were the most willing to adopt BTC.

those people are the one that we don't need in this market, because instead of treating those poor countries as additives , yet they are belittling them and that is a sad part.

I see anything that adds up as good news.

This .... yeah and it really Adds  big from now and in the future so lets bring them welcome instead of not counting them.

[franky1]

those people are the one that we don't need in this market, because instead of treating those poor countries as additives , yet they are belittling them and that is a sad part.

mainly its the altnet lovers of things like LN that belittle the most. they dont want to see poor countries citizens use bitcoin. they want those citizens to use other networks like LN(trapped in lengthy middlemen contracts(channels)) so that the racist loving altnet supporters can profit from the poor with the LN fee game plan they have. (charging users for every hop/relay around a silly network.. and these fee's add up the more hops needed, the more popular the network gets.)

africa and south america are not small countries. they have more population than US,UK,EU and the slavic countries combined. yet africa/south america are treated like minorities.

bitcoin was made for the 'unbanked' meaning its purpose was suppose to be for the half of the world without reliable banking. and yet certain idiots want bitcoin to only be used by the rich elitist countries that have no problems with banking. leaving the poorer countries to use altnets.

(im in the UK and banking is of no issue to me nor is the onchain fee's materialistically a problem for me personally, yet i can see the issues of other countries that are now pushed out from using banks/btc.. and the racism of the US/UK/EU have against the developing countries, and its sad)