Mexico is the next El Salvador?

[Haunebu]

Did some research and found out this is old news op. This bill was proposed by the senator that you mentioned way back in July and there haven't been any updates since then which implies that this proposal most probably got rejected.

This is just another proposal which got swept under the rug as expected due to fierce opposition by their central bank and other similar authorities.

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[DdmrDdmr]

I’ve been looking around for a while on Mexican written media, and as I expected, there isn’t really anything new that has changed in the situation to back those words on twitter, or further elaborate on them.

Sure she is a strong advocate for bitcoin (although with some quasi-conflicting side ideas), and has proposed this past summer making bitcoin legal tender in the country (of which we haven’t heard back from to date), but the Tweet does lack some additional substance to credit the assertion. She’s got a good chance though to elaborate on the matter next month at the Adopting Bitcoin conference in El Salvador …

[Fundamentals Of]

Although al Salvador did not accept this, I think the president of the country regretted making bitcoin the official currency. If I remember correctly when they went official, bitcoin was around 35-40 thousand dollars. It's half value now.

What makes you think so? If making Bitcoin as a legal tender of the country was such a wrong move and he made this realization, why not just take back everything and declare that Bitcoin should cease as a legal tender? Why didn't the government of El Salvador declare the experiment a failure? After all the country still have another legal tender left. They just need to stay away from Bitcoin.

Have you heard of Bukele's statements lately? And also, if Bitcoin is used as a currency for international remittances of overseas workers, of which El Salvador has a lot, I don't think it matters so much that the price has fallen a lot.

[Marvell1]

So if one Mexican senator(who happens to be pro-Bitcoin) says that Bitcoin will become legal tender in Mexico this automatically means that Bitcoin will become legal tender in Mexico. It doesn't work that way.
What if a US congressman or senator says that Bitcoin will become legal tender in the USA? Would you believe this news? I wouldn't.
I don't know anything about the financial situation in Mexico, but I don't believe that Mexico isn't a worst financial condition than El Salvador or Venezuela. I also don't think that the Mexicans are so desperate that they would embrace Bitcoin/altcoins right away.

You are right, this is just the opinion of a congressman who loves bitcoin so it doesn't work that way. At the beginning of January, the central bank of Mexico announced that it is working on creating a digital peso, which means it is intending to use CBDC in its country and hopes it will be rolled out in 2024. With this statement, it seems that accepting bitcoin as legal tender in Mexico is very unlikely to materialize. In the past, there were also many congressmen who proposed to make bitcoin legal tender in the country but things still did not work out.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

What are your thoughts about this?

This senator has long been a bitcoin advocate, but just because she is a bitcoin enthusiast doesn't mean anything if she doesn't have enough support.

She has already been discussed in the forum as a result of this:

Bill Proposes to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender in Mexico

But it seems that she does not have enough support. As long as she does not, what she says in the future is only her opinion.

[DapanasFruit]

When El Salvador decided to make Bitcoin its legal tender, it actually got no official currency of its own (please correct me if I am wrong with this impression) but with Mexico they got their own official and national currency already so what they are doing is just recognizing Bitcoin as an official "money" where people can use as a medium of exchange. Now, I am not sure if this will result into many good things for the country but I think the officials in there must be looking at positive impact with this decision. Let's hope this experiment can push Bitcoin to the consciousness of millions of Mexicans...though am sure its use in illicit drug business is going to also be a part of the total mix.

[famososMuertos]

...//...:::

A priori I would say that it is on a waiting list, that is, I do not take away the true intention but so far we have had great announcements and they do not end in bitcoin as legal tender, on the other hand I think that making bitcoin legal has the same political intentions and social in Mexico, the difference is that El Salvador has a leader in Bukele, who for now seems to me to be one of the best reserves to keep bitcoin dormant in El Salvador.

Mexico has legislation on bitcoin and what it seeks is to improve existing laws , and that takes it away from its title, but in reality what matters is that bitcoin is present and creating a need for use.

[so98nn]

Very big win only if those 128 million peeps started accepting bitcoin with full state of mind. Unlike El Salvador where many peeps stood against this policy of bitcoin and hated the fact that the government is supporting something which they do not understand or at least their country does not need right now!! Like they need more facilities of health care or more employment rather than new transaction system and new ways of payment systems.

However, this is indeed positive news for Bitcoiners like you and me. Since in the future we could be having stable assets from legal tenders of bitcoin from Mexican government itself. Could be influencing for sure.

[GreatArkansas]

Very big win only if those 128 million peeps started accepting bitcoin with full state of mind. Unlike El Salvador where many peeps stood against this policy of bitcoin and hated the fact that the government is supporting something which they do not understand or at least their country does not need right now!! Like they need more facilities of health care or more employment rather than new transaction system and new ways of payment systems.
(....)

For me, it's all good. It's still people's choice, they have still their own choice. The good thing here is being flexible, lot of choices for your payment methods in your country. For example, if you are shopping online which particular online store, got some choices about which payment provider you want to pay.
So, if people don't use Bitcoin as payment, it's good. If they want to use, it's good too.

[pooya87]

Unlike El Salvador where many peeps stood against this policy of bitcoin and hated the fact that the government is supporting something which they do not understand or at least their country does not need right now!! Like they need more facilities of health care or more employment rather than new transaction system and new ways of payment systems.

I'm curious about the source of your claim about "peeps" being against bitcoin adoption in El Salvador. Specially since it doesn't really cost anything to adopt bitcoin! How much money did the El Salvador government spend on it anyways? Hire some programmers to create that wallet and pay them a grand?! You can't build health facilities with that much money.

[348Judah]

We all know that El Salvador is already using Bitcoin as legal tender officially and there is already a lot of good feedback from it, there are already some people visiting or migrating to El Salvador because of Bitcoin being a legal tender

As long as El-Savador has make it through with adoption, Central African Republic followed, we've got some other countries showing interest as well but yet to derive on a conclusion and Mexico in these has also join the likes of Paraguay, Panama and other desiring countries that were on the edge of adoption, but i will also employ them to adequately plan ahead this decision without considering external influx on their decision.

but on the other hand, there are still some people criticizing it and talking negative things about El Salvador's decision[/quote ]

This is common and it has no inch effect on what El-Savador stand to gain in progressing forward in it adoption, if you must see a new result then you must be able to start a new thing.

[Lucius]

@pooya87, I think that a lot of controversy was created through some media articles in which they tried to show that the vast majority of people in ES protested against Bitcoin, but I think that this is far from the truth if we consider that the main opponents were politicians from the opposition and their few followers. At the time when Bitcoin became a legal tender in that country, there were some kind of protests that had nothing to do with Bitcoin, and then one of the Bitcoin ATMs was set on fire, which the on-duty critics immediately used to create a false image of how local residents perceive Bitcoin.

If 70% or more of the people in that country are unbanked and live in rural areas, mainly engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding or fishing, then it is not logical that they are against something that they do not even really understand.

As for the costs of introducing Bitcoin as a legal tender, it was not only the software but also the hundreds of ATMs that were installed in ES, but also in all major US cities. However, we know that the key role in everything was played by the Tether guys, and that ES could very easily declare one altcoin (cardano) as a legal tender because they were in serious negotiations with them.

[justdimin]

Although al Salvador did not accept this, I think the president of the country regretted making bitcoin the official currency. If I remember correctly when they went official, bitcoin was around 35-40 thousand dollars. It's half value now.

It doesn't matter when you start, it's not an idea that would make you rich overnight and this is a whole nation we are talking about. They kept on buying more and more bitcoins after that, even though the initial investment wasn't at the bottom, they did buy some at the bottom levels as well, which means they already did DCA, so if a whole nation could wait, which governments usually do because they could have investments take as long as 20-25 years to mature, then it's going to be an insanely good investment for sure.

I do not think that President really regrets it, he is still doing it and still buying some, so I feel like he must be happy about it if he is still doing it.

[stompix]

This senator has long been a bitcoin advocate, but just because she is a bitcoin enthusiast doesn't mean anything if she doesn't have enough support.
She has already been discussed in the forum as a result of this:

Bill Proposes to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender in Mexico

But it seems that she does not have enough support. As long as she does not, what she says in the future is only her opinion.

Thanks as I've been looking for a link to that but it seems that proposals and initiatives have different meanings in the Mexican parliament
So, in short, her proposal:
https://www.senado.gob.mx/64/gaceta_del_senado/documento/125056
doesn't have a date for deliberation even now, and she is the only one that is backing this, it hasn't made it even to a discussion from the financial council so the way things are going it might not come to a vote on it by the time the actual parliament is in power.

I've gone through a lot of her proposals here:
https://www.senado.gob.mx/64/senador/1145
and seem like in like 90% of thecases he can't convince anyone to back her proposals in a commission, not even her colleagues while when it comes to others from his own party they all have a dozen of backers from other parties included, for example Patricia Mercado

As for the costs of introducing Bitcoin as a legal tender, it was not only the software but also the hundreds of ATMs that were installed in ES, but also in all major US cities. However, we know that the key role in everything was played by the Tether guys, and that ES could very easily declare one altcoin (cardano) as a legal tender because they were in serious negotiations with them.

Oh yeah, the magical 400 million in fees saved while Salvadorians have moved only 50 million in total in half a year.
I'm curious why the government isn't releasing any numbers on how much this whole thing actually costs, the installation, the machines, the rent, the wages paid for the ones coordinating and managing all, how much have they paid AlphaPoint to fix the network garbage Athena delivered for millions, and many more but that's probably not laser eyes material.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

It’s actually this link that is the latest entry as far as I’m aware:
https://www.senado.gob.mx/64/gaceta_del_senado/documento/125472

She amended the previous one in the course of a two-week timespan apparently, and explicitly included the following reference (translated):

"Article 2nd third – Bitcoin (BTC) shall be considered legal tender in the Mexican Republic"

That is, in fact, the only reference to bitcoin in the document. I presume that the arguments in favour are heavily laid out elsewhere …

I spent some time yesterday trying to see if there was any information on how and when this subject was to be treated, or even if there was an upper limit in terms of time, but came up empty handed so far.

[kryptqnick]

To be fair, I saw reports that El Salvador's adoption failed (it didn't completely fail, of course, but the point was that despite much effort from the government, mass adoption of Bitcoin in this country did not occur), so it's not all good feedback. Still, it's a country that really tried, and it can still attract more crypto users both within and outside the country. Mexico adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender would be huge, as it's indeed a much bigger country and economy. However, one senator saying that Bitcoin becoming legal tender is not a matter of opinion does not actually make it less of an opinion. Adoption would be required by the majority of MPs and/or other authorities (I am not sure which institutions have most power over economic regulations like this in Mexico). One senator isn't enough.

First please get some facts right! El-Salvador did not just make bitcoin legal tender but they made it the official currency. Mexico is not going to do the same! They are going to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender alongside their official currency system. So both cases are different.

That's a wise way to do it unlike El-Salvador! This way Mexico will be able to protect themselves from bitcoin's volatility while enjoying the innovation!

Didn't El Salvador also not abandon their fiat, which is the USD? I remember reports that the actual amount that the state is keeping in Bitcoin is very small. Moreover, do we really know how (if at all) Mexico will adopt Bitcoin (I mean, in detail, so that we could assess how similar or different this is to El Salvador)? Is there at least a project law already?

[Victorik]

I think the idea of adopting BTC as a legal tender by Mexico is very much a welcome initiative.
This is will further grow the community around BTC. Compared to Elsalvador with a population of about 7 mil, Mexico has a population of about 120 mil.
And of course, not everyone is going to accept it.

[OgNasty]

We all know that El Salvador is already using Bitcoin as legal tender officially and there is already a lot of good feedback from it, there are already some people visiting or migrating to El Salvador because of Bitcoin being a legal tender, but on the other hand, there are still some people criticizing it and talking negative things about El Salvador's decision.

So now, Mexico seems started to take a look at this case too, using Bitcoin as a legal tender in their country.
Mexico got 128million population right now and El Salvador got around 7 million population according to Google.
It seems this will be a very big win for the Bitcoin community once will be implemented.

What are your thoughts about this?

Mexico is much more susceptible to political pressure than El Salvador.  Even El Salvador was receiving a lot of urging to step away from Bitcoin.  I imagine Mexico would find a lot of issues with trying to go the El Salvador route.  They are much more easily punished financially than El Salvador.  With all of the issues Mexico is facing, even with El Salvador's imminent success, I think they aren't ready to be the next one to go to Bitcoin.  More likely in my opinion is that smaller countries more distanced from the dollar will be next up.  I'm thinking countries in Africa or possibly more small South American countries.

[CarnagexD]

It's happening, soon these words will be in more places. Little things like this are comforting. Starting with a small place at the end, countries accept BTC and cryptocurrency

Indira's words are a bit strong though, I like that it's a bit risque but hey, we are crypto enthusiasts and we eat risk for breakfast. That's how things or trends starts, from scratch. People resist change so you have to take them little by little if you want to make sure that your foothold is strong. Some still resist the future but we have to be there to know what's going to happen next.

[Kelvinid]

What are your thoughts about this?

128 million residents if all agree to adopt bitcoin I think the adoption will be a success , and each user can freely send money to each other without dealing with bank fees .
but it should be underlined that elsavador and mexico are very different in their goals of adoption

They have one reason why they adopt Bitcoin, maybe you are talking about the way or strategies they used. However, no matter what it is at least we see a number of countries moving in and adopting Bitcoin as a form of currency. Singapore, Mexico, and El Salvador... are not quite huge countries but they somehow appreciate and value Bitcoin. Big credit to El Salvador to make the first push and even receiving a lot of criticism but still, they are doing their best to succeed.