El Salvador
The Guatemalan Government Is Taking A Closer Look At Bitcoin — All Because Of A Meme
Published
2 weeks agoon
By
admin(Author’s note: In this Take, I offer an interpretation of recent events in Guatemala through the lens of someone on the ground in the country.)
On November 10, the X account for El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office posted the following meme:
It seemed harmless enough. I know I didn’t think too much about it when I came across it. I remember laughing when I saw it and then just going about my day.
However, a week ago, a colleague of mine, a prominent Guatemalan Bitcoiner, shared with me that the meme went viral in Guatemala. And not just a bunch of retweets-type viral — more like wildfire viral.
Many Guatemalans, particularly Guatemalan Bitcoiners, are fans of Bukele. So, when the Bitcoin Office jokingly signaled that Bukele is thinking of buying Guatemala, the reaction from many in the country was essentially “good.”
This put the powers that be in the country on their heels, catalyzing higher ups in the Guatemalan government and at Guatemala’s central bank to start researching Bitcoin.
My source tells me it’s possible that this could result in the Guatemalan government and central bank acknowledging bitcoin’s value and offering proper guidance for banks and other institutions that may want to hold the asset on their balance sheets.
I plan to speak with more people on the ground in the coming weeks to provide more substantial reporting.
This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Source link
You may like
Metaplanet makes largest Bitcoin bet, acquires nearly 620 BTC
Tron’s Justin Sun Offloads 50% ETH Holdings, Ethereum Price Crash Imminent?
Investors bet on this $0.0013 token destined to leave Cardano and Shiba Inu behind
End of Altcoin Season? Glassnode Co-Founders Warn Alts in Danger of Lagging Behind After Last Week’s Correction
Can Pi Network Price Triple Before 2024 Ends?
XRP’s $5, $10 goals are trending, but this altcoin with 7,400% potential takes the spotlight
El Salvador
The IMF Just Improved El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law
Published
2 days agoon
December 21, 2024By
adminThe IMF yesterday announced they have reached a $1.4 billion loan deal with El Salvador. In return, the Central American country that in 2021 made bitcoin legal tender had to remove some of its pro-Bitcoin policies.
I spent about three months in El Salvador around the time the Bitcoin law went into effect. I thought then that it was a positive development for the country, but there were aspects of the law that I strongly disliked. Exactly these aspects are now being removed.
Most importantly, Salvadoran merchants will no longer be obligated to accept bitcoin. Great! I don’t think Bitcoin should be forced on anyone, nor do I believe Bitcoin needs that. Bitcoin is an emergent form of free market money, and adoption should happen voluntarily.
(In practice, this aspect of the law was barely enforced anyways. I’ve heard from one relative insider that some of the big fast food chains received phone calls from the government telling them to comply — which would explain why McDonald’s and Wendy’s did it — but otherwise I don’t think any merchants got in trouble for not accepting bitcoin.)
Additionally, El Salvador will have to wind down operations of its Chivo wallet. Maybe the software has improved over the years, but in 2021 the wallet was incredibly buggy; the open source community and free market are much more capable of building such tools. Good riddance!
That said, it is slightly disappointing that Salvadoran citizens won’t be able to pay tax in bitcoin anymore — though, again, I doubt many did. This is probably little more than a nuisance, however. Now, bitcoin-accepting merchants need to sell some of their BTC for USD before paying the taxman.
To succeed, Bitcoin benefits from an equal playing field. El Salvador still goes a long way to offer just that.
This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Source link
El Salvador
Bukele Is The President of El Salvador, Not Bitcoin
Published
3 days agoon
December 20, 2024By
adminAs a condition of a new IMF loan package, President Bukele of El Salvador has had to concede three aspects of the Bitcoin Law passed in 2021:
- A legal tender mandate requiring businesses to accept Bitcoin
- Shutting down Chivo, the state run wallet and on/off ramp service
- No longer accepting tax payments in bitcoin
Ultimately everything except the last one is a positive change. Legal tender laws are ultimately coercive, and in my opinion shouldn’t exist. Chivo was a buggy mess, and alternatives exist such as Blink. The only negative (arguably), is the state no longer accepting bitcoin for tax payments.
People are losing their minds on Twitter over these changes, framing things as Bukele selling out, showing himself not to be a Bitcoiner, etc. There is a lot of people demonstrating an attitude that shows they feel misled, or betrayed.
Well here is a wake up call. Bukele was never going to be first and foremost a champion of Bitcoin above all else. He is the leader of a nation of around six million people. That was always going to be his first priority. If it wasn’t, he would be a terrible leader.
El Salvador is a country plagued by poverty, previously by violent organized crime. It was the murder capital of the world. Infrastructure was decaying and dysfunctional, people could not participate in the economy without paying protection money to violent gangs like MS-13. Massive amounts of the population had moved abroad to escape these things.
Bitcoin is nothing but a tool, one among many, for Bukele to deal with these problems. And that’s all it should be to the leader of a nation. Bukele’s reason for being in power isn’t to pump our bags, or to advance the cause of Bitcoin, it is to help the Salvadoran people.
When Bitcoin isn’t the best way to do that, he should acknowledge that. When deprioritizing Bitcoin is what is in the best interest of his people, he should do that. Regardless of how you feel about governments, or nation states, that is the job of a leader. To look after the best interests of his people.
That is what he is doing here, and anyone who would expect him to do otherwise is deluded and narcissistic. Bukele is not the President of Bitcoin, he is the President of El Salvador. The Salvadoran people are who he is accountable to, not a bunch of clowns on the internet.
This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Source link
Bitcoin
Suriname presidential candidate eyes on Bitcoin adoption
Published
4 weeks agoon
November 27, 2024By
adminThe use case of Bitcoin has spread around the globe since El Salvador adopted it as a legal tender, the U.S. planned it for a national strategic reserve, and now Suriname.
Maya Parbhoe, a Surinamese young lady who is running for president, is embracing the use of Bitcoin in the country, specifically for the national currency. She is also aware that the Bitcoin standard should be implemented in the country, as well as ending the systematic corruption regime if she is elected.
According to Maya’s plan, she also aims to eliminate the country’s central bank, which was founded in 1957. She also focused on introducing free currency competition as the Suriname dollar (SRD) has inflated above 50% in the past 3 years and cooled down below 20% in 2024, according to Statista’s data.
On the economic development agenda, Maya targets building the first blockchain-based capital market in the world and boosting economic growth by financing Bitcoin bonds.
She was inspired by El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele for adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender and Switzerland for opening the free currency competition in their respective nations.
Suriname-Poland, following other nation’s step
Numerous presidential candidates who are running for head of government positions are embracing Bitcoin as one of their political and economic campaigns. After El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender and the United States announced its proposal as a national strategic reserve, many came to follow.
One of them is the chairman of the right-wing Polish political party New Hope, Slawomir Mentzen, who introduced the idea of a Bitcoin strategic reserve for running the presidential ticket.
Mentzen was also the figure in Poland who proposed that municipal schools and offices mine Bitcoin back in 2018, although it was considered an absurd idea.
“Now I am running for president of Poland and propose that we should keep its currency reserves in Bitcoins. This may seem abstract to someone now, but in a few years it will turn out again that it was a completely obvious decision to make,” he said on X post on Nov. 18.
Source link
Metaplanet makes largest Bitcoin bet, acquires nearly 620 BTC
Tron’s Justin Sun Offloads 50% ETH Holdings, Ethereum Price Crash Imminent?
Investors bet on this $0.0013 token destined to leave Cardano and Shiba Inu behind
End of Altcoin Season? Glassnode Co-Founders Warn Alts in Danger of Lagging Behind After Last Week’s Correction
Can Pi Network Price Triple Before 2024 Ends?
XRP’s $5, $10 goals are trending, but this altcoin with 7,400% potential takes the spotlight
CryptoQuant Hails Binance Reserve Amid High Leverage Trading
Trump Picks Bo Hines to Lead Presidential Crypto Council
The introduction of Hydra could see Cardano surpass Ethereum with 100,000 TPS
Top 4 Altcoins to Hold Before 2025 Alt Season
DeFi Protocol Usual’s Surge Catapults Hashnote’s Tokenized Treasury Over BlackRock’s BUIDL
DOGE & SHIB holders embrace Lightchain AI for its growth and unique sports-crypto vision
Will Shiba Inu Price Hold Critical Support Amid Market Volatility?
Chainlink price double bottoms as whales accumulate
Ethereum Accumulation Address Holdings Surge By 60% In Five Months – Details
182267361726451435
Why Did Trump Change His Mind on Bitcoin?
Top Crypto News Headlines of The Week
New U.S. president must bring clarity to crypto regulation, analyst says
Will XRP Price Defend $0.5 Support If SEC Decides to Appeal?
Bitcoin Open-Source Development Takes The Stage In Nashville
Ethereum, Solana touch key levels as Bitcoin spikes
Bitcoin 20% Surge In 3 Weeks Teases Record-Breaking Potential
Ethereum Crash A Buying Opportunity? This Whale Thinks So
Shiba Inu Price Slips 4% as 3500% Burn Rate Surge Fails to Halt Correction
Washington financial watchdog warns of scam involving fake crypto ‘professors’
‘Hamster Kombat’ Airdrop Delayed as Pre-Market Trading for Telegram Game Expands
Citigroup Executive Steps Down To Explore Crypto
Mostbet Güvenilir Mi – Casino Bonus 2024
NoOnes Bitcoin Philosophy: Everyone Eats
Trending
- 3 months ago
182267361726451435
- Donald Trump5 months ago
Why Did Trump Change His Mind on Bitcoin?
- 24/7 Cryptocurrency News4 months ago
Top Crypto News Headlines of The Week
- News4 months ago
New U.S. president must bring clarity to crypto regulation, analyst says
- Price analysis4 months ago
Will XRP Price Defend $0.5 Support If SEC Decides to Appeal?
- Opinion5 months ago
Bitcoin Open-Source Development Takes The Stage In Nashville
- Bitcoin5 months ago
Ethereum, Solana touch key levels as Bitcoin spikes
- Bitcoin5 months ago
Bitcoin 20% Surge In 3 Weeks Teases Record-Breaking Potential