In a historical moment for both the nation and the crypto community, Argentina has ushered in a new era by welcoming its first-ever pro-Bitcoin President. 

Argentina Elects Pro Bitcoin President

On November 19, Argentina released the results of its presidential election. Reports of the election results reveal that right-wing libertarian and Bitcoin advocate, Javier Milei won almost 56% out of 90% of votes counted. While his rival candidate, Minister Sergio Massa garnered 44% of the votes. 

The momentous victory positions Milei as the face of a new era in Argentina, marked by his stated commitment to solving inflationary problems in the country by abolishing the country’s Central Bank and using digital currencies like Bitcoin. 

In a public victory speech to his supporters in Buenos Aires, Milei declared that the transformative process of Argentina had just begun and the country was on its way to economic recovery. He promised to work with all the nations to help develop Argentina and make it a better country. 

“Today begins the reconstruction of Argentina. Today begins the end of Argentina’s decline. The model of decadence has come to an end. There is no way back,” Milei stated. 

He further added that “Argentina will return to its place in the world that it should never have lost. We are going to work shoulder-to-shoulder with all nations of the free world, to help build a better world.”

Former President of the United States, Donald Trump commended Milei on securing victory in the Argentinian Presidential election. He expressed his pride in Milei’s incredible feat and stated his anticipation for Milei’s efforts in restoring Argentina. 

“Congratulations to Javier Milei on a great race for President of Argentina. The whole world was watching! I am very proud of you. You will turn your Country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again,” Trump stated. 

BTC Price Surges As Argentina Embraces New Era Of Crypto

Following the news of Javier Milei’s victory in Argentina’s Presidential elections, Bitcoin price has been on an upward trend, trading above the $37,000 mark. The price of the cryptocurrency at the time of writing is $37,199 according to CoinMarketCap. 

One of Milei’s primary policy plans as Argentina’s President is to discontinue the use of the Argentinian peso and adopt the United States Dollar as the country’s main currency. He has also mulled over the introduction of Bitcoin as a potential legal tender and declared possibilities of launching a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Argentina. 

While the proposals aim to significantly reduce the long-lasting inflationary crisis in the Argentinian economy, the involvement of Bitcoin could potentially herald a new wave of economic growth for the crypto industry.

BTC recovers following Milei's win | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com

Featured image from Cryptopolitan, chart from Tradingview.com

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is making a major move toward integrating its bureaucracy with blockchain technology. Starting in October, the city’s 15 million residents can access identity documents via a digital wallet, according to an announcement on Sept. 28. 

The first documents to be available on-chain include birth and marriage certificates, along with proof of income and academic verification. The announcement notes that health data and payment management will be integrated in the future, and that a roadmap for rolling out the blockchain-based solution across the country will be defined by the end of 2023.

Behind the project infrastructure is QuarkID, a digital identity protocol built by Web3 firm Extrimian. QuarkID wallets are powered by zkSync Era, an Ethereum scaling protocol using zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups). The technology allows one party to prove to another that a statement is true, without revealing any specific information about the statement itself.

¡Hola Buenos Aires! Welcome to the ZK Nation

Buenos Aires is teaming up with @Quark_ID to issue digital identification services to millions of citizens in the city, with zkSync Era serving as the anchor blockchain for the program.

Learn more: https://t.co/C2ogl1qobc

TL;DR… pic.twitter.com/H2doBrotvM

— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) September 28, 2023

“This is a monumental step towards a safer and more efficient future for government services in Latin America,” said Guillermo Villanueva, CEO of Extrimian.

Data stored within the wallets will be self-sovereign, enabling citizens to manage the delivery of their credentials when interacting with government, businesses, and other individuals. zkSync Era will act as the settlement layer for QuarkID, ensuring that each citizen holds the correct credentials.

The Argentine government and the City of Buenos Aires envision their digital identity framework to be a public good. According to Diego Fernandez, Buenos Aires’ secretary of innovation:

“With this development, Buenos Aires becomes the first city in Latin America, and one of the first in the world, to integrate and promote this new technology and set the standard for how other countries in the region should use blockchain technology for the benefit of their people.”

Argentine officials are investigating a similar initiative in the country, the digital ID project Worldcoin. In August, local authorities disclosed a probe over privacy concerns related to Worldcoin collection, storage and use of customer data. 

Worldcoin is also under scrutiny in Europe and Africa since its global launch in July. Founded by Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, the project collects retinal scans to verify users.

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