Bitcoin is a legal tender in El Salvador for all transactions and tax payments

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17 points·zapdrive··8 comments

One lawyer pointed out that this introduce an interesting issue within Japanese law which explicitly exclude any foreign currencies as cryptocurrency. So Bitcoin is considered not a cryptocurrency in the definition of the current law.

All businesses must now accept payments in bitcoin also (next to US Dollars).

I can see why they would want to adapt to ₿. The remittance companies like Western Union have the audacity to ask for 20% (no joke) when sending money from say the US to El Salvador.

₿ transactions over Lightning or over Liquid are virtually free. Quite a difference for a poor country!

Lol, that's a joke right? Lightning network is more centralised than federal reserve.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27408683

This is a proposal being sent to Congress, it's not actually law yet.

it's already been voted on and passed. Comes into effect in 90 days I believe.

It hasn't passed yet. The vote is in five minutes.

You're right that the law would come into effect in 90 days, based on El Salvador's president's tweet of the bill translated in English.[1]

[1] https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402446890466217985

EDIT: The bill was approved (62 AYE / 22 NAY).[2][3]

[2] https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402507380710051840

[3] https://twitter.com/elsalvador/status/1402507585807433728

It was approved by congress this midnight, next step is for it to be signed by the president and published in the National Register (Diario Oficial).

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