Lol after a country adopts it as legal tender, they say it’s not money
Can’t make this up
Can’t make this up
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-approves-...
From the article:
> With 62 out of 84 possible votes, lawmakers voted in favor of the move to create a law to adopt bitcoin (...)
> (...)
> Its use as legal tender will begin in 90 days, with the bitcoin-dollar exchange rate set by the market.
Pretty weird seeing the BTC crew all crowing about that kind of sad endorsement of a desperate government.
What if, like, you know, solving problems like 70% of the population not having a bank could actually reduce crime. Bitcoin is a pretty easy fix for that problem.
And “it’s a tiny country”…like do they not deserve a better life since they have such a small gdp. This is the most inhumane sentiment I keep seeing about this news “who cares, they are a tiny country with small gdp”
You used El Salvador to try to legitimize BTC. As a tiny economic "power" (literally 7-11 sized), with a functionally broken government, it counts for somewhere approximating zero in legitimizing the farce that is BTC. The only people who think it is notable are BTC hypesters.
https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lif...
The smallness of the country doesn’t mean this isn’t significant. They have problems, and through an experiment found solutions to those problems and are scaling them up
Bitcoin has shockingly little to do with El Salvador. It is a lightning network being pitched (which could be funded by USD, gold, eggs, turtles...whatever), trying to pump BTC in the process.
So save with the feel good El Salvador story.
Well that’s where I disagree with you.
What happened with those apps in Africa? And why is Nigeria increasingly looking to BTC? Could also be corrupt central banks, which I admit is less an issue in El Salvador.
Bitcoin is also censorship resistant, Nigeria tried to ban BTC but P2P usage went up after the “ban”.
And to be clear: I don’t think BTC is necessarily THE BEST conceivable solution out there - a USD backed coin probably is better for ES in the next few years.
But I also do think BTC is better than status quo for ES
It is really odd until you reveal below that you have a pretty clear bias against Bitcoin because you personally worked on some traditional payment processing software.
As to the "clear bias", I literally laughed out loud at that hilarious claim. You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding about this entire discussion.
Firstly, I don't work in that realm anymore, but secondly it's _irrelevant_ because the product that I worked on could as easily be "backed" by BTC (in fact it is used in multiple jurisdictions backed by various currencies. The net is that something of value can be transmitted between users). None of these payment systems -- including "Bitcoin Beach" -- actually operate off of the BTC blockchain (you know, because it's completely broken trash).
My bias against Bitcoin is that it is a garbage solution that solves literally nothing -- it is one of the worst solutions in every single claimed use -- but that we have to constantly hear a million pathetic salespeople for it because they've "invested" in it. If there were a thousand pet rock HN commentators pitching pet rocks in every discussion I'd shit on that too.
Yes, the USD is better for hyperinflation *right now* than BTC as it is more stable.
But I do think BTC has better properties that, in the long run, will prove superior to the USD and gold in environments of absurd inflation.
Hal Finney basically knew this in 2009
Elizabeth Stark knew this in 2014 and started Lightning
But, looking at the fundamental properties of BTC, it does have better properties than USD. It’s just not adopted enough to be stable…but you at least gotta admit that, over time, can change
I mean, if you don't have a bank account - "here, store everything you have on this phone [do you own a smartphone?], that requires an internet connection [can you afford that?]" - seems like a bigger step, no? Unless I'm missing something obvious?
Blockstream is working to make internet more accessible there. It’ll be interesting to see how much penetration they get and how much it’ll cost folks there.
Doesn’t need to be a brand new iPhone, but I do agree that phones are an initial cost and I’d be interested in seeing what are low-cost smart phone options there.
That said! The Bitcoin Beach experiment there was enough of a success https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lif...
> Gerard said it appears to work because the bitcoin donor keeps pumping bitcoin into the village’s system. “That’s not a proof of concept that works. That shows that you can trade this stuff if you’re not trading actual bitcoins and someone massively subsidizes it.”
> Edgar Magaña was in town from San Salvador to convert $50 to bitcoin. He inserted the dollars into the machine and was surprised to see only $47 in bitcoin fractions credited to his account on his phone. “They took three dollars commission,” Magaña said, adding that he had understood there was no commission. “This is like in the banks.”
Notice you cherry picking only the negative quotes…
I’d be shocked, and annoyed, if those fees continue in the future as the infra scales up
The US treats them like shit since they have the USD as currency. God forbid a country wants more independence
70% of the country has no bank, for Bitcoin all you need is the internet and a simple wallet app.
Back when I didn’t have money, opening a bank account was way cheaper than leasing a phone or buying one, so I don’t see how that makes sense other than you can do other things with the phone to amortize the cost.
The delusion regarding crypto has reached parody levels. This reads like something out of an Onion article.
They're basically creating cash accounts? Not quite a bank but... not far off it. I feel like a simpler solution is just mandating that banks are required to offer a basic cash account at a set maximum cost.
It doesn't feel like the bitcoin part of the experiment is really doing anything special. It's all in a single app and all held by a holding org. They just track who has how much of the reserve.
Not really the free and open bitcoin?
Either the rich people are coming to the poor country (export oriented economy) or the poor people are coming to the rich country (remittance oriented economy).
If your economy is suffering from high inflation then remittances are a balancing force that is fighting against high inflation because people abroad are exchanging their USD/EUR for the inflating currency and thereby support attempts to peg the inflating currency to USD/EUR which are currencies with low inflation.
One option is Bitcoin
El Salvador doesn’t have too much inflation since it uses USD. In their case, independence from USD is also a goal