El Salvador to scale back Bitcoin dreams to seal $1.3B IMF deal | Hacker News Reader

El Salvador to scale back Bitcoin dreams to seal $1.3B IMF deal

ft.com

> Under the terms of the agreement being finalised with the Washington-based fund, El Salvador would drop a legal requirement for businesses to accept bitcoin as payment, making it voluntary to do so.

So, nothing serious

Actually better (i.e. more liberal) than forcing BTC on everyone.

BTC as a payment method was not being forced on consumers, rather it was being forced on businesses by compelling them to accept it as payment.

I'm not disputing your main point that forcing businesses to accept it is less desirable than simply allowing them to, I just wanted to clarify that it wasn't being forced on everyone.

Meanwhile, the IMF wielding this kind of influence on nations is perfectly fine, I suppose.

Without a mandate, the country won't ever quit the dollar (for international trade).

> the country won't ever quit the dollar (for international trade)

Legal tender status has almost nothing to do with international settlement. (The dollar isn’t legal tender in most jurisdictions.)

The USD is legal tender in El Salvador though, so...

> USD is legal tender in El Salvador though

Yes. That isn’t why they have to pay dollars for their imports.

Sure. You trade in the currency the seller invoices in.

Using USD as their currency though does mean there is no possibility of them being invoiced in their own national currency even in cases where it might make sense.

Of course, most trade is invoiced in USD regardless.

> Using USD as their currency though does mean there is no possibility of them being invoiced in their own national currency even in cases where it might make sense

Plenty of countries use the dollar alongside their national currency, formally and informally [1]. Plenty use it without making it legal tender.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar#Countries...

In what sense?

From what I've read almost no businesses accepted it anyhow so it's not actually an impactful change for anyone.

https://archive.is/4MU39

Thanks for the link

Hilarious read, shallow serious situation: El Salvador goes back on BTC as legal tender (why?) but its not a problem if they hold millions in BTC.

Technically "legal tender" doesn't mean shops have to accept it. "Legal tender" means that it can be used to pay a debt.

A dollar being legal tender means that, if A owes B money, and they pay in dollars, then if B tries to sue A for non-payment because they wanted payment in gold, the court will rule that A has satisfied the debt and owes B nothing.

So is this good news for bitcoin?

Seems generally positive. They are getting help from the IMF, and the value of their bitcoin bag has increased greatly. And removing the requirement of accepting bitcoin will likely be unnoticed by most.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com