The Bitcoin 2021 Conference in Miami took place last weekend. One of the biggest Bitcoin meetups in history was full of interesting speeches, opinions, talks and interviews. Moreover, the panel was full of crypto experts such as Jimmy Song, Winklevoss twins, Max Keiser, Michael Saylor and many others. The conference brought to light many interesting views when it comes to cryptocurrencies and their future application. However, without any doubt, one of the most important ones was the announcement from the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who via video specified, that he is about to send a proposal to his Congress about making Bitcoin officially a legal tender (Bukele, n.d.).

Bitcoin as a Currency

According to him, Nayib Bukele, a 39-year old president of El Salvador, wants to pass a law in the country that would make Bitcoin a legal tender and therefore would allow Bitcoin to act as a payment system to work alongside the US dollar as an official currency in the country.

“Central banks are increasingly taking actions that may cause harm to the economic stability of El Salvador. In order to mitigate the negative impact from central banks, it becomes necessary to authorize the circulation of a digital currency with the supply that cannot be controlled by any central bank.”

Those were just some of his opinions on why he wants to legally allow Bitcoin to become a currency in El Salvador. He also stated that currently more than 70% of the population of this country are not either underbanked or unbanked at all. Bitcoin should help with this by improving the financial infrastructure in the country and making it easier for Salvadorans to take advantage of the financial services in the country (Williams, 2021).

Nayib Bukele also stated that more than 20% of all GDP of El Salvador is coming from outside of the country via remittances, since more than 2 million Salvadorans live overseas. This is due to better job and salary opportunities outside of the country, which leads to brain drain. However, they still send money back to their families to El Salvador, via an ineffective traditional financial system (high fees, slow transactions over the weekends), which can be changed again thanks to Bitcoin (Roberts, 2021).

El Salvador – New Crypto Haven?

After this news was released, El Salvador became immediately more interesting for crypto enthusiasts. And Nayib Bukele knows this, since he decided to advertise his country for more potential newcomers via his Twitter.

Source: Twitter

Thanks to all of these, he hopes that once the law is passed, crypto entrepreneurs will move to the country which will increase jobs and in the short term,  provide opportunities to increase the GDP of the country. However, if this passes, El Salvador will become the first country that made Bitcoin a legal tender and therefore might be on the forefront of a new revolution, setting an example for other countries to follow suit.

Reference

Bukele, N. (n.d.). Nayib Bukele. Retrieved from Twitter: https://twitter.com/nayibbukele

Williams, M. (2021, 6 10). Revolutionary: El Salvador On Its Way To Adopt Bitcoin As a Legal Tender. Retrieved from Crypto Potato: https://cryptopotato.com/revolutionary-el-salvador-on-its-way-to-adopt-bitcoin-as-a-legal-tender/

Roberts, D. (2021, 6 6). El Salvador President Submits Bill to Recognize Bitcoin as Legal Tender. Retrieved from Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/72853/el-salvador-president-submits-bill-to-recognize-bitcoin-as-legal-tender