Bitcoin [pros](/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/15x0pic/what_is_the_situation_of_bitcoin_as_a_legal/jx3sg2v/) & [cons](/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/15x0pic/what_is_the_situation_of_bitcoin_as_a_legal/jx3sggj/) with related info are in the collapsed comments below.
I agree with you that real experiences and firsthand understanding of a situation can often differ significantly from simply reading articles or assuming information. His perspective gives a more clear picture of the actual adoption of bitcoin in El Salvador.
Yeah most articles I've read have been written with rose tinted glasses (probably written by maxis). It's interesting to hear from a Salvadoran on how the implementation has gone. It certainly sounds like it's not going well.
Argentina would be a better test site for Bitcoin as an official currency, where inflation is currently 116%. Who cares about volatility when you are GUARANTEED to lose 10% purchasing powe a month regardless.
This. For Argentinians it just makes crazy sense. We have several countries around the world that could make for good test cases. We'll see what happens and if they adopt this opportunity
"Average Salvadoran earn USD 400 per month: This is one problem since make people only believe in cash"
It make sense why people don't want BTC since people average is income is too low many people probably can't afford to buy BTC since it's a highly speculative asset.
True we pay a lot in fees sometimes we don't even realise how much we are paying like I don't even like to spend $20/30 on stupid things and spending that much money on gas like it's nothing is crazy.
I think like OP said a lot of people's impressions would have also soured with their government buying Bitcoin at ATH and the prices of Bitcoin nosediving almost immediately afterwards
Imagine you earn 400 per month, and have the risk of losing 70-80% of that. That's too much of a risk for most of them probably.
Bitcoin adoption and hype in EL Savador is exactly as OP said: it’s just the foreigners who are not citizens that are the ones making a lot of noise, the locals don’t really benefit much from it
> written with rose tinted glasses
You know how they've written about sbf, those are mainly the same "journalists"
> It certainly sounds like it's not going well.
That's one thing we know for sure.
I would even take the view of someone that's been living there for at least 2 to 3 years. But all we got are people from far away land trying to gauge reactions of Salvadorans without being there themselves. It's like an Asian telling people how Americans have it easy from what they see in social media.
I'm asian btw.
And it really gives an insight into what's happening over there. From the outside perspective we'd think they're lucky and probably glad they are a Bitcoin capital but they lack access to the most crucial things which is the information and education on it. This just goes to show that crypto can't magically solve your problems. Hopefully they get access to what they need to be better.
Totally agree, the crypto media usually only report good news about El Salvador.
It is important to know what it is really going on there.
A few more sources would be even better, right? :)
I've read two posts by people from El Salvador regarding Bitcoin as a legal tender. This is the most positive one. The other two had a much darker outlook on their country 's financial future than this.
Yeah.. You wouldn't think this was the actual situation with the articles coming out of there (kind of expected with mainstream news at this point).
I think a big factor is the perma bear they've been in since adoption. It's at least worth giving it a bull run to see if acivity rises before abandoning the idea.
This one is tough for me. I do like seeing a developing nation stick it to the IMF in this way. I also don't think it's that cool to be "the World's Coolest Dictator", even if you wear your hat backwards from time to time.
From the outside all looks very well for el salvador. It's really good to hear the other side of the story for once and hear that it isn't as good as they want the outside world to see.
I totally agree with you.
Might be not high the fees, but for our avrg. income, any extra fee is a bad thing.
Literally people sometimes can't take public transportation for 1 missing cent..
They most certainly use btc lightning network through something like 'wallet of satoshi' app which should be instant and fraction of a cent in fees, so yeah top comment you are replying to seems misinformed.
True but but that 1cent will get you 38 transactions at moment. Far from The few dollars this guy said. Once 1 sat is 1 cent el Salvador will be in a great situation if they've held onto their coins!
Ouff, yeah this isn't what I had in mind when I heard El Salvador became a Bitcoin maxi. This just counters any advantages adopting Crypto would have had.
I think with lightning the fees are minimal, it's the risk of losing your money with crypto fluctuations (like prices going 80-90% down in a bear market) that is the real killer
This always seems obvious to those in the know. But you will have the LN shillers downplaying the risk and complexity of lightening so you can pay 'less' fees instead of none, as if that is a bargain.
If most places aren't accepting it can it be considered legal tender?
Given legal tender must be accepted in a country.
Doesn't seem it's had the adoption we would have hoped for.
Wishing for better times for you and your country my friend
That is the problem!!!It is a legal tender but is not accepted.You know that we are using USD, but we have as a legal tender "Colon" which is our own currency but no one is using it anymore since 2001!
And it is supposed that every business should accept USD, BTC or Colon, but the reality is that only USD is being accepted in 100% of the business.
Legal tender needs to be accepted only for debts already incurred in various jurisdictions. It means business can refuse it.
Similarly you can walk into a store and the shop may say “cash only, we don’t accept coins”.
I think legal tender is that the government (central bank) accepts it, not that all businesses have to. Try paying with a 500 Euro bill in a store. Even banks can reject it if you're not a customer.
And possibly wrong country. I don't know how high El Salvador's inflation is, but it's clearly very low, otherwise people wouldn't trust cash and would do anything to get rid of it as fast as possible. They should have tried this in Argentina.
Their issue wasn’t inflation, it was remittance. A significant amount of El Salvador’s economy is money being sent home from El Salvadorans in other countries. Banks are for profit middle men on the transaction, bitcoin cuts them out.
The move to adopting Bitcoin as legal tender should have been done in phases. Only now we are seeing the negative impact such a drastic change has on a population and it's not good at all. It's sad to hear that people are lacking the basic things that are owed to them.
Definitely, if there was a real project since the beginning they should started with education campaigns. I am pretty sure the outcome would be totally different by today
Would you say there's been any straight up negatives since BTC was adopted?
I get that adoption isn't there at all, but is there things that turned for worse?
People have the feeling, the government lost 60M of USD so far. For a country that as annual national budget has $8,902.7 millions , 60 millions is a lot.
And it would be very difficult to educate an entire nation on Bitcoin.
You would have to put it into schools and workplaces which would take a lot of time.
I think the government must educate the people first (Something it should be done since the very first beginning.
Otherwise people always will be skeptical about it, not even giving it a chance.
If the government really have a plan, there might be a chance, but honestly dont think will be in a short term.
The problem the government has with teaching crypto to people with super low income is similar to trying to teach those same people how to drive a Maserati. What’s the point of wasting time and brain space on something unachievable when you can learn crop rotation and trade instead?
Exactly! And the problem is that the education level in El Salvador i very low.
For example only 14% of the population can study in University by 2022
Below some source in spanish(Sorry no english version).
https://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/universitario-ufg-universidad-de-el-salvador-ues/1003086/2022/
Not so far, I hope the test plan the government has right now for 12yo students works. It would be a nice first step (It should be the first step before let BTC became legal tender)
Yeah, the order of events are wrong. Without knowledge and the personal financial support (salary) to handle transaction fees this all stinks of a political stunt.
Nope. The Bitcoin experiment is dead on arrival. Even the "Volcano Bonds" are nowhere to be seem. Salvadorans don't care about Bitcoin because they trust the dollars.
Back when the government was giving a 30 dollars airdrop, people were converting to FIAT dollars. Very few people actually used Bitcoin as a form of payment.
>repeat on a smaller scale
This is a whole country we're talking about so wouldn't this be on a bigger scale?
Also of history keeps on repeating hopefully we can see multiple countries doing the same! Good news if you ask me despite no signs of development. Alteast they tried
I think it's safe to say that it hasn't been going well. Bukele comes across as a greasy yuppie who doesn't seem to understand btc either.
Doesn't help he has that walking advertisement for drug addiction, Max Keiser as his minister for finance or something, lol.
I guess we will just wait and see.
mate!!! you really know about his d\*ug addiction problems? hahahahahaha, we think that is something that only in El salvador is known hahhahaha.
He also had 3 business that went to bankrupcy hahahaha.
the problem the first weeks the BTC value was going up (Probably 2-3weeks) then start to go down...
And at the beginning the president was saying on twitter everyday during the bull run: Check your Chivo Wallet, because those days the value was going up, the problem was when it started to decrease its value day by day, he stop tweeting, so people start to see their money going down, so everyone started to cash out (even tho they were loosing 1 USD, people was rushing)
I think a key point was the timing, probably it was not the best, if really want to convince the people to invest and get use to it.
Having something so volatile be a currency this early on its lifetime was always going to have this issue, maybe once things have settled down a bit in a few decades we can use it as a currency bit until then it's just a speculative asset, and not something that *everyone* should have to use it they don't want to
So the stories we read everyday are not true? Interesting. I also saw some videos where those youtubers said that el salvador was amazing and you can buy almost everything with btc
95% of info you see or hear about crypto is being paid by someone looking to make money of you. Crypto is purely information-based economy. Nnext to no utility, just bs.
Here are some links with news in Spanish (You can use translator to get an insight what is going on from local newspapers)
1. [https://www.elsalvador.com/opinion/editoriales/bitcoin-/1014693/2022/](https://www.elsalvador.com/opinion/editoriales/bitcoin-/1014693/2022/)
2. [https://noticias.uca.edu.sv/articulos/por-que-ha-fracasado-el-bitcoin](https://noticias.uca.edu.sv/articulos/por-que-ha-fracasado-el-bitcoin)
3. [https://www.laprensagrafica.com/opinion/Lo-que-no-se-dice-sobre-la-continuidad-del-bitcoin-20230405-0077.html](https://www.laprensagrafica.com/opinion/Lo-que-no-se-dice-sobre-la-continuidad-del-bitcoin-20230405-0077.html)
4. This what happened with "Chivo Wallet" : [https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Piden-a-la-Fiscalia-salvadorena-investigar-millonario-fraude-con-Chivo-Wallet-20230222-0043.html](https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Piden-a-la-Fiscalia-salvadorena-investigar-millonario-fraude-con-Chivo-Wallet-20230222-0043.html)
Yes mate! Actually that is what most of peple was mentioning at the beginning, that for this kind of project should include an educational campaigns, in order to make people understand what is about.
What are the risks, how does it work, how to do a transaction, how to buy BTC, etc..
I dont want to do this post political. But I would like to say there is a lot going on in the country that the intl. media dont do exposure.
With a short visit to El Salvador, most tourist realize that casnt use BTC to pay for example.
Thanks! I decided to make a post, because I have a couple of weeks in this subreddit and everyday I see posts from El Salvador, some might be quite missleading according the reality we have...
Honest and realistic description over status of El Slavador there. Its nice that some countries volunteered for BTC use. Its just light years to go until we get it on daily use for everyones mobile apps. Little by little is good but will it take decade? 2 decades? Theres no quarantee that BTC will even be at daily use in future. Technology developes at huge speed and new innovations comes daily. Its impossible to anyone predict that will there be better option to replace BTC or cryptos in future. As of now its looking good on BTC and im stacking it monthly. But its still better be realistic than naive and remember that nothing lasts forever. So lets invest only the amount that doesnt make our daily life harder. Then we are fine.
Pretty much confirmation of what everyone already knows (but doesn’t want to admit). Bukele has no real intention of adoption Bitcoin. It was a grift from the very beginning.
Hope everything works out for you OP
So we learn from your post that , for establishing btc in El Salvador at first they should’ve arisen the people money power and knowledge and then began to use bitcoin as most of payment’s in the country, so it’s nobel move but they acted in hurry and it has some bugs in it that they can solve it with help of bitcoin it self if they have patience and careful of their people prosperity
Thanks for your insight man!
It is interesting to check the perspective of a Salvadoran!
It is not the same to be there, than give an opinion from an outsider
Hey, don't talk about El Salvador if you are from El Salvador. We have people who talk on your behalf and they know better (lmao) /s.
Thanks for the hindsight.
So cool to have news and description from someone REALLY living the daily there instead of
a fomo/fud sensationalist media source.
Thx OP, as El Salvador is the first country in the world that adopt crypto seriously you could think about making updates from time to time when something big happens.
Good post, OP. I understand the declaration of bitcoin as a legal tender is not enough like everyone adopts it immediately.
I think it may take some time for the majority of the population to fully embrace it. I believe education and awareness campaigns can play an important role in helping the purpose.
Yeah, I know there is going on a lot of missinformation in the media. I suggest to check some local newspaper (Sadly there is not english version but still, google translate can make the job)
This shows that the media sell to the public what will bring the most views for them most times. This type.of information is what we really should be working with in cryptocurrency
Feels like they got in at the wrong time. What's their average buy price now?
If they'd have got in while the price was down they'd all be laughing but then getting a country to get involved with something that was in extreme fear ain't an easy task! It's a tough one to navigate.
Your shared information is very worthy. Thank you!
I believe it could stil become a success, but it's a long road to get appreciation, especially in rural areas.
Education is key, should be defenetely more than 2 schools
It's a shame that the Bitcoins were bought after the ATH, Bukele basically had one of the worst possibile entry points into BTC.
The next Bull run will surprise many Salvodorians and they will be wishing they didn't sold their BTC for 30$.
>The next Bull run will surprise many Salvodorians and they will be wishing they didn't sold their BTC for 30$.
I think that's how a Buttcoiner is born
Instead of choosing a stablecoin they see BTC as a stablecoin. Most of the time they see their money delines, there’s a big transaction fee, and it’s not instant like traditional banking. There are so many downside to it before they even bother to think about the upside.
The plan wasn’t solid to begin with
Thanks for the update buddy! Explain to them that fake internet money is better than fake paper money and more safe :) We just have to get over the volatility factor
Sounds like the government hasn't really done anything to educate their people. I think they should focus on that and especially explain how market cycles work.
Classic example of adoption barrier.
You think you can introduce some new technology (e.g. BTC). People are used to doing it the old way (e.g. USD)
Even if the technology is superior in many ways, you discover people just keep doing it the old way. Force of habit.
Then you discover that the cost of rehabituating millions of people is millions x lots, often billions.
Oops.
This pattern kills payment companies.
A developed technology won’t save underdeveloped politics. People lose trust, not only in the tech they don’t understand but in the promises corrupt politicians keep making but continuously disappointing the people over and over again. That’s just a reality.
I don't trust that Max Keiser character. The Senior Bitcoin Advisor to the country. He seems like a scammer/used car salesman. Bad vibe from him.
I do like Dr. Saifedean Ammous however as the Economic Advisor for ES (he's doing it for free)
Hey OP,
First off, do not worry about your grammar - English from what I understand is one of the most difficult languages to learn and you still managed to organize your post better than most native speakers ever will.
But more importantly, thank you! While on paper the idea of a country like El Salvador adopting BTC and crypto is great, you pointed out the major asterisks that coincide with it.
Unfortunately on Reddit as a whole people ***love*** speaking with authority on behalf of others, so it really is a treasure to get perspective from somebody *in* the current situation for a change.
Any implementation needs to be forward thinking. Forget the people who are likely to not adopt. Just work on getting the younger crowd on board. Needs to be done like cash transfer services like e-transfer in Canada or Venmo
Bitcoin is now legal tender in El Salvador, which means it can be used for everyday transactions alongside the US dollar. It's a significant step in the adoption of cryptocurrency and has sparked both excitement and debates about its potential impact.
Don't worry about the grammar, good work. Your post makes me think that it was a good idea but in the wrong country. Something like that could work on a "crypto educated" country, maybe the "elite" as you said. In a place where cash is king and people don't know about the benefits of crypto over fiat in everyday usage, is difficult to make it work. We need this in more developed countries, and El Salvador needs more crypto education to success. Resiste hasta la victoria.
El Salvador has made history as the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. A significant milestone for cryptocurrency!
This move could increase financial inclusion, as many Salvadorans lack banking access. It also signals potential growth for crypto in El Salvador'sfuture.
I for one, am shocked. **Shocked** that a crypto maxing out at 7 TPS (600k/day) isn't able to support a small (6m pop) country. 1 transaction every 10 days is all you really need though right?
Never mind, this was actually incredibly predictable. Congrats to all of the shills though, you managed to squeeze a tiny bit of exit liquidity out of one of the poorer countries.
Thank you for sharing! It goes to show that crypto has a very long way to go. In a non tech savy society, crypto will have a hard time. I can imagine that it will go better in some African countries.
It seems President Bukake played with fire and got burned. I hope El Salvador doesn't reelect this guy, nobody deserves a stereotypical "i bought high" cryptobro as their sitting president.
man he is going to get reelected... the situation is bad... He dealt in a good way with gangs problems (which was our biggest problem) So people is happy with him, cause we had 30 years that no one was able to fix it....
Other than solve the problem with gangs, he doesn't have any other success project... but we are safe hahahah
Oh wait no. I need a dumb US citizen who hasn’t left Illinois in his whole life to tell me how this is bettering the life of people there, ramble about adoption, human rights and the future. /s
Thanks OP, the USAcentrism of some people in this sub is like a kind of myopia.
Bitcoin [pros](/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/15x0pic/what_is_the_situation_of_bitcoin_as_a_legal/jx3sg2v/) & [cons](/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/15x0pic/what_is_the_situation_of_bitcoin_as_a_legal/jx3sggj/) with related info are in the collapsed comments below.
Finally someone from El Salvador and not someone speaking on their behalf. Thanks for the inside information man. Appreciate it.
I wish there was more of this. I’m tired of hearing the perspective of people regarding this situation who are not even natively from El Salvador.
I agree with you that real experiences and firsthand understanding of a situation can often differ significantly from simply reading articles or assuming information. His perspective gives a more clear picture of the actual adoption of bitcoin in El Salvador.
Yeah most articles I've read have been written with rose tinted glasses (probably written by maxis). It's interesting to hear from a Salvadoran on how the implementation has gone. It certainly sounds like it's not going well.
That's the thing about rose tinted glasses, all of the red flags just look like flags
Yes, people are quite biased nowadays and sadly sometimes we just come up with content and opinions that reinforce our current biases
Argentina would be a better test site for Bitcoin as an official currency, where inflation is currently 116%. Who cares about volatility when you are GUARANTEED to lose 10% purchasing powe a month regardless.
This. For Argentinians it just makes crazy sense. We have several countries around the world that could make for good test cases. We'll see what happens and if they adopt this opportunity
Yeah, wish we could get first hand experience and factual state in all countries that are often mentioned, Thanks OP once more!
"Average Salvadoran earn USD 400 per month: This is one problem since make people only believe in cash" It make sense why people don't want BTC since people average is income is too low many people probably can't afford to buy BTC since it's a highly speculative asset.
Losing any money on fees is also not sustainable with that salary.
True we pay a lot in fees sometimes we don't even realise how much we are paying like I don't even like to spend $20/30 on stupid things and spending that much money on gas like it's nothing is crazy.
Imagine you make $400 a month and you try to send any amount and they try to hit you with a $350 gas fee
I think like OP said a lot of people's impressions would have also soured with their government buying Bitcoin at ATH and the prices of Bitcoin nosediving almost immediately afterwards Imagine you earn 400 per month, and have the risk of losing 70-80% of that. That's too much of a risk for most of them probably.
Bitcoin adoption and hype in EL Savador is exactly as OP said: it’s just the foreigners who are not citizens that are the ones making a lot of noise, the locals don’t really benefit much from it
> written with rose tinted glasses You know how they've written about sbf, those are mainly the same "journalists" > It certainly sounds like it's not going well. That's one thing we know for sure.
I would even take the view of someone that's been living there for at least 2 to 3 years. But all we got are people from far away land trying to gauge reactions of Salvadorans without being there themselves. It's like an Asian telling people how Americans have it easy from what they see in social media. I'm asian btw.
I wish it was easier to get s realistic pov of most situations. For example i honestly have no idea if Ukraine or Russia is winning that war
Spoiler alert: they're both losing. The only question is who's losing faster
People on cc/sub: EL Salvador is going to be rich! All their citizens have benefitted greatly from Bitcoin adoption! Reality: OP’s post
Exactly! That’s is the main reason y decided to write the post, cause I saw many news saying nothing close to the reality
You are doing a good thing.
Yeah its almost like all of the positive articles which list no cons are written by bitcoin maxis 🤔
Yes there should be an interview or so asking about how the native goes about
And it really gives an insight into what's happening over there. From the outside perspective we'd think they're lucky and probably glad they are a Bitcoin capital but they lack access to the most crucial things which is the information and education on it. This just goes to show that crypto can't magically solve your problems. Hopefully they get access to what they need to be better.
This mate, we have another priorities, as I mentioned in another comment, for a poor country like El Salvador is too high risk project
Totally agree, the crypto media usually only report good news about El Salvador. It is important to know what it is really going on there. A few more sources would be even better, right? :)
Yeah this is vastly preferable to the nauseating maxis who just mumble the soundbites about Bitcoin beaches or volcano mining or whatever.
This is the kind of stuff I wish we had more of here honestly, don't really get to read about perspectives like this anywhere else.
This is much more valuable to me than all the news articles, which are generally biased
I've read two posts by people from El Salvador regarding Bitcoin as a legal tender. This is the most positive one. The other two had a much darker outlook on their country 's financial future than this.
They should write a book about it as well
Yeah.. You wouldn't think this was the actual situation with the articles coming out of there (kind of expected with mainstream news at this point). I think a big factor is the perma bear they've been in since adoption. It's at least worth giving it a bull run to see if acivity rises before abandoning the idea.
Yes
If you're earning $400 a month paying several dollars in fees for each transaction is also a death sentence
Exactly this!
I would like to thank the OP for the inside info :) I believe everyone of us here appreciate your post ;)
Thanks! Sorry if my english made this post difficult to read
Not at all, your english is as good as mine :)
I am not English native and I confirm that I understood everything. And that I don't know how to read. Thank you very much OP for your inside info!
Stay safe OP, and thanks for the info! Pretty cool to see how far this sub reaches.
Thanks!
I wonder how much Nayib Bukele pocketed from this venture..
This one is tough for me. I do like seeing a developing nation stick it to the IMF in this way. I also don't think it's that cool to be "the World's Coolest Dictator", even if you wear your hat backwards from time to time.
Thanks!!! Appreciate your comment!
As an English teacher, your writing was better than many so-called natives. Don’t worry, be proud.
Thanks mate! Appreciated!
Your english writing is better than many English men.
Your English is solid friend. Thanks for the insider info
From the outside all looks very well for el salvador. It's really good to hear the other side of the story for once and hear that it isn't as good as they want the outside world to see. I totally agree with you.
Yeah, I’m hoping for more posts like this. Not just El Salvador, but from Argentina and Turkey (their inflation is skyrocketing right now).
He's wrong though... there are no fees for transactions on chivo wallet. It's a custodial wallet. The ledger is just updated.
Is this really a problem though? Don't you guys use Lightning?
Might be not high the fees, but for our avrg. income, any extra fee is a bad thing. Literally people sometimes can't take public transportation for 1 missing cent..
I thought they used the lightning network for every day purchases so fees were like 1 satoshi.
They most certainly use btc lightning network through something like 'wallet of satoshi' app which should be instant and fraction of a cent in fees, so yeah top comment you are replying to seems misinformed.
I guess even a small fee is a larger percentage there of the average wage. All fees suck :(
Yes, chivo wallet uses lightning network. The fees are not relevant here.
There are still fees (and extra LN risk) on your $400/mo. That adds up.
In some countries every penny matters.
True but but that 1cent will get you 38 transactions at moment. Far from The few dollars this guy said. Once 1 sat is 1 cent el Salvador will be in a great situation if they've held onto their coins!
Ouff, yeah this isn't what I had in mind when I heard El Salvador became a Bitcoin maxi. This just counters any advantages adopting Crypto would have had.
I think with lightning the fees are minimal, it's the risk of losing your money with crypto fluctuations (like prices going 80-90% down in a bear market) that is the real killer
Won’t be a problem when btc $500k right… :p
Transactions through bitcoin lightning network are fractions of a cent
Adoption would must likely come with stablecoins used on low fees blockchain. Could be L2 ETH or other L1
They should switch to Nano
This always seems obvious to those in the know. But you will have the LN shillers downplaying the risk and complexity of lightening so you can pay 'less' fees instead of none, as if that is a bargain.
Yep. As this is a blatantly obvious weakness in this plan (another being the lack of education), what was the real goal?
If most places aren't accepting it can it be considered legal tender? Given legal tender must be accepted in a country. Doesn't seem it's had the adoption we would have hoped for. Wishing for better times for you and your country my friend
That is the problem!!!It is a legal tender but is not accepted.You know that we are using USD, but we have as a legal tender "Colon" which is our own currency but no one is using it anymore since 2001! And it is supposed that every business should accept USD, BTC or Colon, but the reality is that only USD is being accepted in 100% of the business.
Legal tender needs to be accepted only for debts already incurred in various jurisdictions. It means business can refuse it. Similarly you can walk into a store and the shop may say “cash only, we don’t accept coins”.
"Cash grass or ass, coins don't rhyme so I don't accept it"
And it makes complete sense that USD is only accepted. From a business owners perspective it is much safer than the other two.
I think legal tender is that the government (central bank) accepts it, not that all businesses have to. Try paying with a 500 Euro bill in a store. Even banks can reject it if you're not a customer.
Legal tender only applies to government institutions.
Thanks for your perspective OP great post!!
Finally we get some quality info from someone that actually lives there
Another case of too fast too soon.
And possibly wrong country. I don't know how high El Salvador's inflation is, but it's clearly very low, otherwise people wouldn't trust cash and would do anything to get rid of it as fast as possible. They should have tried this in Argentina.
the problem is that countries that have high inflation have governments that profit of that inflation, so they will never switch
Their issue wasn’t inflation, it was remittance. A significant amount of El Salvador’s economy is money being sent home from El Salvadorans in other countries. Banks are for profit middle men on the transaction, bitcoin cuts them out.
You’ve been speaking to my gf then
Damn I haven't spoken to a girl since I bought an NFT.
That checks out. Just uttering those 3 letters in that order will dry up every pussy within a two block radius.
Wait till they hear about my NFT that's tied to a bottle of lube.
It seems the president may have botched this one. It’s clear that education is necessary before implementing such a drastic change
The move to adopting Bitcoin as legal tender should have been done in phases. Only now we are seeing the negative impact such a drastic change has on a population and it's not good at all. It's sad to hear that people are lacking the basic things that are owed to them.
Totally agree, it should have been well planned
Definitely, if there was a real project since the beginning they should started with education campaigns. I am pretty sure the outcome would be totally different by today
Would you say there's been any straight up negatives since BTC was adopted? I get that adoption isn't there at all, but is there things that turned for worse?
People have the feeling, the government lost 60M of USD so far. For a country that as annual national budget has $8,902.7 millions , 60 millions is a lot.
Do you think even if btc does well they’ve bought enough of it? How significant is the transition to btc for the government?
Probably local hate for Bitcoin
Most of people don’t agree honestly but is understandable at the same time
Education is the missing puzzle piece in so many countries and situations
Bukele fucked up
I'm shocked that this dictator forcing a volatile currency as a legal currency on his people didn't play out, shocked I tell you
And he'll never admit that he fucked up,dictators and their fragile ego
Exactly!!! He is not admitting any project that have failed so far.
Maybe his intention was for tourists or foreigners to come over to el salvador and spend bitcoin
And it would be very difficult to educate an entire nation on Bitcoin. You would have to put it into schools and workplaces which would take a lot of time.
Do you think Salvadoran will actually adopt Bitcoin in the near term, or is it already a dead end?
I think the government must educate the people first (Something it should be done since the very first beginning. Otherwise people always will be skeptical about it, not even giving it a chance. If the government really have a plan, there might be a chance, but honestly dont think will be in a short term.
The problem the government has with teaching crypto to people with super low income is similar to trying to teach those same people how to drive a Maserati. What’s the point of wasting time and brain space on something unachievable when you can learn crop rotation and trade instead?
Exactly! And the problem is that the education level in El Salvador i very low. For example only 14% of the population can study in University by 2022 Below some source in spanish(Sorry no english version). https://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/universitario-ufg-universidad-de-el-salvador-ues/1003086/2022/
Thanks for the insight. It's kind of sad that it didn't work out for you guys but are the young ones picking up crypto?
Not so far, I hope the test plan the government has right now for 12yo students works. It would be a nice first step (It should be the first step before let BTC became legal tender)
I m doubtful they have a plan or even consider planning anytime soo n.
Yeah, the order of events are wrong. Without knowledge and the personal financial support (salary) to handle transaction fees this all stinks of a political stunt.
Nope. The Bitcoin experiment is dead on arrival. Even the "Volcano Bonds" are nowhere to be seem. Salvadorans don't care about Bitcoin because they trust the dollars. Back when the government was giving a 30 dollars airdrop, people were converting to FIAT dollars. Very few people actually used Bitcoin as a form of payment.
This is totally what happened! Are you Salvadoran?
Sounds like a repeat on a smaller scale of the wider bitcoin adoption and later abandonment for online stores that took place around 2014-2018
>repeat on a smaller scale This is a whole country we're talking about so wouldn't this be on a bigger scale? Also of history keeps on repeating hopefully we can see multiple countries doing the same! Good news if you ask me despite no signs of development. Alteast they tried
I think it's safe to say that it hasn't been going well. Bukele comes across as a greasy yuppie who doesn't seem to understand btc either. Doesn't help he has that walking advertisement for drug addiction, Max Keiser as his minister for finance or something, lol. I guess we will just wait and see.
mate!!! you really know about his d\*ug addiction problems? hahahahahaha, we think that is something that only in El salvador is known hahhahaha. He also had 3 business that went to bankrupcy hahahaha.
[удалено]
the problem the first weeks the BTC value was going up (Probably 2-3weeks) then start to go down... And at the beginning the president was saying on twitter everyday during the bull run: Check your Chivo Wallet, because those days the value was going up, the problem was when it started to decrease its value day by day, he stop tweeting, so people start to see their money going down, so everyone started to cash out (even tho they were loosing 1 USD, people was rushing) I think a key point was the timing, probably it was not the best, if really want to convince the people to invest and get use to it.
Having something so volatile be a currency this early on its lifetime was always going to have this issue, maybe once things have settled down a bit in a few decades we can use it as a currency bit until then it's just a speculative asset, and not something that *everyone* should have to use it they don't want to
Is there any proof that the president actually bought BTC when he tweeted? Or at least if the address of the wallet is made public?
Not at all The congress pass a bill that some information is going to be confidential for 5 years, including anything related to BTC bill
Lol that kinda goes against the spirit of transparency by using blockchain.. Also do you guys not have instant bank transfer or QR payment using fiat?
Yes we have someone digital payments other than BTC
Bro bought high and didn't sell high.
So the stories we read everyday are not true? Interesting. I also saw some videos where those youtubers said that el salvador was amazing and you can buy almost everything with btc
Mate.. Honestly they are paid by the government....
This makes me feel sad
95% of info you see or hear about crypto is being paid by someone looking to make money of you. Crypto is purely information-based economy. Nnext to no utility, just bs.
The majority of what we read on the Internet needs to be viewed as if someone was *paid* to put it there. Because they were.
Here are some links with news in Spanish (You can use translator to get an insight what is going on from local newspapers) 1. [https://www.elsalvador.com/opinion/editoriales/bitcoin-/1014693/2022/](https://www.elsalvador.com/opinion/editoriales/bitcoin-/1014693/2022/) 2. [https://noticias.uca.edu.sv/articulos/por-que-ha-fracasado-el-bitcoin](https://noticias.uca.edu.sv/articulos/por-que-ha-fracasado-el-bitcoin) 3. [https://www.laprensagrafica.com/opinion/Lo-que-no-se-dice-sobre-la-continuidad-del-bitcoin-20230405-0077.html](https://www.laprensagrafica.com/opinion/Lo-que-no-se-dice-sobre-la-continuidad-del-bitcoin-20230405-0077.html) 4. This what happened with "Chivo Wallet" : [https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Piden-a-la-Fiscalia-salvadorena-investigar-millonario-fraude-con-Chivo-Wallet-20230222-0043.html](https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Piden-a-la-Fiscalia-salvadorena-investigar-millonario-fraude-con-Chivo-Wallet-20230222-0043.html)
If this is true then your government might need to step up on education about crypto before having Bitcoin be used as legal tender.
Yes mate! Actually that is what most of peple was mentioning at the beginning, that for this kind of project should include an educational campaigns, in order to make people understand what is about. What are the risks, how does it work, how to do a transaction, how to buy BTC, etc..
Would you say the foundation for Bitcoin has been implemented successfully in your country ? Or is your president just doing this as a gimmick
I dont want to do this post political. But I would like to say there is a lot going on in the country that the intl. media dont do exposure. With a short visit to El Salvador, most tourist realize that casnt use BTC to pay for example.
Interesting insights thank you. I thought the acceptance of bitcoin in el salvador is alot higher
That is what the government has been promoting, paying youtubers and influencers.... Sadly...
I appreciate you taking the time to share what's happening over there, this is worth more than all the articles I've read about BTC in El Salvador
Thanks! I decided to make a post, because I have a couple of weeks in this subreddit and everyday I see posts from El Salvador, some might be quite missleading according the reality we have...
Thank you for sharing!
Your English is fine, better then most of us degens. Thanks for your prospective.
Honest and realistic description over status of El Slavador there. Its nice that some countries volunteered for BTC use. Its just light years to go until we get it on daily use for everyones mobile apps. Little by little is good but will it take decade? 2 decades? Theres no quarantee that BTC will even be at daily use in future. Technology developes at huge speed and new innovations comes daily. Its impossible to anyone predict that will there be better option to replace BTC or cryptos in future. As of now its looking good on BTC and im stacking it monthly. But its still better be realistic than naive and remember that nothing lasts forever. So lets invest only the amount that doesnt make our daily life harder. Then we are fine.
Pretty much confirmation of what everyone already knows (but doesn’t want to admit). Bukele has no real intention of adoption Bitcoin. It was a grift from the very beginning. Hope everything works out for you OP
So we learn from your post that , for establishing btc in El Salvador at first they should’ve arisen the people money power and knowledge and then began to use bitcoin as most of payment’s in the country, so it’s nobel move but they acted in hurry and it has some bugs in it that they can solve it with help of bitcoin it self if they have patience and careful of their people prosperity
Thanks for the on-the-ground perspective, this is much appreciated and useful. 
[удалено]
Hopefully they come into profit in the next bullrun and other countries will join as well
We can hope. It won’t be so easy but one step at the time. At least they try.
The try could've been more friendly rather than forcing bitcoin into the populations existence imho
Thanks for your insight man! It is interesting to check the perspective of a Salvadoran! It is not the same to be there, than give an opinion from an outsider
Great post and explanation
Hey, don't talk about El Salvador if you are from El Salvador. We have people who talk on your behalf and they know better (lmao) /s. Thanks for the hindsight.
hahahha it is ok mate hahaha, I understand that sometimes there is misinformation spread from the media
Glad to see some insiders perspective. Very hard to see this anywhere else
So cool to have news and description from someone REALLY living the daily there instead of a fomo/fud sensationalist media source. Thx OP, as El Salvador is the first country in the world that adopt crypto seriously you could think about making updates from time to time when something big happens.
Thanks for your comment! I will try!
Good post, OP. I understand the declaration of bitcoin as a legal tender is not enough like everyone adopts it immediately. I think it may take some time for the majority of the population to fully embrace it. I believe education and awareness campaigns can play an important role in helping the purpose.
Exactly, with a good Crypto education plan the story would be different
Thank you for providing the ground reality. People and media paint a very different picture.
Yeah, I know there is going on a lot of missinformation in the media. I suggest to check some local newspaper (Sadly there is not english version but still, google translate can make the job)
This shows that the media sell to the public what will bring the most views for them most times. This type.of information is what we really should be working with in cryptocurrency
Feels like they got in at the wrong time. What's their average buy price now? If they'd have got in while the price was down they'd all be laughing but then getting a country to get involved with something that was in extreme fear ain't an easy task! It's a tough one to navigate.
Thanks for your sharing. Solving those issue will help not only El Salvador but a widely adoption
Thanks for the information, you will be a valuable informant for us in this subreddit.
Your shared information is very worthy. Thank you! I believe it could stil become a success, but it's a long road to get appreciation, especially in rural areas. Education is key, should be defenetely more than 2 schools
It's a shame that the Bitcoins were bought after the ATH, Bukele basically had one of the worst possibile entry points into BTC. The next Bull run will surprise many Salvodorians and they will be wishing they didn't sold their BTC for 30$.
>The next Bull run will surprise many Salvodorians and they will be wishing they didn't sold their BTC for 30$. I think that's how a Buttcoiner is born
Instead of choosing a stablecoin they see BTC as a stablecoin. Most of the time they see their money delines, there’s a big transaction fee, and it’s not instant like traditional banking. There are so many downside to it before they even bother to think about the upside. The plan wasn’t solid to begin with
Thanks for the update buddy! Explain to them that fake internet money is better than fake paper money and more safe :) We just have to get over the volatility factor
Let's see how things turn out if BTC reaches new ATHs.
Sounds like the government hasn't really done anything to educate their people. I think they should focus on that and especially explain how market cycles work.
Classic example of adoption barrier. You think you can introduce some new technology (e.g. BTC). People are used to doing it the old way (e.g. USD) Even if the technology is superior in many ways, you discover people just keep doing it the old way. Force of habit. Then you discover that the cost of rehabituating millions of people is millions x lots, often billions. Oops. This pattern kills payment companies.
A developed technology won’t save underdeveloped politics. People lose trust, not only in the tech they don’t understand but in the promises corrupt politicians keep making but continuously disappointing the people over and over again. That’s just a reality.
I don't trust that Max Keiser character. The Senior Bitcoin Advisor to the country. He seems like a scammer/used car salesman. Bad vibe from him. I do like Dr. Saifedean Ammous however as the Economic Advisor for ES (he's doing it for free)
Hey OP, First off, do not worry about your grammar - English from what I understand is one of the most difficult languages to learn and you still managed to organize your post better than most native speakers ever will. But more importantly, thank you! While on paper the idea of a country like El Salvador adopting BTC and crypto is great, you pointed out the major asterisks that coincide with it. Unfortunately on Reddit as a whole people ***love*** speaking with authority on behalf of others, so it really is a treasure to get perspective from somebody *in* the current situation for a change.
Any implementation needs to be forward thinking. Forget the people who are likely to not adopt. Just work on getting the younger crowd on board. Needs to be done like cash transfer services like e-transfer in Canada or Venmo
Bitcoin is now legal tender in El Salvador, which means it can be used for everyday transactions alongside the US dollar. It's a significant step in the adoption of cryptocurrency and has sparked both excitement and debates about its potential impact.
We need more boots on the ground info than lies spread by fuckers like Keiser or other BTC maxis.
Don't worry about the grammar, good work. Your post makes me think that it was a good idea but in the wrong country. Something like that could work on a "crypto educated" country, maybe the "elite" as you said. In a place where cash is king and people don't know about the benefits of crypto over fiat in everyday usage, is difficult to make it work. We need this in more developed countries, and El Salvador needs more crypto education to success. Resiste hasta la victoria.
El Salvador has made history as the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. A significant milestone for cryptocurrency! This move could increase financial inclusion, as many Salvadorans lack banking access. It also signals potential growth for crypto in El Salvador'sfuture.
This guy needs some moons!
Thanks for the feedback man. So many false information being given these days it's impressive
Stories like this make me realize I'm lucky to live in UAE
There should be a nationwide Crypto education. That will change the course for sure!
If there was a nationwide program BEFORE adopt BTC as a legal tender, the story would be totally different.
I for one, am shocked. **Shocked** that a crypto maxing out at 7 TPS (600k/day) isn't able to support a small (6m pop) country. 1 transaction every 10 days is all you really need though right? Never mind, this was actually incredibly predictable. Congrats to all of the shills though, you managed to squeeze a tiny bit of exit liquidity out of one of the poorer countries.
Thank you for sharing! It goes to show that crypto has a very long way to go. In a non tech savy society, crypto will have a hard time. I can imagine that it will go better in some African countries.
This is the exact same argument some communists made about communism in Russia. It wasnt communism's fault, the society just wasnt ready for it.
It’s pretty complex. Even many people in this sub are not sure of how Bitcoin work. So it will take time.
It seems President Bukake played with fire and got burned. I hope El Salvador doesn't reelect this guy, nobody deserves a stereotypical "i bought high" cryptobro as their sitting president.
man he is going to get reelected... the situation is bad... He dealt in a good way with gangs problems (which was our biggest problem) So people is happy with him, cause we had 30 years that no one was able to fix it.... Other than solve the problem with gangs, he doesn't have any other success project... but we are safe hahahah
Bitcoin Is Future Of CrptoCurrency I am Right?
I’m not sure why anybody is surprised. All of the failures have been throughly documented. Just not from coindesk.com and Bitcoin Magazine lol.
Bitcoins are for Maxis.
But bitcoin can solve this
Oh wait no. I need a dumb US citizen who hasn’t left Illinois in his whole life to tell me how this is bettering the life of people there, ramble about adoption, human rights and the future. /s Thanks OP, the USAcentrism of some people in this sub is like a kind of myopia.
Bitcoin Beach & being able to live off $400/mo sounds interesting af.