Understand the implications of Bitcoin's downfall in El Salvador. Learn about the failed economic bet and its impact on the country's financial stability.
  • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    20 days ago

    BUT I WAS TOLD THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BUTTCOIN AND REAL MONEY, WHAT THE HELL?!?11?!

    Who could have ever seen this coming other than anyone who thought about it for the briefest amount of time?

    • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      0·
      20 days ago

      He’s just a US puppet, Trump literally called him a dictator and said that the Salvadoran people areremoveds and murderers, and Bukele is still licking the US boot. Just like South America’s failson dictator wannabe Daniel Noboa and Captain Ancap in Argentina.

  • Allero@lemmy.today
    0·
    20 days ago

    Let’s not get astray here.

    The reason El Salvador stopped using Bitcoin as a legal tender is not because it’s some sort of failed experiment (it had issues, but still), but due to continuous pressure of IMF interested in maintaining a US dollar-centric economy.

    El Salvador is reliant on US dollars in its economy, which puts it under heavy US influence. Knowing Salvadoran currency wouldn’t be strong, Nayib Bukele suggested an alternative option - risky, volatile, but free from pressure of other countries and strongly appreciating in the long run. IMF didn’t like it, and that’s where we are.

    So, when you cheer Bitcoin not being legal tender anymore, you also cheer US and IMF projecting power over the country.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      20 days ago

      Its even funnier. They just straight up promised them a billion dollar loan on the condition that they abandon bitcoin.

      In December, the government struck a $1.4 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that scaled back its bitcoin embrace after the lender urged officials to limit its exposure. The lender specifically advocated making acceptance of bitcoin voluntary for the private sector, which is spelled out in the hastily-approved law.

      https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/lawmakers-el-salvador-rush-new-bitcoin-reform-after-imf-deal-2025-01-30/

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      20 days ago

      Yeah the headline is insane. This would have been a wildly successful experiment, and now is a great time to cash out.

      I guess they made a deal to sell their coins to the US.

      Edit: misinformation, sorry. They’re not selling. they’re still buying. The IMF is just forcing them to strike the word legal tender

    • MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world
      0·
      20 days ago

      Well, also, they just cut a deal with Marco Rubio to be America’s prison, so they must’ve figured that was more lucrative than Bitcoin and continuing to agitate the US by challenging the dollar was creating unnecessary friction.

    • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
      0·
      20 days ago

      Exactly. The title is misleading af

      They were forced to stop using Bitcoin as legal tender by external parties. The question people should be asking is why? And the answer is not that it was a failed experiment.

      • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        20 days ago

        The experiment was to move beyond external parties. They were not able to do so and returned to using external parties. Ergo “the experiment failed”.

        • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
          0·
          20 days ago

          They were forced to do it by the IMF and US

          Why do you think that they’d care about it if it was failing?

          • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            20 days ago

            So they experimented with resisting the US and IMF and it was not successful.

            We call that an experimental failure.

            You really don’t get it. “Blockchain” was not the experiment. “Utilizing blockchain in the global economy” was the experiment.

            And it failed.

              • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                20 days ago

                Again, for the people in the back:

                The experiment was whether or not they could be independent monetarily. Not whether or not blockchain works. But whether, in actual practice, if it could provide the monetary independence some people claim it has the power to do.

                Outside influences were strong enough to overwhelm Bitcoin adoption and it succumbed to those outside influences. As an experiment seeking to test whether or not Bitcoin could resist these influences it failed.

                This is how experimentation works. Now you can tweak your experiment and try again, but acting like failing at the exact thing you were trying to accomplish is somehow not an experimental failure is just delusional.

                • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  20 days ago

                  You can argue semantics all you want

                  They were trying to break free using Bitcoin. It seemingly worked quite well so they were forced to stop doing it. The article title is misleading in the sense that the failure isn’t from Bitcoin (quite the contrary).

                  You don’t even have to be pro bitcoin to see this as something bad, but feel free to keep supporting such propaganda and external influence of politics. I’m sure it really benefits you

    • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      20 days ago

      Mods are probably preemptively blacklisting this article and similar articles to avoid inconvenient information reaching the cryptobros. From a cursory glance, both of those subs seem pretty overwhelmingly biased towards being pro-crypto.

  • tehWrapper@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    21 days ago

    The government, she assured, will continue buying bitcoin and having reserves in this cryptocurrency. According to the National Bitcoin Office, El Salvador has 6,050 bitcoins worth $634.8 million. “President Bukele continues buying bitco

    They are still keeping the mass reserves just not forcing it to be accepted as legal tender in stores. Before if someone wanted to pay in Bitcoin you had to accept it, now you don’t have to.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      0·
      20 days ago

      Yeah most commenters here just read the headline I think.

      The govt just wanted the loan so they did the thing.

      They’re still big into bitcoin. Seems like their holdings have gone well (only because Trump won), but their other projects haven’t been successful by any metric.

      People haven’t taken up crypto as a currency, it’s just the pres using federal resources to invest in crypto. He’s been lucky so far.

      • tehWrapper@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        20 days ago

        Bitcoin seems like the best crypto for storage of reserve funds like gold. If it was to be used day to day something smaller and quicker would be better suited like zcash?

  • मुक्त@lemmy.ml
    0·
    19 days ago

    I generally keep out of crypto discussions as I do not sufficiently understand it. But this event is very easy to understand. In the beginning of the article itself:

    … approved last Wednesday a confusing reform to the Bitcoin Law at the request of Bukele’s government, which had no other option to receive the $1.4 billion credit agreed in December with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    Thus, this move was forced on El Salvador by the IMF.

    • FolknForage@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      19 days ago

      “Forced” is doing a lot of work here. I think it was El Salvador that decided it was worth to ditch btc in favor of getting actual rescue money.

      Edit: it makes sense that Bukele just told Rubio they’d be happy to be the US’ offshore prison system. Seems they really need the money.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    0·
    20 days ago

    The government, she assured, will continue buying bitcoin and having reserves in this cryptocurrency. According to the National Bitcoin Office, El Salvador has 6,050 bitcoins worth $634.8 million. “President Bukele continues buying bitcoin, we have a Bitcoin Office, we have the Bitcoin Law, bitcoin can be used in El Salvador.

    They’re going to have the US by the balls like Saudi Arabia when bitcoin crosses $1mm/coin

    • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
      0·
      21 days ago

      Honestly with the Trump government right now and the pending trade war, this might be good for Bitcoin. It’s supposed to be a store or wealth that you use to buy other cryptos like monero to spend.

      This is not good for the environment because crypto mining is second only to AI model training in useless expendenture of natural resources and pollution.

      But ironically, and I say this with no joy. This could be good for Bitcoin and that’s bad for us all.