• @[email protected]
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      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.

  • @[email protected]
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    The IMF wouldn’t give them a credit unless they stopped forcing people to accept Bitcoin as payment, which almost no one was using anyway.

    officials ensure that the government will continue betting on this cryptocurrency, whose price currently exceeds $100,000.

    • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
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      I think that’s why El Salvador is dropping it. They never really forced people to use Bitcoin, US Dollar was also the legal tender and unlike Bitcoin, also the money of account.

      But really though, can you call for IMF to stop lending to countries which buy Bitcoin using state funds when the issuer of Dollars, the U.S. has a President who has run multiple crypto/NFT scams and wants to use Government money to pump up crypto prices?

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        They wouldn’t be able to do all that evil stuff with the petrol-dollar if there were a valid alternative… Thus the IMF ban on bitcoin.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]
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    182 months ago

    WOAH what a surprised maybe it’s because half of the fucking country lacks electricity or internet? Really good job Bukele.

  • tehWrapper
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    182 months 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 months 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
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        12 months 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?

  • @[email protected]
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    702 months 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      182 months 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        Would you loan money to someone who wouldn’t be able to repay if the bitcoin market crashed?

      • @[email protected]
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        52 months 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”.

        • @[email protected]
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          32 months 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?

          • @[email protected]
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            52 months 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.

              • @[email protected]
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                2 months 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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  12 months 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

    • @[email protected]
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      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/

    • @[email protected]
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      52 months 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      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

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
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    If he were smart, he would bring back the Colon and stop using US Dollars. But noo he had to do stupid shit like Bitcoin.

    • Redcuban1959 [any]
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      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.

    • @[email protected]
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      It’s would be much much easier to manipulate the Colon. That’s why it no longer exists.

    • @[email protected]
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      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.

  • NuraShiny [any]
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    182 months ago

    The thing we all knew would happen, did happen. Crypto is only useful to commit financial crimes and even for that it’s bad.

  • @[email protected]
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    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

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      El Salvador apparently invested about $270 million in bitcoin since 2021 and that investment is worth about half a billion bucks now. Oh my god, ha, what idiots!

      • queermunist she/her
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        82 months ago

        El Salvador apparently invested about $270 million in bitcoin since 2021 and that investment is worth about half a million bucks now. Oh my god, ha, what idiots!

        … Okay just to clarify, you’re saying they invested $270,000,000 and now it’s worth about $500,000?

        Is there a typo in your comment or something?

      • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
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        Ok, can they sell it then? What’s the use of Bitcoin? Why are you valuing it in Dollars? Countries accumulate Dollars and other first world currencies to be able to import more (and in case of El Salvador, spend more domestically). Bitcoin is sitting there doing nothing.

        Same applies to massive foreign exchange reserves like in the case of China. But still, atleast forex reserves can be quickly used to stabilize the exchange rates.

        Also keep in mind even if they sell it and assuming there is enough liquidity, $300m one time isn’t a lot of money even for a country like El Salvador.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 months ago

          The IMF is forcing them to sell it. They probably want it.

          Edit: misinformation. They’re keeping it as a reserve. They’re just being forced to strike the language of legal tender

        • @[email protected]
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          Yes, he could sell it.

          It’s commonly used as a store of value. When people invest in gold, what’s the use of that? They’re not going to actually use the gold for its physical properties.

          I’m American and the unit of value that I’m most familiar with is dollars. We could convert it into any currency that you’d like. I could have also said simply that their investment had about doubled in value and roughly had the same initial value as about 10,000 economy cars.

          • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
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            Sovereigns aren’t the same as individuals. For sovereign, at the macro level, spending drives consumption and creates employment of real resources.

            If El Salvador had its own currency, they could tax and spend that instead. But no, they use US Dollars.

            • @[email protected]
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              32 months ago

              What’s the point you’re trying to make here? You seem mad about el salvador’s bitcoin experiment. They made a little of money on their little investment.

              • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
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                They make no money from the investment you mentioned unless they sell for Dollars. Your stock portfolio gets you no money in form of capital gains unless you liquidate it for Dollars. Same with gold.

                Is El Salvador budget denominated in gold or bitcoin? No, it’s denominated in Dollars.

                El Salvador should first stop using a foreign currency, the dollar. Then worry about trying to attract capital inflows.

                • @[email protected]
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                  I agree. No currency or store of value has any true value until you go to spend or exchange it. It only has potential value.

                  You do realize that Dollars also are also constantly changing in value.

            • @[email protected]
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              If El Salvador had its own currency, they could tax and spend that instead. But no, they use US Dollars.

              This is a legit criticism. It’s absolutely wild that these colonized states are completely monetarily subservient to empire. I think they go with bitcoin instead of their own currency, because bitcoin is much harder to destroy/manipulate.

              • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
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                2 months ago

                Bitcoin is not different from the USD fiscal policy space wise. You use USD (which you obtain from trade, remitances, loans and capital inflows) to buy Bitcoin or use the same USD to buy ASICs to mine Bitcoin with. In the end you hope to sell it to someone else to get more USD than you started with.

                Even if it’s not for conversion then would the population like to use a system where there is no physical cash form of bitcoin (El Salvador has large informal economy) fully dependent on internet, electricity and a smartphone. Would the Government make budget denominated in bitcoin? How will all the pricing be done? Why should El Salvador go through all these complications instead of adopting its own currency where it’ll have more fiscal space?

                Bitcoin was never widely used in El Salvador outside small transfer payments which would’ve been converted to Dollars pretty quick anyways.

                Having your own currency gives you power to manipulate exchange rate and employ domestic resources instead of having to borrow continously from the IMF.

                Not saying that a sovereign currency alone is enough. Countries may not be able to enforce taxes enough or try pegging rates to the Dollar to prevent pass-through inflation and balance of payments issues. But it is a necessity.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          I can’t say I understand the bitcoin hate in this thread. I have very real, realized gains.

          Your meme should say, “I love working for minimum wage at Wendy’s”

          • plinky [he/him]
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            252 months ago

            they could have bought rolling 16x futures on gold in or 5x on cacao beans in 2021, just saying, with better success chance and lower risk. The fact that you won (allegedly) in casino doesn’t make you smart, it makes you lucky, it’s bonkers to do for a country

      • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]
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        72 months ago

        zane i don’t understand why you dorks are laughing when i advocate for the use of tulips as legal tender. i’ll have you know that i recently cashed out during the height of this latest tulip bubble! you rubes are simply jealous of the treats i can now buy and the very coherent and good point i’m making.

      • NewDark [he/him]
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        62 months ago

        That feels incredibly off. Bitcoin is around 100k now while back then it topped out at ~65k or so?

        • @[email protected]
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          They didn’t buy it all at once. The price dropped between then and now and they were buying. Wikipedia has an entry on it.

          I’m not an expert on El Salvador’s bitcoin, I just know you all sound like a bunch of sore losers.

            • @[email protected]
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              22 months ago

              I know you’d like to characterize it as dumb luck because that would make you feel better. The reality is that I’ve been making small monthly bitcoin purchases for the better part of a decade as a part of a much larger retirement fund.

              When the btc price hit $100k, I sold most of the initial investment so that now I’m just risking losing part of my gains.

              You can call it lucky and incredibly stupid. I can call it calculated risk.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 months ago

              You’re all mad because you lost money investing in bitcoin when it was pumping and then selling during a crash. Don’t worry, it’s safe with me.

          • NewDark [he/him]
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            12 months ago

            The initial numbers made it look like they lost a bunch. It seemed like misinformation.

  • Cowbee [he/they]
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    232 months ago

    I had a Libertarian try to tell me that this was going to revitalize El Salvador just a couple of weeks ago, lmao.