- El Salvador will continue buying 1 Bitcoin daily until it becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies
- President Bukele’s statement highlights commitment to cryptocurrency adoption
- Move demonstrates belief in Bitcoin’s long-term value and potential as a global currency alternative.
It’s tragic for the people of his country that they are being essentially forced into participating in a pyramid scheme
Yeah, this basically gave away the whole country to the USA, but now with Bitcoin, this is over!
TBH Bukele is more likely to steal the country’s finances than the USA. The USA doesn’t have the power to seize decentralized currency from across the equator, at least not without empowering the CIA but every time we do that they destabilize a region, create a theocracy, or trick us into another war so we’re getting pretty sick of their shit.
This guy has the will to at least help to usher in a world of no more government controlled currencies and that’s fantastic.
Imagine your president being a 40yo cryptobro version of Trump. No wonder people are leaving
He’s winning against the gangs though - every Salvadorean I know supports him.
Talk to families of unjustified imprisoned people or to the people itself. His ‘fixing’ was done by basically imprisoning everyone, which just happened to be close to any suspect gang member. There where even cases where a mailman was imprisoned because he just happenend to deliver a parcel during a raid.
Yes, he fixed the gang problem for now. But at a high price – the loss of a fair justice system. He imprisoned 1.2 % of the total population in just 2 years.
I know that freedom vs security is a fine balance and once security suffers significantly, you are willing to give up quiet a lot of freedom. But since he just imprisoned everyone and their relatives, its only a temporary fix – unless he wants to imprison them for life.
Talk to families of unjustified imprisoned people or to the people itself.
Do you actually know & speak to people in El Salvador? Pretty much everyone I know there (family/friends) are ecstatic that there are no more gang members running around unchecked. The country is safer now then it has been in years.
Nothing is perfect of course, poverty is still a major issue, but not having to deal with gang members every time you ride the bus, go out shopping, even just drive around, it’s a huge deal over there.
Sure I get what you’re saying but for most people there it’s been a positive development.
But since he just imprisoned everyone and their relatives, its only a temporary fix – unless he wants to imprison them for life.
True… to be honest I suspect those people are imprisoned for life. No one expects gang members to be let out of prison while Bukele is still running the country, that’s going to be something that gets revisited when/if he’s out of office. It’s a massive human rights issue but at least for now the majority of Salvadorans consider it a net positive.
The funny thing is that this article is about bitcoin & most Salvadorans don’t particularly care about that at all, it’s just kind of a headline that isn’t going to win/lose Bukele any support in the short term at least.
I don’t think you understand how completely gangs had effectively taken over El Salvador until recently. Despite the obvious issues that you’ve pointed out, the situation is genuinely miles better than it was before for the vast majority of the population who were simply trying to live their lives.
You seem to underestimate the gang problem. I was in Ilobasco a few years ago and my family that lives there urged me not to go outside past 7pm because I can be a target or even kidnapped. Like wtf why do the gangs get to dictate curfew in 2017? Past nightfall you have to turn the lights off so people in the streets can’t peek into your house through the metal guard rails on all the windows. It was eye opening to say the least. Since Nuevas Ideas I have only heard good things and good changes to the area from my family. There were so many people associated to the gangs that I have little sympathy for those ‘innocently accused’. I would rather a few loosely incorporated get caught than let the gangs do what they want freely.
Since every Bitcoin transaction is traceable, it makes it easier to see where the money goes…
Tbh we want a Bukele in my south American country. Crime is running rampant
It is sad to see people unaware of different conditions in the world. They have this feelings that one set of rules is good for everyone.
There’s no question they’ve arrested innocent people and the prisoners are being treated poorly, but it’s hard to judge when I don’t have to deal with drug cartels/gangs and make their monthly salary in a couple days.
Bukele and his government is nothing like Trumps. He doesn’t want El Salvador to use USD as the standard currency, that’s it…
Which is understandable, but I don’t understand his plan. If 1 BTC is unaffordable, then people will buy 0.1 BTC. If that’s unaffordable, then people will buy 0.01 BTC. And so on. You have to go down to 0.00000001 BTC before the limit is reached (0.000633158 USD at current prices, which is smaller than a mill). Since every zero there is another order of magnitude, I don’t see how a small nation state could make even the smallest BTC unit unaffordable. Maybe the G7 banding together could do it.
If this is legit and not corruption and bitcoin eventually takes off to ungodly levels, imagine the biggest bet in history paying off and their country turns around as an economic powerhouse. Risky and stupid but would make a good movie.
The only thing keeping them a powerhouse would be a number on a computer that can be stolen. Question is, would people try to steal from a nation rich enough to be a powerhouse and how sophisticated would those theft attempts be?
That number is protected the same way gold is. Reminds me you americans stole us 1000 tons of gold during ww2
That’s my point. If a country really did build up enough Bitcoin it became a world power, those Bitcoin would probably be stolen. If it can happen to gold, it can happen to Bitcoin even easier.
Even if bitcoin wasn’t just a pyramid scheme and all but right now there are 900 new bitcoins each day, after the next halfing around the corner it’s still 450/day. So each day there will be more new bitcoin then he would buy in 1 year. Even the easiest numbers don’t add up even if he is just a 40yr cryptobro Trump version.
Just to explain it to people who don’t understand how it works.
The point of the mining rewards is to make the Bitcoin supply infinite, while giving the price time to rise and Bitcoin to gain adoption. Once that 21m coins is created, no more can be created, so the price should stabilize and rise over time as less and less Bitcoin is around.
I know how bitcoin works. But this cap of 21m will be around 2100 or even later if the mining power stays the same as today. So nobody reading this post will be alive around that time. And the same for El Salvador. Should all the people alive right now suffer, cause in around 100 years a theory of a new way for money could succeed? (And no, I don’t think bitcoin will ever be more than money laundering and daytraiding craziness ending in more money for the people laundering)
As far as a currency or store of wealth, Bitcoin is shit. Satoshi was/were an idealist(s), and for them it wasn’t about the money, it was about the idea. Decentralized proof of concept that anyone on the internet can access and can’t be censored without extreme global geopolitical cooperation. They chose to make it like a currency (Bitcoin) for adoption purposes, but the mathematical and technical concepts behind it can be used for any transfer of information that needs to be reliable, proven (signed), and decentralized, which makes it ideal for some things we are already using, and concepts we can’t even imagine yet.
The idea sparked other blockchain concepts such as Monero which is actually designed to be used, like digital cash with tiny fee of pennies, not as a store of wealth or prospecting. It is essentially anonymous as the sender, receiver, and amount are never known except to those with access to the wallets.
Smart contracts still have a long way to go but have some very interesting uses as well.
Why does being around in 100 years matter for Bitcoin, though? It’s unlikely that Bitcoin will even be around in 100 years and Satoshi likely knew that or would have made the halving rates longer. Last halving was 2020. In about a month (next halving) block rewards will be halved from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, which puts upward pressure on miners to innovate (find new ways of reducing energy consumption and increasing hashing power), increasing scarcity, and, historically, increasing price.
