Will he or won't he?
In news that reverberated across the waters, surf rich El Salvador, days ago, became the first nation on earth to make Bitcoin legal tender. President Nayib Bukele believes that full adoption of the cryptocurrency will help the country’s many poor who have little or no access to banks, tweeting “It will bring financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development for our country.”
Dour economists worry that pegging an already volatile region to an extremely volatile financial instrument will create havoc.
Debate rages across El Salvador’s many small towns with residents trying to figure out how these events will change their daily lives. “How am I going to agree with this? I haven’t seen it even in photos. I know nothing about it, you need to understand your currency,” Estela Gavidia told Reuters.
“If you go to a McDonald’s or whatever, they cannot say we’re not going to take your bitcoin, they have to take it by law because it’s a legal tender,” President Bukele vigorously countered.
But while that debate rages, the eyes of true market watchers are fixed solely on U.S. Olympic surf team first alternate Kelly Slater.
The 11x World Champion recently savaged Tesla founder Elon Musk for his crypto currency strategy, writing at the time, “So a guy who owns an energy company doesn’t understand this stuff before he buys it? Has no problem taking the profits. Does he have an issue with kids mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo to build batteries? He could probably address and potentially help solve the real energy issues (68 per cent of the energy produced in the US, for instance, is wasted … seems like a bigger issue to me which would solve any BTC problem).”
El Salvador plans to tap their many volcanoes in order to make energy to mine Bitcoin.
Slater later revealed himself to be a “diamond-handed” Bitcoin investor, or someone who bought in early and isn’t worried about sudden drops, and so analysts wait with bated breath to see if he will purchase some property in El Salvador, maybe in Surf City, where the World Surfing Games just wrapped or, better, “Bitcoin Beach.”
He seriously should.
Imagine how cool it would be for him to put his crypto where his mouth is.
Very cool.
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does the former MS-13 gang member holding a sawed-off take bitcoin to watch my BMW while i check the surf at Sunzal or do i still have to slip him a crisp $20?
“How am I going to agree with this? I haven’t seen it even in photos. I know nothing about it, you need to understand your currency,” Estela Gavidia told Reuters.
Made me think of this: https://youtu.be/32779CpfymI
Methinks President Nayib Bukele may have gambled large sums from his country’s official coffers on Bitcoin when it’s price was peaking a month or so ago, and the subsequent halving in value has him grasping at straws and hoping he can get it to rise again by pulling this publicity ‘Musk’…
A country with limited access to the internet wants to base its currency on the internet. I can’t see how this ends well.
Also a good cover for laundering money. But hey, you can get Mickey D’s with it now in La Libertad!
Confessions of an Economic Idiot