5 ms·

Lol after a country adopts it as legal tender, they say it’s not money Can’t make this up

by dadoge 5y ago

dd36 5y ago
Who bribed or put the pressure on El Salvador? Outwardly, it doesn’t make any sense except as a publicity stunt.
- dadoge 5y ago
  22% of their GDP is remittance based. The US treats them like shit since they have the USD as currency. God forbid a country wants more independence 70% of the country has no bank, for Bitcoin all you need is the internet and a simple wallet app.
  - mc32 5y ago
    All countries are free to have their own currency. People (rather than gov) default to dollars when the CB decides to turn on the printer indiscriminately or impose exchange restrictions. Back when I didn’t have money, opening a bank account was way cheaper than leasing a phone or buying one, so I don’t see how that makes sense other than you can do other things with the phone to amortize the cost.
  - bart_spoon 5y ago
    So to be clear, a country where 70% of individuals are unable to get access to a bank account do have consistent access to the internet, a smart phone or specialized hardware for carrying a wallet app, and are fine with storing their wealth in a vehicle that consistently swings in value in the double digits within 24 hours? The delusion regarding crypto has reached parody levels. This reads like something out of an Onion article.
    - dadoge 5y ago
      Read about the Bitcoin beach experiments there before jumping to conclusions like that https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lifestyle-technology-d30c52b39e16ef49e4b6342fdc885c92 https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lif...
      - Agamemnom 5y ago
        Not the OP, but I don't really get it. Maybe I'm missing something. They're basically creating cash accounts? Not quite a bank but... not far off it. I feel like a simpler solution is just mandating that banks are required to offer a basic cash account at a set maximum cost. It doesn't feel like the bitcoin part of the experiment is really doing anything special. It's all in a single app and all held by a holding org. They just track who has how much of the reserve. Not really the free and open bitcoin?
        imtringued 5y ago
        Isn't it based on the lightning network? Does the wallet only connect to a single preapproved node?
  - emn13 5y ago
    It's certainly an interesting social experiment. However, I'm curious how they want to prevent sales tax evasion. Or maybe they've just given up that fight? In any case, though I'm deeply skeptical that bitcoin has any value - a solid proof of concept in the small scale is certainly a good way to put it to the test.
  - imtringued 5y ago
    I'd like to mention that remittances are great. For a poor country to catch up with a rich country there has to be a technology/skill/money transfer. Either the rich people are coming to the poor country (export oriented economy) or the poor people are coming to the rich country (remittance oriented economy). If your economy is suffering from high inflation then remittances are a balancing force that is fighting against high inflation because people abroad are exchanging their USD/EUR for the inflating currency and thereby support attempts to peg the inflating currency to USD/EUR which are currencies with low inflation.
    - dadoge 5y ago
      A better solution for countries suffering high inflation is to not have high inflation. One option is Bitcoin El Salvador doesn’t have too much inflation since it uses USD. In their case, independence from USD is also a goal
fnord123 5y ago
El Salvador hasn't adopted it yet.
- dadoge 5y ago
  What do you mean? The law has passed, and takes effect in 90 days
  - rualca 5y ago
    El Salvador only passed a vote where they agreed to pass a law sometime in the future. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-approves-first-law-bitcoin-legal-tender-2021-06-09/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-approves-... From the article: > With 62 out of 84 possible votes, lawmakers voted in favor of the move to create a law to adopt bitcoin (...) > (...) > Its use as legal tender will begin in 90 days, with the bitcoin-dollar exchange rate set by the market.
- defaultname 5y ago
  And even if they did, it's El Salvador. It's a tiny economy (Cleveland has a GDP 4X the entirety of El Salvador) in effectively a broken country. In 2015, 1 out of 1000 people was murdered in a single year. Pretty weird seeing the BTC crew all crowing about that kind of sad endorsement of a desperate government.
  - dadoge 5y ago
    Man, wow. What if, like, you know, solving problems like 70% of the population not having a bank could actually reduce crime. Bitcoin is a pretty easy fix for that problem. And “it’s a tiny country”…like do they not deserve a better life since they have such a small gdp. This is the most inhumane sentiment I keep seeing about this news “who cares, they are a tiny country with small gdp”
    - defaultname 5y ago
      Adorable pearl clutching.

Lol after a country adopts it as legal tender, they say it’s not money Can’t make this up

by dadoge 5y ago

Lol after a country adopts it as legal tender, they say it’s not money Can’t make this up

dd36 5y ago

Who bribed or put the pressure on El Salvador? Outwardly, it doesn’t make any sense except as a publicity stunt.

dadoge 5y ago
22% of their GDP is remittance based. The US treats them like shit since they have the USD as currency. God forbid a country wants more independence 70% of the country has no bank, for Bitcoin all you need is the internet and a simple wallet app.
- mc32 5y ago
  All countries are free to have their own currency. People (rather than gov) default to dollars when the CB decides to turn on the printer indiscriminately or impose exchange restrictions. Back when I didn’t have money, opening a bank account was way cheaper than leasing a phone or buying one, so I don’t see how that makes sense other than you can do other things with the phone to amortize the cost.
- bart_spoon 5y ago
  So to be clear, a country where 70% of individuals are unable to get access to a bank account do have consistent access to the internet, a smart phone or specialized hardware for carrying a wallet app, and are fine with storing their wealth in a vehicle that consistently swings in value in the double digits within 24 hours? The delusion regarding crypto has reached parody levels. This reads like something out of an Onion article.
  - dadoge 5y ago
    Read about the Bitcoin beach experiments there before jumping to conclusions like that https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lifestyle-technology-d30c52b39e16ef49e4b6342fdc885c92 https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lif...
    - Agamemnom 5y ago
      Not the OP, but I don't really get it. Maybe I'm missing something. They're basically creating cash accounts? Not quite a bank but... not far off it. I feel like a simpler solution is just mandating that banks are required to offer a basic cash account at a set maximum cost. It doesn't feel like the bitcoin part of the experiment is really doing anything special. It's all in a single app and all held by a holding org. They just track who has how much of the reserve. Not really the free and open bitcoin?
      - imtringued 5y ago
        Isn't it based on the lightning network? Does the wallet only connect to a single preapproved node?
- emn13 5y ago
  It's certainly an interesting social experiment. However, I'm curious how they want to prevent sales tax evasion. Or maybe they've just given up that fight? In any case, though I'm deeply skeptical that bitcoin has any value - a solid proof of concept in the small scale is certainly a good way to put it to the test.
- imtringued 5y ago
  I'd like to mention that remittances are great. For a poor country to catch up with a rich country there has to be a technology/skill/money transfer. Either the rich people are coming to the poor country (export oriented economy) or the poor people are coming to the rich country (remittance oriented economy). If your economy is suffering from high inflation then remittances are a balancing force that is fighting against high inflation because people abroad are exchanging their USD/EUR for the inflating currency and thereby support attempts to peg the inflating currency to USD/EUR which are currencies with low inflation.
  - dadoge 5y ago
    A better solution for countries suffering high inflation is to not have high inflation. One option is Bitcoin El Salvador doesn’t have too much inflation since it uses USD. In their case, independence from USD is also a goal

fnord123 5y ago

El Salvador hasn't adopted it yet.

dadoge 5y ago
What do you mean? The law has passed, and takes effect in 90 days
- rualca 5y ago
  El Salvador only passed a vote where they agreed to pass a law sometime in the future. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-approves-first-law-bitcoin-legal-tender-2021-06-09/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-approves-... From the article: > With 62 out of 84 possible votes, lawmakers voted in favor of the move to create a law to adopt bitcoin (...) > (...) > Its use as legal tender will begin in 90 days, with the bitcoin-dollar exchange rate set by the market.
defaultname 5y ago
And even if they did, it's El Salvador. It's a tiny economy (Cleveland has a GDP 4X the entirety of El Salvador) in effectively a broken country. In 2015, 1 out of 1000 people was murdered in a single year. Pretty weird seeing the BTC crew all crowing about that kind of sad endorsement of a desperate government.
- dadoge 5y ago
  Man, wow. What if, like, you know, solving problems like 70% of the population not having a bank could actually reduce crime. Bitcoin is a pretty easy fix for that problem. And “it’s a tiny country”…like do they not deserve a better life since they have such a small gdp. This is the most inhumane sentiment I keep seeing about this news “who cares, they are a tiny country with small gdp”
  - defaultname 5y ago
    Adorable pearl clutching.