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I am confused and ignorant. If someone in Salvador receives a BTC and then they sell it how do the dollars actually get into El Salvador? Does a party transfer

by jweir 5y ago

I am confused and ignorant. If someone in Salvador receives a BTC and then they sell it how do the dollars actually get into El Salvador? Does a party transfer the dollars into my local bank account without any fee?

neither_color 5y ago
If they have their Chivo app set up they can: a) convert to dollars within the app or go withdraw at an ATM. Or b) buy things directly with btc. There are videos on social media of people there buying coffee, food, etc. El Salvador already has the dollars by the way. They dollarized ~20 years ago. It’s the only currency in circulation, besides Bitcoin.
- jweir 5y ago
  You say the state already has the dollars, but it will need more as BTC flows into the country. Does the state handle the conversion - ie I sell my BTC to the state and it imports the dollars? This is the part I don’t understand is what part brings in new dollars at a lower cost than Western Union.
  - smorgusofborg 5y ago
    How El Salvador keeps it's physical cash in flow with a foreign mint is an interesting question but it is somewhat decoupled. Unless people are hoarding US dollars, the banks are getting them back as later deposits so the amount of physical dollars has very little to do with incoming and outgoing digital payments.
  - imtringued 5y ago
    https://www.quora.com/How-does-physical-money-transfer-occur-for-purchase-from-another-country https://www.quora.com/How-does-physical-money-transfer-occur... By the way, when El Salvador imports products from USA it most likely doesn't pay with cash so the net transfer of physical currency might be very close to zero. How do they do electronic payments? Regular bank wire transfers. The fees are merely unattractive for small amounts. Western Union is a service for the unbanked. https://www.quora.com/Can-you-transfer-money-from-El-Salvador-to-the-USA https://www.quora.com/Can-you-transfer-money-from-El-Salvado...

by jweir 5y ago

neither_color 5y ago

If they have their Chivo app set up they can: a) convert to dollars within the app or go withdraw at an ATM. Or b) buy things directly with btc. There are videos on social media of people there buying coffee, food, etc. El Salvador already has the dollars by the way. They dollarized ~20 years ago. It’s the only currency in circulation, besides Bitcoin.

jweir 5y ago
You say the state already has the dollars, but it will need more as BTC flows into the country. Does the state handle the conversion - ie I sell my BTC to the state and it imports the dollars? This is the part I don’t understand is what part brings in new dollars at a lower cost than Western Union.
- smorgusofborg 5y ago
  How El Salvador keeps it's physical cash in flow with a foreign mint is an interesting question but it is somewhat decoupled. Unless people are hoarding US dollars, the banks are getting them back as later deposits so the amount of physical dollars has very little to do with incoming and outgoing digital payments.
- imtringued 5y ago
  https://www.quora.com/How-does-physical-money-transfer-occur-for-purchase-from-another-country https://www.quora.com/How-does-physical-money-transfer-occur... By the way, when El Salvador imports products from USA it most likely doesn't pay with cash so the net transfer of physical currency might be very close to zero. How do they do electronic payments? Regular bank wire transfers. The fees are merely unattractive for small amounts. Western Union is a service for the unbanked. https://www.quora.com/Can-you-transfer-money-from-El-Salvador-to-the-USA https://www.quora.com/Can-you-transfer-money-from-El-Salvado...