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I'm not following crypto too closely, but I'm interested. Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC, in turn raising its price. El Salv

I'm not following crypto too closely, but I'm interested. Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC, in turn raising its price. El Salvador adopted BTC as legal tender in September 2021, which is also the start of a big rise in BTC price from around 40k to almost 60k, but this then dropped back again to pre-September 2021 levels. Does anyone know whether this rise was related to El Salvador adopted BTC, and can we expect to see the same thing happening here?

danielfoster 4y ago
No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions, so there was not increased use of the currency that caused the spike in prices. Most likely the spike to 60k was just speculation.
- kayamon 4y ago
  > No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions lolwut. Of the entire population of El Salvador, not one person is trading bitcoin?
otoburb 4y ago
>>Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC [...] Very unlikely, given that CAR's population is less than 5M, and only a small (read: negligible) portion of the population will even attempt to use bitcoin more than they were already were due to this legislation. The more interesting question is how the other independent African states that use the CFA franc[1] and the Bank of Central African States[2] will respond over time, especially with regards to the development and adoption of the Eco[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency)
oblio 4y ago
The Central African Republic is 5th from the bottom on GDP lists. Out of ~210 countries and territories. Its GDP per day is about $1.3. Its citizens care more about not starving, than Bitcoin. And they can barely afford 0.0001% of a Bitcoin, if they would even have easy access to tech allowing them to use it.
- frankbreetz 4y ago
  It's GDP per person per day is $1.3. For reference the US GDP per person per day is $174.
orangepurple 4y ago
Cryptocurrencies won't help the average person in cash economies where most citizens are unbanked and ATMs don't have any cash in them for years if their country restricts internet or electricity access or the average person is far too poor to afford a way to store and transact cryptocurrencies.

danielfoster 4y ago

No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions, so there was not increased use of the currency that caused the spike in prices. Most likely the spike to 60k was just speculation.

kayamon 4y ago
> No one in El Salvador is using BTC for transactions lolwut. Of the entire population of El Salvador, not one person is trading bitcoin?

otoburb 4y ago

>>Reading this, I wondered whether this would increase demand of BTC [...] Very unlikely, given that CAR's population is less than 5M, and only a small (read: negligible) portion of the population will even attempt to use bitcoin more than they were already were due to this legislation. The more interesting question is how the other independent African states that use the CFA franc[1] and the Bank of Central African States[2] will respond over time, especially with regards to the development and adoption of the Eco[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_CFA_franc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Central_African_States [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_(currency)

oblio 4y ago

The Central African Republic is 5th from the bottom on GDP lists. Out of ~210 countries and territories. Its GDP per day is about $1.3. Its citizens care more about not starving, than Bitcoin. And they can barely afford 0.0001% of a Bitcoin, if they would even have easy access to tech allowing them to use it.

frankbreetz 4y ago
It's GDP per person per day is $1.3. For reference the US GDP per person per day is $174.

orangepurple 4y ago

Cryptocurrencies won't help the average person in cash economies where most citizens are unbanked and ATMs don't have any cash in them for years if their country restricts internet or electricity access or the average person is far too poor to afford a way to store and transact cryptocurrencies.