The president announced that those attending include:
  • Banco Central de São Tomé e Príncipe
  • Banco Central del Paraguay
  • Banco Nacional de Angola
  • Bank of Ghana
  • Bank of Namibia
  • Bank of Uganda
  • Banque Centrale de la République de Guinée
  • Banque Centrale de Madagascar
  • Banque de la République d'Haiti
  • Banque de la République du Burundi
  • Central Bank of Eswatini
  • Ministry of Finance of Eswatini
  • Central Bank of Jordan
  • Central Bank of The Gambia
  • Comisión Nacional de Bancos y Seguros de Honduras
  • Direction Générale du Trésor, Ministère des Finances et du Budget, Madagascar
  • Maldives Monetary Authority
  • National Bank of Rwanda
  • Nepal Rastra Bank
  • Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) Kenya
  • State Bank of Pakistan
  • Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras de Costa Rica
  • Superintendencia de la Economía Popular y Solidaria de Ecuador
  • Banco Central de El Salvador
  • Central Bank of Egypt
  • Central Bank of Jordan
  • Central Bank of Nigeria
  • Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et du Plan du Sénégal
  • Superintendencia de Bancos de la República Dominicana
  • Banque Centrale de Mauritanie
  • Banque Centrale du Congo
  • Central Bank of Armenia
  • Bangladesh Bank
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It took 12 years for the first country to adopt Bitcoin, around 8 months for the second, and if Panama’s president signs their recent Bitcoin bill into law, then they will be the third only about a month after the second. Now, countries from all over the world are meeting in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion and how adopting Bitcoin can benefit their countries.
Gradually, then suddenly.
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Why I have the feeling that this will end in launching a bank-shitcoin? I really hope I am wrong this time...
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I've stated something similar in another thread without much traction or response to it. Again why are we praising central bankers now?
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Could be more like a "trojan horse " for those banksters. On one side they are pressured/fucked by IMF and want to get rid of them... But on the other side, if they would adopt BTC (I doubt it), they are fucked, because slowly they will became obsolete once people realize that they can run their own bank (a LN node).
Interesting times...
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Dollarized developing economies are screwed more from rising inflation than is the US because the cantillon gainz from inflation acrue mostly to rich people in the west.
Bitcoin can check US dollar debasement if it gives 3rd world central banks a highly liquid alternative to US bonds.
The game theory doesn't require full adoption by their people to work out well for these countries.
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... then suddenly
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is this real life
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This is kind of exciting! However, I'm going to keep my expectations low. People unfortunately respond to the fiat price of Bitcoin. So I expect the next real wave of global adoption to happen around the next halving. The price will probably take another major step up then El Salvador and other countries that have adopted Bitcoin will begin to see large financial benefits. Other countries will see this and hop on the train.
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Does anyone know what the results have been of Bukele's Bitcoin law? The only thing I have seen is a very positive increase in tourism numbers.
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Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/BFI_WP_2022-54.pdf
Most Salvadorans have already ditched their national bitcoin wallets https://restofworld.org/2022/el-salvador-chivo-bitcoin-wallet/
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The launch was rushed, and the Chivo wallet was nowhere near ready for handling on-chain bitcoin transactions. So that was one (minor) contributing factor for today's small usage.
The initial flurry of activity was people trying to withdraw their $30 airdrop. Now, the remaining use of Chivo is by far mostly for dollars, according to that paper.
That being said, why would a bitcoin circular economy form simply because it is legal to use bitcoin? Why would the few merchants that are paid a fraction of revenues in bitcoin then spend that bitcoin, rather than keep that (or a portion of that) for their "treasury" / savings? Gresham's law is universal!
But what if it is just a couple percent of the transaction activity occurring in bitcoin? That's more than most everywhere else. And from here it will be mostly organic growth, and it will be interesting to see pockets of adoption form and to learn why and then we can learn and try to replicate that globally.
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Damn, that paper from U Chicago is awesome, thanks! Figure A10 sucks tho... I wonder why remittance adoption is declining like that.
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So I read "Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador" from what you linked, and it really seems to come down to: Don't trust the system (don't trust the government is how I interpreted that) Don't understand Bitcoin
Which interestingly, refutes that idea that money comes from the government, although I do agree that taxation in one commodity and only that commodity (or government stamped item) gives that thing enough value to pay taxes, but because your taxes get cheaper as time goes on (inflation destroys the value of the stamped item) I find no incentive to hold such an item for any longer than absolutely required.
I also am not a fan of the assertion that "Money’s essential feature is to be used as a medium of exchange", rather, it is one of its features. The feature that was missed in the paper, is the store of value aspect, because people try to save money to purchase something else at a later date.
No paper I have read, has been able to refute the idea of holding on to anything other than a governments currency and only converting it when required. Inflation guarentees the "price" always goes up, except when measured with other assets like when housing is priced in gold for example. Instead, they have only been able to confidently assert that this means a governments currency is a medium of exchange and therefore money.
Lets speak to Gresham's law for a moment, which you have referenced. Of course I'm willing to pay someone who insists on accepting trash, using trash at the time of purchase. If a business wishes only to accept cheeseburger wrappers (I'm American), those can be purchased with something of value very easily at a moments noticed and transferred to the desirer, but by no means would I start saving up cheeseburger wrappers as a result, because I know that it does not have long term prospects. Over time, that business will require more and more cheeseburger wrappers for what they're selling and so its smarter for me to hold say silver which I could much more easily trade for many many cheeseburger wrappers as time goes on.
There is this strange psychological occurance, by which people differenciate between investments and money. It would make sense that an investment is something which costs money in the short term but will grow and generate wealth in the long term, but that has been perversed. Like I said with houses measured in gold (that is the median housing price as to be independant of population growth in specific regions), one might think that buying a house is an investment, but according to the chart, houses are liabilities. (source: http://pricedingold.com/us-home-prices/). but they still seem to fair well enough against inflation and so you see houses is where the rich store wealth, therefore, houses are money, not investments. The liability aspect is all the repairs the house requires, but if the house is rented out and you can adjust the rent to inflation, then it becomes an asset. (the wisdom of using a house as a store of value also depends on how much the value of houses is propped up by debt within the debt cycle.)
I could go on about the S&P 500 being a flat line against gold or saving money in gold or silver until making the purchase for which something is being saved, but I'm at the point of writing an article so I'll just conclude with, Bitcoin doesn't do what Keynesian would expect and write it off as not being money, but the way a Bitcoiner understands money is fundamentally different and our goals and measurements for successfulness are also different from what the central bankers will try to portray.
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This was well worth watching:
🎥 Bond to Unbind - Bitcoin and El Salvador [full documentary] | Satoshi Pollen #27625
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Sweet great for Namibia and Eswatini, I am close by so if they do switch over I am there like a bear :)
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Generally speaking, I am always skeptical of central banks adopting Bitcoin - Fiat currencies are such an attractive option for CBs.
However, given that developing nations are realizing the painful and forever-losing position they're in when their currency is subject to the fiscal policies of global superpowers, Bitcoin starts to looks more attractive.
Interested to see where this leads. I doubt Bukele would have made this announcement if he didn't expect good news to follow.
Side note: Developing nations are adopting Bitcoin faster than any other cohort ().
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agree. most developing nations central bankers are equally skeptical of G7 currencies since they are constantly being threatened by the dollar and this might finally be their chance to push back
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Here is the Tweet that kicked off a Twitter thread about the event:
Tomorrow, 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities (44 countries) will meet in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the #Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in our country.
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By the end of the year, will we have a B20 to counterbalance the G20?
#Bitcoin
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There's another, later, post, here on SN, sharing that Tweet:
44 countries to meet in El Salvador to discuss Bitcoin #28808 https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1526029996787216387
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