$BTC: El Salvador’s president says “many countries will follow” if their Bitcoin experiment succeeds
Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, which in September 2021 became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, said in a statement that despite claims by mainstream media and rating agencies, his nation is not failing because of its efforts. on Bitcoin.
As you may know, on June 5, 2021 Zap Solutions (a Bitcoin payment startup using the Lightning Network) founder and CEO Jack Mallers announced at Miami’s Bitcoin 2021 conference that the government of El Salvador wanted to pass legislation to make Bitcoin legal tender (together with US dollars).
During his speech, an emotional Mallers presented a recorded video message from President Bukele and read a small passage from the proposed bill. Mallers went on to say that his company would open an innovation center in El Salvador with the help of Blockstream.
On June 9, 2021, this proposed bill was passed by the Legislature (with 62 of 84 voting in favor).
Then, on June 25, 2021, Reuters published a report saying that El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele had announced during a national address on June 24, 2021 that the “Bitcoin Law” would take effect on September 7, 2021.
On September 6, 2021, President Bukele announced that his country had purchased its first 200 bitcoins, and they planned to buy “much more”.
Since September 2021, El Salvador has made 11 purchases of Bitcoin, with the country estimated to have purchased a total of 2,381 bitcoins. The last $BTC purchase took place on June 30, 2022, when El Salvador bought 80 coins at an average price of $19,000.
Although some critics argue that El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment has failed since the small Central American nation has unrealized losses on its Bitcoin investment, there are also Salvodranians who are very happy and proud that their country embarked on this journey.
Well, earlier today Bitcoin Magazine published an op-ed article written by President Bukele, where he talked about those people who criticize El Salvador for betting on Bitcoin saying that despite all their stories of doom and gloom, the country does his it quite well, and that if “If El Salvador succeeds, many countries will follow.”
Bukele wrote:
“… the most vocal critics, those who fear and pressure us to reverse our decision, are the world’s powerful elites and the people who work for or benefit from them…
“Just think of the hundreds, if not thousands, of articles about how El Salvador’s economy was supposedly destroyed because of its “bitcoin gambling,” about how we are inevitably headed for default, that our economy has collapsed, and that our government is Bankruptcy… Most of you have probably seen this, right? They are over. Every financial publication, every major news organization, every newspaper in the world, every credit rating agency and every international financial organization says the same thing, as if they were in a choir…
“Well, you only need to read their articles and listen to their “experts” who said that all this happened after El Salvador lost about 50 million dollars due to bitcoin’s falling price on exchanges. Since we don’t sell any bitcoin, this statement is obviously false… Yes, El Salvador is a relatively poor country, but in 2021 alone we produced 28 billion dollars in products and services. Pushing the idea that a loss of $50 million – less than 0.2% of our GDP – will destroy or even put the country’s economy in trouble is far beyond stupid; it is revealing…
“In 2021, our GDP increased by 10.3%, tourism income increased by 52%, employment increased by 7%, new businesses up 12%, exports up 17%, energy production up 19%, energy exports up 3,291%, and internal revenues went up 37%, all without raising any taxes. And this year, crime and homicide rates have dropped by 95%…
“If El Salvador succeeds, many countries will follow suit. If El Salvador somehow fails, which we refuse, no country will follow suit.“
Image credit
Featured image via Pixabay
