South Carolina treasurer goes on Bitcoin ‘fact-finding trip’ to El Salvador

by · October 5, 2022

Curtis Loftis, treasurer of the US state of South Carolina, spent five days in El Salvador as part of an “exploratory trip” on cryptocurrencies.

According to an Oct. 5 announcement, Loftis was part of a delegation including South Carolina business leaders, rural health professionals and individuals “interested in the expansion of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies” that met with officials from El Salvador’s government in an effort to understand the country’s efforts to adopt Bitcoin (BTC). The cryptocurrency has been legal tender alongside the US dollar in the Central American nation since El Salvador’s Bitcoin law took effect in September 2021.

Loftis reportedly used his own funds to pay for the trip, which included discussing Bitcoin with government officials and exploring the country’s financial literacy education programs. According to the treasurer, the visit to El Salvador was prompted by South Carolina’s legislature exploring ways to support the adoption of crypto and blockchain in the state.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Loftis, a self-described Luddite, said he was neither a “supporter nor opponent” of crypto, but wanted to learn how South Carolina’s government could use the technology effectively in addition to promoting financial literacy among citizens. The treasurer said the group tried to use Bitcoin “maybe four times” during the El Salvador trip, as payments to street vendors and local businesses.

“We were at a nicer restaurant and the tab was around $300-400 — a bunch of us — and they paid with Bitcoin,” Loftis said. “I signed up for Lightning in advance […] it was interesting … people living very close to the ground using Bitcoin, and some of them really like it – they were very happy to have done it.”

The South Carolina treasurer added:

“That’s our mandate: not to create a world with Bitcoin or Ethereum, or not to create that world – it’s just to understand what’s going on, set up a system where we […] make sure people have good resources to understand what’s going on.”

Related: Grassroots initiatives bring Bitcoin education to communities across America

Reports have suggested that approximately 20% of Salvadorans use BTC through Chivo wallets, while El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced that the government had 2,381 BTC in July. With the crypto market at the center, the value of the country’s total Bitcoin investment has fallen more than 55% since September 2021 – worth approximately $48 million at the time of publication.