Bitcoin city is looking for investors
- An official in El Salvador revealed that the government is offering special rewards for businesses that invest early in the Bitcoin city.
- The Central American nation would partially finance its iconic Bitcoin city with $1 billion from the sale of its Bitcoin Volcano Bonds.
In September 2021, El Salvador became the first nation globally to make Bitcoin legal tender. Now the country wants to focus on establishing a Bitcoin city. While El Salvador announced its goal to create a Bitcoin city last year, plans have been disrupted and delayed for various reasons.
Geopolitical tensions and the crypto winter (which has caused a significant decline in investment in the crypto sector) are notable factors disrupting El Salvador’s Bitcoin city plans. The deputy ambassador of El Salvador to the Netherlands, Hector Enrique Celarie, told the media that the Central American nation would follow a “first-come, first-served” method to allow businesses to invest and monetize the Bitcoin city.
He explained that El Salvador aims to use its Bitcoin City as a foundation to expand and strengthen the community. “That is why we want more investment in this aspect to develop this city.” Deputy Ambassador Celarie further noted that adopting BTC as a legal tender has positively impacted the country’s economy. He encouraged people from other countries to visit El Salvador so they have a first-hand witness of how BTC is positively impacting the lives of El Salvadorans.
Funding of Bitcoin City
El Salvador first announced that it would establish a Bitcoin city in November 2021. The official statement was that the city’s development funds would be from the sale of $1 billion worth of Bitcoin volcano bonds. This bond is the first crypto sovereign debt product globally.
During the peak of the bull market, many investors were lured into investing in this debt product. However, it has lost that attractiveness due to several delays and the downturn in the crypto market. A few weeks ago, Paolo Ardoino (BitFinex’s Chief Technology Officer) told a popular media company that BitFinex is awaiting El Salvador’s approval of its operating license.
He added that the government would not issue any operating license until it has passed the Digital Securities Act. Initially, the government stated that it would pass the bill by the end of last month. But it has not given any update regarding the bill or the launch of Bitcoin bonds as of now.
While El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment has had its problems, the positives have outweighed the negatives. Two days ago, CoinCorner, a Bitcoin card payment platform, announced plans to install Near-Field Communication (NFC) card readers across El Salvador.
Greetings, El Salvador! 🇸🇻
Starting today, residents of El Salvador can open a CoinCorner account and access our full range of Bitcoin and lighting services, including full functionality for our contactless Bitcoin Lightning card, The Bolt Card ⚡️
— CoinCorner ⚡️ Buy Bitcoin at CoinCorner.com (@CoinCorner) 12 October 2022
The tap-to-pay feature allows Bitcoin holders in El Salvador to spend BTC at locations where these NFC card readers are available. This service is built on the lightning network (ln) to facilitate retail BTC transactions. Many card payment services globally are integrated with the lightning network to facilitate BTC payments for BTC holders.
