Official currency, bitcoin is slow to establish itself in El Salvador
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Dressed all in white, cap backwards, Nayib Bukele exults: “We will build Bitcoin City! » The Salvadoran president speaks in English in front of an audience of foreign “bitcoineurs” who came to attend Bitcoin Week in the first country to have adopted, on September 7, 2021, the crypto-asset as its official currency. “It will be a real municipality, with a mayor and everything! », promises the head of state. A free zone, powered by geothermal energy from the Conchagua volcano, which will also be used for mining – the energy-intensive calculations used to authenticate bitcoin transactions. To finance this monumental project, he announces, cryptobonds will be issued for a value of 1 billion dollars (1 billion euros).
It was November 20, 2021. Nine months later, no stone has yet been laid. And no cryptobond issued. Blame it on the international context: “All markets are upside down because of Covid-19, runaway inflation and the war in Ukraine”pleads the Minister of the Economy, Alejandro Zelaya.
Authorities continue to defend their decision to make bitcoin legal tender. And attribute to it a supposed increase in foreign investment and the fact that international tourism has returned to its pre-pandemic level. About fifty bitcoin-related companies have already settled. Stacy Herbert and Max Keiser, a couple of American journalists specializing in cryptocurrencies, were attracted by the facilities granted to bitcoin investors. They have created a fund to finance start-ups contributing to the“hyperbitcoinization” from the country. “Bitcoin is the future of El Salvador”explains M.me Herbert.
The balance sheet is mixed
Jorge Cruz Rubio, coffee producer, created in their honor his Satoshi Specialty Blend line (reference to the pseudonym of the creator of bitcoin). On the package, the orange “B” and the mask of Anonymous. Mr. Cruz offers discounts if the purchase is made in bitcoins. “This currency is a way to make my transactions to the whole world from my plantation in Ahuachapan, instead of spending hours in town and paying commissions”, he explains.
However, a year after the introduction of this currency, the results are mixed. If the “bitcoin” law has put El Salvador at the forefront of the international scene “for anything other than the violence of his gangs”rejoices Mr. Zelaya, its use by the population is far from being at the rendezvous.
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