Bitcoin Is Now Legal Tender

Nayib Bukele is now President of El Salvador with a near 90% approval rating, and, this morning, his country just became the first on earth to make Bitcoin legal tender.

He’s either a madman or a total genius.

Either way, he’s about to become world-famous.

Sixty-two members of the Salvadorian Congress voted in favor of the Bitcoin bill, with 19 opposed and three abstentions, meaning Bukele won a supermajority for a bill that will mandate all businesses to accept bitcoin for goods or services, and allow citizens to pay their taxes in BTC.

Bukele pitched the move as a way to increase financial inclusion in a nation where less than a third of citizens have access to banks and the official currency is the wildly-debased U.S. dollar.

And, unlike China, he’s not planning to force his people to use a government-issued wallet.

In an exceptionally shrewd move aimed and increasing foreign investment, El Salvador will now grant permanent residency to any individual who invests 3 BTC in the economy (roughly $100,000–$150,000 depending on the day.)

Considering Bitcoin will no longer be taxed at capital gains rates in El Salvador, it might attract any number of wealthy international Bitcoin holders.

Perhaps the riskiest part of the new law is Bitcoin’s wild price fluctuations. The El Salvadorian government has promised businesses they will act as a backstop for companies that don’t love the volatility, by setting up a $150 million trust at the national Development Bank.

It’s the kind of move that could prove brilliant, or could see the whole fund wiped out in one day as whales continue to manipulate the price of $BTC. (It also remains to be seen whether or not the USA will even allow it to happen, wielding proxy power via the IMF to bludgeon El Salvador back onto the dollar standard.)

Source: https://medium.com/surviving-tomorrow/bitcoin-is-now-legal-tender-412784e0acfa?source=rss——-8—————–cryptocurrency