Even on an ideal level, they face various forms of totalitarianism. El Salvador’s president has pushed a plan to introduce bitcoin into the economy of a country where four out of ten people live in poverty. In the process, your own credibility is at risk. Nayib Bukele's risky bet on Bitcoin Óscar Romero runs a shop in the rural town of Meanguera, 200 kilometers from San Salvador. It sells packaged products such as vegetables, vegetables, biscuits, fried foods, and beer. Óscar is not an economist, politician or venture capitalist, but he knew a law was approved in his nation’s capital a few weeks ago that would force him to soon accept something called bitcoin to pay for his products.
He said two things about this: it was "a currency that would go up and down" and he didn't think it would work. He is not without reason. Bitcoin is a digital currency that is, no paper money or coins are issued that is private and decentralized. That is, there is no Fax Number List government agency monitoring the possibility of counterfeiting. To make it secure, it is encrypted into computer circuits (hence the "cryptocurrency"), although that doesn't solve the problem Oscar aptly describes as a "seesaw", which is technically known as volatility. In April 2021, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of .
When I started writing this note, it was 35,767, and when I finished it three days later, it was 32,629. This is why, among other reasons, small businessmen like Oscar Romero and Nobel laureates in economics like Paul Krugman or Robert Shiller are skeptical about the real usefulness of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. El Salvador’s adoption of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency as legal tender is testing El Salvador’s loyalty and trust in Nayib Bukele. Two years into his presidency, President Bukele remains close to 90 percent in various opinion polls. However, his recent one-liners that have attracted global attention have not been so trusted by Salvadorans.