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El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

(ticotimes.net)
927 points smallerfish | 3 comments | 04 Feb 25 00:00 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Mengkudulangsat ◴[04 Feb 25 00:11 UTC] No.42925325[source]▶
> The government, she assured, will continue buying bitcoin and having reserves in this cryptocurrency

Sounds like the term "Failed Experiment" is the writer's assertion and not the government official position.

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cwillu ◴[04 Feb 25 00:26 UTC] No.42925524[source]▶
“Another change makes using bitcoin entirely voluntary. (Previously, the law mandated that businesses accept bitcoin for any goods or services they provided.) Additionally, bitcoin can no longer be used to pay taxes or settle government debts.”

--https://reason.com/2025/02/03/el-salvador-walks-back-its-bit...

Sounds pretty failed to me.

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desumeku ◴[04 Feb 25 00:29 UTC] No.42925557[source]▶
They did this to receive a loan from the IMF. The IMF was withholding the loan because of BTC and would not disburse it until they got rid of its status as legal tender.
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Mengkudulangsat ◴[04 Feb 25 00:44 UTC] No.42925736[source]▶
Fair demand by the IMF.

Presumably they require their loan to be repaid in fiat because of their internal charter. If Bitcoin adoption eventually removes El Salvador's ability to issue fiat, their loan can't be repaid.

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do_not_redeem ◴[04 Feb 25 00:58 UTC] No.42925890[source]▶
El Salvador can't issue fiat. They use US dollars. Only the US Federal Reserve can issue USD.
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1. kragen ◴[04 Feb 25 02:50 UTC] No.42927117[source]▶
They could. Ecuador does in fact mint its own US-dollar coins, and El Salvador could dedollarize.
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2. favorited ◴[04 Feb 25 03:31 UTC] No.42927499[source]▶
Ecuador mints their own centavo coins, but they are not legal tender outside of Ecuador. They've never released their own $1 coin into general circulation – their ubiquitous Sacagawea dollars are minted in the US.
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3. kragen ◴[04 Feb 25 03:34 UTC] No.42927528[source]▶
Sorry, I didn't mean to say they minted US$1 coins, just coins whose value is denominated in dollars. I think the biggest one is US$0.25?

US dollars are also not legal tender outside the US, with a few exceptions (I think including both El Salvador and Ecuador.)