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El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

(ticotimes.net)
927 points smallerfish | 2 comments | 04 Feb 25 00:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.607s | source
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portaouflop ◴[04 Feb 25 02:07 UTC] No.42926658[source]▶
IMF gave them 1.4 billion to abandon the “experiment”:

> The IMF made this a condition for a loan of 1.4 billion US dollars (1.35 billion euros). In December of last year, the IMF reached an agreement with President Nayib Bukele’s government on the loan of the stated amount to strengthen the country’s “fiscal sustainability” and mitigate the “risks associated with Bitcoin,” as it was described.

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I dislike cryptocurrencies as much as the next guy but this was clearly something else than a failure of the currency itself

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culi ◴[04 Feb 25 03:15 UTC] No.42927357[source]▶
The very first IMF loan ever given was to France for reconstruction. One of the terms for the condition was to remove the only elected communist in their government from their position.

IMF loans have ALWAYS been political

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1. derektank ◴[04 Feb 25 03:36 UTC] No.42927544[source]▶
Arguably, both preconditions could have been simply intended to secure an eventual return on the loan. Having a communist in political leadership and allowing citizens to pay their taxes in Bitcoin both increase fiscal risk. I can understand the IMF wanting to reduce that risk as much as possible before providing a loan.
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2. wordofx ◴[04 Feb 25 03:59 UTC] No.42927720[source]▶
^ unsure why downvoting this as it’s 100% correct. IMF doesn’t hand out loans it doesn’t think will be paid back.

(This is where China swoops in and gives a loan at lower interest rates with shadow contracts to get the resources or assets)