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El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

(ticotimes.net)
927 points smallerfish | 1 comments | 04 Feb 25 00:00 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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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dragonwriter ◴[04 Feb 25 04:41 UTC] No.42928058[source]▶
If you need to go to the IMF for a loan of ~3% of your GDP to mitigate the risks associated with Bitcoin, well, that's a pretty good sign that adopting Bitcoin as legal tender was a pretty disastrous failure.
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willmadden ◴[04 Feb 25 05:43 UTC] No.42928498[source]▶
What are you talking about? Their Bitcoin holdings more than doubled in value.
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hagbarth ◴[04 Feb 25 06:15 UTC] No.42928708[source]▶
Would that not be a bad thing when using it as legal tender? Deflation tends to be disastrous for the economy.
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almosthere ◴[04 Feb 25 08:20 UTC] No.42929618{4}[source]▶
that doesnt hold for a deflationary currency
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troupo ◴[04 Feb 25 09:05 UTC] No.42930016{5}[source]▶
If the value of your coin only goes up in value, why would you use 1 bitcoin now to buy a pizza slice if you can use it 5-10 years from now to buy a house?
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oneeyedpigeon ◴[04 Feb 25 09:46 UTC] No.42930334{6}[source]▶
A house in 5-10 years is nice, but it doesn't stop me from starving to death today.
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1. freejazz ◴[04 Feb 25 15:59 UTC] No.42934066{7}[source]▶
And who doesn't want to live in an economy where your purchasing decisions are made with the hunger of starvation!