In what is considered by some experts to be a huge step for mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, El Salvador is set to make bitcoin a legal tender, making it the first nation to do so.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, speaking at the 2021 Bitcoin Conference in Miami, said “Next week I will send to congress a bill that will make bitcoin a legal tender.”
In connection to this, the country is reportedly working with Lightning Network payments platform Strike in order to integrate the digital currency into their financial system. Its founder, Jack Mallers, hosted the president’s presentation at the conference.
The reason for El Salvador’s decision
Mallers turned to the fact that El Salvador lacks financial structure when asked about the historic decision the country made.
He said more than 70% of the active population of the nation doesn’t own a bank account and is therefore not in the financial system. He later revealed he was asked for help in writing a plan, revolving around the idea that people of El Salvador view the crypto as a word-class currency.
This led to the idea of putting together a bitcoin plan in order to help citizens who have been left out of the financial loop.
The first-ever
In making bitcoin (currently changing hands at $36,601) an accepted tender on its soil, El Salvador becomes the first country to make a non-fiat currency a legal tender.
Compared to most other sovereign nations, El Salvador doesn’t have its own currency. Soon after a civil war in the late 1980s, it introduced the U.S. dollar as its new official currency and ditched the Colon.
Now, with bitcoin, it is hoped that its residents will be provided an opportunity to be on the financial system and not be left out again.
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