El Salvador Pushes Bitcoin

Central American republic El Salvador is pushing local businesses to accept Bitcoin, making the tiny nation—wedged between Guatemala and Honduras on the Pacific coast—the first in the world to adopt a cryptocurrency as legal tender. However, crypto experts don’t believe this is a wise move. CoinDesk CEO, Michael Saylor, said in a recent interview that Bitcoin is an asset and not a currency: “You don’t want to pay for your coffee with your bitcoin, you want to pay for your coffee with a currency.” He went on to say, “all of these regulations…they’re really regulations restraining your use of a digital asset as a currency rather than as a property.” Meanwhile, El Salvador’s President has been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin, but central banks and the International Monetary Fund disagree, with the Bank of England saying it’s “worried” about the development. At press time, Bitcoin was trading at about 57 and a half thousand dollars.