The government says the scheme will give many residents access to banking services for the first time. In addition, the plan is to save 400 million dollars per year – around 3.5 billion kroner – in fees for transfers from citizens abroad.
– Tomorrow, the eyes of the whole world, for the first time in history, will be focused on El Salvador. Bitcoin has led to this, President Nayib Bukele wrote Twitter
Monday. He also announced that the country has bought its first 400 bitcoin, worth around 21 million dollars.
Far from all Salvadorans are as excited as the president. 65 percent say in a survey that they will continue to use the US dollar, which has been the country’s currency for the past 20 years.
“Bitcoin is a currency that does not exist, a currency that will not benefit the poor, but the rich,” said Jose Santos Melara, who was one of several hundred who demonstrated against the new currency in the capital San Salvador last week.
– How can a poor person invest in bitcoin, when they barely have enough to eat, he asks.
Economists and international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have expressed concern, and experts have pointed out that the cryptocurrency is very volatile and that users are not protected. The United States has asked El Salvador to ensure a “regulated, open and responsible” use of bitcoin and to protect itself from “malicious actors”.
(©NTB)
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