As of yesterday morning, El Salvador became the first country in the world to accept the crypto coin as legal tender alongside the US dollar.
Miami hosted the largest Bitcoin conference in the world over the weekend and people flocked to Florida to hear the latest on cryptocurrency. At the conference, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele appeared in a video making the announcement that his country might become the first to adopt Bitcoin as legal currency — and they did just that.
El Salvador needed approval from the Salvadoran congress in order to accept Bitcoin. They were able to get that approval and pass the measure, likely because Bukele’s New Ideas party runs the congress in El Salvador.
Bukele followed up his initial statement on Twitter saying that El Salvador had great weather, world-class surfing and beachfront properties for sale, essentially inviting Bitcoin entrepreneurs to his country.
He added that it is one of the few countries in the world with no property tax and there’ll be no capital gains for Bitcoin due to it being a legal currency, and that immediate permanent residency will be granted to crypto entrepreneurs.
It’s still an open question how Salvadorans might use Bitcoin, but 70% of the country is not tied to any form of the banking system. It’s not clear if it is going to become a destination for Bitcoin entrepreneurs, but there are people online who are a part of the Bitcoin community looking at moving to El Salvador.
El Salvador’s acceptance has been viewed as a revolutionary move not only for the Central American country but also for Bitcoin, which has been receiving some pushback from other countries. This certainly opens the door for other countries to also adopt Bitcoin as their currency.
