As a condition for a new IMF loan package, President Bukele of El Salvador has had to admit three aspects of the bitcoin Law approved in 2021:
- A legal tender mandate requiring businesses to accept bitcoin
- Closing Chivo, the state wallet and the on- and off-ramp service
- Tax payments in bitcoin are no longer accepted
In the end everything except the last one is a positive change. Legal tender laws are ultimately coercive and, in my opinion, should not exist. Chivo was a disaster and there are alternatives like Blink. The only negative (possibly) is that the state no longer accepts bitcoins for tax payments.
People are losing their minds on twitter over these changes, framing things as Bukele selling out, proving he's not a Bitcoiner, etc. There are many people who demonstrate an attitude that shows that they feel deceived or betrayed.
Well, here's a wake-up call. Bukele was never going to be, first and foremost, a bitcoin champion above all else. He is the leader of a nation of around six million inhabitants. That It was always going to be his first priority. If he didn't, he would be a terrible leader.
El Salvador is a country plagued by poverty, previously due to violent organized crime. It was the murder capital of the world. The infrastructure was decaying and dysfunctional, people could not participate in the economy without paying protection money to violent gangs like MS-13. Large amounts of the population had moved abroad to escape these things.
bitcoin is nothing more than a tool, one among many, for Bukele to address these problems. And that's all the leader of a nation should be. Bukele's reason for being in power is not to inflate our suitcases or to promote the cause of bitcoin, it is to help. the Salvadoran people.
When bitcoin is not the best way to go, you should own up to it. When deprioritizing bitcoin is in the best interest of your people, you should do it. Regardless of what you think about governments or nation states, that is the job of a leader. Look out for the best interests of your people.
That's what he's doing here, and anyone who expected him to do otherwise is deluded and narcissistic. Bukele is not the president of bitcoin, he is the president of El Salvador. He must be accountable to the Salvadoran people, not to a group of clowns on the Internet.
This article is a Carry. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of btc Inc or bitcoin Magazine.
