In an interview with Peter McCormack, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele gives a detailed account of the new Bitcoin law. We have summarized the most important statements.
The decision to make Bitcoin legal tender was a historic one. Since the parliament of El Salvador officially passed the law on June 9 of this year, Bitcoin has for the first time received the legitimation of a nation state.
Now El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has made his first comment on the law. In an interview with podcaster Peter McCormack Bukele explains that the main concern was independence from the imponderables of US monetary policy. After all, El Salvador has not had its own fiat currency since 2001, but is building its economy on the US dollar. The country is clearly feeling the effects of US-induced inflation, but without benefiting from the advantages of the printing press.
We are not becoming completely independent. At least we will become a little less dependent on the issuance of new dollars and the inflation that comes with those new dollars,
says Bukele to Peter McCormack.
Everything on Bitcoin
The president, who has been in office since 2019, also leaves no doubt about the BTC focus:
We’re not going to ban any other cryptocurrency, but this is a bitcoin law, it’s only meant for bitcoin – and for several reasons. It will be impossible to have ten legal tender, two is enough of a challenge. So for legal tender there will only be Bitcoin and the USD.
Nayib Bukele
It shouldn’t be a secret that Bukele is a bitcoiner.
“The Bitcoin system is so perfect that I believe it will be the future. El Salvador is not known as a country of innovation – but perhaps in this regard it is. “
Without risks and side effects
But are there also risks?
To be honest, Bitcoin looks bulletproof to me. I’m pretty sure Bitcoin will work. Not just for me, but for all of humanity. Of course there are risks, but they are small. We can be at the forefront of a new economic paradigm here.
Only the danger of opposition to his draft – above all from the traditional financial sector – is named by Bukele as a risk. But you have to accept that.
Bitcoin is a game changer, anyway the chance would outweigh the risks many times over – and that even before the adoption.
We could have started a centralized currency as well. We need a system that is open and green – but above all it has to work. In all honesty: Bitcoin is a game changer; it was already a game changer and the law is not yet in force at all.
Nayib Bukele
You can find all updates on the Bitcoin revolution in Latin America in our news ticker.