• El Salvador will continue buying 1 Bitcoin daily until it becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies
  • President Bukele’s statement highlights commitment to cryptocurrency adoption
  • Move demonstrates belief in Bitcoin’s long-term value and potential as a global currency alternative.
  • j4yt33@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    Imagine your president being a 40yo cryptobro version of Trump. No wonder people are leaving

    • nivenkos@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      He’s winning against the gangs though - every Salvadorean I know supports him.

      • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Talk to families of unjustified imprisoned people or to the people itself. His ‘fixing’ was done by basically imprisoning everyone, which just happened to be close to any suspect gang member. There where even cases where a mailman was imprisoned because he just happenend to deliver a parcel during a raid.

        Yes, he fixed the gang problem for now. But at a high price – the loss of a fair justice system. He imprisoned 1.2 % of the total population in just 2 years.

        I know that freedom vs security is a fine balance and once security suffers significantly, you are willing to give up quiet a lot of freedom. But since he just imprisoned everyone and their relatives, its only a temporary fix – unless he wants to imprison them for life.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          I don’t think you understand how completely gangs had effectively taken over El Salvador until recently. Despite the obvious issues that you’ve pointed out, the situation is genuinely miles better than it was before for the vast majority of the population who were simply trying to live their lives.

          • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Thats what I meant with ‘if security gets really low, you are willing to sacrifice a lot of freedom’

            My major complaint is, that he doesnt have a plan for the time after they will eventually get out of prison.

            • deafboy@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Wait. There was a plan to release anyone? I thought the guy who invites an armed military observers to the parliament voting session wouldn’t bother with that.

        • Otherbarry@lemmy.zip
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          8 months ago

          Talk to families of unjustified imprisoned people or to the people itself.

          Do you actually know & speak to people in El Salvador? Pretty much everyone I know there (family/friends) are ecstatic that there are no more gang members running around unchecked. The country is safer now then it has been in years.

          Nothing is perfect of course, poverty is still a major issue, but not having to deal with gang members every time you ride the bus, go out shopping, even just drive around, it’s a huge deal over there.

          Sure I get what you’re saying but for most people there it’s been a positive development.

          But since he just imprisoned everyone and their relatives, its only a temporary fix – unless he wants to imprison them for life.

          True… to be honest I suspect those people are imprisoned for life. No one expects gang members to be let out of prison while Bukele is still running the country, that’s going to be something that gets revisited when/if he’s out of office. It’s a massive human rights issue but at least for now the majority of Salvadorans consider it a net positive.

          The funny thing is that this article is about bitcoin & most Salvadorans don’t particularly care about that at all, it’s just kind of a headline that isn’t going to win/lose Bukele any support in the short term at least.

        • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          You seem to underestimate the gang problem. I was in Ilobasco a few years ago and my family that lives there urged me not to go outside past 7pm because I can be a target or even kidnapped. Like wtf why do the gangs get to dictate curfew in 2017? Past nightfall you have to turn the lights off so people in the streets can’t peek into your house through the metal guard rails on all the windows. It was eye opening to say the least. Since Nuevas Ideas I have only heard good things and good changes to the area from my family. There were so many people associated to the gangs that I have little sympathy for those ‘innocently accused’. I would rather a few loosely incorporated get caught than let the gangs do what they want freely.

          • le_saucisson_masquay@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            Until it’s you who get wrongfully put in jail, but I get the point. I think everyone agree it’s better now and also they should do everything they can to speed up the release of innocent people.

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Not to mention there’s a very obvious racial component of who’s probably bearing the brunt of all these arrests even with the policy of “we swear it’s only criminals bro trust us bro just let us keep at it bro we’re fixing crime bro!”

        • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I hope he does that. Us citizens wouldn’t want that criminal lowlife and their families to return to society

      • Evil_incarnate@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Since every Bitcoin transaction is traceable, it makes it easier to see where the money goes…

        • wahming@monyet.cc
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          8 months ago

          And also stealable with a single passcode. Which they totally didn’t give the president’s nephew, no sirree

    • nixcamic@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I have very mixed feelings about Bukele but nobody is leaving because of him. Salvadorian emigration has slowed greatly under him and many people are actually moving back.

    • ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Sadly, that’s also the exact description of who Canada is most likely to elect as their next leader too. “bitcoin millhouse” we call him.

      • BoscoBear@lemmy.sdf.org
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        8 months ago

        It is sad to see people unaware of different conditions in the world. They have this feelings that one set of rules is good for everyone.

          • BoscoBear@lemmy.sdf.org
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            8 months ago

            You are very correct.

            I don’t really want someone who is "tough on crime"in Russia, China or Taiwan , but I can understand why people in Haiti would be in favor of it.

            • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              For a future in which Bukele unites south America under the banner of zero crime, since our local presidents are just stupid and corrupt and wastes of space.

              • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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                8 months ago

                Politicians have a bad habit of not giving up power. Hopefully, when the time comes, he graciously steps down or works on addressing the rights he had to curtail to do what he’s done.

      • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        There’s no question they’ve arrested innocent people and the prisoners are being treated poorly, but it’s hard to judge when I don’t have to deal with drug cartels/gangs and make their monthly salary in a couple days.

  • yildolw@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    El Salvador Will Keep Putting $71,000 into the President’s Swiss Bank Account Daily

    FTFY

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    It’s tragic for the people of his country that they are being essentially forced into participating in a pyramid scheme

    • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, this basically gave away the whole country to the USA, but now with Bitcoin, this is over!

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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        8 months ago

        TBH Bukele is more likely to steal the country’s finances than the USA. The USA doesn’t have the power to seize decentralized currency from across the equator, at least not without empowering the CIA but every time we do that they destabilize a region, create a theocracy, or trick us into another war so we’re getting pretty sick of their shit.

  • neutron@thelemmy.club
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    8 months ago

    Whatever your thoughts on cryptocurrency might be, this is borderline gambling addiction.

  • wrekone@lemmyf.uk
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    8 months ago

    …El Salvador has decided to transfer a large chunk of its bitcoin holdings to a cold wallet and store it in a physical vault

    What are we up to now, like Ocean’s 15 or something?

  • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de
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    8 months ago

    Then why do they tell everyone about it?

    Seems like a way to pump the price up just by press and not actually wanting to anything.

    • deafboy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Move the price? Talk is cheap… and so is 1 BTC per year.

      This is just Bukele craving some attention. I hate the term attention removed, but can’t find a better description.

      • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Talk is cheap… and so is 1 BTC per year

        luckily it said they’re going to buy 1 per day. There are several days in an average year.

          • AbsentBird@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            It’s spelled embarrass, you wrote ‘emberass’; would that be like someone who sits on hot coals?

          • drislands@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Relatable. In our rush to say the clever thing we’re thinking, we don’t stop to double check that we read it correctly in the first place. I’ve been guilty of that too many times…

  • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
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    8 months ago

    And then some hacker will get into that wallet and empty it.

    The presidency will act all shocked at the news pretending they did everything to secure it…

    • Alteon@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      “some” hacker.

      Totally not involved with the government at all.

      Totally not tipped off about how to access it and where to put it.

      Totally just some random hacker that managed to make off with all of that government money. Oh well, we tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.

      Apologies citizens, your money is truly gone.

  • daniskarma@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    And what happens if the government needs that money and Bitcoin price is down?

    I don’t see how putting national reserves on such an inestable “asset” would be a good idea.

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Worse, what happens if cybercriminals are able to successfully steal a large number of the countries bitcoin, or if they somehow lose access to their bitcoin wallet(s)?

      • Babalugats
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        8 months ago

        He said ‘until it’s unaffordable’ I guess he’s using reserves like the way the US does on weapons and military, some of which isn’t even for them.

        He’s investing in what he believes is a profitable investment. I’m guessing that he has financial advice from people that have studied this to a level that can understand it better than most people, and consider it a sound investment. With the intention at the other end being to use for the country. Everything accounted for, nothing going into senators back pockets, could be used to boost their health service and hospitals and whatever else. With countries less built up currently looking more favourable in the future, they’re already in a good position.

  • notfromhere
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    8 months ago

    If this is legit and not corruption and bitcoin eventually takes off to ungodly levels, imagine the biggest bet in history paying off and their country turns around as an economic powerhouse. Risky and stupid but would make a good movie.

    • deafboy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I really wish for them to hit the jackpot and break the cycle, but so far, everything valuable in the region was quickly turned into poverty and famine. It’s like a bad magic trick.

    • Buttons@programming.dev
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      8 months ago

      The only thing keeping them a powerhouse would be a number on a computer that can be stolen. Question is, would people try to steal from a nation rich enough to be a powerhouse and how sophisticated would those theft attempts be?

      • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
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        8 months ago

        That number is protected the same way gold is. Reminds me you americans stole us 1000 tons of gold during ww2

        • Buttons@programming.dev
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          8 months ago

          That’s my point. If a country really did build up enough Bitcoin it became a world power, those Bitcoin would probably be stolen. If it can happen to gold, it can happen to Bitcoin even easier.

          • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            It’s ability to be stolen really comes down to was the password to it ever written down or did they not use a password.

            If they didn’t write it down, you could conceivably keep it safe from theft as long as the people that know the password don’t give it up if tortured.

            Also breaking it up into multiple wallets with different passwords that not everyone knows would limit a complete theft.

            Edit: in the scenario where it can’t be stolen, killing everyone that knows the password would still leave the country with nothing though.

            • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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              8 months ago

              I think they should do something dramatic like having a room where the NOC List was stored, but with an air vent on the door instead of the ceiling.

            • Buttons@programming.dev
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              8 months ago

              It has to be easy enough to move the Bitcoins that it can be done when needed. For example, if you split the password up among too many people, then you could “disappear” one of those people and then the Bitcoins suddenly cease to exist (or practically so).

              So there’s a balance. If it’s easy to move the Bitcoins, then a thief can find a way to move all the Bitcoins into their own wallet. Or, if it’s very difficult to move the Bitcoins, then an adversary can find a way to make it impossible to move the Bitcoins, essentially destroying them.

          • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
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            8 months ago

            Why faster? The gold was in a ship because the gold had to be carried, which isn’t the case with bitcoin. If there is no ship you can steal, you won’t get anything

            • Buttons@programming.dev
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              8 months ago

              If I can steal your cryptographic key (a number), I can write to the Bitcoin ledger “I Mubelotix give Buttons840 all my Bitcoin”, and then it’s done, the transaction is complete, it’s written on the immutable public ledger with your own private key. If I can get your private key then I can take all your Bitcoin and you cannot stop me, nobody can, no court, no nation.

              What I’m saying is that if a country did built up a world altering amount of Bitcoins, a James Bond 007 Super Secret Agent Man would come and steal the cryptographic key associated with your Bitcoins and as soon as they have that it’s over, all your Bitcoin are gone.

              • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
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                8 months ago

                Sure but it’s easy to secure cryptophic keys. Way easier than securing 1000 moving tons of gold

                • Buttons@programming.dev
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                  8 months ago

                  Is it? Like, when any one of the people with access to the key has a standing offer of 1 billion dollars and a life a luxury in another country, are you sure none of them will take the offer? What about when their families are threatened? What about when they get kidnapped and hit with a wrench?

                  I’m just saying, if we’re talking about so much Bitcoin that it alone makes a country a world power, that’s enough Bitcoin that things have moved beyond law and order and is in the ugly and dangerous realm of war and espionage.

  • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    It’s kinda hilarious that the soft dictatorship and prison state that makes even America look like a prison abolitionist paradise isn’t what’s going to sink this idiot, it’ll be the fucking bitcoins

  • OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Venture capitalist Tim Draper believes that bitcoin will transform El Salvador into one of the wealthiest nations in the world

    Or one of the poorest? To the moooon 🔻

  • elgordino@fedia.io
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    8 months ago

    What does ‘unaffordable with fiat currencies’ even mean? This guy knows you can divide BTC right?

    • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 months ago

      The headline said 1BTC, so I take it to mean “until the price of 1BTC is too high to buy with real money”. They’re not saying they’ll buy $66000 worth of bitcoin per day indefinitely, just 1 whole bitcoin per day, regardless of how the price fluctuates, for as long as that’s viable.

      El Salvador doesn’t have its own currency; they use USD and recently bitcoin. I don’t know enough to say whether this makes sense.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Right but you’re missing the point. It doesn’t matter if 1 BTC costs $1,000,000 when you can just buy 0.0001 BTC for $100. They would need to drive the cost of 1 BTC into the quadrillions of dollars before it would become even remotely unfeasible to purchase.

        • AnagrammadiCodeina@feddit.it
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          8 months ago

          Depends on the budget he decided to put into this.

          At the end it’s investing, he has decided let’s say a budget of 200k per day on this, he will but 1 full btc until the price of 1 btc is 200k. After that probably the money will go on something else.