Dania Gonzalez, deputy of the Republic of El Salvador, was recently in Brazil to reveal her country’s experiences with the decision to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. González’s invitation to Brazil came from digital influencer Rodrix Digital, who was recently in El Salvador to produce a documentary on cryptocurrencies.
Among the activities of the legislator in Brazil was attending Bitconf 2022, as well as meeting with the CEO of Dape Capital, Daniele Abdo Philippi, and Ana Élle, CEO of the ROE Agency.
Among his agendas, González spoke with Cointelegraph and revealed how Bitcoin has helped change the lives of people in El Salvador and how the federal government, led by President Nayib Bukele, has been leveraging the resources invested in BTC to improve the economy.
El Salvador just bought the dip!
500 coins at an average USD price of ~$30,744 #bitcoin
– Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 9, 2022
consulted on El Salvador’s investment in Bitcoin Y how it can impact people’s lives in the face of the fall in the value of BTC, González stressed that every investment has a cost and a benefit.
“What Nayib Bukele did was buy Bitcoins and make a profit at a certain strategic moment,” he said. “In cryptocurrencies there are times when you can make a profit and there are times when you have to invest more. Now the cryptocurrency is down, this happens, it’s normal, but right now instead of being sad, in instead of thinking that you lost all your investment, it’s time to buy more bitcoins because now the price is cheap, that’s the strategy “.
According to Gonzalez, El Salvador is already benefiting from the investments made in Bitcoin; he cited two ventures — a veterinary hospital and a public school — that were made possible by cryptocurrency. He explained:
“Bukele built a veterinary hospital to benefit the population where the services, any service for your pet, costs USD 0.25. Even an operation costs this amount and is accessible to the entire population. Bitcoin has become a benefit for the people. Now with the reserve that we have in Bitcoin, we must build 20 more schools. Before Bitcoin, to do this we had to approve projects, include them in the general budgets of the nation and use people’s money for construction. Now these works are they do thanks to all the benefits obtained with Bitcoin”.
González indicated that Bukele’s strategy has already proven to be successful in terms of socioeconomic impact.
“This is the main reason why the president also buys Bitcoins,” he said. “He does it to be able to generate benefits for social projects for people […] This is not just words, it is something tangible for the population because they can see that part of the public services are carried out thanks to the benefits of Bitcoin.”
CBDC
Cointelegraph also spoke with the legislator about central bank digital currencies also known as CBDC, and how their issuance by nations can impact the cryptocurrency market.
González stated that he does not see a clash between cryptocurrencies and CBDCs, believing that both should co-exist together in the digital ecosystem that will guide nations in the future. In addition, he stated that the proposal for CBDC issuance by countries shows that they have understood the power of the crypto economy.
The deputy also pointed out that El Salvador is working to expand the effects of the Bitcoin Law and will build an ecosystem based on cryptocurrencies, with the elimination of taxes for sectors linked to the crypto economy.
In addition, he stressed that other laws will be reformulated to meet the new demands of the digital economy and reduce bureaucratization of public administration procedures. He explained:
“We want to be able to open a business in 5 minutes here in El Salvador […] We already have a national digital wallet system for cryptocurrencies and we intend to make a law so that investors from all over the world can have immediate citizenship in El Salvador if they invest in the world of Bitcoin in our country.”
El Salvador’s financial inclusion conference has central bankers screaming Bitcoin, literally.
Day 3 saw the 44 central bank and financial delegates attending make a trip to the country’s iconic El Zonte or “Bitcoin Beach.”
(Reporting via @JoeNakamoto) https://t.co/xkpdtEzrt4
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 20, 2022
Bitcoin changes people’s lives
González also revealed to Cointelegraph that the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender attracted investors and companies from around the world and strengthened the independence of local traders and communities from banking monopolies.
“It opened up an opportunity for independent merchants to have a new payment gateway, because the payment channels could be cash or they could be credit or debit cards,” he said. “But if you go to a bank and want to request the [punto de venta] To accept credit or debit payments, you pay a membership fee, you pay a commission that can be up to 9% for each purchase.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, “it is a totally decentralized financing, there is no commission if the national wallet is used”, he explained.
Another of the direct benefits cited by the deputy is related to the financial remittances made by Salvadorans who live in other countries such as the United States. According to González, there are 7 million Salvadorans living within El Salvador and approximately 3 million outside its borders, mainly in the United States.
Thanks to Bitcoin, remittances from the United States can be made without fees, he said. González also claimed that Western Union lost some $400 million in the remittance business last year due to El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law.
Bitcoin Beach and Surf City
González revealed details about the Bitcoin Beach and Surf City projects in his country, both carried out in the El Zonte region. In them, Bitcoin is used as a form of social transformation that promotes crypto payments and economic development through digital assets.
And all the Central Bankers screamed…. pic.twitter.com/MxdOrYD3lc
— Bitcoin Beach (@Bitcoinbeach) May 20, 2022
He has explained that Bitcoin Beach existed before the BTC Act was passed. In Bitcoin Beach, “you can buy a soft drink or a ‘pupusa’, typical food from El Salvador, on the street or go to a prestigious restaurant and you can pay with bitcoins.”
The deputy also revealed that a project called Surf City is underway in El Zonte, which seeks to train the local community to take advantage of tourism related to surfing, since the beach has some of the best waves for this sport.
“These communities have now benefited from work opportunities in businesses or work in hotels and restaurants that now have more potential than before, now more tourists come to El Salvador because […] they can pay anything they want with bitcoins,” he said. “I know companies that came from Singapore a few months ago and now have about 50 Salvadorans working in their operations. This shows how Bitcoin has been changing the lives of people in El Salvador.”
In addition, the deputy highlighted how Bitcoin has been favoring the unbanked who can now, through cryptocurrency, access financial services without the bureaucracy of traditional systems:
“Traditional banks excluded 70% of the country’s population from their services for different reasons. In addition, of the 30% of the population that has access to financial services, only 23% did so in banks, while 7% It was done through cooperatives with very high rates. Now Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are favoring this excluded population that now has power and opportunities.”
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