Another domino card is about to fall on the route to the bitcinization. On Wednesday, a former lawmaker from the Pacific island nation Tonga shared a gambling approach to adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender..
In a series of tweets, Lord Fumitu’a, former member of the Parliament of Tonga, made it known An ETA for Bitcoin to become legal currency in Tonga. Copying El Salvador’s playbook, The move could add more than 100,000 Tongans to the Bitcoin network.
In his five-point plan, the president of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption outlines the path of adoption:
1. Sept / Oct Bill Goes to Parliament. Passed.
2. SENT TO PALACE OFFICE FOR SUBMISSION TO HIS MAJESTY FOR ROYAL ASSENT.
3.4. 2-3 Weeks Gazetted by Govt Activation Date Set.
4.On activation date #BTC Becomes Legal Tender. https://t.co/TNjQjeEbjN— Lord Fusitu’a (@LordFusitua) January 12, 2022
1. September / October The bill goes to Parliament. It is aproved.
2. 3.3. It is sent to the palace office for its presentation to its Majesty for the real assent.
3.4. 2-3 weeks of Government Gazette with the activation date set.
4. On the BTC activation date it becomes legal course currency.
In a later comment, Fusitu’a He said that the bill is “modeled and is almost identical to that of El Salvador”.
The announcement sowed the seed for questions, predictions, and outright glee from the Bitcoin community on Twitter before the Tongan cleared the air. He enthusiastically replied that the deadline for BTC to become legal tender could be as soon as November or December of this year, answering: “Boom! That’s right, bro!” in a tuit..
In 2021, Tonga was widely speculated to become one of the next countries to adopt BTC as legal tender.. Speculation reached a fever pitch following a podcast that Lord Fusitu’a undertook with Bedford Bitcoiner Peter McCormack.
During the conversation, the then member of parliament shared the case for remittances to adopt BTC as legal tender.. He said adoption would lead to:
“An increase in available income of 30%. With that extra 30%, some (people) are going to save it instead of putting it into the economy and building up saturation.”
Tonga is a remote island nation that relies on remittances from countries like Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The International Finance Corporation estimates that Tonga receives more income from remittances than any other country in the world, contributing up to 30% of household income.
What’s more, although the population of Tonga is only in six figures, the Tongan diaspora is huge. The International Organization for Migration estimates that the Tongan population living abroad is 126,000 people, of which 18,000 are in Australia.
The use of remittances was one of the main reasons for El Salvador to adopt BTC as legal tender. According to the World Bank, the percentage of Tonga remittances on the gross domestic product is substantially greater than that of El Salvador, with 39% compared to 24%, respectively.
Remittances aside, the man brought up the domestic advantages to adopting the open source protocol. He was in agreement in which Tonga could create a circular economy of BTC and that it is “one of the few cases in which being an archipelago of a small insular realm sparsely populated is an advantage”.
When the islands’ Internet infrastructure was questioned, Tongans claimed that Internet and smartphone penetration rates outweighed 90%. The most recent figures from the World Bank – although from five years ago, in 2017 – show that Tonga has an Internet penetration of 50%.
Bringing the islands to the grid may take some time, but Funitu’a is firm as for the future of BTC of your country:
An Economy That Use Bitcoin for Payment at Every Stage of the Supply Chain. From the seed to the table. Pay for cassava roots and cattle in bitcoin from the farming supplier all the way to the waitress serving it to you at Kardo’s steak bar and every step in between in #BTC https://t.co/oR48NGzTGm
— Lord Fusitu’a (@LordFusitua) January 13, 2022
An economy that uses Bitcoin for payment at each stage of the supply chain. From seed to table. Pay for cassava roots and cattle in bitcoin from the farm vendor to the waitress who serves it to you at Kardo’s meat bar and every step in between in BTC
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