Bitcoin to Become Legal Tender in El Salvador, President Says at Cryptocurrency Event

El Salvador is likely to become the first country to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender after a groundbreaking announcement on Saturday.

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami that the country of El Salvador has partnered with Strike, a digital wallet company, to begin turning the financial infrastructure of the country to Bitcoin technology, reported CNBC.

Bukele will reportedly submit a bill next week, which will still have to be passed by the country’s legislative assembly.

El Salvador has become acquainted with Strike when, in March, Strike’s freshly launched mobile payments app became the number one downloaded app in the country.

Strike’s founder and CEO Jack Mallers said: “What’s transformative here is that bitcoin is both the greatest reserve asset ever created and a superior monetary network. Holding bitcoin provides a way to protect developing economies from potential shocks of fiat currency inflation.”

Because El Salvador is primarily a cash-based economy, they believe that the change will help a lot of people. “They asked me to help write a plan and that they viewed bitcoin as a world-class currency,” said Mallers, “and that we needed to put together a Bitcoin plan to help these people.”

Bitcoin Magazine reported that because bitcoin is issued programmatically and does not fall under the control of any third party or central bank, El Salvador now has the unique advantage of bitcoin’s properties, particularly as a store of value that is primarily digital.

The change comes conveniently to a country that is already bitcoin savvy; El Salvador is home to El Zonte, a bitcoin community that created the Bitcoin Beach project, a sustainable Bitcoin Economic ecosystem.

CNBC reported that while rollout details have yet to be released, El Salvador already has a team of bitcoin leaders to help reshape the financial landscape, with bitcoin as the foundation.

The Bitcoin 2021 conference appeared to be full of excitement. Floyd Mayweather, a professional boxer, spoke on Friday, where he spoke in reference to competition and emphasized that people should work together.

“Everybody in the crypto world is competing with one another, whereas I feel like everybody should be able to choose what they want to choose and go with who they want to go with,” he said, as reported by Bitcoin News. “I believe there’s gonna be another cryptocurrency just as large as bitcoin someday.”

That comment was not taken lightly by bitcoin enthusiasts in the crowd, who began to boo. Bitcoin News reported he responded fast and told the crowd he was entitled to that opinion.

Another speaker was interrupted when a man stood up on stage in front of him, proceeded to rip his clothes off, wearing yellow shorts and a dogecoin shirt underneath. He then started screaming, “Dogecoin to the moon!”

Newsweek reached out to Strike CEO Mallers for comment.

The logo of the crypto-currency conference Bitcoin 2021 Convention is seen as people buy drinks in a stand at the Mana Convention Center in Miami, Florida, on June 4, 2021. El Salvador announced their plan to become the first country that makes bitcoin a legal tender. Marco Bello/AFP via Getty Images