Ingresar
Bitcoin as legal tender
By Eproint
With 62 out of 84 possible votes, lawmakers voted in favor of the move to create a law to adopt bitcoin, despite concern about the potential impact on El Salvador's program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Bukele has touted the use of bitcoin for its potential to help Salvadorans living abroad to send remittances back home, while saying the U.S. dollar will also continue as legal tender. "It will bring financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development for our country," Bukele said in a tweet shortly before the vote in Congress.
Bukele later said he had instructed state-owned geothermal electric firm LaGeo to develop a plan to offer bitcoin mining facilities using renewable energy from the country's volcanoes. He said the idea was to build a bitcoin mining hub around the country's geothermal potential. He also said that El Salvador would offer citizenship to people who showed evidence they had invested in at least three bitcoins.
Although the country had asked the World Bank for technical assistance with the implementation of the cryptocurrency as an official method of payment, the international lender cited concerns over transparency and the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining. "While the government did approach us for assistance on Bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings," a World Bank spokesperson stated to Reuters.
El Salvador has been using the US dollar as legal tender for the past two decades after abandoning its own currency. Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said he clarified to the IMF that El Salvador would not abandon the US dollar and replace it with the cryptocurrency.
“We gave our official position to the IMF. We have been emphatic, we are not replacing the US dollar as legal tender in El Salvador,” Zelaya told during a news conference.
El Salvador is in the middle of loan negotiations with the IMF for a USD 1bn programme to patch budget gaps through 2023.
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During her career, Mrs. Portal has helped numerous international law firms and in-house counsel with all facets of their IP matters in El Salvador and Central America. Her extensive practice includes work in trademarks, patents, industrial designs, utility models, copyrights, unfair competition, foreign investment, regulatory law/health registrations, licensing, franchising, appellations of origin, geographical indications, IP litigation, fashion law, new technologies, data privacy, cybersecurity, domain names, entertainment law, advertisement law, trade secrets, valuation of intangibles, and IP due diligence. She is also recognized for the great anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting results she has delivered for her clients. She also helps coordinate Latin America Intellectual Property Protection for the firm.