El Salvador on Tuesday becomes the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.
In June, El Salvador passed the new ‘Bitcoin Law’ to become first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.
The plan spearheaded by President Nayib Bukele is aimed at increasing financial inclusion and allowing Salvadorans to save on US$400 million spent annually in commissions for remittances, mostly sent from the United States.
President Nayib expects Bitcoin adoption to significantly boost the country’s GDP. He earlier mentioned: “Bitcoin has a market cap of $680 billion. If 1% of it is invested in El Salvador, that would increase our GDP by 25%.”
In 2020, remittances to El Salvador amounted to around US$6 billion. This is 23 percent of its GDP (gross domestic product), which is one of the highest ratios in the world.
There are challenges in terms of regulatory as well as acceptance among common population. But, a small population of El Salvador has already adopted Bitcoin in their daily lives. El Zonte, a small rustic beach town of 3,000 locals on the coast of El Salvador, ushered into Bitcoin economy last year. In El Zonte, you can use the Lightning Network to buy anything from tacos, to hardware supplies to paying your utility bill.
Read More: El Salvador to make Bitcoin a legal tender
Bukele took to twitter to say: “Like all innovations, El Salvador’s bitcoin process has a learning curve. Every road to the future is like this and not everything will be achieved in a day, or in a month.”
Other Countries To Follow
After El Salvador, Paraguay could be the next country to advance towards making bitcoin a legal tender. Panama is also considering following El Salvador’s lead.
Read More: After El Salvador, Paraguay Hints at Becoming a ‘Bitcoin Country’
Technologists Are Bullish On Bitcoin Potential
Many believe Bitcoin is the future of money. In fact, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey believes that Bitcoin is the “best candidate” to become the “native currency” of the internet. Twitter has announced to integrate Bitcoin into its existing and new products and services.
“Bitcoin changes absolutely everything,” Dorsey said at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference. “I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on.”
Read More: TBD Secret Revealed: Square To Build A Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange
Big Organization Adopting Crypto Payment
A large number of big organization have now stated to accept Bitcoin and Crypto payments. And, this list is growing everyday. Both Amazon and Walmart have recently posted vacancies, searching for people to lead their cryptocurrency strategies.
As big organizations start embracing Bitcoin and crypto; blockchain jobs are on the rise. According to a report by Crypto Parrot (a cryptocurrency trading simulator), the share of crypto and blockchain job postings grew 118 percent in the past 10 months.
Another study by digital asset platform Bakkt, Majority of young Americans have either invested money in crypto or they are willing to invest in near future.