Using bitcoin as legal tender
Is El Salvador’s move a costly gimmick or an attempt to lower transaction fees?
WHEN ASKED if anyone has tried to use bitcoin to pay her, a woman selling coffee and pastries in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador, replies “thank God, no”, and rebuffs an attempt to do so. A man selling soup for lunch brushes off the idea with laughter. By dinnertime, low on phone battery and morale, your correspondent is pointed to a bar called Leyendas where the logo for Strike, a digital bitcoin wallet, adorns the walls. But the attempt to pay with bitcoin is met with confusion. The bar’s owner, who controls the wallet, is missing. A few frantic texts later he sends his wallet address. At last, 26,618 Satoshis (one hundred millionth of a bitcoin), $12.50-worth, are swapped for beers.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Satoshis for cervezas”
Finance & economics September 4th 2021
- The economy that covid-19 could not stop
- Labour shortages threaten housing supply
- Using bitcoin as legal tender
- Could climate change trigger a financial crisis?
- Sustainable investing faces the beginnings of a backlash
- At the Jackson Hole meeting, the Fed ponders an uneven recovery
- Wanted: a new economics writer
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