As a condition of a new IMF loan package, President Bukele of El Salvador has had to concede three aspects of the Bitcoin Law passed in 2021:
- A legal tender mandate requiring businesses to accept Bitcoin
- Shutting down Chivo, the state run wallet and on/off ramp service
- No longer accepting tax payments in bitcoin
Ultimately everything except the last one is a positive change. Legal tender laws are ultimately coercive, and in my opinion shouldn’t exist. Chivo was a buggy mess, and alternatives exist such as Blink. The only negative (arguably), is the state no longer accepting bitcoin for tax payments.
People are losing their minds on Twitter over these changes, framing things as Bukele selling out, showing himself not to be a Bitcoiner, etc. There is a lot of people demonstrating an attitude that shows they feel misled, or betrayed.
Well here is a wake up call. Bukele was never going to be first and foremost a champion of Bitcoin above all else. He is the leader of a nation of around six million people. That was always going to be his first priority. If it wasn’t, he would be a terrible leader.
El Salvador is a country plagued by poverty, previously by violent organized crime. It was the murder capital of the world. Infrastructure was decaying and dysfunctional, people could not participate in the economy without paying protection money to violent gangs like MS-13. Massive amounts of the population had moved abroad to escape these things.
Bitcoin is nothing but a tool, one among many, for Bukele to deal with these problems. And that’s all it should be to the leader of a nation. Bukele’s reason for being in power isn’t to pump our bags, or to advance the cause of Bitcoin, it is to help the Salvadoran people.
When Bitcoin isn’t the best way to do that, he should acknowledge that. When deprioritizing Bitcoin is what is in the best interest of his people, he should do that. Regardless of how you feel about governments, or nation states, that is the job of a leader. To look after the best interests of his people.
That is what he is doing here, and anyone who would expect him to do otherwise is deluded and narcissistic. Bukele is not the President of Bitcoin, he is the President of El Salvador. The Salvadoran people are who he is accountable to, not a bunch of clowns on the internet.
This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.