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Tourists, residents hail El Salvador's adoption of cryptocurrency
Nowadays, everyone from Canadian tourists to local construction workers conduct transactions or receive salaries in bitcoin, a dynamic that President Nayib Bukele has hailed in his push to adopt the cryptocurrency nationwide.
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Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele delivers a press conference at a hotel in San Salvador, on February 28, 2021. (Agence France Presse/Stanley Estrada)
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any businesses in the popular vacation site adopted bitcoin three years ago, after an anonymous donation of the digital currency kickstarted the Bitcoin Beach project.
Nowadays, everyone from Canadian tourists to local construction workers conduct transactions or receive salaries in bitcoin, a dynamic that President Nayib Bukele has hailed in his push to adopt the cryptocurrency nationwide.
"We are all paid in bitcoin and for us it's better," said construction worker Gilberto Valenzuela.
Canadian tourist Simon, who declined to give his last name, agreed.
"I pay almost everything here in bitcoin," he said, quoted by Reuters. "So it is actually very, very easy."
Beyond the tourism-dependent economy of El Zonte, proponents of bitcoin's adoption say it will help Salvadorans save hundreds of million a year on commissions for remittances, while giving access to financial services to those with no bank account.
But critics of bitcoin's adoption say the move may fuel money laundering and financial instability, and that the poorest may struggle to access the technology needed to make bitcoin work in El Salvador, where nearly half the population has no internet and many more only have sporadic access.
