«Accepting Bitcoin was not mandatory for businesses in El Salvador. That is why many businesses still do not accept bitcoin,” recalls a Reddit user speaking about the possibility of changes being made to the regulation on the use of bitcoin (BTC).
The comment, published on the social network this December 9, is part of a debate that opened on the social network around rumors that claim that Nayib Bukele’s government would be willing to eliminate the obligation to use BTC as a means of payment. This, in order to meet one of the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to grant a loan of USD 1.3 billion.
As CriptoNoticias reported, these would be some of the terms of a probable agreement with the IMF that I would be negotiating a delegation from the organization that is currently visiting El Salvador, according to sources from the British media Financial Times.
The idea would be to modify Article 7 of the Bitcoin Law, which states that “every economic agent must accept bitcoin as a form of payment when it is offered by the person who acquires a good or service.” An obligation to receive payments with BTC that the same law excepts when “there is no access to the technologies that allow transactions to be carried out in bitcoin.”
In fact, as Reddit users point out, both President Nayib Bukele and former Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya constantly insisted that no one was going to force businesses to use bitcoin. They expressed it many times when the Law was approved in June 2021.
“If someone wants to continue carrying cash, not receive a sign-up bonus, not gain clients who have bitcoin, not grow their business and pay commission for remittances, they can continue doing so,” wrote President Nayib Bukele in X, in August that year, in the midst of the launch of the Chivo Wallet.
With this application you will be able to accept payments in #bitcoin or in DOLLARS, open a small business and run it from there, receive money from family or friends and send and receive remittances without paying a single cent of commission to anyone.
If they want, if not, then they don’t download anything and that’s it.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 23, 2021
The idea was ratified by Zelayaensuring the use of bitcoin and a digital wallet It will be “totally optional” and businesses that do not accept the Cryptocurrency They will not be punished. He also reiterated that The dollar would continue to be the main reference currency in the country, “and it will be the one used by businessmen, the government and everyone else for their accounting.”
And although these statements by Bukele and Zelaya somehow contradict Article 7, the optional use of BTC is what It has been fulfilled until this moment in the day of the Salvadorans. Hence the government has not seen the need to eliminate that article. Something that – apparently – would be done now in order to close an agreement with the IMF.
Is the signing of the agreement with the IMF approaching?
As CriptoNoticias has reported, for three years bitcoin has become the roadblock to reach an agreement. The IMF’s rejection of the digital currency, alleging that it generates threats to the financial system, led them to request Bukele to eliminate the Law (especially its declaration as legal tender). The president has been emphatic in rejecting the request.
More recently, both sides appear to have agreed to make some concessions: the IMF asks that the government does not promote its use and the Salvadoran government makes changes to some regulations, including the Law on the Issuance of Digital Assets.
Immersed in an economic situation that is worsening due to the magnitude of El Salvador’s debt, Bukele needs the IMF loan and has been promoting a closer approach.
In fact, Bloomberg sources reveal that – last November – two members of the IMF, including the head of the mission in El Salvador, participated on a call in which government officials were offering investors a new global debt sale. A fact that was understood as a sign that the signing of the agreement is close.
Taking this into account, participants in the Reddit debate speculate about a possible “secret strategy” of Bukele.
«This is how I see this going to happen. The deal is done. Bukele makes BTC acceptance voluntary (temporarily). Take a $1.3 billion loan and buy bitcoins. He will pay the IMF in a few months. Then it makes the acceptance of BTC mandatory again,” he says. the user coojw. His approach is supported by other commentators.
In any case, beyond all these speculations, considering the low adoption of BTC in El Salvador and that its use in practice is voluntary, it is most likely that HE generate very few changes if the new IMF requirement is applied.
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