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Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by imtringued on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:03PM (#28446365)
I wonder if this will prompt the USA to import more products from El Salvador to reduce the size of the remittances sector and thereby lessen the reason people use Bitcoin in the first place.

Before anyone tells the Salvadorians to export more products... they do... and they do it by working in a country that exports to El Salvador.

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by noelsusman on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:39PM (#28446833)
I doubt the US government cares enough about this to do much of anything, and I'm not sure how importing more products would even work. Would Congress just buy a bunch of Salvadoran coffee beans?
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by dragonwriter on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:08PM (#28446424)
Traditionally, when people in the US want to reduce remittances, they just campaign to expel the immigrants making the remittances.
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by imtringued on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:19PM (#28446564)
That will just lead to a debt crisis down the road.
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:20PM (#28446584)
> will just lead to a debt crisis down the road

Reduced El Salvadorian immigration will lead to a debt crisis?

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by imtringued on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:25PM (#28446644)
USA exports $2.8 billion to El Salvador.

El Salvador exports $2 billion to USA.

Where do they get the money to do that? By working in the US. By sending remittances through Bitcoin or conventional means.

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:32PM (#28446735)
Oh, it would lead to a debt crisis for El Salvador. Sure. But why is that something the U.S. would want?

The original claim was the U.S. would want to “lessen the reason people use Bitcoin.” I’m pushing back on there being political will for that end.

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by earnesti on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:07PM (#28446411)
I dont think governments work that way
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by imtringued on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:18PM (#28446557)
It's true they don't work that way because developed nations want to exploit developing nations rather than cooperate with them to maximize well being in the entire world.

Over the long term it is quite foolish because a debt claim against a weaker country will turn out to be worthless.

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:07PM (#28446410)
> prompt the USA to import more products from El Salvador to reduce the size of the remittances sector and thereby lessen the reason people use Bitcoin

Who in America would benefit from fighting this? Crypto is a real industry. It’s more profitable for the financial sector than similar activity in U.S. dollars. And the Fed doesn’t thoroughly love that it has to take international factors into account when its political mandate is purely domestic.

There is the interventionist foreign policy elite, but they aren’t on strong footing right now. The claim that the U.S. is hellbent on preserving the primacy of the U.S. dollar is largely a myth.

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by lottin on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:11PM (#28446465)
> Crypto is a real industry.

Not really. An industry produces goods and services. What does crypto produce?

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by yyyk on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @01:12PM (#28447236)
Ransomware and money laundering.
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by doomroot on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:17PM (#28446541)
Financial sovereignty
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by ajkdhcb2 on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:49PM (#28446963)
What does the banking industry produce?
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by solaxun on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:14PM (#28446503)
Jobs.
Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:14PM (#28446500)
> What does crypto produce?

Money. Jobs. Aficionados. “Real” as in it has political heft.

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by pharmakom on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:33PM (#28446751)
Mining is an industry that processes transactions and prevents double spend

Exchanges are industry that allows people to trade assets

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by 3D25157725 on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @01:59PM (#28447779)
> The claim that the U.S. is hellbent on preserving the primacy of the U.S. dollar is largely a myth.

Could you elaborate, please? It was my understanding (perhaps mistakenly) that because so many foreign entities, be they countries, corporations etc, depend on the USD and it functions both as a reserve and for international trading, the U.S. Federal Reserve can be more aggressive with "dovish" policy.

Or stated another way, if fewer people/institutions held USD abroad, the risk of inflation would be much greater.

Re:El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency, first co... by imtringued on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @12:13PM (#28446493)
>Who in America would benefit from this?

Well, there would be less immigration from Salvador to the USA so basically people concerned about economic refugees. I don't mean this in a xenophobic way. Balanced trade will improve the conditions in El Salvador and thereby let people stay in their home country voluntarily rather than be forced out for economic reasons.