News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by awnird on Monday February 03, 2025 @09:15PM (#42926752)
If bitcoin was such a success then why did they need an enormous loan?
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by CamelCaseName on Monday February 03, 2025 @09:33PM (#42926952)
El Salvador and their Bitcoin experiment are ultimately both quite small. This loan is multiple times larger than their total BTC holdings
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by josu on Monday February 03, 2025 @10:08PM (#42927291)
They hold 6k BTC, around 600M USD. So just a bit over 2x.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by askl on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @07:05AM (#42931306)
2 is a multiple
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by kylebenzle on Monday February 03, 2025 @09:24PM (#42926871)
The spite is strong with this one.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by DonHopkins on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @01:34AM (#42928841)
How much strong spite did it take you to post your opinion that "All women are whores" to Hacker News, Kyle Benzle?
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by ToValueFunfetti on Monday February 03, 2025 @09:19PM (#42926794)
If the USD was such a good currency, why does the US operate at a deficit?
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by adgjlsfhk1 on Monday February 03, 2025 @11:38PM (#42928026)
If you can get a 10 year loan at 2% interest rates (below inflation), you would be an idiot not to take it.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by fsckboy on Monday February 03, 2025 @10:43PM (#42927598)
>why does the US operate at a deficit?

are you talking about a trade deficit (the US operated at a trade deficit virtually the entire time it grew from 13 former colonies to the post WWII economic colossus. Lending money to a growing economy so it can turn around and purchase the equipment you are selling which it will use to be more productive is the secret sauce of a growing economy)

or are you talking about a budget deficit? many countries around the world operate with budget deficits; "socialist" governments generally have higher deficits as they spend to maintain living standards whether the economy justifies it or not. The size of the deficit (they will grow all the time) does not matter, what matters is "as a %age of GDP".

none of this, btw, has much to do with monetary policy, the maintenance of the currency.

"strong" or "weak" currency really makes no difference. The strength/weakness of the currency how the books are balanced after the fact of what has happened in the actual economy. A country with a strong currency will find imports inexpensive, and will have trouble selling its goods, and citizens will be incented to buy imports. A country with a weak currency will have difficulty importing goods, but will have less trouble exporting. It's the currency that balances these books.

Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by ToValueFunfetti on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @11:16AM (#42934334)
This is essentially my point, I guess too briefly put- a country getting a loan is not an indictment of that country's currency; that is a huge leap to conclusions as evidenced by the world's best currency being maintained by a country that is borrowing 5% of its GDP each year.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by Arainach on Monday February 03, 2025 @09:24PM (#42926868)
A deficit is not a loan. The USD and the historical strength and faith on the US allowed the US to offer its own securities, not ones pwned by and with terms dictated by external entities.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by 2030ai on Monday February 03, 2025 @10:24PM (#42927437)
It smells, looks and quacks like a loan.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by __MatrixMan__ on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @01:16AM (#42928711)
Smells more like a tokenomics scheme than a loan to me.
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by whimsicalism on Monday February 03, 2025 @10:33PM (#42927517)
the US borrows money. sure it can monetize its own debt at any time but that would have its own set of very high costs
Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by JumpCrisscross on Monday February 03, 2025 @09:54PM (#42927147)
> If the USD was such a good currency, why does the US operate at a deficit?

If the U.S. needed a bailout, the dollar would become a trash currency.

Re:El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender after failed... by sudosysgen on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @01:23AM (#42928764)
The USD, being the world reserve currency and currency of trade, must operate at a deficit. It's only through a USD deficit that other countries can grow their reserves commensurately with economic growth, which is how the USD stays the reserve currency. The USD operates at a deficit because it's such a good currency.