Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by Loughla on Sunday March 09, 2025 @07:48PM
(#43315177)
So this was just a way to shift more public dollars into private hands?
Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by dgfitz on Sunday March 09, 2025 @08:17PM
(#43315411)
The bulk of BTC is owned by like 50 people. It’s such a fucking joke.
Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by blitzar on Monday March 10, 2025 @11:27AM
(#43321645)
and 20 of them lost the keys to those BTC 10 years ago
Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by horrible-hilde on Sunday March 09, 2025 @08:03PM
(#43315308)
yes
Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by ty6853 on Sunday March 09, 2025 @07:54PM
(#43315223)
375 minus like 287 in unrealized gains. My next question is are they still behind once you consider the market value of the ATM and other investments. I doubt it's a total write off.
Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by rafram on Sunday March 09, 2025 @08:22PM
(#43315461)
Who’s realistically going to buy 400 or so bitcoin ATMs (must pick up in El Salvador)? ATMs aren’t a high-margin business.
Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by ty6853 on Sunday March 09, 2025 @08:33PM
(#43315540)
I don't trust El Salvador. I also don't trust the people indicting their policy. I hope to God they have more than 400 ATM to show for 375M. Surely there is more to it.
Re:El Salvador's crypto experiment ends in failure
by rafram on Sunday March 09, 2025 @11:36PM
(#43316776)
I was wrong - they actually only have 215 of them: https://cointelegraph.com/news/poland-overtakes-el-salvador-...
It was just bad, showboaty policy from a showboaty strongman leader. Why would you give him the benefit of the doubt even now?
> Despite these profits, crypto has brought El Salvador more costs than benefits. The free publicity has been welcome, yet crypto-investment and crypto-tourism have been small beer. Gains in financial inclusion and from more efficient payments are meagre at best: the currency never really caught on. In 2022, when the hype was at its peak, a survey by CID-Gallup found that only a fifth of firms accepted bitcoin and just 5% of tax payments were in crypto.
> Moreover, the policy cost $375m in all—from the Chivo rollout, subsidised transaction fees, bitcoin ATMs and more—according to Moody’s, a rating agency. That far exceeds the profits on bitcoin holdings, which could still evaporate. By delaying an IMF deal, the crypto experiment kept El Salvador’s risk premium high.