The President of El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele, has now talked about the tender bitcoin law that is slated to take effect in El Salvador from September 7, 2021. Speaking yesterday, the Salvadoran president said that bitcoin would not be forced on anyone, indicating that citizens have the right to accept bitcoin “if they want” and can as well say “no” if they have no interest in the use of cryptocurrency.
Salvadorans will not be forced to use Bitcoin against their will – President
The bitcoin tender law is set to be effective just over two weeks from now (September 7), since the law has already been passed by the supermajority in the Salvadoran congress.
President Nayib Bukele posted about the matter on his Twitter page yesterday in a bit to douse the speculations regarding whether the law will work or not.
Explaining to his 2.8 million Twitter followers, he said that the bitcoin law would not in any way be made mandatory. There has been a lot of criticism toward the law for possibly forcing citizens to use bitcoin (BTC) against their will. However, the President wrote;
“This will be what happens on September 7, people will be able to download an application to receive payments or gifts in bitcoin or U.S. dollars. If they want they will download the app, and if they don’t want to, no”.
The Salvadoran president also added the obvious benefits of the application, how one could accept bitcoin or dollar payments, open a small business and continue running it, and send and receives money from family and friends without paying a dime of commission to anyone.
Bitcoin Bank Branches, Crypto ATMs, or Use Western Union and Pay Commission
President Nayib also promises to deploy Bitcoin ATMs across El Salvador.
A group of Salvadorans has already protested the new law. If a survey conducted back in July is anything to go by, then the majority of Salvadorans are very skeptical of bitcoin as a currency. One of the Big Three credit rating agencies, Fitch Ratings, recently published a report on why the credit agency thinks that adopting bitcoin will not be a good idea.
Bukele’s long thread on Monday, however, has thrown more light on the matter as he reiterated that if Salvadorans would prefer to “go to the Western Union queue and pay commission. There is no problem.” Bukele also emphasized that a “Salvadoran abroad will be able to send money INSTANTLY to their relatives in El Salvador.”
Bukele also quickly added that all the bitcoin that you receive can be automatically converted into dollars (if one wishes), or can be left in the electronic wallet or withdrawn as cash at any of the 200 ATMs that will be deployed everywhere within the country.
There will also be about 50 branches to withdraw or deposit money.
