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El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele at a public appearance
Photo: MARVIN RECINOS / AFP
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has high hopes for the crypto currency Bitcoin and wants to make it the official means of payment in his country: "This will create jobs and integrate thousands of people into the formal economic cycle," said Bukele on Saturday in a greeting for the Bitcoin 2021 Conference in Miami.
According to the head of the payment service provider Zap, Jack Mallers, El Salvador would be the first country in the world to allow Bitcoin as legal tender.
According to Bukele, 70 percent of the population in El Salvador do not have a bank account and work in the informal economic sector.
His decision will therefore "improve the lives and future of millions of people," said the president.
Financial experts are skeptical
Bitcoin is the most popular digital currency.
It is not controlled by a central bank, but created using a decentralized and extremely energy-intensive computer process - so-called mining.
Payments and transactions are made via the Internet.
Bitcoins can be bought and sold on special exchanges, i.e. exchanged for real currencies.
The cryptocurrency is considered an object of speculation and is subject to violent price fluctuations.
The course is extremely susceptible to public statements and encouragement from well-known personalities.
For example, Tesla boss Elon Musk recently shook the course again and again.
Therefore, in the opinion of most experts, Bitcoin is actually quite unsuitable as a means of payment.
El Salvador's President Bukele likes to present himself as a modern and unconventional head of state.
He is very present on social media and likes to give instructions to his ministers on Twitter.
Critics see the 39-year-old's authoritarian style of government as a threat to democracy.
For example, it caused horror that he had soldiers march in parliament in February 2020.
He wanted to put the MPs under pressure to approve the financing of his security concept with a loan.
In the recent parliamentary elections, his party emerged as the strongest force.
Löw / dpa / AFP