It's somebody's freedom. It's somebody's liberty. It's somebody's silent protest. It has been hijacked in
large part by opportunists, con artists right? Scammers. Bitcoin can be
money the way gold is. But that doesnít mean
Bitcoin is a currency. Society is worse off in every
regard if we have a new speculative Bitcoin bubble than it would
be if the whole craze passed. On the North Pacific
in Central America lies the small town of El
Zonte, El Salvador. The waves draw surfers
from around the worl
d. But these picture-perfect
moments only capture one reality. Home to 3,000 residents, El Zonte is one of the
poorest places in the country. But its street food is famous. The national dish
is called ìpupusa.î Theyíre sold on nearly
every street corner for just a couple US dollars. Maria Aguirre accepts
virtual money as payment. Via a smartphone app,
customers can pay with Bitcoin, the worldís oldest
cryptocurrency. I was a little worried to
accept payment in Bitcoin because itís a virtual curr
ency
thatís not widely known. But itís been two years,
and Iím still taking Bitcoin. At first, the decision
paid off for Maria Aguirre. The value of Bitcoin
shot up to 60,000 dollars. But then, within
just a few months, it lost more than
two-thirds of its worth. Now Maria and some
50 fellow retailers can only hope
the trend reverses. Bitcoin can theoretically be exchanged
for dollars or euros at any time. In fact, holding onto
this virtual currency rather than exchanging it can
be a significant
gamble. Because the crypto
market is highly volatile. Short-term fluctuations
happen frequently where its value will dip or
surge more than 10 percent. Itís a risk some retailers in
El Zonte are willing to take. They pay and do
business in Bitcoin, but they donít exchange
their crypto assets into dollars hoping that its value will rise. Maria Aguirre is one of them. But at the end of 2022,
things werenít looking so good. Iíve had losses, but I
hope to recover them soon. Since then, the value
of
Bitcoin did rise again. Welcome news for not only Maria. A social Bitcoin project in El Zonte
is financed through crypto donations. The project is geared towards
preventing young people from turning to crime. Gangs and murder are a feared
part of everyday life in El Zonte. ìHope Houseî gives young people
in the community the resources to get a better start in life. The charitable initiative
offers educational courses, recreational activities,
and job opportunities. In 2017 and 2018, many people
had to suspend their support for this project due
to various difficulties. But at the same time, there were
newcomers who wanted to help. And they used Bitcoin. The identity of the donor who
offered funding to Jorge Valenzuela remains a big mystery. All thatís known is that the
person was based in the US. Even the initiator
of the nonprofit, ìBitcoin Beach,î in El
Salvador says he doesnít know who was behind the donation. I mean it was a six-figure
sum over a number of years that was injected in
to the
community in dollar terms. And so it was definitely
something that was substantial. [What] the donor was looking
for was not just to give Bitcoin to a project where they
would convert it to dollars which is what most
nonprofits would want to do, that's the
easiest thing to do. But they
were looking for projects that were willing to
use Bitcoin in a transactional way, and they believed that Bitcoin
being used would actually be more important than
the monetary value of it. Itís been more th
an three years
since the project got underway. Those involved say
thereís been less crime. Plus, many residents are
now living with sturdier roofs over their heads. Renato Salazar helped fund
the new construction with Bitcoin, on behalf of multiple donors. But now the families need to
pay off their loans in Bitcoin too. As you can see, itís concrete. 122 safe and stable homes in
place of flimsier tin-roofed houses for 122 families. Not an insignificant number
considering El Zonte only has a popu
lation of 3,000. The community members
donít only mix concrete, they also learn how to pay in
Bitcoin via their smartphones. They don't have bank accounts. They don't have access to
any financial system here, any financial program. They don't have access to loans. They don't have
access to insurance. They don't have
access to anything, right? So it would have been impossible
for them to get a home like this. El Zonte is considered a test
case for the future of money. No matter oneís
capital, eve
ryone here rich or poor can conduct business
within a decentralized system. No dollars, no
banks, no banknotes. Is Bitcoin a better and
more ethical type of money? Can it replace
standard currencies? Could it help alleviate the pressure
on the worldís poorest populations? There are many influencers
and advocates who back Bitcoin: Are they doing so in the
name of economic justice? They're doing it
because they're trying to make the world
a better place. They truly believe that
Bitcoin is good for
people. And honestly, I
understand that argument. There are many legitimate
reasons why Bitcoin can be positive. Frankfurt is Europeís
banking capital. Here, the development
of cryptocurrencies isnít perceived as positively. The European
Central Bank or E-C-B is especially
critical of Bitcoin. At the end of 2022,
the E-C-B published a blog post
lambasting Bitcoin. It was regarded as something
of a declaration of war. The authors classified
Bitcoin not as an innovation, but as a ìspeculative bub
ble,î and wrote that Bitcoin
is taking its ìlast standî while investors
stubbornly hang on. One of the authors
is Ulrich Bindseil. If we have a new
speculative Bitcoin bubble, society is worse off than
if the whole craze passed. For the E-C-B, the idea of
creating money without its oversight is simply unthinkable. It alone has the right to print
the cash it deems necessary. It opposes circumventing
banks to transfer money because that weakens
the role of banks. With its independence
and global r
each, Bitcoin is a nightmare
for authorities especially considering the
speculation on its increase in value. Bitcoin is not suited
as a means of payment because its value
is highly unstable. And a means of payment should not
double as a speculative investment. Both these factors
come together here. And people are being
wooed with a positive narrative that the price of Bitcoin
will continue to rise. Every Bitcoin transaction
is stored as a code on whatís called a "blockchain.î Whatís unique is t
hat the
entire blockchain is stored identically on a network
of thousands of computers. This is what makes Bitcoin
a decentralized currency outside the control of
the E-C-B or other banks. Bitcoin was created in 2008
and outlined in this paper, authored by Satoshi Nakamoto. The authorís real
identity is unknown. Itís not even clear if
thereís just one person behind Bitcoin
or several people. The first bitcoin cost
just 0.06 euro cents. In 2021, Bitcoinís worth shot
up to over 58 thousand euros.
A 5 cent investment early
on would have equalled about 5 million
euros 11 years later at least, briefly. The total amount of Bitcoins will
be capped at around 21 million. Itís stipulated in
the source code that there wonít be any
more beyond that. Which is why many people believe
scarcity will drive the price up. While leaders at the European
Central Bank regard Bitcoin as highly speculative researchers at the nearby Frankfurt
School of Finance and Management take a very different stance. Just b
ecause Mr. Bindseil works
for the European Central Bank doesnít automatically
mean heís right. Only time will tell. I honestly find it rather
puzzling that the E-C-B has opted to run a PR campaign
against Bitcoin. In my view, Bitcoin is not
necessarily an enemy of the euro. The researchers donít regard Bitcoin
as a traditional means of payment: They see it as more
of an investment. Similar to investing in gold, hoping that its value
will increase over time. The researchers donít
believe Bitcoin
will function as money on a global scale. Thereís a relatively
high volatility with Bitcoin. One day the price is through the
roof; the next it takes a nosedive. Itís impossible to
establish prices that way. Plus, itís not accepted
widely enough. When you dine out or fuel your
car, you can pay in euros anywhere. Paying with Bitcoin
is rarely an option. But a recent development
could work in cryptoís favor. One of the main objectives
of the European Central Bank is to prevent high inflation. And
lately, it hasnít
been succeeding. Everything is becoming
more expensive. The value of money is falling. If this stretches
on year after year, weíll see that certain
groups in society will face considerable challenges, as
costs go up and while wages, for example, donít. And I think the importance of Bitcoin
will grow during this same period. Very few businesses
in Europe accept Bitcoin. Critics say cryptocurrency
enables cybercrime. Buying goods and services
in the mainstream economy is very dif
ficult using
a cryptocurrency. And so, the main use
case for purchasing goods and services using cryptocurrency
is illegal activity for the most part. So whether it is
something like ransomware or you know buying
drugs or, you know, maybe you want to hire a hitman, then yeah, Bitcoin is
fantastic for that purpose. Thatís one reason why most
lawmakers donít want to see free trade happening
in cryptocurrencies at all. Large regulated crypto
exchanges are meant to oversee Bitcoin transactions, ther
eby deterring criminals. Customersí identities must be
verified before they can buy Bitcoin, and profits can be taxed. Customers receive an
account known as a ìwallet.î If they exchange euros
for Bitcoin, for example, those assets end
up in their wallet. This is the point where
the state has access. Where am I depositing
euros into the crypto exchange and which wallet are
the euros coming out of? And if the state has the feeling
thereís a fraudster in the mix, it can approach the
crypto exchange
and say: Dear crypto exchange, does
Mr. X or Ms. Y own Bitcoin? If so, please share
their wallet details. We need to see what's going on. Los Angeles. In California, defying
norms is the norm. Many here love cryptocurrency
because it aligns with their politics. Freedom and independence from
the state are core Bitcoin values. It plays on contrasts outsiders versus the
establishment, rich versus poor, new versus old. Hey babes, multiple big stocks on a global scale,
not just in the US. Apparently
, thereís MATIC drama Two crazy things
happened in crypto last night. Hereís what you need to know. One of them could involve Just in, FOMC [Federal Open
Market Committee] update! Boxing and Bitcoin
have a lot in common at least, according to one of
the worldís most successful crypto-influencers. Theyíre both charged
with symbolism: To go your own way,
youíll have to fight for it. It's about the underdogs and
having control of your actions and using critical thinking. Change is coming. But this
romantic idea of a
crypto utopia is unraveling. In 2022, several crypto apps
and exchanges plunged users into financial ruin. The biggest scandal of all
was the bankruptcy of F-T-X, the crypto exchange founded
by Sam Bankman-Fried. He was accused of stealing
billions from customers. In November 2023, a New
York court convicted him. He was found guilty on seven
counts of fraud and conspiracy. I'm not discounting Sam. He did absolutely
terrible things very, very bad things. He lied, he stole, he
p
racticed unethical behaviors. But at the same time, we have bad actors
in every single industry and we're going to continue
to have bad actors in crypto. It's unfortunately human nature. But to sit and to single him
out and not pay attention to what some of the other bankers
and what the other public servants are doing, would be a
disservice to the American people and people in
general in the world. Before being convicted,
Bankman-Fried lived here with
his parents, on a bail bond of
250-million
US dollars. His situation, not unlike those
faced in major bank failures. That collapse is like so many
other financial institution collapses that we've seen
over the years, right? You have effectively an entity
that is heavily reliant on leverage, which is placing big bets and
then covering over those bets with more bets. And any time you have an
institution which is debt financed, they're going to run
into some trouble. In the US, unregulated crypto
exchanges long dominated the market. No auth
ority felt responsible
for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or the number
two cryptocurrency, Ethereum. You have around 8 million
holders of Bitcoin and Ethereum in Germany and there are ìonlyî Iím saying that in quotes 20,000 FTX victims. This shows that regulation
has had a positive effect here. I would argue regulation is
necessary and long overdue in America to prevent
further damage. Many feel the temptation to
make big money with Bitcoin. Ultimately, Iíd say it comes
down to speculative in
vestments and Bitcoin holdersí vision that
the value of Bitcoin will keep rising. That suggests that we
have an asset class here that you can invest in and
somehow secure a fantastic future. And of course you need to
maintain a narrative about what it's useful for. So they say it could be
useful for payment transactions. He's entitled to his opinion. However, I've done
pretty well with Bitcoin, with trading it, with holding
it, with using it to transact. And I haven't had anybody
really tell me
what to do with that. So, I mean, that's his opinion
and I'm sorry he feels that way. But if you look at the United
States of America banking system and all the bonds and the traditional
financial investments we have, they're not really
doing too great either. There are more than 8,000
cryptocurrencies out there. Theyíre offered on a
myriad of crypto exchanges not to mention the countless obscure
providers advertised on social media. The industry is a shark tank. It has been hijacked in
large pa
rt by opportunists, con artists right? Scammers. I know many, many people have
lost enormous amounts of money in these markets. It's a classic kind of bubble. Now, that's not to say
that there isn't, right, really amazing technology
that sits underneath it. Recently, thereís
been a shift in the US. Users on crypto exchanges
are now obliged to provide nearly as much personal
information as they would need to when opening a
traditional bank account. A far cry from the
independence crypto promised.
Effectively we've
recreated kind of like a traditional banking system
on top of these cryptocurrencies. And I think most people
who use them don't realize that they're back using an
institution which is very similar to the ones that they
think they have fled. WendyO wants to conduct
business independently of banks. That's why she stays clear
of regulated crypto exchanges. She opts for the more technically
advanced route of trading directly from person to person known as ìpeer to peer.î When you
're using a third-party
exchange like a Binance or a Coinbase or
Gemini, understand: That is a third party. They are holding
your cryptocurrency. If that exchange goes down,
you can lose your money. For most people, learning the jargon and inner
workings of the complicated technology is too time consuming. Crypto exchanges
are a far simpler option. But WendyO only
trusts herself and Bitcoin in its
original conception. Her Bitcoin is stored
in her own wallet. There's no third party
that's monitor
ing you, that's tracking you, that's taking your information and
then selling it to somebody else. Bitcoin doesn't do that. These third parties, they do. WendyO is part of a
close-knit community of Bitcoin users that distrusts banks. For them, the notion that this
new monetary system should be regulated the same way as
the traditional banking system is out of the question. Our public servants, that's
what I like to call them. They're just a bunch
of people with these very expensive pieces of pap
er degrees or they come from
really great families, or they've got connections. They're just regular
human beings. They don't necessarily
know more than us. If you want to buy a
home, if you want to rent, if you want to get an education,
if you want to buy a car, food, whatever that may be,
you have to have a bank account. But will the banks
stand idly by as people like WendyO try to chip away their
power and destroy their business? La DÈfense, a business
district just outside Paris, is home to
the
headquarters of one of the oldest banks
in the country. SociÈtÈ GÈnÈraleís influence
in the crypto business is already far greater than
many Bitcoin users can imagine. Recently, SociÈtÈ GÈnÈrale
integrated a subsidiary called FORGE. CEO Jean-Marc Stenger is
spearheading a small team leading one of the banking world's
most ambitious projects in the realm of crypto. We believe that
weíre entering a new era of financial
markets and money. Weíre on the verge of a very
radical and profound change
when it comes to blockchain especially in regard to
how financial services are supplied to the customer. When it comes to these services, a fundamental revolution
is on the horizon. SociÈtÈ GÈnÈrale has long
been working to secure its position on the forefront
of this revolution. Itís allowed to trade
in cryptocurrencies, offer wallets, and it supports authorities
by regulating crypto traders. The French bank
wants to make big money by leveraging blockchain
technology for equity trades. Financi
al institutions or
companies will only issue shares or bonds digitally. Theyíll only exist in digital
form on the blockchain. And that's what
interests our customers the ability to be faster,
safer, and cheaper. In the future, selling shares wouldnít
be limited to the stock exchange. Instead, they would be programmed
on a blockchain and traded from there. In the business world, these
are known as ìsmart contracts.î And powerful financial players have
embraced this new business model. New York is
home to the largest
stock exchange in the world. This is where big
deals are struck. Until now, the field
was clearly divided. Banks, brokers, and hedge fund
traders speculated in pretty much anything that
could turn a profit. Cryptocurrencies are sold
outside of Wall Streetís purview. But, in early 2024, US authorities allowed Bitcoin ETFs
to be traded on the stock exchange for the first time. If you owned all of
the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me
for $25, I wouldn't take it, be
cause what would I do with it? I'll have to sell it back to
you one way or another. It isnít going to do anything. The apartments are going
to produce rent and the farms are going to produce food. Stock market tycoon
Warren Buffett doesnít see any intrinsic value in Bitcoin so
why should he speculate on it? Ultimately, itís a series of numbers
that offers no immediate benefit. Many traditional financial
managers, not only in New York, see this as its
biggest shortcoming. But that attitude is
gra
dually changing. Jordi Visser is the president
of a hedge fund that manages over 4 billion dollars. He sees himself as a pioneer
and is very interested in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. No one, no one can argue
with the fact that the concept of the blockchain is a
great idea as a technology, whether we're able to use it
in the manner that we hope is an argument that
people can debate. But I think it's certainly
going to be here and I think it's
something that we need. So I see it as the
bir
thplace of an innovation which is going to help
us get more authenticity to a world that has values
on assets that are really hard to prove that they're
worth what they are. Many of Jordi Visser's
colleagues advise against investing in Bitcoin because of the
dramatic fluctuations in its value. But surprisingly, evaluations made by his financial
advisers tell a different story. Bitcoin's volatility
has been declining. Last year [in 2022], when people
talk about the volatility of Bitcoin, I forget
the final numbers, but US technology stocks were
down almost as much Amazon was down almost as
much as Bitcoin last year. So what's the difference between
people having a large weight in Amazon that was down
significantly and in Bitcoin? I think we've gotten to
the point where the volatility has been declining for years. It will continue to decline as it
becomes a more accepted asset class. In 2022, Bitcoinís value dropped
60 percent, to around 15,500 euros. In the same time frame,
Amazon was d
own 47 percent. And the Dow Jones
Industrial Average, an index of 30
major companies in the US, was down 9 percent. In 2023, Bitcoinís value
recovered, and fluctuated between 20 and
30 thousand euros. Leading experts from
the worldís financial hubs at least agree on one thing: The technology behind
Bitcoin is ingenious. And itís well on its way to becoming
an investment that generates a return. Bitcoin is very much like
gold. And what I mean by that is it's a terrible
medium of exchange, but it'
s a wonderful
store of value. And I do think that we'll
continue to see Bitcoin. Plattsburgh is a small city in New
York, close to the Canadian border. Twenty thousand
residents, harsh winters, and no major tourist attractions unless you count this building a former discount retailer. In 2018, it became one of
the largest Bitcoin mining operations
in the world. Bitcoin is still
mined here today. The somewhat rundown building
houses thousands of computers. All day, their sole purpose
is to figure
out codes. Ideally, every 10 minutes. Each block they crack
is worth 6.25 Bitcoin. Validating each block is so
complex that a single computer would take a very long time. So countless companies
set up thousands of computers to
increase their odds. It's an ongoing race: Whoever cracks the code
the fastest gets the reward. In 2018, miners were
generating 1,800 Bitcoins per day. But the problem is: all these computers constantly
mining Bitcoin consume massive amounts of electricity. When the price
of Bitcoin
was higher, it was estimated that its electricity consumption
worldwide was equivalent to that of the Netherlands. And in times of climate
change and energy scarcity, that's simply not
good for a thing thatís value to
society is unclear. ìBitcoin is so bad for the
environment, itís so dangerous.î Well, so is printing money. So is driving a car. So is the lighting here. So is you and I
breathing, existing. Yes. Bitcoin does leave itty
bitty carbon footprint, but so do a lot of
these o
ther things. Is the environmental impact
of Bitcoin mining overblown or is it a serious concern? Plattsburgh can
provide some answers. On a global scale, electricity
here is extremely cheap. It comes from a hydroelectric
power plant on the Niagara River. Thatís what attracted
the company Coinmint to set up its huge mining
operation in the first place. The new company promised
jobs and a boost in tax revenue. But gradually, people learned the reality of the
businessís impact was very different. B
asically itís all about
computers, itís all I know about it. I donít like it,
its an ugly place. I canít go in there and shop. They use a lot of electricity. It has raised our place in electric
and they didnít say thatís the reason, but itís the talk and
also it has caused the family dollar here,
it used to be over there and went the whole
winter without heat because of the operation
in the back they always had the doors open because the
machines working with the Bitcoin you know, they have to c
onstantly
run to do the cryptocurrency. Around the time
Coinmint set up shop, Colin Read became
mayor of Plattsburgh. He teaches
about banking and sustainability at
the state university. He was appalled to
learn that on some days, this building consumed
one third of all the electricity in his city of 20,000 residents. These machines run
1500 to 3000 watts, very similar to a space heater,
generally the same amount of heat. So to control that heat,
if you have, you know, three to 10,000 machines
l
ike that in this room, you need to draw in a bunch of
cold air and expel a bunch of hot air. So any Bitcoin mine
operation is going to have a lot of
holes in the wall, a lot of holes in the roof. Fans everywhere. In the
summertime they generate a lot of noise because
those fans need really need to run continuously
when the weather is hot. The Bitcoin mining operation
proved to be a massive disruption for the residents
of Plattsburgh. The cheap power supply generated
from the Niagara River was no
t enough. The price of electricity
suddenly shot up. For local companies like this paper
mill, production became untenable. Colin Read then forced
the Bitcoin mining firm to pay for the extra
electricity on its own. The company responded
with a PR campaign. I've seen many pictures
from some very sophisticated with hundreds of millions
of dollars of Wall Street venture capital money behind
them, you know, the Italian shoes and suits and all
that kind of stuff. They've got a trade
association that
helps them do the talking points
when they go into communities. After all, there is enormous
potential in the business. Colin Read calculated that
the Puerto Rico-based company earned up to 50 million dollars a
month at the start of its operation. Plattsburgh, a lower-income
city, didnít see a dime. If they're making tens of millions
of dollars of profit every month, surely there's going to be lots
of flow back into the community. But these are profits
in Bitcoin that can be essentially cashed
in anywhere. There's no reason to
believe for any reason that this money will
stay in the community. In the end, Plattsburgh did not
rake in the promised tax dollars, nor were jobs created. Instead, for a time,
residents were saddled with expensive
electricity bills. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin
mining firm moved many of its computers to the next town,
where electricity costs were lower. Colin Read is no longer
mayor of Plattsburgh. He wrote a book
about cryptocurrencies. He was initially excited
abou
t blockchain technology, but heís been disillusioned. If you look at who controls
the wealth of Bitcoin, it's large corporations,
it's multi-millionaires, it's billionaires as venture
capitalists, Wall Street, the complete entities
that Bitcoin and Satoshi were designed to take out of the
equation, now dominate the market. Large companies
are involved wherever digital money is
replacing cash. US companies especially
are at the forefront, with GooglePay,
ApplePay and PayPal. The European monetary
authorities
are facing pressure on two sides: from Bitcoin and from large
private US-based companies. That's why the European
Central Bank is turning its attention to developing
the ìdigital euro.î We think the digital euro
must also be there to continue to limit the market power
of these global companies just as it works with cash. We need to ensure the
strategic independence of Europe. So the E-C-B also wants to get
into the business of digital money. The digital euro, however, would be very
different
from the decentralized Bitcoin. Thatís because theoretically, every transaction by citizens
could be monitored by the E-C-B. The only reason why they want
to use blockchain technology, the only reason why they
want to create the CBDC, is they want to monitor people. They want to have control. They want to
implement credit scores. They want people to do
exactly what they are told and instill fear that if
you don't do what I say, I'm going to have
access to your money. We have no interes
t
in controlling people. When designing the digital euro, we want to make it so that
we donít receive personal data in the Eurosystem, and instead have
anonymous transactions in our books. We don't want to know
who has a particular account or who that person is. Thereís deep
mistrust on both sides. Banks and states fear that
a decentralized currency without state supervision
will lead to crime and chaos. Bitcoin users believe the
state and banks want control. If you believe in
courts and laws, t
hen you shouldn't
be too worried about this
potential visibility. If you have little faith
in the courts and laws, then yeah, perhaps this would
be something to be worried about. El Zonte has had the nickname
ìBitcoin Beachî for a while now. But actually, all of El Salvador
has become something of a test case for Bitcoin. Here, human rights are not
guaranteed and the judiciary has very little power. In 2021, it became the first country
to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender a move spearheaded by
p
opulist president, Nayib Bukele. This was this unique
opportunity for them. They saw this as wow, how else could we literally
overnight have El Salvador known throughout the
world, be in all these articles? Have people change the
narrative that even if people are speaking negative,
they're talking about the money and the tech rather than
the gangs and the murder. The beginning of the
Bitcoin era in El Salvador was celebrated
with great fanfare. Thousands of crypto enthusiasts
cheered on their ro
ck star leader. Nayib Bukele projected
himself as a cross between a baseball cap-wearing
rapper and a savior. And he made his
stance on Bitcoin clear. This is not a good
or cool or nice idea. This is the evolution
of humankind. So weíre going there. You canít stop evolution. This ìevolutionî was heavily
promoted in El Salvador. Every citizen who
downloaded Chivo, the state-run
Bitcoin wallet app, received 30 dollars-worth
of Bitcoin as a gift. A controversial means
of winning people over. Maybe
he understood
Bitcoin, maybe heís crazy, maybe heís running an
experiment, we just donít know. It could have been any country. Honestly for me it's not
relevant that itís El Salvador. Whatís important is that a
country somewhere in the world dared to take this step, and Iím fairly certain that
other countries will follow, even if it takes a
few more years. The reality is: There are only a few
stores in El Salvadorís capital that actually
accept Bitcoin. Especially after its value
dropped at the
end of 2022. Most people use the dollar. Can one pay in Bitcoin? Nope, not here. Too hard? I never tried it. Not at the moment, no oneís
come to explain how it works. Unfortunately, my
children's school or my son's university doesnít
accept payments in Bitcoin. According to a survey, 70 percent of El
Salvadorís population distrust the
new legal tender. Many businesses that accept Bitcoin
immediately exchange for dollars. But the Bitcoin community
abroad remains enthusiastic. I absolutely love
wh
at he's doing because by making
Bitcoin legal tender, he's essentially taking
power back for his country and telling everybody
else in the world: This is what we're doing. And I'm trying to improve
the quality of life of my people the best way I can. In reality, Bukele wants to
make his country independent from the influence
of foreign institutions like the International
Monetary Fund. If Salvadorans buy Bitcoin without
the state-run Chivo app, their assets would be safe from
their own governmen
tís influence. Imagine we live in a country
with unstable institutions, and I have 5,000 currency
units in my account not necessarily in euro. The state doesn't like it. So what does it do? It could potentially take
the money away from me. In other words, a kind of expropriation
or confiscation is possible if the value is determined
from the outside, by a state or a banking system
or government or a central bank. But itís not
possible with Bitcoin. El Salvador has become a place
of pilgrimage fo
r Bitcoin believers. There are even plans
to build a "Bitcoin City.î Traders, crypto miners,
and entrepreneurs would live and work together there. The president's cousin is trying
to attract investors and startups. So far, a huge crypto city at the foot of a volcano
is still a pipe dream. You get zero percent income
tax, zero percent capital gains, property tax, payroll
tax, municipal taxes, and zero percent
to CO2 emissions. Building this new
financial hub would cost an estimated one billion do
llars in one of the poorest
countries in the world, where the average annual
income is about 4 thousand euros. Nayib Bukele is
counting on support and funding from abroad. Iím fully convinced that sooner
or later there will be Bitcoin cities. There are people who want to
be engaged in this community. So theyíll pack up and suddenly
start moving to El Salvador. It's a bit like
religions in the past, where believers would
gather in monasteries or elsewhere and live
and do things together. Money is
based
on trust and belief. Cryptocurrencies have added a new
dimension to how we think about money. El Salvador is reflective of the
fear and hope surrounding Bitcoin. But cryptocurrencies have
already changed the world. And in all likelihood,
itís just the beginning.
Comments
“ It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." -Henry Ford
Maria will be extremely happy after the halving and this next bull run.
The ECB guy rejecting Bitcoin. Shocker!
Amazing video and style but One thing that everyone should know. Never ask the guy who works in the banking system if you should buy Bitcoin but also don't ask the guy who owns bitcoin either. In both scenarios, we know UPFRONT their answer.
15:34 if you can’t move your crypto to cold storage you don’t own it. Hard to get burnt when it’s not in an exchange.
to be honest, for these people. holding on to bitcoin is probably better than holding into their own country currency
beautiful cinematography
Those banks said "Oh NO!! They're trying to live without us. Change the laws!!"
It's good to see that a popular video is making an effort to show the positives of Bitcoin. Would be nice if you also showed better miners, who are actually solving power grid problems, rather than creating new ones. Also would be nice if you found a more credible advocate for Bitcoin than some social media influencer.
The debut of a Bitcoin ETF signifies a pivotal moment in the cryptocurrency sphere, bridging digital currencies with conventional investment approaches. This advancement holds the potential to bring stability to Bitcoin prices and attract a more diverse group of investors, potentially driving up demand and value. Central to this transformative shift is Boston Weber, whose profound comprehension of both cryptocurrency and traditional trading has played a crucial role. His comprehensive investment strategy and dedication to staying informed about market trends position him as an invaluable ally in navigating this new era of cryptocurrency investment....
Opting for an influencer whose primary expertise lies in shilling coins to her followers on a daily basis, rather than individuals with genuine knowledge of cryptocurrency, Good job, DW.
I really enjoy DW's documentaries. However, on this one the social media influencer had much more space than academics or people with more credibility that could contribute to the report.
European central bank ? What have they done for the Euro? After 2020 it lost at least 50% purchasing power.
Great way to ensure that everyone carries a device all the time!
Wendy o was the best you could do?
Ethereum Smart contracts , De-Centralised Exchanges were a revelation at the time. They almost seem like ideas before their time, monetary evolution had outpaced the average users abilty to keep up.
"Hope" is the worst analysis to base any monetary decision, unless you have money to burn (or other people's money to burn.)
Nice documentary I'm also bullish on BTC and bought some on Nexo to get exposure.
Amazing documentary as always 👍.
Thank you dw