Anger is mounting over the entry into force on September 7 of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. Several hundred people demonstrated in the capital on Wednesday to ask Parliament to repeal the law.
About 300 union activists gathered outside Parliament buildings holding up signs and chanting ‘No to bitcoin’. “Only six days before the hateful bitcoin law comes into force, the Popular Resistance and Rebellion Bloc (BRP) is demanding its repeal because it will hit workers, peasants and rural communities,” according to a press release. platform of fifteen unions and organizations.
The threat of daily protests
For Sonia Urrutia, a BRP activist, President Nayib Bukele is preparing Salvadorans “a bitter month of September” with the bitcoin law with which “he wants to impose a high-risk virtual monetary system for 99% of the population”. The BRP has announced its intention to organize daily protests.
The Salvadoran parliament, overwhelmingly dominated by supporters of President Bukele since the last legislative elections, passed the law last June that will make bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador. This measure, according to the head of state, will boost the country’s economy, dollarized for twenty years.
Setting up an application
Continuing to implement the reform, Parliament on Tuesday approved, at the request of President Bukele, who enjoys immense popularity, the creation of a $ 150 million fund to guarantee the automatic convertibility of bitcoin into U.S. dollars. The authorities are also preparing to activate an application called “Chivo” (Super, in colloquial language) which should allow payments or transfers in bitcoin. Its users will be rewarded with a bonus equivalent to $ 30 in bitcoin when they join the application.
Some 200 vending machines for exchanging bitcoins are also being installed. And while soldiers were protecting ATMs on Wednesday from possible damage by protesters, a famous anti-bitcoin activist, Mario Gomez, was arrested before being released in the face of a deluge of criticism on social networks. According to a tweet from the Salvadoran police, he is suspected of “financial fraud” by “sending false e-mails to many users of the banking system”.
