El Salvador’s Bitcoin gamble
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joe Tidy travels to El Salvador where almost everything can be paid for using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. After President Bukele invested heavily in Bitcoin some people are questioning the long-term impact of such a move.
For some money has flowed in from mysterious investors, but others like local economist Tatiana Maraquin think the country’s economy cannot handle the fluctuations in the value of the cryptocurrency.
Joe visits a veterinary surgery, which offers huge discounts on treatment if it is bought using the Chivo bitcoin wallet app. Presenter/producer: Joe Tidy
(Photo: Bitcoin poster)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Anyone that helps people who are accused of sorcery are also blamed for being sorceress. |
| 0:05.9 | Lives less ordinary from the BBC World Service. Real people with extraordinary stories. |
| 0:12.0 | I started having a strength in me. I have to stand up for other women. |
| 0:16.9 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:20.8 | El Salvador is the only country in the world where you can buy almost $1,000. Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:26.5 | El Salvador is the only country in the world where you can buy almost anything with Bitcoin. |
| 0:28.0 | Hello, Buenos Aires. |
| 0:29.6 | Except on Bitcoin. |
| 0:38.3 | Last September, the country's cryptocurrency-loving president took the unprecedented decision to make Bitcoin legal tender. |
| 0:42.5 | This will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands and outside the formal economy. Around the world, the move is being criticized by the financial establishment and celebrated |
| 0:47.7 | by crypto fans. So we are following developments closely. And now, Salvatorealbador is leading the wave, you know. |
| 0:56.0 | We're proud. |
| 0:57.0 | The government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on their project, |
| 1:00.0 | but are people here embracing Bitcoin? |
| 1:03.0 | People in my country are hardworking and poor. |
| 1:08.0 | We are not ready for Bitcoin. Is El Salvador's big Bitcoin gamble paying off? |
| 1:15.4 | I'm Joe Tidy, and this is Business Daily. |
| 1:21.8 | El Salvador's Bitcoin journey didn't start in a city-centre tech hub, it started here in a small town on the south |
| 1:28.3 | coast called Elzonte. And it's a weird and mysterious origin story. In 2019, an anonymous |
| 1:35.4 | donor gave this place a large donation in Bitcoin. No one, not even the local leaders, |
| 1:39.7 | know who he or she is, but the deal came with one condition. None of the Bitcoin could be converted into dollars. |
| 1:47.7 | One of the first beneficiaries of the donations was Katerina Contreras. |
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