Is El Salvador's bitcoin revolution failing?
Tech Life
BBC
4.3 • 227 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week Tech Tent is presented by Joe Tidy, who's been to El Salvador - which has bought thousands of bitcoins and become the first country in the world to make it legal tender. Now prices are crashing so will its experiment end in failure? Bitcoin podcast host Natalie Brunell and finacnail commentator Frances Coppola give their thoughts. Also: entrepreneurs at London tech week on their hopes and fears for the future. A Facebook moderator tells Chris Vallance of the strain of screening graphic content from the Ukraine war. And Liv McMahon pays the tech team's respects to Internet Explorer, put out to pasture after 27 years in which it transformed home computing.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, so I'd like to tell you where you'll find more just like it. |
| 0:05.6 | I'm Izzy Lee Poulton, an assistant commissioner for BBC Sounds, which means I'm involved in the whole podcast making process. |
| 0:12.2 | Whether that's developing fresh formats or facilitating eye-catching artwork, I helped project manage all the details that make our podcast stand out. |
| 0:19.7 | At the BBC, we've got access to storytellers and experts across a huge range of subjects. |
| 0:24.4 | It could be psychologists, comedians, celebrities or journalists. |
| 0:28.6 | No podcasts or day looks the same here. |
| 0:31.6 | So no matter what you like, check out BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.1 | There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love. |
| 0:41.6 | No. sounds. There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love. Hello and welcome to a special edition of TechTent with me, Joe Tiny. I've been to El Salvador, |
| 0:46.7 | where the president has brought thousands of Bitcoin and made it legal tender. Now prices |
| 0:51.4 | are tanking, though. What should the world make of Naïbe Bucle's |
| 0:54.8 | cryptocurrency gamble? Also this week, it's not just crypto. The tech market is facing a tough time. |
| 1:01.2 | So what do the next generation of tech entrepreneurs think the future holds? We also look at the |
| 1:06.1 | mental strain on social network moderators tasked with reviewing graphic content from the Ukraine war. And it's |
| 1:12.3 | goodbye, at last, to Internet Explorer. But first, El Salvador is a small, poor country in Central America. |
| 1:22.6 | It's an unlikely birthplace then for a tech revolution. But last June, the president, Naid Buckele, announced this. |
| 1:29.7 | Great ideas are beautiful and have great power. I believe Bitcoin could be one of these ideas. |
| 1:35.3 | That is why, next week, I will send to Congress a bill that will make Bitcoin a legal tender in El Salvador. |
| 1:41.2 | So, El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, which means all businesses |
| 1:45.8 | should accept the cryptocurrency. Nine months in, we wanted to assess how Bitcoin is or isn't |
| 1:52.1 | changing the country. So I traveled there to speak to the people. |
| 1:59.8 | It's good. Lots of foreigners and people from San Salvador come and spend their bitcoins here. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.