Friday 11 June 2021

El Salvador goes crypto

 Already a shady place, El Salvador has decided to go all out and embrace its heritage. Rather than be a dollarised economy, it is the first large economy to declare bitcoin as its main currency. No longer will Uncle Sam's interest rate changes or weak dollar games impac El Salvador. 

So on one level this makes sense, many Central and South American countries are stuck in the dollarised trap after managing their own currencies proved too much for them and the markets. This on paper is a way out to freedom and stability. 

But Bitcoin is traded for huge gains and losses every day, it is not stable at all. So I do sense a fault in this scheme. There are still many who think it will all collapse tomorrow (then again, this is true of the Greenback too). 

El Salvador is going to be in for a helluva ride....certainly more than England, Scottish or Welsh fans over the next few weeks!

12 comments:

  1. Up and down like a whore's knickers, that Bitcoin, which is why it cannot be used as a viable currency.

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  2. So... June 21st is dead. And on for another month...

    Groundhog day. First flatten the curve for three weeks, then a 'circuit breaker' then 'celebrate Christmas at Easter.'

    My mask is now off. Those who are seriously worried about being infected can always self shield or wear N95s. Just let the rest of us go free.

    I TOLD you that the best vaccine roll out possible would not be good enough.

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  3. dearieme7:20 pm

    "So... June 21st is dead." Really? It's official? Oh bugger. Insofar as possible I shall ignore it.

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  4. It also cannot not do much more that 6 transactions a second.
    That is in total, globally.
    Think mastercard hits 200 / second in the uk.
    Not to say btc will be valueless. Lots of people collect penny blacks and that btcs previous owners are in the blockchain.

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  5. Anonymous9:55 pm

    Bitcoin one minute then...the whiner talking about his mask again

    No one cares about your mask or you past predictions

    Off topic numb nuts, but boy have you TOLD us

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  6. Yup.

    And I will continue to tell you.

    I'd luuurv to meet you in a car park after hours with no cctv.

    In the meantime get yer N95 on, hide away and leave the rest of us to take a risk that is far less than driving to work.

    From a personal point of view I have had a serious injury 12 weeks ago and have yet to be seen by a doctor, so much for saving the NHS. The only treatment I've had is from a nurse practitioner who told me to take anti inflamatories and a private physio who loves my fitness and determination and is doing her darndest to get me through to the acute knee injury clinic.

    Don't tell me that there aren't other consequences from what they're doing. Not least to mental health and people's livelihoods and the damage to the NHS itself.

    And we can't even talk about WHY exactly Boris is being forced to abandon his excellent vaccine programme - and that's because BAMEs have refused to participate in it and now we can't face the consequences of them having a high death rate in the present woke era.

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  7. What has that to do with bitcoin ?

    Well what does El Salvador have to do with the crisis we are in right now.

    It was City Unslicker who went right off topic... not me !!

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  8. Hasn't the 2d blue Guiana stamp come onto the market recently. Surely the beloved BBC would have covered that

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  9. "I TOLD you that the best vaccine roll out possible would not be good enough."

    The vaccine roll out in Britain is far from finished. When it's done will be the time to say whether or not it's good enough.

    There may well be a mutation of the virus that makes the vaccines ineffective, so that boosters are needed every year, but we haven't seen one yet.

    Don Cox

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  10. A very surprising event is the global acknowledgment that there is not a single case of Covid being spread by surface contact.
    Not one. Not in a single location, anywhere in the world.
    This is being reported on the BBC’s Covid page. It has been fact checked. Is not a conspiracy.

    Charity shops, in the Uk, that were fanatical about Covid spread, due to volunteer workers of a more advanced age, and receiving public donations from households. With no knowledge of conditions in residences that were donating items, they were just a few weeks ago storing all donations into sealed plastic tubs for a week, then steaming every item. Then resealing for a few days.

    They are now putting new public donations straight onto the shelves. As they come in, they go out. There is no wait time.

    It has been obvious for well over a year this was airborne transmission. Not surface. Or else the most infectious disease known would have wiped out those frontline key workers long ago. Would have scythed through the checkouts, bank tellers, delivery drivers, cleaners, transport drivers and so om.

    Outdoor ATM machines are never cleaned. The private contractors who own many now would only wipe down a terminal once a fortnight.

    But these machines have been in constant, if vastly reduced use, since day one. The hand sanitizer does very little, if anything at all to prevent the spread.

    There has been no official comment on this. The hand sanitizer stations are still there. Though when did you last recall the supermarkets wiping down the shopping trolleys?

    The question should be, why did nobody think to check the long ago discredited example of Covid surviving 20 hours on a plastic surface?

    The study, available at the time of first lockdown, was viewed suspiciously by several other medical professionals. Who questioned why the test was carried out in ideal laboratory conditions for Covid to thrive ? Why not in real world conditions. Like a warehouse or a train?

    But for a year and a half, no one did any checks on this assumption that Covid spread through airways and touch.

    Bit of a game changer for the furlough costs. If many of the business closed never needed to.

    The media themselves have not even asked the question?

    Why?

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  11. The "media" is staffed with arts graduates that haven't the first idea about critical thinking is why they never asked. They are also hopelessly "woke" which means they need safe spaces in case anything nasty (including the Chinese flu) gets them.

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  12. Don Cox

    Keep safe, mate.

    You prove my point. Masks and social distancing aren't temporary.

    It is a disgusting way to live.

    Nothing like 'normal'.

    I am appalled at you. Get your N95 on. Hide away.

    Leave the rest of us to take our risks and breath fresh air and live like human beings.

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