- An El Salvador official revealed that the authorities are offering special rewards for businesses that invest early in the Bitcoin city.
- The Central American nation would partly fund its iconic Bitcoin city with $1 billion from sales of its Bitcoin volcano bonds.
In September 2021, El Salvador became the first nation globally to make Bitcoin a legal tender. Now, the country wants to focus on establishing a Bitcoin city. While El Salvador announced its goal of creating a Bitcoin city last year, its plans have been disrupted and delayed for various reasons.
Geo-political tensions and the crypto winter (which has caused a significant decline in investments in the crypto sector) are notable factors disrupting El Salvador’s Bitcoin city plans. The deputy ambassador of El Salvador to the Netherlands, Hector Enrique Celarie, told the media that the Central American nation would follow a “first come, first serve” method in allowing businesses to invest and profit from the Bitcoin city.
He explained that El Salvador aims to use its Bitcoin city as a basis to expand and strengthen society. “That’s why we want more investments in this aspect to develop this city.” Deputy Ambassador Celarie further remarked that adopting BTC as a legal tender has positively impacted the nation’s economy. He encouraged people from other countries to visit El Salvador so that they have a first-hand witness of how BTC is positively affecting the lives of El Salvadorans.
Funding the Bitcoin City
El Salvador first announced that it would be establishing a Bitcoin city in November 2021. The official statement was that the city’s development funds would be from selling $1 billion worth of Bitcoin volcano bonds. This bond is the first crypto sovereign debt product globally.
During the bull market’s peak, many investors were enticed to invest in this debt product. However, it has lost that attractiveness due to several delays and the downturn in the crypto market. A few weeks ago, Paolo Ardoino (BitFinex’s chief technology officer) told a popular media firm that BitFinex is waiting for El Salvador’s approval of its operating license.
He added that the government wouldn’t issue any operating license till it passes the digital securities bill. Initially, the government stated that it would pass the Bill by last month’s end. But it hasn’t provided any update regarding the Bill or the Bitcoin bond launch as of now.
While El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment has had its troubles, the positives have outweighed the negatives. Two days ago, CoinCorner, a Bitcoin card payment platform, announced plans to install Near-Field Communication (NFC) card readers across El Salvador.
¡Hola y bienvenido, El Salvador! 🇸🇻
From today, residents of El Salvador can open a CoinCorner account and access our full range of Bitcoin and Lighting services, including full functionality for our contactless Bitcoin Lightning card, The Bolt Card ⚡️https://t.co/sq09ohEtV8
— CoinCorner (@CoinCorner) October 12, 2022
The tap-to-pay feature allows Bitcoin holders in El Salvador to spend their BTC in places where these NFC card readers are available. This service is built on the lightning network (ln) to ease retail BTC transactions. Many card payment services globally are integrated with the lightning network to facilitate BTC payments for BTC holders.
