The latest news reveals that the World Bank has rejected El Salvador’s request for help as the Latin American country moves to entirely adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The global financial body cited issues with BTC’s environmental impact and transparency as the main reasons why it will not support El Salvador’s move to adopt BTC as an officially accepted currency.
A World Bank spokesperson said:
“While the government did approach us for assistance on Bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings.”
But, the World Bank did note that it can assist El Salvador in several other ways, including “currency transparency and regulatory processes.” Earlier on June 16, the Salvadoran Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya said the Central American nation had requested technical assistance from Banco Mundial (the World Bank).
“I want to announce that we have requested technical assistance from @BancoMundial, so that like @BCIE_Org, they can accompany El Salvador in the implementation and regularization of #Bitcoin as legal tender.”
Most of the prominent Bitcoiners were not pleased with the World Bank’s refusal, but they were not particularly surprised by that move. One Bitcoin proponent, Anthony Pompliano tweeted in response to the news saying that the “World Bank hasn’t figured out how to make money off Bitcoin.”
The CSO of blockchain development company Blockstream, who is also the creator of blockchain game Infinite Fleet, Samson Mow, was irritated by that news. He strongly suggested that the World Bank should be made obsolete.
BREAKING: WORLD BANK CANNOT HELP EL SALVADOR MAKE WORLD BANK OBSOLETE. pic.twitter.com/gLReCZXC4r
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) June 17, 2021
President Nayib Bukele’s Bitcoin law has already sparked lots of excitement from bitcoin proponents throughout the world. However, it has also received a lot of criticism. On June 16, economist Steve Hanke said that El Salvador using bitcoin as a legal tender countrywide might collapse the economy completely.
As expected, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also not ‘interested’ in the matters of El Salvador embracing bitcoin. On June 11, reports emerged that the bitcoin adoption might complicate negotiations with the IMF over a $1 billion loan to support the nation’s economy.
Gerry Rice, the IMF spokesman, noted that the adoption of BTC presents several legal, financial, and macroeconomic worries that need a ‘highly careful analysis’.
30 foreign business leaders coming to visit Bitcoin Beach tomorrow -to see how they can invest in El Salvador. Just this morning had 2 companies tell us they already have lawyers setting up their legal business entities. @nayibbukele has opened the jobs floodgates #Bitcoin
— Bitcoin Beach (@Bitcoinbeach) June 16, 2021
However, some firms are rushing to help the country. Athena Bitcoin said that it would rush quickly to set up Bitcoin ATMs around El Salvador. Using a June 17 tweet, the company asked President Bukele if “1000 ATMs ” were enough. Bukele then replied in jest “1,000? How about 1,500?”
On Wednesday, El Salvador’s Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Rolando Castro denied allegations that the ministry had started discussing the option to use BTC for employee salary payments, saying that it was “too premature to talk about wages.”
