El Salvador recently concluded its three-day conference dubbed ‘Bitcoin Week‘ that featured a series of events, parties, and get-togethers. The Bitcoin community made a steady beeline to the tiny tropical country that is also the world’s first nation to make the cryptocurrency a legal tender.
The recent market drawdown failed to ruin the mood of the crypto advocates who came to offer their strong support to the digital asset, which they believe is a turning point in modern history. The event was a part of the annual Latin America Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference, a three-day event wrapping up on Friday.
Beginning on the night of last Wednesday, the event kickstarted with a Life music show where hundreds of Bitcoin enthusiasts reveled in Latin rap music while downing Pilsener and Golden, a variety of local beers. Many of these bitcoin proponents were critical of the US dollar and its ability to counter inflation.
Joseph Schiernao, an Argentinian ice cream vendor described fiat currencies such as Dollar as outdated and that there needs to be a complete overhaul of the legacy fiat market. With currencies like the Argentine peso slipping as much as 16% against the US dollar and stringent foreign currency controls have further limited the prospect of the revenue for small vendors like him. Strongly vouching for Bitcoin, Schiernao said,
“Bitcoin is the way around that, and you see it in other countries too, like Venezuela or Turkey, countries where central banks don’t have credible policies. Critics call Bitcoin shitcoin, but the real shitcoins are all the other fiats.”
El Salvador Bitcoin [BTC] conference boosts tourism
Another major conference called Adopting Bitcoin, that started last Wednesday and continued the next day as well. The meeting featured prominent developers and entrepreneurs and focused mainly on Bitcoin’s scalability solution, the Lightning network.
El Salvador’s Minister of Economy, María Luisa Hayem spoke on the country’s experience since the adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender back in September. Speaking further, the minister noted that El Salvador has witnessed a surge in investors’ interest, not only in technology but also in the tourism and real estate sector as well, and hoped that ‘this will be a source of employment.’