The World Bank seemed to be appalled by El Salvador’s recent move towards Bitcoin [BTC].
Bitcoin found a prominent spot in the financial system of El Salvador. The country garnered approval to view Bitcoin as a legal tender which further elevated the region’s presence in the crypto-verse. While several lauded President Nayib Bukele for his latest move, pertinent banks as well as agencies have expressed distress over El Salvador’s plunge into Bitcoin.
The International Monetary Fund [IMF] had recently noted that the country had to address several issues surrounding the Bitcoin legal tender law. The World Bank joined this list and revealed to Reuters that it had dismissed El Salvador’s request to help onboard BTC as a legal tender.
World Bank steers away from El Salvador
The World Bank suggested that it was concerned about the environment as well as transparency problems that come with legalizing Bitcoin. The power consumption of mining BTC has been a major issue for several across the globe. Elon Musk even went on to drop support for the asset for the same reason.
Even though El Salvador has been making progress with regard to mining, the process will take a while as the country intends to use the energy exerted by volcanos for mining,
The World Bank stated,
“We are committed to helping El Salvador in numerous ways including for currency transparency and regulatory processes,. 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.”
The Finance Minister of the country, Alejandro Zelaya managed to make this announcement and also pointed out that the bank had turned down the request for aid.
While the country has already named BTC a legal tender, the transition of people using this digital payment is still a tough nut to crack.