World Bank rejects El Salvador’s request for BTC conversion

The World Bank has declined El Salvador’s request for help regarding the country’s move to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

It cites Bitcoin’s environmental impact and transparency issues as reasons it won’t support El Salvador’s move to adopt Bitcoin as an officially accepted currency.

A World Bank spokesman said: “Although the government has asked us for bitcoin support, the World Bank cannot support it due to its environmental deficiencies and transparency.

However, the World Bank has determined that it could help El Salvador in other ways, including “currency transparency and regulatory procedures”.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Finance Minister Salvador Alejandro Zelaya said the Central American country had asked the Banco Mundial (World Bank) for technical assistance.

“I want to share that we asked @BancoMundial for technical support, so nhưư @BCIE_Org, you can accompany El Salvador in the implementation and formalization #Bitcoin as legal tender. “

Popular bitcoiners weren’t happy about the World Bank’s rejection, but neither were they particularly surprised.

Bitcoin advocate Anthony Pompliano tweeted in response to news that “the World Bank has not found a way to monetize Bitcoin”.

Samson Mow, CSO of blockchain development company Blockstream and creator of the blockchain game Infinite Fleet, was furious at the news – and called for the World Bank to become obsolete.

BREAKING: THE WORLD BANK CANNOT HELP EL SALVADOR TO ACHIEVE THE WORLD BANK. pic.twitter.com/gLReCZXC4r

– Samson Mow (@Excellion) June 17, 2021

While President Nayib Bukele’s Bitcoin bill has caused a lot of excitement among Bitcoin advocates around the world, it has also received a lot of criticism. Yesterday, economist Steve Hanke said that El Salvador’s use of Bitcoin as legal tender “could completely crash the economy.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also not interested in El Salvador embracing Bitcoin. Cointelegraph reported June 11th that it could obstruct negotiations with the IMF over a $ 1 billion loan to prop up the country’s economy.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice noted that the introduction of Bitcoin raises a number of financial, regulatory and macroeconomic concerns that require “very careful analysis”.

30 foreign business leaders will visit Bitcoin Beach tomorrow – to see how they can invest in El Salvador. Just this morning 2 companies told us that they already have a lawyer to start a business. @nayibbukele opened a flood of jobs #Bitcoin

– Bitcoin beach (@Bitcoinbeach) June 16, 2021

Connected: Latin American telecommunications company accepts crypto payments through BitPay

But some companies are rushing to help. Athena Bitcoin says it will soon offer Bitcoin ATMs across El Salvador. On Twitter today, the company asked Bukele if “1000 ATMs” would be enough, to which the president replied, “1000?” What about 1,500? “

Yesterday, El Salvador’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Rolando Castro denied claims that the ministry had begun discussing the possibility of using Bitcoin to pay employees, noting that it was “too early for that accept”.