With the historic passing of the Bitcoin bill in El Salvador, the road has officially been paved for a path forward to mass adoption of Bitcoin. The long-building expectation of utilizing Bitcoin as a fully functioning means of exchange has, until this point, proven difficult. However, with El Salvador officially becoming part of the Bitcoin community, the past array of speculation, distrust, and negative connotations associated with Bitcoin can finally be put to rest.
One Small Step for Bitcoin, One Massive Leap for Mankind
The legalization of Bitcoin in El Salvador is a historic milestone in the development and acceptance of Bitcoin. Now that an actual country has adopted Bitcoin has it was intended to be used, it will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the technology while also calming fears of mass speculation. The myth that Bitcoin is a scam, doesn't have utility, or is just meant for criminal activity has now been debunked. El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele even addressed this very point in the Twitter Spaces call that took place yesterday.
So, what does this mean for the cryptocurrency market going forward?
Bitcoin adoption testing in El Salvador - from @bitcoinbeach
With the push to adopt Bitcoin, especially in Latin and South American countries, this could be the first steps toward a snowball effect of adoption worldwide. The longer countries choose to wait, the less they will be able to benefit from being an early adopter of the technology. El Salvador is placing themselves at the pinnacle of the next great technological revolution - one that has the means to disrupt the entire financial system altogether.
Early adopting countries will reap the most rewards. The earlier you buy in, the cheaper you are able to accumulate and utilize Bitcoin for your citizens and potentially in the future as a source of income for the country. El Salvador took their bill once step further and announced that they would grant citizenship to anyone who invests 3 BTC into the country. This will attract blockchain gurus, Bitcoiners, and innovative entrepreneurs away from larger nations and to El Salvador - a genius move that could drastically shape the future economic outlook of the country forever.
Other countries are already beginning to take notice. Once the dominoes start to fall, it could be a rush to get into the door first. No one wants to be last when the potential benefits of being early are so drastically important. It is also important to note that this will have massive benefits for alternatives to Bitcoin, such as Ethereum, green blockchains like Algorand, and even just decentralized finance (DeFi) in general. As Bitcoin grows in popularity and acceptance, it will pave the way forward for everyone else to follow.
Thanks to some amazing people within the Bitcoin community, and really the overall enthusiasm and support from the community as whole, the hardest step is now behind us - getting the first nation to buy into what Bitcoiners have been preaching for years.
So, if you are reading this post - you are apart of the amazing, historic financial revolution that is taking place just by supporting, owning, reading about, sending, and using cryptocurrencies. Congratulations! The map shown above, while dark right now, already has the one spark that could ignite a raging fire of Bitcoin adoption. That spark is El Salvador. One down - 194 more nations to go.
