El Salvador made history when it adopted bitcoin as legal tender just over two years ago in a radical experiment that’s forced it to ride the bitcoin roller coaster.
Some expected other major countries to follow as talk of “collapse” swirled around U.S. dollar hegemony but the bitcoin and crypto market crash last year and the implosion of exchange FTX torpedoed hopes of a global bitcoin revolution.
Now, Samson Mow, chief executive of bitcoin technology company Jan3 and an advisor to El Salvador during its adoption of bitcoin, has said he’s planning to meet with Argentina’s new president Javier Milei, a bitcoin fan and self-described libertarian anarcho-capitalist.
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“Q1 next year makes more sense,” Mow says via X direct message, adding he had hoped to meet with Milei last year. “I have my people in touch with his.”
Milei, who has promised to “blow up” the country’s political establishment, disband Argentina’s central bank and dollarize the economy in the face of catastrophic hyperinflation, said earlier this year that bitcoin represents the “return of money to its original creator, the private sector.”
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However, despite his presidential election victory sparking wild speculation he could “supercharge” bitcoin adoption, he hasn’t said his plans for the country involve bitcoin.
“Not every country needs to do exactly what El Salvador did,” Mow says. “There are many ways to enable bitcoin adoption,” pointing to Milei’s campaign promise to allow private money to be used in the country, in
“What this means is the Argentinian people can simply use whatever money they want, including bitcoin and [Tether’s] USDTUSDT, which are massively popular in the country. I believe his concept would serve bitcoin just as well as making it legal tender.”
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