BitcoinThe New York Times' Latest Attack On El Salvador And Bitcoin Won't Stand the Test of Time.

The New York Times has joined the rest of the mainstream media in mocking bitcoin. Even though the global economy is clearly in the red, bitcoin denialists are having the time of their lives declaring bitcoin dead. This puts Nayib Bukele and El Salvador's bitcoin bet in the spotlight. The title, "A Poor Country Made Bitcoin a National Currency," reveals The New York Times' intentions and general perspective on the situation. The wager is not paying off." Yikes! First and foremost, that is a classist title. Second, we respectfully disagree. The New York Times' claims are generally false, hyperbolic, and short-sighted from the start. The article stinks of the fiat world's high-time preference, and Bitcoinist is here to criticize the critics.

What Exactly Did The New York Times Say?

To be fair, the article gets the majority of the facts correct. "Mr. Bukele's bitcoin push has been dealt a further blow by a global cryptocurrency sell-off that has wiped away hundreds of billions of dollars from the value of digital assets since March," for example. Okay, fair enough. The New York Times fails to mention that the Terra/Luna collapse caused this crash. Or the advantages that this purge will bring to the cryptocurrency economy as a whole.

That is not at all the case, New York Times. The people in charge of El Salvador's economy, including the President, were aware from the start that bitcoin was volatile. They, like everyone else, knew that this scenario was not only likely but also unavoidable. It caught the entire market off guard, to be sure, but the Salvadorans weren't unprepared for this stage of the bitcoin cycle.

El Salvador Attacks by the New York Times

The goals for bitcoin to bring investment to the country and financial services to the poor have failed." Those are three lines in a row. Tourism is up, as are investment and construction, according to our data. Furthermore, if the poor obtain a smartphone, they can obtain perfectly legal financial services in under five minutes. In many cases, for the first time in their lives. "Last year, his government spent the equivalent of 15% of its annual investment budget attempting to integrate bitcoin into the national economy." Is that a remark? That money was well spent. It got El Salvador on the front page of The New York Times, for example.

After spending their $30 stipend, only 10% of Chivo users continued making bitcoin transactions on the app and nearly no new customers downloaded the app this year according to the researchers. That app was terrible, so it was ideal. Let's hope that at least 10% of those people received non-custodial wallets.

A separate survey conducted in March by El Salvador's Chamber of Commerce found that only 14 percent of the country's businesses had made bitcoin transactions since its introduction in September, and only 3 percent saw any business value in it." They're mistaken, and they're passing up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

According to El Salvador's central bank, digital currency payment apps like Chivo accounted for less than 2% of remittances in the first five months of this year. Those figures appear to be promising. Especially since El Salvador's central bank" has no access to data from non-custodial wallets. According to the country's central bank, only 48 new bitcoin-focused companies have registered in El Salvador since the cryptocurrency's introduction; this represents less than 2% of all businesses that opened in 2019. Given that the government hasn't laid out a clear path for small and medium-sized businesses to establish a presence in the country, that's pretty good.

It's important to remember that this experiment has only been running for about a year. And to realize that Bitcoinist is focusing on the real issues and criticizing El Salvador's bitcoin experiment better than The New York Times.

Attacks on El Salvador by Others

The government gave this project as much support as you could hope for, and it still failed. The government has yet to provide the Salvadorans with the bitcoin education that it promised. People are afraid of losing their money who coordinate vendors at a sprawling street market in the capital of El Salvador, San Salvador. Following the recent price drop, he stated that his $30 stipend from downloading the Chivo app is now worth $10. It had to be more than $60. Is it our responsibility to feel sorry for this man's lack of business acumen? The problem with bitcoin is that no one gains anything, an economist and former central bank director from El Salvador. It's an investment with no social benefits. Yikes! Take back this man's university title as soon as possible.