El Salvador looks to become the world’s first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender

PUBLISHED SAT, JUN 5 20214:56 PM EDT UPDATED MON, JUN 7 20216:37 PM EDT El Salvador President Nayib Bukele plans to introduce legislation that will make it the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Bukele broadcast his intentions on a video at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. Bukele said the country is partnering with digital wallet company, Strike, to build modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, delivers a speech to Congress at the Legislative Assembly building in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Tuesday, June 1, 2021. Photographer: Camilo Freedman/Bloomberg via Getty Images Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, delivers a speech to Congress at the Legislative Assembly building in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Tuesday, June 1, 2021. Photographer: Camilo Freedman/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images MIAMI — El Salvador is looking to introduce legislation that will make it the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar. In a video broadcast to Bitcoin 2021, a multiday conference in Miami being billed as the biggest bitcoin event in history, President Nayib Bukele announced El Salvador’s partnership with digital wallet company, Strike, to build the country’s modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. Here’s what’s next for bitcoin after a packed conference in Miami “Next week I will send to congress a bill that will make bitcoin a legal tender,” said Bukele. Jack Mallers, founder of the Lightning Network payments platform Strike, said this will go down as the “shot heard ’round the world for bitcoin.” “What’s transformative here is that bitcoin is both the greatest reserve asset ever created and a superior monetary network. Holding bitcoin provides a way to protect developing economies from potential shocks of fiat currency inflation,” continued Mallers.