Seven countries in the world use the US dollar as their sovereign currency, and one of them is El Salvador. This country with a population of just over 6.4 million today became the first country in the world to eat crabs. Not only declared Bitcoin as the national currency, but also took a series of measures to ensure that Bitcoin began to be used in the country:
1. Release Bitcoin App in El Salvador. The app, called Chivo, is recharged with $30 in its wallet to encourage Salvadoran people to use it.
2. As a sovereign country, it bought 400 bitcoins, and today, 150 bitcoins were added because of the flash collapse of bitcoin prices. These bitcoins are worth more than $20 million.
3. More than 200 ATM machines have been deployed, and a series of application scenarios have been started in people's lives, including local McDonald's and Pizza Hut consumption.
There are many inspirations from this incident.
1. Countries that use the US dollar as their sovereign currency do have the impulse to use Bitcoin, but more precisely, they have the impulse to get rid of the US dollar.Seven countries in the world use the US dollar as legal tender, namely El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador, Zimbabwe, East Timor and so on. Because these sovereign states do not have the power to print money, they can only rely on foreign reserves to meet government expenditure. According to the data of El Salvador's foreign reserves (below), the foreign reserves have almost halved since COVID-19, which is problematic. On the one hand, the United States will print more and more dollars, and the purchasing power of dollars will decline (inflation); On the other hand, El Salvador did not get extra dollars. This leaves countries like El Salvador in a very difficult economic situation under the flood of dollars. In fact, El Salvador doesn't have to launch Bitcoin, but mainly wants to get rid of the dollar. Hint: The internationalization of RMB should focus on these countries that use the US dollar as their sovereign currency but suffer from it.
2. Who is behind the development and support of Bitcoin App and ATM in El Salvador?El Salvador is a poor country, but this time it launched an app to send $30 and more than 200 ATM machines. I don't think El Salvador's private technology companies have the ability to make a national wallet App and more than 200 ATM machines, while the government is even less capable. According to the Wall Street Journal, Salvadoran App downloads, which are not in Apple App Store or Google App Store, first appeared in Huawei App Store.
3. Will Bitcoin further show its versatility because of El Salvador? On the contrary, this incident has exposed the shortcomings of Bitcoin.Today, El Salvador announced the use of Bitcoin, which not only did not push up the price of Bitcoin, but caused the price of Bitcoin to collapse by 17%. Whether the good news is exhausted or some people run away with good news, it shows once again that Bitcoin is too speculative. But that's not the point.
The key factor is the Bitcoin App in El Salvador. Bitcoin, as the virtual currency with the largest imagination space, is used beyond national boundaries. In fact, the core of Bitcoin launched by El Salvador is App under the control of the national government. In other words, if you want to use Bitcoin in El Salvador, you have to download this app (Chivo). Spending in El Salvador through this wallet App is no different from buying breakfast in China through WeChat wallet. Of course, you have to say that one bottom is Bitcoin and the other bottom is RMB, which is different. But for users, there is no difference. If Bitcoin can't be used beyond App (beyond national boundaries), its status as digital cash still can't be confirmed.
In a word, bitcoin is more like gold than currency.