The price ofBitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD) slipped to below $39,000 on Thursday after the World Bank refused El Salvador’s request to help with the implementation of the cryptocurrency as a legal tender. The value of BTC has depreciated about 0.4% in the last 24 hours.
Last week, the Latin American country’s president, Nayib Bukele, tweeted a reveal of his El Salvador Bitcoin plan :
He deflected concerns about the cryptocurrency’s environmental impact with another tweet that indicated the country would use clean energy for mining:
“Our engineers just informed me that they dug a new well, that will provide approximately 95MW of 100% clean, 0 emissions geothermal energy from our volcanosStarting to design a full#Bitcoinmining hub around it.”
Yet that wasn’t enough to prevent theWorld Bank crypto kibosh. The lender said it could not assist El Salvador’s Bitcoin plan due to the environmental impact of mining and transparency challenges. “We are committed to helping El Salvador in numerous ways including for currency transparency and regulatory processes,” a spokesperson for the international lender toldReuters.
“While the government did approach us for assistance on Bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings.”
El Salvador Bitcoin Plan Would Be a First
El Salvador is looking to offermore financial freedomto citizens who might not have access to traditional financial services. That makes sense as only 30% of citizens have access to such services. Folks there won’t have to use a government wallet to hold BTC. And while all businesses will have to accept Bitcoin, they won’t necessarily have to hold onto it.
What else is inthe El Salvador Bitcoin plan, which makes the country the first in the world to accept the cryptocurrency as legal tender?
- The government is setting up a fund that will allow businesses to exchange BTC for U.S. dollars.
- This fund will hold $150 million and will regularly sell Bitcoin to replenish its resources.
- In addition to all of this, Bukele also revealed that investing in the economy of El Salvador can grant a person citizenship.
- He said that anyone that invests 3 BTC, or about $117,0000 as of this writing, into the economy will obtain citizenship in the country.