El Salvador to build cryptocurrency-fueled “Bitcoin City”

[ad_1]

LA LIBERTAD, El Salvador (AP) – In a rock concert atmosphere, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced that his government would build an oceanfront “Bitcoin City” at the foot of a volcano.

Bukele used a rally of Bitcoin enthusiasts on Saturday night to launch his latest idea, just as he used a previous Bitcoin conference in Miami to announce in a video message that El Salvador would be the first country to make crypto legal. -cash,

A bond offering would take place in 2022 entirely in Bitcoin, said Bukele, wearing his baseball cap upside down. And 60 days after the financing was ready, construction began.

The city will be built near the Conchagua volcano to take advantage of geothermal energy to power both the city and Bitcoin mining – the energy-consuming solving of complex mathematical calculations day and night to verify currency transactions.

The government is already running a pilot Bitcoin mining company at another geothermal power plant next to the Tecapa volcano.

The oceanfront Conchagua volcano is located in the southeast of El Salvador, in the Gulf of Fonseca.

The government will provide land and infrastructure and work to attract investors.

The only tax collected there will be the value-added tax, half of which will go to paying municipal bonds and the rest to municipal infrastructure and maintenance. Bukele said there would be no property, income or municipal tax and that the city would have zero carbon dioxide emissions.

The city would be built with the thought of attracting foreign investment in mind. There would be residential areas, shopping malls, restaurants and a port, Bukele said. The President spoke about digital education, technology and sustainable public transport.

“Invest here and earn all the money you want,” Bukele told the enthusiastic English crowd at the closing of the Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain conference in El Salvador.

Bitcoin has been legal tender alongside the US dollar since September 7.

The government is backing Bitcoin with a $ 150 million fund. To get Salvadorians to use it, the government offered $ 30 in credit to those who use its digital wallet.

Critics have warned that the currency’s lack of transparency could attract increased criminal activity to the country and that wild swings in the value of the digital currency would pose a risk to those who hold it.

Bitcoin was originally created to operate outside of government-controlled financial systems and Bukele says it will help attract foreign investment to El Salvador and make it cheaper for Salvadorans living abroad to send money. money to their families.

Concern within the Salvadoran opposition and outside observers has grown this year as Bukele decided to consolidate power.

Voters gave the hugely popular presidential party control of Congress earlier this year. The new lawmakers immediately replaced members of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court and the attorney general, leaving Bukele’s party firmly in control of other branches of government.

In response, the US government said it would shift its aid from government agencies to civil society organizations. This month, Bukele sent a proposal to Congress that would require organizations receiving foreign funding to register as foreign agents.

[ad_2]