Sarah Tran
Independent Analyst
- El Salvador recently became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in the country.
- The government is also planning to leverage its geothermal potential to mine BTC.
- The government is now debating whether Bitcoin should be used to pay employee salaries in the country.
Shortly following the adoption of the leading cryptocurrency as legal tender in the country, El Salvador is discussing whether companies should pay salaries in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin becomes legal tender in the coming months
Just a week ago, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Congress approved President Nayib Bukele’s proposal to embrace the cryptocurrency, and history was made.
The country does not have its own currency and uses the US dollar as legal tender. Bukele highlighted that the use of Bitcoin would help Salvadorans living abroad to send remittances home.
Currently, the new law would force firms to accept the bellwether cryptocurrency when offered as payment for goods and services. Its use as legal tender will begin 90 days after the law was created, with the Bitcoin-dollar exchange rate set by the market.
The US dollar will still be used as the reference currency and legal tender in the country. Citizens in the country would also have the option to pay tax contributions in the flagship digital currency.
Now, El Salvador’s Minister of Labor & Social Welfare, Rolando Castro, says that the government is considering whether companies should pay employee salaries in the leading cryptocurrency.
The El Salvador 2001 Monetary Integration Law states that all salaries are payable in dollars since the country replaced the Salvadoran colon with the greenback during Francisco Flores’s presidency.
Although details regarding the new initiative remain unclear, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance are working together with the Ministry of Labor & Social Welfare on this development.
According to Castro, the decision of whether to pay salaries in Bitcoin will come after the digital asset assumes the new status as legal tender in the coming months.
El Salvador’s adoption of the leading cryptocurrency continues to advance rapidly as the government is also planning to mine Bitcoin with energy from volcanoes. The president called on the state-backed geothermal power company to make facilities available for BTC miners.
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