An Entire Country Switched Over to Bitcoin and It's Turned Into a Disaster

As the United States struggles to get even basic crypto legislation off the starting line, one small nation went all in on blockchain — and it's going about as well as you'd expect. That country is El Salvador, home to the native Pipil people of Cuscatlán, ancient mangrove forests, and for four wild years, the crypto industry. Following the whims of conservative populist Nayib Bukele — who calls himself "the world's coolest dictator" — El Salvador's congress signed legislation to become the first country in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender in June of 2021. The government hoped the edict would jump-start the nation's ailing economy, a growing haven for organized crime that's typical of high-poverty nations. Dreaming of the crypto future, lawmakers set the date for national tokenization for September 2021, but there was a lot of work to do. Leading up to the big day, the Central American nation contracted US crypto asset trust BitGo to lead its central crypto wallet, pr ... Read full article.