At a packed convention center in Miami in early June 2021, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced in a prerecorded video that the Central American country would soon be making history. Bitcoin was going to become legal currency in El Salvador, and it was going to be great, Bukele insisted. Today, four months into El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment, the reviews are mixed: some praise the move as the most progressive step in history toward granting financial access while others claim it’s an irresponsible gamble and a credit-rating nightmare. Just days after Bukele announced his bitcoin plans, El Salvador’s ... (full story)