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President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele told how the law on bitcoin works in the country and responded to critics. Everything is not so bad: no one imposes cryptocurrency payments on small sellers, and large corporations do not suffer too much from them.
The bitcoin law, which made the first cryptocurrency legal tender in El Salvador last September, contained, in particular, Article 7, which obliged everyone who provides services or sells something to accept cryptocurrency as payment if the client/buyer wants to pay with bitcoins.
This approach caused a mixed reaction even among fans of bitcoin. However, in a recent interview, Bukele explained that the controversial article has not been actually applied to any entrepreneur for all time. The fact is that this condition applies only to large corporations:
A small entrepreneur… He can do whatever he wants.
The President of El Salvador stressed that this article of the law was not being implemented and there were no plans to enforce it in the near future. Nevertheless, it gives the state the opportunity to rein in “large corporations” or “large banks” if necessary.
The crypto community has repeatedly criticized Bukele for the controversial rule. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on a Reddit subforum dedicated to cryptocurrency, accused the head of El Salvador of “forcing bitcoin” and called him a dictator who almost grabs a weapon and bends the country’s Parliament:
forcing all businesses in a country to accept a particular cryptocurrency for payment runs counter to the ideals of freedom that are so important to the cryptocurrency industry.
However, the stubborn Bukele believes that the article of the law, on the contrary, gives more freedom to customers and buyers, because now they can choose how to pay for food or clothing in stores.
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