Bukele: If BTC Succeeds In ELSL, “It’ll Be One Of History’s Biggest Game-Changers”

The second Nayib Bukele interview by What Bitcoin Did comes with as many quotables as the first one. This one was recorded days after the Bitcoin Law went into effect in El Salvador, so the information might feel a little dated. Especially if you’ve been following Bitcoinist’s coverage of the ELSL story. However, it’s important. El Salvador was the first nation in the world to adopt the bitcoin standard. This is the story of the century.

If you need to catch up, Bitcoinist covered Bukele’s first What Bitcoin Did appearance in two articles; one about the controversial Article 7 of the Bitcoin Law and another about mining with a volcano as a battery. And this particular interview is part, and should be considered a sequel to McCormack’s “Follow The Money” documentary. That one we covered in One, Two, and Three parts.

In any case, President Bukele received Peter McCormack in the government palace and this conversation took place:

What did they talk about? Let’s get into it.

Nayib Bukele In Phrases

• “A credit card fee here would be, for a normal business would be six-seven percent. You paid 5 percent for one second. Isn’t that the highest interest rate in the world?”
• (about observers) “They’re not interested in El Salvador, they’re interested in us to fail.”
• “If this succeeds I think it will be one of history’s biggest game-changers in economics.”
• (about how the media isn’t really attacking ELSL) “They’re just attacking Bitcoin. They hate it because they’re afraid of it.”
• (about how ELSL isn’t buying bitcoin just to hold) “It’s an asset, of course, but it’s also currency. So, it’s going to move.”
• (about El Salvador’s reception of the Bitcoin Law) “It’s working a lot better than what we thought (…) because the people are very interested in this new thing.”
• (about the lack of bitcoin education) “Look, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of communication, a lot of education that has to be done. But, at the end, if you have a good solid project that you know it’s going to work, you should push it.”
• (about the public’s fear of de-dollarization) “This is voluntary, nobody’s taking your dollars away from you. If you want paper money, you can have it.”

BTC price chart for 06/03/2022 on Cexio | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

What Did McCormack Say?

In typical McCormack fashion, the What Bitcoin Did host talked about how he didn’t need to exchange dollars at the airport because he could pay for everything at Bitcoin Beach with a Lightning wallet. And now, that’s valid in all of El Salvador. He also presented Bukele with his idea that El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment will for sure be successful in 10 years, but that the change wasn’t going to be immediately apparent. Bukele responded:

“There are a lot of benefits that are going to come. Well, they came on Tuesday. There are a lot of benefits that are going to come in a week, when there’s more usage. There are a lot of benefits that are going to come in three months and there are a lot of benefits to the economy in a year. I don’t think we have to wait 10 years to see the benefits of it.”

McCormack also challenged the President about the Salvadoran opposition to him and bitcoin. “They’re just against everything we do,” Bukele responded, implying it’s nothing personal against bitcoin. In fact, “they haven’t been successful with us. Never. So, I’m more afraid of the international attacks because that type of adversary we have never had.” Or, in other words,  “It’s not the news we’re afraid of, but what’s behind them.”

Featured Image: Bukele, screenshot from the video | Charts by TradingView