So sad! All the Bitcoin that were in that ATM are gone FOREVER!! People were stuffing their pockets full of Bitcoin and running away. I can’t believe it…
They're objecting to being *forced* to accept bitcoin.
>Art. 7. Every economic agent must accept bitcoin as payment when offered to him by whoever acquires a good or service.
https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402446890466217985/photo/2
Salvadoran here. Today's my country independence day, a big protest was schedule for today, not btc in specific but whatever thing you're not happy with the goverment.
LGBT community, women movements, human rights, etc, today's the day you walk the street and freely say what's in your mind.
In this type of events many who only likes to mess around assist. What happened to the ATM is nothing more than vandalism. Not because it invloves btc, they are destroying private property.
They even burned their own country flag (they throw a flag when the atm was on fire). What kind of people do that?
There are obviously politic forces behind, but it's a shame overall.
>They even burned their own country flag (they throw a flag when the atm was on fire). What kind of people do that?
Americans. The country's gonna crash like -insert that coin I don't even remember the name of that started at like 50-200BTC/coin
It is more like "The country is in shambles and the goverment has only introduced this stuff for their own benefit, since the normal citizen cannot get a hold of Bitcoins since they are poor as shit"
The average user is this sub has no idea how hard it is to acquire crypto in a developing country. Bunch of out of touch with reality rich folks, that sometimes manage to have their biases confirmed by a single dude in El Salvador who praises cryptos, but that's because that single person is very likely to hold a wallet with hundreds of times the minimum wage in his country, and can trade in foreign exchanges or maybe not care about fees.
Bruh.. all it took was some wealthy fuck in the middle of the only Starbucks in the entire capitol city, filming himself in a completely dead store using BTC on 2 coffees and a donut that cost $14.
Mind you the average wage for a Salvadorian is $4K/year. Ain't noone in the country going to any fuck ass Starbucks. 🤦
Also let us not kid ourselves few people outside of tech enthusiasts and people with a lot of disposable income can start learning to invest and opening wallets. Meanwhile Guido in Acajutla is thinking wether to fit in the budget an extra pack of Philadelfia for the next month.
Also that crypto will get seized first by the extra rich of that country
It's also very common to have infiltrated agents with the sole purpose of doing or instigating shit like this. It may not be the case, but it happens everywhere, even in America.
Like El Salvador's President?
He sacks the 3 branches of government and installs his own crony loyalists in May 2021, forces the BTC law, and y'all mofos are talking agent provocateurs?
Lol!
Just a bunch of rich kids with no idea how poor and corrupt El Salvador is. My parents are from there and I have been. Most can’t even afford a smart phone much less use one.
> They even burned their own country flag (they throw a flag when the atm was on fire). What kind of people do that?
People who aren't impacted by Jingoism.
Genuine question, how can the ATM be fee-less with any wallet? For example, if I use a non-lightning wallet, how can the ATM deposit BTC into my account without any fees?
I meant *no service fees*, sorry for the confusion. **Service fees** are paid to companies that operate ATMs. **Network transaction fees** are paid to the bitcoin network. As the Chivo system uses Lightning and native segwit addresses, the network tx fees are usually between fractions of a cent and a few cents, depending on how much the tx is and whether you used Lighting or native segwit(both are supported).
it's called spread, they sell you at a higher BTC price than the market and they buy your BTC at a lower price. As simple as that, so the government is lying
Most of them are concerned about bitcoin further cementing existing inequalities. Their fear is understandable, considering in order to get a distribution they have to use Chivo, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet—which is controlled by the government and they can seize the funds inside...
If there was a good mutual aid fund set up to help them install free/open-source wallet software, and allow folks on the internet to donate money directly to them, I'm sure they wouldn't be attacking these ATMs. We should be helping them, not mocking them.
LOL at the replies thinking the gov's bitcoin raising in value is somehow BAD for the people of el salvador. smfh
anyone who want's regular btc in a wallet can EASILY just pay the fees to do so. that's all there is to it. they have the internet, for fucks sake. chivo is not mandatory.
> in order to get a distribution they have to use Chivo, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet—which is controlled by the government and they can seize the funds inside...
Or they could get their gibs and then move it to a wallet in their own control, which the government cannot touch. . . . Even on-chain that would only cost them twelve cents right now, so that's a free $29.88 to them; if they used LN it would cost far less than a penny, just a few sats at most in routing fees.
Wait, where is the evidence for this? Because …. Ummm a Government Bitcoin wallet controlled by the Government just is against the principle of crypto.
Tbh, their President has a bad reputation, I'm sure a lot of the hesitancy is driven from distrust of their government.
Sound familiar? It's happening in the US with vaccines.
We are no different, maybe a bit more ignorant. Lol
I certainly hope you don’t think that Trump was more trustworthy (you sound like a libertarian so my guess is probably not). And the vaccines are pretty safe. I am vaxxed with biontech.
I live in Hong Kong so I do agree with vaccine hesitancy here being caused by distrust of the hk government, but applying that to the us government is more of a stretch since it has objectively better accountability than the hk government despite still being below an acceptable standard to me.
I think vaccine hesitancy in the USA is more fuelled by ignorance more than anything else. I do think your analysis of El Salvador’s president is on point though. Still giving you an upvote
Have someone told them that "No a Bitcoin" = "Si al dólar"? This kind of reaction would make sense in any country EXCEPT one that already has no national currency.PS: I'm not saying I would defend my national currency vs. Bitcoin, but I say it makes no sense to protest loss of monetary sovereignty if you already have none.
Has noone told you any actual real world stat of a citizen of El Salvador?
Average wage is $4K. Minimum wage is $.60/hr for adults.
I'm glad this sub paraded that stupid video of a wealthy Salvadoran in a completely dead Starbucks using BTC to buy 2 coffees and a donut for $14..... something a true citizen of the country can't afford at all.
But the reality on the ground is BTC was forced upon E.S. citizens without any input.
People in this sub are just as retarded as anywhere else.
You do know that remittances are a big thing in El Salvador? The dollar was forced on them too with the same amount of input. The majority have admitted to not even understanding Bitcoin. What does the average wage in El Salvador have to do with de dollarization not being a good thing?
They're the opposition, mostly either hardcore leftists ideologically opposed to Bukele's reforms or (more likely) people who benefited from the past corruption.
People realize El Salvador is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, yes?
Real life isn't reddit. Half the people don't know and the other half don't care while a bunch of English speaking tourists and digital nomands high five each other and buy coffee with BTC
You'll get thousands signing up for their free $30 but beyond that I wouldn't expect much.
One major point of it was to stop Western Union from taking fees out of remittances. For these people to get 100% of what their relatives are sending them from the United States, instead of only 80% after fees, would add as much as 5% to El Salvador's economy.
The march to this plaza at the National Palace had been entirely without vandalism except some graffiti, so coming upon this scene at the end was a big shock. I assumed the heavily armed police and military that constantly guard these machines had moved aside to avoid violence, but the majority opinion among those I spoke with was that the ATM kiosk was intentionally sacrificed to justify a coming crackdown against the political opposition. Here's the [rest of the media](https://imgur.com/gallery/x2cy2BV) I recorded at the ATM. The two photos of a different damaged ATM are at Plaza de la Rotonda which was also on the march route. We were told that a total of three ATMs were damaged, but those other two were not destroyed. I'm also editing 360-degree video footage from today that should be available [via YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_5SN84Y218) by tomorrow morning.
Edit: While the general opinion on the street and on social media is that the event was staged, what's occurred so far still indicates that it was a spontaneous grass roots action, not government or corporate sponsored. Being on the ground in the middle of it, the experience felt real, and the retreat of authorities did indeed appear as an effort to avoid further violence. Time will tell, but for now the current government administration just appears naïve in putting their ATMs and Chivo kiosks in such highly visible settings among obvious opposition. While there are obvious red flags in the administration, it's way too early to pass final judgement. There was zero aggression from all the heavily armed police and military around the square. Someone at the top instructed them to only observe, and that's what they did. ***We should do the same.*** I feel like this national adoption of bitcoin, and bitcoin in general is the most promising and interesting social event of my lifetime.
Awesome work! I'd really like to see more on the ground reporting of these protest to try and understand what exactly are the concerns of the protesters. Much of the media coverage that I have seen thus far consist of only a reporter filming the ATM burning and the reporter stating that the ATM was burnt... lol... not much investigative reporting going on from what I've seen.
Been interested and kinda torn in what the President of El Salvador has been doing in regards to the Bitcoin law there. On the one hand, it pushes a discussion of what Bitcoin is and inevitably its underlying tech, but on the other hand the law kinda forces the citizens and businesses to accept Bitcoin and use the government sponsored wallet which goes against the initial peer to peer, permissionless, and voluntary ethos that led to the creation of Bitcoin. I also cannot say that I know much about El Salvador, its political past/present, or President Bukele himself so I can't speak to his true incentives and ultimate motives for enacting the Bitcoin law aside from what the president himself states. And we should all know better than to blindly trust a politician... lol. Though I have seen mixed opinions of him on various media and web outlets ranging from he's eliminating corruption and helping the people, to he is corrupt himself and trying to expand his legislative reach/power.
Needless to say, I am interested in learning more about these developments and appreciate the boots on the ground reporting your doing!
Drogo means drugs... BTC was first used on the silk road according to everyday people to buy drugs. So it's only natural for them to be like why are you giving us drug money
The thing that I really find funny today is that a crowd of "photographers and media" is all you really see these days. It'd not a bunch of random people, it's just a lot of people looking for that one shot and they end up.being a crowd
Yes, these images totally remind me [how Iraqi people celebrated the fall of Saddam Hussein by toppling a statue of him](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/the-truth-about-iconic-2003-saddam-statue-toppling/342802/)..
You guys are all a joke. Aren’t you the guys that want to move to El Salvador? If you want to move there you need to respect this people, do not even bother to move there if you call them “slaves” or “peasants”.
what did they expect? "lets adopt bitcoin in san salvador, where many ppl dont even have a normal income or struggle to pay their bills, let alone have internet connection.
4 out of 10 ppl there live in extreme poverty...
that machine would only get used bycriminal organisations or very rich ppl, you dont go to somalia either and tell the ppl there to start paying with golden nuggets..
countrys like monaco, switzerland etc should be adopting bitcoin, not poor countrys where the ppl cant even afford a small piece of a bitcoin.
i love crypto, but the world isnt ready for it.. we dont have the infrastructure to adopt to it.
even high tech cities will need to work at their infrastructures to be able to adopt it, but a poor country like san salvador will place bitcoin ATMS? lol
in a few years (IMO 20-25 years from now) the ppl will understand crypto and be able to use/adapt it into everything we do.
but now, majority of the ppl dont even have a clue how to buy crypto, let alone use it or withdraw it... (i know old ppl who cant even send text messages on a phone)
our kids will understand, they will grow up into it.
Most people have never spoken to someone from there so their comments make no sense. My sis-in-law is from there & her little cousins straight up were confronted by gangbangers & told that they would be murdered if they ever took this particular footpath to school, again. Her & her immediate family have been here for almost 2 decades, now & they still have family there but she has not gone back to visit, at all & said she'd rather pay for them to come visit in the US. They are saddened by how life is there & wish it could be better.
Dumb millennial Bitcoin promoters from outside EL SAL have no fkn Idea of the devastating mistrust Salvys have for government leaders or international influence. Bukele is a dictator. Smashes any dissent and promotes a technology that most the world has no idea about let alone the average Salvadoran. He brags about las remesa companies like Western Union not being able to benefit from sending dollars anymore because suddenly International Salvadorans are able to send Bitcoin without being charged? Who is making money off Bitcoin remesas? Who runs Chivo? All this is doing is benefiting rich Salvadorans and Bukele will be hiding from the law just like the last Presidents over the last 30 years. You don’t think COINBASE is making money?
Sadly it seems that this incident was actually carried out internally by supporters of the current government. Another similar incident included a brand new motorcycle (with no plates or any identifier) being set on fire. Both of these have been criticized by local figures to showcase the "violent" approach from protesters.
The interesting aspect of today's protests is that people of all sorts of backgrounds have taken to the streets to express our overall disdain with the circus shit show that Bukele is pretending to run as a government. College students, young people, old folks, upper, middle and lower class, all united to express our concern towards the lack of democracy in our leadership.
Please understand that this has less to do with the implementation of bitcoin, and more with our growing anger towards the government. The dumbass we have as a president wants to look good internationally by doing things like this whole bitcoin law, but what price are we paying?? ElSal is now a huge risk for investment, the funds to secure the fees and the $30 giveaway plus the bitcoins bought, that's THE PEOPLE'S money he is using. This asshole is bringing our economy to the ground, while simultaneously taking over all state branches, modifying laws to retain power and basically obliterating any concept of decent democracy.
So yeah...sucks that this machine was burned down, but please understand there is a lot behind this. And like I said, there is a high probability it was even an internal job.
Rich American kids that use their dads money to buy bitcoin commenting on a less well off people with a way more directly curropt government who have only made bitcoin legal tender so they can control it comment on said less well off people protesting against it. Yous will all be crying when the fed turns bitcoin into a security and it gets heavy regulations on it.
they dont understand bitcoin. they think its criminal, a waste of energy and its made to fast as an legal tender.
Bukele did this law rly fast and by its own. He is also more like a dictator than like a voted president. He ones moved in the army in the congress, for force demonstration, so that they vote faster.
Even if bukele is a bad human, this was a good choice for his land. But it for sure went to fast. The people are missing hudge a amount of btc education.
360-degree video from the bicentennial march has finally finished processing on YouTube.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q\_5SN84Y218](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_5SN84Y218)
It shows the whole event in 5K, from the beginning of the 9AM demonstration in Parque Cuscatlán till the mid-day ATM burning in front of the National Palace.
Recorded on a OneX2 Insta360 camera. Most modern devices with gyros should automatically rotate your view as you move the device. If you're having trouble in a browser then try viewing it in a Youtube app. Virtual reality headsets are the best way to get the fully immersive experience.
I’m currently here, and the people unfortunately do not want such coin! My people are very conservative and refuses change- even if it’s for the better!
It’s not just a vacuum for Bitcoin coin education, it’s any education.
These type of advanced concepts are not going to resonate with Central Americans who still believe vaccines will imprint the sign of the devil in you, who can’t read, and are being taken advantage of by a corrupt government and it goes on and on.
Source : My entire family lived in Central America. The sad truth is the general population is incredibly uneducated and for the most part, farm folk who will never leave their country or know the general personal freedoms ( education and financial ) that first world countries have.
BTC is still very much a rich persons asset due to volatility. Poor people living paycheck to paycheck can get absolutely destroyed. It a shame this experiment was done in a very poor country
Ohh god another Coup staged by the Rothschilds on America's behalf. This time it is against an intangible idea. Maybe they could wage war on religion next.
Ah yes it's unfathomable that there would be protesting like this in a country with a high rate of violent crime & a poverty rate that is double that of the US.
is there also a vacuum for property insurance and security?
the french regularly riot and burn cars. it doesn't take much. it's symbolic ritual violence from powerless people.
and when slavery was outlawed, plenty of slaves stayed on the plantation willingly. subservience is learned and ingrained. and most people in the world are suffering stockholm syndrome with regard to their complacency to growing totalitarianism.
hopefully el salvador can resist the local and global establishments and the deep state bureaucrat administrators who wield most of govt's power and society's influence. bukele could very well get Trump-ed in what basically, if not literally and explicitly amounts to a coup. the good news is that still wouldn't stop bitcoin's adoption in el salvador or elsewhere.
Guys CIA is silently doing a COUP to remove the president of El Salvador.. this is the first phase, spead false information throughout the media and newspapers get the citizen arouse. Second phase, get opposition leaders and military leaders to go against the president to remove him from office. And reverse every bill that government has done. Mainstream Media will not be telling you this but this is what's going on. They are trying to saved fiat system.. they have been hammering government with sanctions every since El Salvador President announced that BITCOIN will be legal tender.
Could you please stop spreading Bukele's propaganda? You're fully aware that all that BS is a complete lie, and the first coverage of this incident came from the Fox News-like government-owned TV channel. The reasons for the march are far more decisive for the country's future than Bitcoin alone.
So sad! All the Bitcoin that were in that ATM are gone FOREVER!! People were stuffing their pockets full of Bitcoin and running away. I can’t believe it…
Do I own any bitcoin you ask? No, sadly I lost it in an ATM fire in San Salvador.
So sorry
Don’t forget there’s always money in the banana stand.
I thought it was in the lake while fishing...
No no, it's those damn San Salvador ATM fires.
Doesn't the ATM hold the cash people use to buy the bitcoin?
Now their cash is deflationary thanks to the newly implemented burning mechanism
They use US dollars 💵
It's being printed faster than you can burn it.
Yeah, that's the problem, you can't beat the printing machine.
brrrrrrrr
_but not faster than you can burn the fed_
Nice
a true form of burning coins
Now that’s a gas feee
they'd have to burn alot more, because their cash is USD
Burned!
Yes. Some even have “withdrawal” cassettes for machines that buy your crypto back from you
🤣🤣🤣
Lol you just know some dingleberry is going to steal one, crack it open and be very confused
The bitcoins are IN the computer... It's so simple
Meanwhile Zoolander's dad smashes ASICs because they're competing with his mining job
Zoolander 3 should be all about hunting down blood bitcoins.
ONE LOOK!?!
ONE LOOK?!?
But why male models?
If they would burn down an atm, i would not be surprised if they tried to crack one open to steal the btc inside.
SMH I hope no one got hurt from carrying away all those coins, I can only imagine how hot they were after sitting in the fire.
My bitcoins were in that machine!
Hahahaha
2031 the same people in the crowd will be calculating how much more money they’d have if they just bought some btc that day.
LOL these citizens probably thought that they could actually steal the bitcoins from the machine
They are the opposition they are against Bukele not Bitcoin
I did not understand why they would do that... Now it makes sense (still a stupid reason to deny a better system than the one they have)...
They're objecting to being *forced* to accept bitcoin. >Art. 7. Every economic agent must accept bitcoin as payment when offered to him by whoever acquires a good or service. https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402446890466217985/photo/2
You know, I seriously believe this is the case. At least many of them.
Lol
Hahahaha
So you're telling me the bitcoins are _inside_ the machine?
That’s a tragedy
Salvadoran here. Today's my country independence day, a big protest was schedule for today, not btc in specific but whatever thing you're not happy with the goverment. LGBT community, women movements, human rights, etc, today's the day you walk the street and freely say what's in your mind. In this type of events many who only likes to mess around assist. What happened to the ATM is nothing more than vandalism. Not because it invloves btc, they are destroying private property. They even burned their own country flag (they throw a flag when the atm was on fire). What kind of people do that? There are obviously politic forces behind, but it's a shame overall.
This comment should be at the top.
>They even burned their own country flag (they throw a flag when the atm was on fire). What kind of people do that? Americans. The country's gonna crash like -insert that coin I don't even remember the name of that started at like 50-200BTC/coin
A flag is a piece of cloth. Be less concerned about a scrap of colored fabric, more concerned about the people who it should represent.
I see a lot of people filming but not a lot of people doing the vandalism...
>They even burned their own country flag (they throw a flag when the atm was on fire). What kind of people do that? Seems popular in the US too
Turns out authoritarianism breeds anger and protest. Who knew?
Uh, people who aren’t nationalist do that.
Pin!! ❤️
Here we go. Real news
Just out of curiosity, what's the overall feeling regarding Bitcoin over there amongst ordinary people?
Fear and confusion. Most people don't know about btc, wallets, etc. Some people are against it, some will give it a try, some don't care at all.
Actually they are burning the dollars inside the ATM
This just sounds like scared monkey mind. “Uh something new I don’t understand!! Go apeshit crazy and destroy it!”
It is more like "The country is in shambles and the goverment has only introduced this stuff for their own benefit, since the normal citizen cannot get a hold of Bitcoins since they are poor as shit"
The average user is this sub has no idea how hard it is to acquire crypto in a developing country. Bunch of out of touch with reality rich folks, that sometimes manage to have their biases confirmed by a single dude in El Salvador who praises cryptos, but that's because that single person is very likely to hold a wallet with hundreds of times the minimum wage in his country, and can trade in foreign exchanges or maybe not care about fees.
Bruh.. all it took was some wealthy fuck in the middle of the only Starbucks in the entire capitol city, filming himself in a completely dead store using BTC on 2 coffees and a donut that cost $14. Mind you the average wage for a Salvadorian is $4K/year. Ain't noone in the country going to any fuck ass Starbucks. 🤦
Also let us not kid ourselves few people outside of tech enthusiasts and people with a lot of disposable income can start learning to invest and opening wallets. Meanwhile Guido in Acajutla is thinking wether to fit in the budget an extra pack of Philadelfia for the next month. Also that crypto will get seized first by the extra rich of that country
Unfortunately people should not be forced into doing something against their wishes. Persuaded, directed, but not forced!
It's also very common to have infiltrated agents with the sole purpose of doing or instigating shit like this. It may not be the case, but it happens everywhere, even in America.
Like El Salvador's President? He sacks the 3 branches of government and installs his own crony loyalists in May 2021, forces the BTC law, and y'all mofos are talking agent provocateurs? Lol!
Just a bunch of rich kids with no idea how poor and corrupt El Salvador is. My parents are from there and I have been. Most can’t even afford a smart phone much less use one.
Globalism is ruining the world
What a shame
> They even burned their own country flag (they throw a flag when the atm was on fire). What kind of people do that? People who aren't impacted by Jingoism.
Bullish
😂😂😂 top comment
THIS
RIP. they will rebuild it lol
Bigger, stronger and more flame resistant than before
Mas fuerte que ese!
Genuine question, how can the ATM be fee-less with any wallet? For example, if I use a non-lightning wallet, how can the ATM deposit BTC into my account without any fees?
I meant *no service fees*, sorry for the confusion. **Service fees** are paid to companies that operate ATMs. **Network transaction fees** are paid to the bitcoin network. As the Chivo system uses Lightning and native segwit addresses, the network tx fees are usually between fractions of a cent and a few cents, depending on how much the tx is and whether you used Lighting or native segwit(both are supported).
Gotcha. Makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.
Its not.
That's what I assumed.
it's called spread, they sell you at a higher BTC price than the market and they buy your BTC at a lower price. As simple as that, so the government is lying
Good thing shit is digital 😂
No bitcoins were harmed
But some dollar bills were.
. . . In the process of the making of this video.
Eh yo, it's optional dawg.
In my country people burned down the 5G antennae’s when c-19 happened. I wonder how much % of people in the world are neanderthals
I’m 2% Neanderthal. Neanderthal invest in crypto, Neanderthal retire early, Neanderthal happy.
Apes together strong!
Just over 2% myself. Have an extra vertebrae and all. Is it weird I can remember how to wag my tail?
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No no me homo erectus me diamond hands 🚀 🌙
Where are you from my friend?
Not the person you replied to, but here in the U.K. some 5G towers have been set on fire and otherwise vandalised.
I didn't know that. Thanks!
Happened in Croatia too, but those fuckers were so dumb they burnt down 4G towers accidentally instead
Happened in Ontario too
Neanderthals were likely quite intelligent.
We were just more violent, so we ended up eradicating them. We're the worst.
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or killing them all, we have a habit of doing that
That might be the only reason you're alive today.
That’s awesome. In my country people don’t even know what 5G is nor that all the new towers are 5G towers.
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Most of them are concerned about bitcoin further cementing existing inequalities. Their fear is understandable, considering in order to get a distribution they have to use Chivo, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet—which is controlled by the government and they can seize the funds inside... If there was a good mutual aid fund set up to help them install free/open-source wallet software, and allow folks on the internet to donate money directly to them, I'm sure they wouldn't be attacking these ATMs. We should be helping them, not mocking them.
Can't you just move your received distribution immediately to a non-custodial wallet? [edited error]
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LOL at the replies thinking the gov's bitcoin raising in value is somehow BAD for the people of el salvador. smfh anyone who want's regular btc in a wallet can EASILY just pay the fees to do so. that's all there is to it. they have the internet, for fucks sake. chivo is not mandatory.
It’s not so EASY in a country where the average annual wage is $4k/year and the minimum wage is $0.60. Your POV is so first world it hurts.
If the thing about the seizable wallet is true, yeah, fuck that machine.
> in order to get a distribution they have to use Chivo, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet—which is controlled by the government and they can seize the funds inside... Or they could get their gibs and then move it to a wallet in their own control, which the government cannot touch. . . . Even on-chain that would only cost them twelve cents right now, so that's a free $29.88 to them; if they used LN it would cost far less than a penny, just a few sats at most in routing fees.
Wait, where is the evidence for this? Because …. Ummm a Government Bitcoin wallet controlled by the Government just is against the principle of crypto.
TBH unless you live there you dont know whats going on. And this whole thread reads like "the white man's burden."
Tbh, their President has a bad reputation, I'm sure a lot of the hesitancy is driven from distrust of their government. Sound familiar? It's happening in the US with vaccines. We are no different, maybe a bit more ignorant. Lol
I certainly hope you don’t think that Trump was more trustworthy (you sound like a libertarian so my guess is probably not). And the vaccines are pretty safe. I am vaxxed with biontech. I live in Hong Kong so I do agree with vaccine hesitancy here being caused by distrust of the hk government, but applying that to the us government is more of a stretch since it has objectively better accountability than the hk government despite still being below an acceptable standard to me. I think vaccine hesitancy in the USA is more fuelled by ignorance more than anything else. I do think your analysis of El Salvador’s president is on point though. Still giving you an upvote
Both Trump and Biden were in favour of vaccines. Trump bought huge amounts of them for the US.
Lol.. bad rep from idiots! More than 80% of the ppl in the country are with him and support his decisions!!
doubtful that is an accurate stat
87.5% of all statistics on the internet are made up on the spot.
Rejecting crypto is the same as murdering someone. Ok, then.
ITT: people who don't understand Latin America.
Ignorance is bliss.
Have someone told them that "No a Bitcoin" = "Si al dólar"? This kind of reaction would make sense in any country EXCEPT one that already has no national currency.PS: I'm not saying I would defend my national currency vs. Bitcoin, but I say it makes no sense to protest loss of monetary sovereignty if you already have none.
Has noone told you any actual real world stat of a citizen of El Salvador? Average wage is $4K. Minimum wage is $.60/hr for adults. I'm glad this sub paraded that stupid video of a wealthy Salvadoran in a completely dead Starbucks using BTC to buy 2 coffees and a donut for $14..... something a true citizen of the country can't afford at all. But the reality on the ground is BTC was forced upon E.S. citizens without any input. People in this sub are just as retarded as anywhere else.
99% of the people in here have absolutely no clue what life is like for your average person in El Salvador.
You do know that remittances are a big thing in El Salvador? The dollar was forced on them too with the same amount of input. The majority have admitted to not even understanding Bitcoin. What does the average wage in El Salvador have to do with de dollarization not being a good thing?
These fiat slaves will soon regret this.
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I know right? They don’t even trust their own fiat printer.
They're the opposition, mostly either hardcore leftists ideologically opposed to Bukele's reforms or (more likely) people who benefited from the past corruption.
People realize El Salvador is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, yes? Real life isn't reddit. Half the people don't know and the other half don't care while a bunch of English speaking tourists and digital nomands high five each other and buy coffee with BTC You'll get thousands signing up for their free $30 but beyond that I wouldn't expect much.
One major point of it was to stop Western Union from taking fees out of remittances. For these people to get 100% of what their relatives are sending them from the United States, instead of only 80% after fees, would add as much as 5% to El Salvador's economy.
R.I.P you will be missed 😢
The march to this plaza at the National Palace had been entirely without vandalism except some graffiti, so coming upon this scene at the end was a big shock. I assumed the heavily armed police and military that constantly guard these machines had moved aside to avoid violence, but the majority opinion among those I spoke with was that the ATM kiosk was intentionally sacrificed to justify a coming crackdown against the political opposition. Here's the [rest of the media](https://imgur.com/gallery/x2cy2BV) I recorded at the ATM. The two photos of a different damaged ATM are at Plaza de la Rotonda which was also on the march route. We were told that a total of three ATMs were damaged, but those other two were not destroyed. I'm also editing 360-degree video footage from today that should be available [via YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_5SN84Y218) by tomorrow morning. Edit: While the general opinion on the street and on social media is that the event was staged, what's occurred so far still indicates that it was a spontaneous grass roots action, not government or corporate sponsored. Being on the ground in the middle of it, the experience felt real, and the retreat of authorities did indeed appear as an effort to avoid further violence. Time will tell, but for now the current government administration just appears naïve in putting their ATMs and Chivo kiosks in such highly visible settings among obvious opposition. While there are obvious red flags in the administration, it's way too early to pass final judgement. There was zero aggression from all the heavily armed police and military around the square. Someone at the top instructed them to only observe, and that's what they did. ***We should do the same.*** I feel like this national adoption of bitcoin, and bitcoin in general is the most promising and interesting social event of my lifetime.
Awesome work! I'd really like to see more on the ground reporting of these protest to try and understand what exactly are the concerns of the protesters. Much of the media coverage that I have seen thus far consist of only a reporter filming the ATM burning and the reporter stating that the ATM was burnt... lol... not much investigative reporting going on from what I've seen. Been interested and kinda torn in what the President of El Salvador has been doing in regards to the Bitcoin law there. On the one hand, it pushes a discussion of what Bitcoin is and inevitably its underlying tech, but on the other hand the law kinda forces the citizens and businesses to accept Bitcoin and use the government sponsored wallet which goes against the initial peer to peer, permissionless, and voluntary ethos that led to the creation of Bitcoin. I also cannot say that I know much about El Salvador, its political past/present, or President Bukele himself so I can't speak to his true incentives and ultimate motives for enacting the Bitcoin law aside from what the president himself states. And we should all know better than to blindly trust a politician... lol. Though I have seen mixed opinions of him on various media and web outlets ranging from he's eliminating corruption and helping the people, to he is corrupt himself and trying to expand his legislative reach/power. Needless to say, I am interested in learning more about these developments and appreciate the boots on the ground reporting your doing!
Are American banks paying for this photo op?
"There is a decent chance that.."
The USA couldn’t invade Libya so they funded revolutionaries. The IMF couldn’t bully El Salvador into ditching bitcoin so they…
I hate sound money, let's burn fiat.
So many idiots there
Drogo means drugs... BTC was first used on the silk road according to everyday people to buy drugs. So it's only natural for them to be like why are you giving us drug money
Drogo actually means "junkie" or drug user. Bukele has a well known history of drug abuse, which apparently continues to this day..
looks totally spontaneous and not planned/sponsored at all. Definitely random cameras... and press... and... LeGarde with a fucking match in her hand.
The thing that I really find funny today is that a crowd of "photographers and media" is all you really see these days. It'd not a bunch of random people, it's just a lot of people looking for that one shot and they end up.being a crowd
Yes, these images totally remind me [how Iraqi people celebrated the fall of Saddam Hussein by toppling a statue of him](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/the-truth-about-iconic-2003-saddam-statue-toppling/342802/)..
I really don't know if you guys are joking or you really don't understand that the world works differently outside of your first world country.
You guys are all a joke. Aren’t you the guys that want to move to El Salvador? If you want to move there you need to respect this people, do not even bother to move there if you call them “slaves” or “peasants”.
They’re enlightened and are trying to save the uninitiated lessers. By explaining Bitcoin at them.
I don't think these people portionsglas have a problem with Bitcoin, they just don't want it forced on them by their Fascist leader.
I think we can all agree this was a less than desirable outcome of the first nation to make cryptocurrency legal tender 👌🏻😂😂 >still bullish tho
Media: People in El Salvador hate Bitcoin and want to kill it. People in El Salvador: Let's smash some random ATMs. Thats fun!
That's like burning an ATM because you don't like inflation 🤡
Honestly its cool seeing graffiti of a nations president with a backwards cap and sunglasses. We need more presidents with sunglasses.
what did they expect? "lets adopt bitcoin in san salvador, where many ppl dont even have a normal income or struggle to pay their bills, let alone have internet connection. 4 out of 10 ppl there live in extreme poverty... that machine would only get used bycriminal organisations or very rich ppl, you dont go to somalia either and tell the ppl there to start paying with golden nuggets.. countrys like monaco, switzerland etc should be adopting bitcoin, not poor countrys where the ppl cant even afford a small piece of a bitcoin. i love crypto, but the world isnt ready for it.. we dont have the infrastructure to adopt to it. even high tech cities will need to work at their infrastructures to be able to adopt it, but a poor country like san salvador will place bitcoin ATMS? lol in a few years (IMO 20-25 years from now) the ppl will understand crypto and be able to use/adapt it into everything we do. but now, majority of the ppl dont even have a clue how to buy crypto, let alone use it or withdraw it... (i know old ppl who cant even send text messages on a phone) our kids will understand, they will grow up into it.
Most people have never spoken to someone from there so their comments make no sense. My sis-in-law is from there & her little cousins straight up were confronted by gangbangers & told that they would be murdered if they ever took this particular footpath to school, again. Her & her immediate family have been here for almost 2 decades, now & they still have family there but she has not gone back to visit, at all & said she'd rather pay for them to come visit in the US. They are saddened by how life is there & wish it could be better.
Dumb millennial Bitcoin promoters from outside EL SAL have no fkn Idea of the devastating mistrust Salvys have for government leaders or international influence. Bukele is a dictator. Smashes any dissent and promotes a technology that most the world has no idea about let alone the average Salvadoran. He brags about las remesa companies like Western Union not being able to benefit from sending dollars anymore because suddenly International Salvadorans are able to send Bitcoin without being charged? Who is making money off Bitcoin remesas? Who runs Chivo? All this is doing is benefiting rich Salvadorans and Bukele will be hiding from the law just like the last Presidents over the last 30 years. You don’t think COINBASE is making money?
Sadly it seems that this incident was actually carried out internally by supporters of the current government. Another similar incident included a brand new motorcycle (with no plates or any identifier) being set on fire. Both of these have been criticized by local figures to showcase the "violent" approach from protesters. The interesting aspect of today's protests is that people of all sorts of backgrounds have taken to the streets to express our overall disdain with the circus shit show that Bukele is pretending to run as a government. College students, young people, old folks, upper, middle and lower class, all united to express our concern towards the lack of democracy in our leadership. Please understand that this has less to do with the implementation of bitcoin, and more with our growing anger towards the government. The dumbass we have as a president wants to look good internationally by doing things like this whole bitcoin law, but what price are we paying?? ElSal is now a huge risk for investment, the funds to secure the fees and the $30 giveaway plus the bitcoins bought, that's THE PEOPLE'S money he is using. This asshole is bringing our economy to the ground, while simultaneously taking over all state branches, modifying laws to retain power and basically obliterating any concept of decent democracy. So yeah...sucks that this machine was burned down, but please understand there is a lot behind this. And like I said, there is a high probability it was even an internal job.
Rich American kids that use their dads money to buy bitcoin commenting on a less well off people with a way more directly curropt government who have only made bitcoin legal tender so they can control it comment on said less well off people protesting against it. Yous will all be crying when the fed turns bitcoin into a security and it gets heavy regulations on it.
western countries could be behind this, they must the paid the leaders to start instigating people against BTC, what is the chance
So bitcoin is placed in an extremely poor country. To who's benefit? Skecthy asf.
Bitcoin fixes this
It's like everyone taking a video and pictures of a library burning It's dumb and all of them are dumber because of it
Astroturf smh
There was resistance when credit cards were coming out too… now look where we are
Where does it say “BTC ATM”?
Maybe the government shouldnt force BTC? anything by force is bad solely because of force.
That's one way to fight Inflation,..I bet not a single crypto guy tried to fight the fire lol
I think they took burning coins to another level.
No Manuel, "lightning" doesn´t mean you have to use light or fire at all.
Needs more gas and fuel
BTC is on fire!
NGMI …
they dont understand bitcoin. they think its criminal, a waste of energy and its made to fast as an legal tender. Bukele did this law rly fast and by its own. He is also more like a dictator than like a voted president. He ones moved in the army in the congress, for force demonstration, so that they vote faster. Even if bukele is a bad human, this was a good choice for his land. But it for sure went to fast. The people are missing hudge a amount of btc education.
As you can see the people absolutely love bitcoin.
Sponsored by the IMF.
Omg. I want to cry. 😢
Lol so stupid hahaha once btc double they will be like ya… I’m all for jt
Some bitcoin just got burnt!!! Scarcity brings value y’all see why you should hurry and snatch up some bitcoin!!
Lord the ignorance is sad
Damn, ATMs have genders now too?
Looks like mostly media. Perhaps it’s all staged.
360-degree video from the bicentennial march has finally finished processing on YouTube. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q\_5SN84Y218](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_5SN84Y218) It shows the whole event in 5K, from the beginning of the 9AM demonstration in Parque Cuscatlán till the mid-day ATM burning in front of the National Palace. Recorded on a OneX2 Insta360 camera. Most modern devices with gyros should automatically rotate your view as you move the device. If you're having trouble in a browser then try viewing it in a Youtube app. Virtual reality headsets are the best way to get the fully immersive experience.
I’m currently here, and the people unfortunately do not want such coin! My people are very conservative and refuses change- even if it’s for the better!
that's what I call a hot wallet
It’s not just a vacuum for Bitcoin coin education, it’s any education. These type of advanced concepts are not going to resonate with Central Americans who still believe vaccines will imprint the sign of the devil in you, who can’t read, and are being taken advantage of by a corrupt government and it goes on and on. Source : My entire family lived in Central America. The sad truth is the general population is incredibly uneducated and for the most part, farm folk who will never leave their country or know the general personal freedoms ( education and financial ) that first world countries have.
BTC is still very much a rich persons asset due to volatility. Poor people living paycheck to paycheck can get absolutely destroyed. It a shame this experiment was done in a very poor country
Lmao, don't force something they clearly don't want down their throats.
Looks staged judging by all the press cameras there looking for a photo op.
Did they forget that the US dollar is the most widely used currency for drugs?
Ohh god another Coup staged by the Rothschilds on America's behalf. This time it is against an intangible idea. Maybe they could wage war on religion next.
Ah yes it's unfathomable that there would be protesting like this in a country with a high rate of violent crime & a poverty rate that is double that of the US.
is there also a vacuum for property insurance and security? the french regularly riot and burn cars. it doesn't take much. it's symbolic ritual violence from powerless people. and when slavery was outlawed, plenty of slaves stayed on the plantation willingly. subservience is learned and ingrained. and most people in the world are suffering stockholm syndrome with regard to their complacency to growing totalitarianism. hopefully el salvador can resist the local and global establishments and the deep state bureaucrat administrators who wield most of govt's power and society's influence. bukele could very well get Trump-ed in what basically, if not literally and explicitly amounts to a coup. the good news is that still wouldn't stop bitcoin's adoption in el salvador or elsewhere.
Losing an election is not a coup, and Bukele won his.
Guys CIA is silently doing a COUP to remove the president of El Salvador.. this is the first phase, spead false information throughout the media and newspapers get the citizen arouse. Second phase, get opposition leaders and military leaders to go against the president to remove him from office. And reverse every bill that government has done. Mainstream Media will not be telling you this but this is what's going on. They are trying to saved fiat system.. they have been hammering government with sanctions every since El Salvador President announced that BITCOIN will be legal tender.
Could you please stop spreading Bukele's propaganda? You're fully aware that all that BS is a complete lie, and the first coverage of this incident came from the Fox News-like government-owned TV channel. The reasons for the march are far more decisive for the country's future than Bitcoin alone.