The Nayib Bukele Slippage. What Makes El Salvador - Bitcoin Event Contrary To Crypto's "Ideals of Freedom"

It's a bit over a month since the country of El Salvador has made Bitcoin legal tender, and on top of that, Nayib Bukele has even decided to buy 700 coins of the market as "a crypto national treasury". The president of El Salvador has also stated that, according to the native Chivo wallet data, Salvadorans are incentivized to become hodlers rather than instantly spending their airdropped $30 worth of BTC they got.

It's all good and nice for the crypto community that a country has made Bitcoin legal tender and that the president of the country has even decided to invest in Bitcoin, on behalf of the country, but when zooming in a bit there are some details that are actually against the crypto philosophy pillars.

The first thing that I find odd is that in order to be eligible for the airdrop, the citizens had to use the Chivo wallet and not some random wallet that anyone could download from the internet, it's like constricting the freedom of choice, and we all know crypto is about expanding and not vice versa.

Vitalik Buterin has criticized Nayib Bukele for "making it mandatory for businesses to accept a specific cryptocurrency being contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space." I totally agree on this one and although, after reading the news regarding Vitalik's reddit comments on this matter I sense a bit of slapping towards the Bitcoin maximalists from his side, the co-creator of Ethereum is right.

Education is highly important in this space and freedom of choice should be a must in a world valuing fundamental rights and freedoms such as freedom of speech. As much as I praised the president of El Salvador for investing in Bitcoin and making it legal tender and also starting a mining facility based on volcanic energy, I highly agree on this one with Vitalik, that forcing businesses to accept Bitcoin is against the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space.

He(Nayib Bukele) kind of rushed things out with Bitcoin over there... I would honestly love if in my country merchants would accept direct crypto payments, but forcing them to do that would be a disaster. Crypto without proper education can lead to loss of funds, hacks, improper management of these funds and so on.

This thing probably happens right now in El Salvador for some small businesses. For something like Starbucks it's probably not much of a hassle to handle Bitcoin aside the traditional payments, but for others it might be a burden.

"It crushes my soul to see Bitcoin maximalists around the world cheering this when, if they actually sat down and read the law and regulations, it is completely opposite to everything they preach." -One Salvadoran business owner, requiring anonymity, for Decrypt source

I have to admit that I got too hyped about this whole El Salvador adopting Bitcoin saga without actually paying attention to the details that deter the adopting process as a whole. As much as I love crypto, nothing has been forced on me. I started blogging and earning crypto on my own will, no one has forced me to do so, I've educated myself in the same manner and holding crypto is my own consciously taken will.

Meanwhile, some small(uneducated) business owners in El Salvador are forced to accept Bitcoin as legal tender and go through some stressful times. Forceful measures is what I hate the most in the current society and it's something I don't want to see in crypto...

Thanks for attention, Adrian

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