Nayib Bukele, the current president of El Salvador, is seeking re-election in next Sunday's elections.
The upcoming presidential elections in El Salvador will take place on Sunday, February 4. Nayib Bukele, the country's current president and the one who made El Salvador the first in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender, has reaffirmed his commitment to the use and innovation of this cryptocurrency.
Félix Ulloa, vice president of El Salvador and who also seeks to remain in charge of this position, assured recently that after the elections, Bitcoin will remain legal tender in the country.
Ulloa expressed the nation's commitment to the use and adoption of Bitcoin for boost financial inclusion and accelerate technological development and economic development of the nation.
In recent years, the country has seen impressive growth in the tourism sector, thanks in part to the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender and the strong measures implemented by the Bukele government to neutralize gang groups and ensure the safety of citizens.
If re-elected as president, Bukele will continue with plans to make El Salvador the Bitcoin Nation, Ulloa said.
Build Bitcoin City and issue Volcano bonds
The vice president of the Central American nation highlighted that the construction of the Bitcoin city, or Bitcoin City, which was announced in 2021, is still on track, as well as the launch of the so-called Volcano bonds and the Issuance of citizenship visas for those BTC investors who support the development of the country with investments in the cryptocurrency or in USDT.
According to Ulloa, El Salvador has no intention of changing its favorable stance on Bitcoin, so, in addition to maintaining the law that gives legal tender to the cryptocurrency in the country, it will proceed to consolidate its other plans related to BTC.
Although the decision of the government of El Salvador to declare Bitcoin legal tender received a lot of criticism from all sides, Ulloa also highlighted that Bitcoin now has more credibility around the world, especially after the approval of exchange-traded funds or spot ETFs by the SEC in the United States.
El Salvador's milestones with Bitcoin
Under Bukele's mandate, Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, on September 7, 2021. In addition to this, the country's Assembly approved, last year, a bill law allowing the issuance of bonds backed by cryptocurrency.
El Salvador has also launched a educational program called CUBE +, which is focused on training software developers in Bitcoin and blockchain technology. It has also abolished impuestos to the developers of Artificial Intelligence and other technological innovations, in order to accelerate its technological and economic growth and development.
The Central American nation has also become the first in the world to operate a Bitcoin mining pool national, a project launched jointly with the company Volcano Energy. On the other hand, El Salvador is also building a mega farm for Bitcoin mining, which will be powered entirely by clean energy. Currently, from its La Geo data center, El Salvador is mining bitcoins with energy from volcanoes.
Bitcoin City, which is planned to be built at the foot of the Conchagua volcano, will serve as a space to promote the use of Bitcoin, while ensuring the sustainability of the cryptocurrency.
One of the country's latest milestones is the Key partnership reached with Google, one of the world's largest technology companies, which signed a agreement with the nation to integrate its Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) services, in order to optimize its technological development and growth. Google is one of the largest investors in the blockchain industry, allocating more than $1.500 billion dollars to cryptocurrency and Web3 projects, in 2022.
Continue reading: Freedom Visa: What is El Salvador's program to grant citizenship to Bitcoin investors?
