El Salvador hosts 32 central banks and 12 other institutions to discuss Bitcoin

• The majority of central banks and financial authorities that featured are from Africa 
• The continent lags in terms of crypto adoption and use compared to Europe, America, and Asia

It has been more than seven months since El Salvador made Bitcoin its legal tender – a decision the country’s president Nayib Bukele has insisted is for the good of the citizens. This is despite caution from monetary institutions like the IMF and strong opposition by a faction of El Salvadorians. 

During this period, the Central African Republic followed suit in adopting the Satoshi coin as an officially accepted currency form – the first in Africa.

On Monday, El Salvador president Bukele met with representatives from central banks and financial institutions of 44 different countries, as he had previously revealed.

“Tomorrow, 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities (44 countries) will meet in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, Bitcoin rollout and its benefit in our country,” Bukele shared on Twitter.

Some of the countries whose representatives attended are Paraguay, Honduras, Kenya, Pakistan, Costa Rica, Egypt, and Nigeria.

Bitcoin adoption in other countries

Since its launch in 2009, several governments worldwide have been sceptical of Bitcoins’ ability to act as a medium of exchange. This is especially true for most countries in Africa, the latter having several restrictions and cautions from their financial institutions about the entire crypto revolution. 

With El Salvador having adopted it for nearly a year, the conference may bring about a change in perception by some of the countries in attendance. Better still, it can make them adopt favourable policies that can bring about a better attitude towards crypto and more so Bitcoin as it’s proven more reliable over other crypto assets.

Despite receiving some level of criticism, Bitcoin is still held by several publicly traded companies around the world as part of the corporate treasury in their coffers. This could work in favour of advocating for Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

El Salvador, on its end, is in the process of constructing its first-ever Bitcoin city. This city’s construction on the south coast of the country will be funded entirely by the sale of Bitcoin bond. The city will be powered by geothermal energy from a nearby volcano which will also be used to mine Bitcoin.