Bitcoin Salaries a No-go, Confirms El Salvador as Adoption Worries Rise

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El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele’s plans to launch a bitcoin (BTC)-powered society could be hampered by internal concerns about the most popular cryptocurrency – with the government apparently bowing to public pressure and ruling out the notion of bitcoin salaries.
As reported yesterday, the Salvadorian government’s labor chief had suggested that the cabinet was set to debate the issue of whether firms in the state should pay employees in BTC rather than USD. This led to an outcry, with the same minister later watering down these claims, and stating that the matter would be determined by the government’s finance officials.But per ElSalvador.com (the publisher of the El Diario de Hoy newspaper), a survey conducted by the Salvadorian Chamber of Commerce has found BTC may be in for a lukewarm reception in the nation. (However, the report did not specify how many respondents participated in the survey.)The survey saw business players and ordinary civilians interviewed – with a whopping 93% of workers responding that they did not want to receive their salary in BTC. In a further blow, 82.5% said that they were not interested in receiving their remittances in bitcoin either. (Remittances account for 23% percent of El Salvador’s gross domestic product and benefit about 360,000 households, per AP data. The money sent home to El Salvador by migrants hit a record high of USD 5.92bn in 2020.)The participants were also asked what they would do if they were to receive payments in bitcoin, with over half stating they would convert tokens to USD immediately.Source