Podcast: El Salvador wants to be a bitcoin paradise

LA Times
·1 min read
Santos Hilario Galvez, a Salvadoran who works as a builder at the Hope House, an organization that sponsors the use of cryptocurrencies in El Zonte beach, makes a purchase at a small store that accepts Bitcoin, in Tamanique, El Salvador, Wednesday, June 9, 2021. El Salvador's Legislative Assembly has approved legislation making the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender in the country, the first nation to do so, just days after President Nayib Bukele made the proposal at a Bitcoin conference. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez) (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
A man in Tamanique, El Salvador, makes a purchase at a small store that accepts bitcoin. (Salvador Melendez / Associated Press)

This year, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele made his country the first in the world to embrace bitcoin as legal tender. That means that come September, Salvadorans will be able to pay bills and taxes in bitcoin and that all businesses will be required to accept the digital currency — from McDonald's to the fruit vendor on the corner.

Today, L.A. Times Latin America correspondent Kate Linthicum explains how El Salvador got into the cryptocurrency game.

Host: L.A. Times Latin America correspondent Kate Linthicum

More reading:

How a California surfer helped bring bitcoin to El Salvador

El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender

A look at El Salvador’s meme-loving, press-hating autocratic president

Listen to more episodes of The Times here

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.