El Salvador Thread #2 - "Ley Bitcoin" already being discussed by the Finance Comission of Congress.

(TRANSLATION OF THE BILL INSIDE)

Hello, I promised people I'd try to keep the community updated on everything that happened in El Salvador regarding the law that will make Bitcoin legal tender and I plan on keeping that promise. In the following days I'll be monitoring local news, newspapers, twitter accounts from legislators and government officials and posting here with links and translations. I'd like to know if a general thread is a good idea or if something else would be better.

I'd also like to clarify something: I was accused of being a government official in the last thread I made (which is simply not the case), so in this thread and the ones that may follow I'll refrain from posting my own personal opinions and focus only on posting news as they develop. I think this is historic and that's the only reason I'm doing it.

Anyway, let's begin.

Stuff that happened today:

A few moments ago, the presidenf of Congress, Ernesto Castro, received from the Minister of Economy, María Luisa Hayem, the proposed bill that would make Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador. Here's the link: https://twitter.com/AsambleaSV/status/1402429788263006210

The Finance Comission of Congress just started discussing the bill. This is the thread of interest:https://twitter.com/AsambleaSV/status/1402435319346180096

And the legislators that will probably be tweeting more actively about it (they make up the Finance Comission):

https://twitter.com/romeoauerbach

https://twitter.com/DaniaGonzalz

https://twitter.com/rodrigoayalasv

https://twitter.com/williamsorianoh

I'll be translating what's being said as fast as I can.

UPDATE 1:

The president just tweeted the Bill:

https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402442597235310596

Translation:

PAGE 1:

CONSIDERING:

I. That according to Article. 102 of the Contitution of the Republic, the State is obliged to promote and protect private enterprise, generating the necessary conditions for it to grow national wealth in the benefit of the largest number of citizens.

II. That under Legislative Decree No. 201, published in Official Gazette number 241, Volume 349, dated December 22, 2000, the United States of America dollar was adopted as legal tender.

III. That approximately seventy percent of the population does not have access to traditional financial services.

IV. That it is the obligation of the state to facilitate the financial inclusion of its citizens in order to better guarantee their rights.

V. That in order to promote the economic growth of the country, it is necessary to authorize the circulation of a digital currency whose value obeys exclusively free market criteria, in order to increase national wealth for the benefit of the greatest number of inhabitants.

VI. That according to the previous considerations, it is essential to issue the basic rules that regulate the legal course of bitcoin.

PAGE 2:

Article 1. The purpose of this law is to regulate bitcoin as legal tender, unrestricted with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction and to any title that public or private natural or legal persons want to carry out.

What is mentioned in the previous paragraph is without prejudice to the application of the Monetary Integration Law.

Article 2. The exchange rate between bitcoin and the dollar of the United States of America, hereinafter dollar, will be freely established by the market.

Article 3. All prices can be expressed in Bitcoin.

Article 4. All tax contributions can be paid in bitcoin.

Article 5. Exchanges in bitcoin will not be subject to capital gains tax like any legal tender.

Article 6. For accounting purposes, the dollar will be used as the reference currency.

Article 7. Every economic agent must accept bitcoin as a form of payment when it is offered to him by whoever acquires a good or a service.

Article 8. Without prejudice to the actions of the private sector, the State will provide alternatives that allow the user to carry out transactions in bitcoin, as well as to have automatic and instantaneous convertibility from bitcoin to dollar if they wish. The State will promote the necessary training and mechanisms so that the population can access bitcoin transactions.

Article 9. The limitations and operation of the alternatives of automatic and instantaneous conversion from bitcoin to dollar provided by the State will be specified in the Refunding issued for this purpose.

Article 10. The executive body will create the necessary institutional structure for the purposes of applying this law.

FINAL AND TRANSITORY PROVISIONS

Article 11. The central reserve bank and the superintendency of the financial system shall issue the corresponding regulations within the period mentioned in article 16 of this law.

PAGE 3 (FINAL PAGE):

Article 12. They are excluded from the obligation expressed in article 7 of this law, who by notorious fact and obviously do not have access to the technologies that allow to execute transactions in bitcoin. The State will promote the necessary training and mechanisms so that the population can access bitcoin transactions.

Article 13. All obligations in money expressed in dollars, existing prior to the effective date of this law, may be paid in bitcoin.

Article 14. Before the entry into force of this law, the State will guarantee, through the creation of the trust in the development bank of El Salvador (BANDESAL), the automatic and instantaneous convertibility to dollars of the alternatives provided by the State mentioned in the Article 8.

Article 15. This law will have a special character in its application with respect to other laws that regulate the matter, being repealed any provision that contradicts it.

Article 16. This decree will enter into force ninety days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

UPDATE 2:

The Finance Comission voted in favor of the Bill:

https://twitter.com/AsambleaSV/status/1402458229959974916

Next step: it has to go to the main chamber of Congress and all 84 legislators have to vote on it. It will MAYBE happen tonight, I'm trying to find out.

UPDATE 3:

They're voting on it today.

You can watch it live here (in Spanish of course):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LJzCZRbXM

The discussion of the Bill in the main chamber of Congress just started (10:15 pm local time).

UPDATE 4:

Some remarks by legislators in favor of the Bill (this is not my opinion I'm just translating):

"Bitcoin is safe. It uses Blockchain technology. If we had used Bitcoin before then past presidents would have had a harder time stealing."

"We want investors to come here and spend the millions of Bitcoins that they have."

"Bitcoin is going to make it harder for bribery and corruption."

"Welcome to the future."

Some remarks by legislators against the Bill:

"Nobody knows where Bitcoin is being currently mined."

"This Bill violates economic freedom. No business can be obliged to accept a payment method that they don't want."

UPDATE 5:

The president is LIVE with some Bitcoin personalities, you can access it here:

https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1402486828100460545

He just confirmed the government is developing a wallet for poor merchants to use. But you're free to pick whatever wallet you want.

11:15 pm - A small recess has been declared in Congress because the audio system went to shit lol.

11:41 pm - Congress started again. They're still discussing the bill.

12:00 pm - THE BILL PASSED! BITCOIN IS LAW!

Well, that's it. I hope this thread is kept as a journal of everything that went on during this historic night.