Will countries adopt bitcoin as official currency?

Bitcoin has recently made major leaps in adoption, as more and more people and even countries have begun to adopt it.

Most famously, El Salvador officially introduced bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, to mixed results. This event has brought up a question, however: will other countries begin to adopt bitcoin as well? Bitcoin can after all offer a lot of benefits to emerging countries that are looking to compete on the global scale.

In addition, certain tools are making it easier than ever for people to use bitcoin, such as Bitcoin ATMs.

In order to learn more about this topic, ATM Marketplace spoke with Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group by email.

Q. What is driving this adoption of cryptocurrency as legal tender in countries?

A. There's a growing recognition that borderless, global, decentralized currencies are the future of finance and sovereign nations are increasingly understanding the value of early adoption.

By adopting cryptocurrency as legal tender emerging economy countries then immediately have a currency that isn't influenced by market conditions within their own economy, nor directly from just one other country's economy.

Before there was no alternative. Now there is.

Q. How will these countries address the inherent volatile nature of bitcoin's value?

A. Bitcoin is becoming increasingly less volatile over time. That said, the crypto market is characterized by bouts of volatility.

El Salvador's government, for example, is seeking a workaround to this volatility.

It has issued a call for tender to firms which can offer the government a financial contract to keep the value of bitcoin stable for salary and pension payouts. One Swiss company has offered the government a type of futures contract pledging to buy from the country's bitcoin stockpile at $50,000 a unit, regardless of the daily market price.

Q.What role will Bitcoin ATMs play in these countries?

A. Bitcoin ATMs will play a critical role in the mass adoption in these countries. They will be vital in helping businesses and families use and manage the new currency on a daily basis.

Q. How will bitcoin benefit these countries?

A. Bitcoin will help these countries in a myriad of ways. These include remittances from people living overseas, which make up 24% of El Salvador's GDP. With bitcoin the sender doesn't pay a penny, so the recipients in El Salvador, for example, will receive a good deal more, which will then flow into the economy.

Adoption of bitcoin can also be expected to attract job and wealth creating foreign investment over their neighbors which don't also have the cryptocurrency as legal tender.