Carlitos Reiala, a member of the Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies, announced that he could run for president in 2023 and, if elected, would make Bitcoin (BTC) the country’s official currency. The statement was made in your profile on Twitter and has generated a mixed reaction among his followers.
While the majority supported his desire to run for the top executive office in Paraguay, many made it clear that making Bitcoin legal tender should not be among Relaja’s priorities if he is indeed elected.
If we run for president in 2023 # bitcoin as official currency!
One self-identified alias Arponrock he was in favor of the candidacy, but defended the preservation of the Guarani as the national currency:
Carlitos, I support your candidacy, young man, you are not infected with all the filth of our politics, but the issuance of bitcoins cannot be seen as a monetary option, we have the most stable and strongest currency on the continent, which has suffered a lot from doing to become the avant-garde currency of Latin America.
There were also criticisms hinting at cryptocurrency volatility and the risk that a devaluation of BTC could send Paraguay’s economy into depression.
Reyala is the same Paraguayan politician who introduced a bill to the Paraguayan Congress in July to legalize and regulate the ownership and sale of bitcoins in the country.
The crypto community hoped the law would be similar to the Bitcoin Law passed in El Salvador, proposing that Bitcoin be accepted as legal tender in Paraguay. However, the project states exactly the opposite:
“Digital assets are not legal tender used by the state of Paraguay, so they are not supported by the Central Bank of Paraguay.”
The law set rules for investors and for the mining industry, which is strong in the country as 100% of the country’s energy is generated by hydroelectric power plants. The law further frustrated cryptocurrency supporters and local mining pools by imposing taxes on digital asset marketing and hardware imports, as well as setting an annual license requirement for miners based in the country.
After the bitcoin law went into effect in El Salvador on September 7, there are high expectations as to which country will next accept BTC as its official currency.
As Cointelegraph recently reported, in addition to Paraguay, Cuba and Ukraine have made strides in this regard without making Bitcoin legal tender.
The central bank of the Latin American country announced on Wednesday the legalization of cryptocurrencies as an investment vehicle, and also allowed residents of the island to carry out commercial transactions using cryptoassets from that point on.
Two days after Bitcoin became official in El Salvador, Ukraine adopted a law which legalizes cryptocurrencies, increasing the protection of the country’s investors. However, the use of digital assets as a means of payment is still prohibited.
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