While I do personally think a lot of things about the world of cryptocurrency and the future of the world in general and the role the President of El Salvador is trying to carve for the nation, or perhaps himself, it's important to remember that any future that arrives without the consent of the people will always break the fundamental purpose of a free and fair society. Forcing them into a decision, no matter how future forward, is never the point.
The people of El Salvador have taken to the streets protesting the forced adoption of Bitcoin (think Demonetization in India), the lack of working infrastructure to facilitate smooth transaction with their 'Chivo' wallet (think CoWin, Aadhar) and fears of corruption and strengthening of gang warfare as a result of the perceived lack of transparency of Bitcoin transactions. It's irrelevant as of right now whether these fears are founded or whether there are counterarguments.
The people are angry and the people is what this is for. Nayib Bukele may be the 'coolest president' but no amount of meme-y shitposting can ever supplant the consent of the governed. There is no New World unless we have Consensus.
It's important to not celebrate El Salvador in economic isolation (alongside every major economic regulator currently blowing them back into the traditional finance stone age re: S&P, IMF, Dollar Standard, EU, India). It's important to listen to the people and realise that this was not the way to get a country to adopt Bitcoin. Listen to the people, explain your point of view, understand theirs. Governance through Consensus. Governance through Information Symmetry. If the amount of people is too large, make smaller federations.
The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency do represent a huge opportunity to rethink value. But the priveleged in the space must remember that they're building human solutions for human beings. Not consumers. Not metrics. Not Target Audiences. And they have to Opt-In. They're Opting-Out right now and they can't find the Unsubscribe button. The pain and frustration, I can only imagine, for the people of El Salvador is paramount. Bitcoin is The Saviour, sure, but not as the old 'Gods' who save us from on high. It's the god that saves us by it's utility and implementation. But that's for another time...
For now we wait for El Salvador, The Saviour, to find peace again.
This is a companion piece to my article on Cryptocurrency for The Blahcksheep. I did not deal with the human consequences of this particular issue because it was outside the theoretical purview of that conversation but this definitely needed to be said. You can read that article here.