El Salvador’s tryst with bitcoin may prove costly
08 Sep 2021
Is bitcoin about to become legitimate? Could it soon be printed with portraits of global heroes (Einstein on the 100 bitcoin bill, Marie Curie on the 1,000)? Could we soon buy a paper or a cup of coffee with it down the high street? That remains a long way off, surely. But Nayib Bukele, president of “plucky El Salvador”, as my colleague Simon Calder would call it, has announced that bitcoin will become legal tender – a first for any sovereign state.