The Salvadorian press has continued to react skeptically to crypto-related developments as the country borders toward bitcoin (BTC) adoption.
Quite a few global crypto figures traveled to El Salvador late a week, including Brock Pierce, the mind of this Bitcoin Foundation, who tweeted in a post that drew no lack of ire from the broader crypto community — that he had been“very honored to direct“ an“official delegation of bitcoin ambassadors to El Salvador.“
Having a new law on its way, President Nayib Bukele and his government have continued their charm offensive — entertaining a range of global crypto players in recent days and emerging on crypto podcasts.
But while there were lots of photo opportunities for one and all, the Salvadorian media, a lot of that appears to hostile to what Bukele-related, wasn’t exactly dazzled by the trip of Pierce et al..
In a report from El Diario de Hoy publisher ElSalvador.com, the press outlet instead chose to concentrate on previous Pierce controversies, including tether (USDT)-related fraud investigations from the USA. It also pointed out that aside from a lot of photographs, precious little in terms of the content of these meetings had so far been revealed.
The media outlet moved on to estimate the writer and journalist Andrés Oppenheimer as musing the new bitcoin law could be“another press maneuver by Bukele,“ aimed at“diverting public attention from global criticism of the growing authoritarianism of his administration.“
Oppenheimer said that Bukele’s move would“probably attract drug traffickers rather than digital investors.“
The identical outlet reported, separately, a professor of Electrical Engineering in the University of El Salvador called Carlos Martínez had claimed that the country“does not have the capacity to cope“ with a mining project of this scale Bukele has spoken of, and the move“would increase electricity tariffs to Salvadorans.“
Martínez also stated that the energy provider tasked with the project had been underfunded for the past five years, meaning, per the professor, an operation of the kind — that is set to utilize geothermal energy out of a volcano — would not be possible to finish.
There was more nay-saying in a different significant paper, together with La Prensa Gráfica publishing a pillar from the powerful Salvadorian author and novelist Jacinta Escudos, who wrote that“the debut of [BTC as legal tender] involves too large an investment risk, both at the individual level and in the degree of public financing and the nation’s reserves.“
„Is it worth risking a lot to make such a jump into the void?“
Meanwhile, on Twitter, a row has erupted after Pierce, on June 18, published an article and front-page picture from a paper called Noticia on his feed, claiming that the“delegation’s““trip to El Salvador“ had“made global news.“ He concluded,“We’re making history.“
The trip to El Salvador by the delegation has made news. We’re making history. https://t.co/VpkAA0ac3E
— Brock Pierce (@brockpierce)
However, his article had been met with derision from many on Twitter, with some accusing the entrepreneur of forging or photoshopping the disperse. Others rushed to his defense, together with Justin Newton, the CEO of Netki, submitting an image of the print edition of the paper in question, together with Pierce, Bukele, along with a physical representation of a bitcoin token on front page.
Newton had claimed he had“picked up the paper“ in the lobby of the El Salvador resort.
Bitcoin proponent Udi Wertheimer opined that“bitcoin twitter“ had been“too fast to judge something they do not know again since it involved a person they do not enjoy.“
The fact of the matter, however, appears to be something a bit more mundane — the substance of myth-buster investigations. It turns out the article in question and also the paper are really real.
But the book is really a free, weekly community newspaper based in New York, covering events throughout the Latin American region — and frequently spread free to Central American resorts with substantial numbers of international tourists. Not quite a Salvadorian media outlet, per se, nor a „global“ news outlet in certain senses of this term — but it sounds far out of a fake.
