TheFish on Nostr: Road 13 is live. Focuses on the last 24 months for El Salvador and their Bitcoin ...

Road 13 is live. Focuses on the last 24 months for El Salvador and their Bitcoin adoption progress so far.

Another week passes, and another road opens towards the paradise city of Bitcoin. In the last ten days we have witnessed the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, Signature, Credit Suisse, and First Republic Bank, while the public is being fed terrifying reports that hundreds of other banks and institutions are also on the verge of crumbling. Financial tightening has all but ended as the fed has undone four months of monetary contraction in one weekend, with 300 billion dollars of new bail-out loans. On top of these bailouts they have opened the door for all other qualifying banks to access these "temporary" loans for the purpose of protecting banks during bank runs. To protect the banks from these customer withdrawals, the fed gave banks access to a new type of loan to cover withdrawals that the bank couldn't. This is nothing more than financial maneuvering and kicking the can further down the road. Although these institutions have access to new loans, they are still fractionally reserved and extremely vulnerable to even the smallest amounts of coordinated withdrawals. So, how do we win? To answer that question I wanted to check in on the nation of El Salvador, who is seeing first hand that removing the corruption in money will remove the corruption in society, and in turn incentivize higher levels of production and energy.

"There's enough money when no one steals". This is the campaign that earned Nayib Bukele a landslide win with 53% of the vote in the 2019 Presidential Election for El Salvador. The self-proclaimed "world's coolest dictator" has had his work cut out for him from day one, as the country was plagued with high levels of foreign debt, a decreasing GDP, and notorious levels of crime. With a radical approach of "fix the money, fix the world", Bukele set out on a mission to make El Salvador a peaceful nation that embraces innovation and financial sovereignty. Bukele's first bold step was to become the first nation state to adopt Bitcoin as it's legal tender. Through the rapid deployment of the Chivo Wallet and depositing 30 Dollars worth of Bitcoin into every citizen's wallet, El Salvador deployed a minimum viable product for all of its citizens to learn and rapidly iterate upon. This was the first time in Bitcoin's short history that it had been adopted through force rather than grassroots development, and naturally it was met with criticism, resistance, and public hesitation.

 The Second order of business was to reduce crime. After installing an honest and sound monetary base layer, Bukele's next step in removing corruption, was to go head to head with the crime syndicates themselves. On March 27, 2022, El Salvador declared a state of emergency to deal with gang violence. Gang's had previously controlled nearly every facet of the nations operations, they were brutally violent, imposed suffocating taxes on village members, and had El Salvador listed as the most dangerous country in the world. War had emerged between the president and the gangs, and after a coordinated attack resulting in 62 homicides in a single day, the nation was in a state of emergency. Bukele first authorized the building of one of the world's largest prisons with the capacity to securely hold 40,000 inmates, he then deployed vicious task forces that drew the ire human rights organizations world wide. His answer to violence was to respond with the full force available to him. Police forces have relentlessly searched out criminals and gang members. One year later, the nation released a propaganda campaign against crime, and has detained over 61,000 people so far. Homicides have dropped nearly 60 percent on a year to year basis, and thousands of gang members are occupying the cells of the newly built "mega prison". Overall, Bukele seems to be winning in his battle against crime, he is encouraging travellers, and has made El Salvador into a bit of a tourist location for bitcoiners. One bitcoiner who goes by the alias of Joe Nakamoto travelled to El Salvador recently and made a publicity video for the nation and its Bitcoin adoption progress. Although the bitcoin adoption process seems to be taking longer than expected the overwhelming answer that he received from the citizens was their love for their president, and how much safer the country has become. Though his methods may be harsh, Bukele is achieving results, and removing corruption from society should remain a key goal for the president.


 With crime on the decline and the nation now backed by the world's most neutral money, El Salvador was ready to start taking it's next steps forward with a rapid flood of innovative ideas. In the span of 18 months, El Salvador announced:

Volcano Bonds
Geothermal Bitcoin Mining
Non-Bitcoin Crypto Tokens To Be Labelled As Securities
Full Repayment of Current Debt Term with the IMF (after being rated as most likely to default on debt)
A Variety of Bitcoin Education Programs from Beginner to Advanced (Including Lightning Development)
The First Bitcoin Embassy in Lugano, Switzerland
Bitcoin City
Large Scale increases in tourism.
Every single one of these bullet points is significant enough that I could dedicate a full article to each one, but for now I will highlight my favorite. Geothermal Bitcoin Mining.

Known as "The Land of Volcanoes", El Salvador embraced engineering and innovation to capture one of its most abundant resources, Geothermal Energy. Through the combination of geothermal heat, and cryptographic hashing power, El Salvador is converting thermal energy into monetary energy, displaying a beautiful understanding of proof-of-work and digital scarcity. As the nation improves upon its financial status, it will be able to subsidize its own economic development by generating more energy, and thus more mining power, and finally more money! Energy is the lifeblood of a first world country, it contributes to better health care, greater food supply, and improved industrial efficiencies. Every nation worldwide that has stable and dense power grids is living above the poverty line, and El Salvador is acting as an economic cartographer for the poor countries of the world to increase their energy supply. With Bitcoin being the legal tender of the country, El Salvador is also the only country in the world to honestly generate its own money through proof-of-work, instead of the infamous debt printer. Every country on the planet will eventually benefit from using their excess energy to mine the most scarce asset of all time while balancing and increasing their power supply, El Salvador was simply the first to figure it out. Kudos.

Outside of geothermal mining, I am excited to see what comes from highly motivated developers that are working to solve problems for real world situations by utilizing the smart contract capacities of the lightning network. I am eager to see how the rest of the financial world responds to the "Volcano Bonds" being one of the best performing investments in 2023. Lastly, not mentioned above, I am anticipating a future where the thesis of the sovereign individual plays out as tax-oppressed members of "better" countries seek refuge in a country like El Salvador that refuses to let corruption win.

 Two years in, Bukele has drawn a lot of strong criticisms, but so far you can't argue with his results. El Salvador has less crime, less debt, and safer citizens. Energy is becoming more abundant, innovation is thriving, and tourism is growing. Bitcoiners from around the globe are flying to bitcoin beach and attempting to live on a "bitcoin standard" for their holiday. If things continue, I will be booking a flight to check it out, will you?

Stay Humble, And Don't Be Afraid,

Cody