El Salvador's Capital Sees Violent Protests Against Bitcoin Adoption: Report

Angry mobs gathered in El Salvador's capital city to protest the country's adoption of Bitcoin BTC/USD as a legal tender.

What Happened: According to a recent Al Jazeera report, protesters marched in El Salvador’s capital burning tires and setting off fireworks in front of the Supreme Court building demanding the law behind Bitcoin's adoption to be repealed. Authorities deployed heavily armed riot police to control the crowd.

The report follows a recent survey revealing that most of the country's citizens oppose the government's adoption of Bitcoin. At least 67.9% of 1,281 people disagree or strongly disagree with the use of Bitcoin as a legal tender. The adoption — which happened yesterday — has not gone smoothly with the government taking its mobile wallet offline in order to upgrade its servers so it can manage the user traffic volume.

According to Al Jazeera, a San Salvador resident who opposed the adoption of Bitcoin voiced concern that it is "not going to work for [street food] vendors, bus drivers or shopkeepers" and instead it is "ideal for big investors who want to speculate with their economic resources.”

The country is also facing international pressures over its decision, with the International Monetary Fund describing the move as "an inadvisable shortcut" that could hurt macroeconomic stability.

Image by jorono from Pixabay