It might be the biggest story of 2021. Since El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender, all eyes are on the Central American nation. The exclusive world-shattering news closed the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, talk about leaving on a high note. Strike’s Jack Mallers was the person that delivered it.
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Why was this young man the messenger? Well, that’s the story we’re here to summarize. Mallers was the guest in a recent episode of the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast and revealed the in and outs of this potentially world-changing event. As you might suspect, it all started in the Bitcoin Beach community way before Mallers arrived…
El Salvador Makes Bitcoin Legal Tender, Chronology Of Events
- In late February/ early March, Jack Mallers arrived at Bitcoin Beach. He wanted to “understand what was happenning.”
- He lived in El Zonte for a month, at first. “I want to give Bitcoin Beach all the credit. They’re the reason I went to El Salvador.”
- Then he went to San Salvador. His company, Strike, was all over the news. Remittances are a big thing in El Salvador and their service does them for free by using the Lightning Network.
- He got a Direct Message through Twitter. It was from President Bukele’s brother. He was scared at first. He didn’t know if he was in trouble. They wanted a meeting.
- He tried to push the meeting a week. They got into a message exchange about the lack of financial inclusion in the country. The presidency saw Bitcoin as an integral part of the world’s future. They thought El Salvador was uniquely positioned to take the first step.
- The presidency pushed the meeting for the next day. Jack Mallers was still scared. He went with a friend and had another one waiting to call the U.S. Embassy if something went wrong.
- He went. He and President Bukele’s brother talked about financial inclusion, open networks, free markets. How the existing financial system is broken. And about how Bitcoin could play a role in improving the country and improving the world.
- They met a few more times and exchanged ideas about Bitcoin.
Jack Mallers Goes Back To The U.S. And Then…
- Two days later, the presidency calls him and tells him they’re going to make Bitcoin legal tender. They want to rebuild the country’s financial infrastructure and be a representation for the entire world.
- He went back to El Salvador. They talked every day, he advised them on the bill, implementation, and why it had to be Bitcoin only.
- Jack Mallers gives credit to a lot of Bitcoiners in the space. He called them and asked for advice. Mallers doesn’t give out the names because they might want to remain anonymous.
- He advised that they should use the Bitcoin standard. Other coins will introduce slippage and inflation to the system. “You want to subscribe to a hard money monetary policy that’s defended by a distributed network. And not exposed to any central point of failure, and that’s Bitcoin.”
- He left the country to go to Indianapolis for another little project he was working on.
- The presidency of El Salvador had the idea of announcing it at the Bitcoin 2021 conference.
- Jack Mallers goes to Miami. He receives President Bukele’s video the day before his speaking slot at the conference.
- He stayed up all night crafting the talk and designing the slides.
- Mallers goes to the conference and hosts two panels during the day.
- The time comes, he gets on stage and all his notes were gone. Of course. Mallers improvises and gives this speech.
Important Quotes About Strike’s Role In El Salvador
There’s no commercial agreement between Strike and the government of El Salvador.
“In fact, I advised and gave my opinion of the opposite. The economies of scale and network effects associated with open networks are so powerful. Just by plugging in to them you’re going to get the freemarket competition that every country would die for.”
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The reason Jack Mallers went to El Salvador was
“To see if Stike can be helpful to solve the remittance problem, and onboard a relatively small country. A country that’s not included in the financial system. A country that is abused by financial intermediaries and financial institutions. And give them access to this new monetary network.”
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Important Jack Mallers Quotes About The Bitcoin Open Network
“One of the insights that has to be conceptually understood is that we in Strike view Bitcoin as the best monetary network. In fact, it’s the best monetary network conceived in human history.”
“It’s open. It’s ultimately inclusive to everyone on the planet. It works in the developing world the same as it works in the developed world.”
Before we go, know that Peter McCormack filmed the whole sequence of events and has some kind of film coming out soon.
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