https://ift.tt/rnNSedC Senator Aims to Introduce Bitcoin Legal Tender Bill

Mexican senator for the State of Nuevo León, Indira Kempis, has stated that she wants to make the country second after El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin. However, the chances of this actually happening are slim at best.

Speaking to local media this week, she noted that she aims to promote the use of Bitcoin in the country and use her political position to achieve that goal.

“We need bitcoin to be legal tender in Mexico, because if it is not so, if we do not make that decision as El Salvador did, it is very difficult to take action.”

During the interview with Diario El Salvador, she added that El Salvador is “undoubtedly becoming the most important hub or laboratory in the world about the future with bitcoin.”

Bitcoin Adoption in Mexico

She commented on the problems of financial exclusion and the unbanked, citing cryptocurrency as a viable solution.

“It is clear to me that financial exclusion is one of the public problems that few of us have addressed with feasible alternatives, and that this type of technology is allowing us to generate an alternative, a way, a solution so that millions of people can be included in the financial system.”

Kempis, working on a legal framework for cryptocurrencies, continued to emphasize the need for legislation that would allow BTC to be used as a currency. She intends to introduce a bill proposing such in the current parliamentary session.

The initiative could be an uphill struggle, however. Last year, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his government is not interested in Bitcoin adoption and is more concerned with tax evasion. His term ends in 2024, so there could be a long wait for Kempis. The central bank also plans to roll out a digital Peso by 2024, as reported by CryptoPotato.

Mexico’s third-richest man, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, thinks otherwise and has doubled down on previous Bitcoin statements. Over the weekend, he tweeted, “You have to buy bitcoin (keep buying when the price is low), then just hold your BTC, forget about selling … Trust me, you’re going to thank me later.”

El Salvador BTC Bonds in Demand

El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin has had a mixed reaction; however, it was recently reported that there had been a lot of demand for its BTC Bonds.

According to Blockstream’s Samson Mow, who is backing the effort, the Bitcoin bonds have already got $500 million in “verbal commitments.” This is halfway to hitting the $1 billion target in less than four months.