El Salvador's president announces plan to make bitcoin legal tender

• Jack Mallers, founder of the Lightning Network payments platform Strike, which is working with Bukele on the project, noted at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida, Saturday: "Over 70% of the active population of El Salvador doesn't have a bank account. They're not in the financial system."

What they're saying: Bukele said in a video message to the conference that in the short term, formally adopting bitcoin "will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy."

The big picture: Over 2 million Salvadorans live outside the country and send home some $4 billion every year, with remittances making up about 20% of the country's GDP, per the BBC.

• Bukele didn't go into details on how the policy would work. But he said it would be used alongside the U.S. dollar, which the nation has used as its official unit of currency since 2001.

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