El Salvador is preparing a ‘bitcoin city’ powered by a volcano

The president of El Salvador has announced that Central America is planning to build a monumental “bitcoin city” with a $ 1bn account in a cryptocurrency-independent state.

President Nayib Bukele said the city had no property, income or income tax. Its construction and other costs will be borne by the sales tax and the proceeds of the bonds.

Bukele compares his goals with those of the former Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great, who founded cities with his name throughout the world.

“If you want bitcoin to spread all over the world, we have to build Alexandria, right?” he said, speaking in English on the beach, wearing his baseball cap. “Let’s all be a part of that.”

The 40-year-old president launched the campaign at the end of a week-long bitcoin festival in his home country, which two months ago became the first to recognize bitcoin as such. officially tender.

Bonds will be US dollar-denominated 10-year bond, and half of that amount will be exchanged bitcoin and the other half working for the construction and bitcoin mining, Samson Mow, chief executive officer of blockchain technology company Blockstream, said on stage by Bukele.

The construction will be completed in 2022 and construction work on the city – near the hill that the President said would give power to the metropolis – will begin. After 60 days, the government said.

El Salvador officially made bitcoin a tender in September, offering a $ 30 incentive for citizens who have downloaded the official e-wallet Chivo – slang for the cold.

After a difficult start when the price of bitcoin dropped and Chivo Wallet collapsed, Bukele said the app had millions of users, although dollars remain a major way to make a difference.

Between September and October, Salvador’s foreign nationals sent $ 32m home via Chivo Wallet, the country’s Central Reserve Bank chief. he said recently. That represents of 2.5% on all remittances in those months.

The most popular Bukele – the former mayor of the capital Sal Salvador – was delighted with the approval more than 80%. But the prime minister has moved to join forces to remove all judges over the age of 60, and to remove them from office. five judges in the Supreme Court.

El Salvador has been in talks with the IMF throughout the year and experts are not seeing the recent agreement.

“There has not been as much as any consensus on financial management,” researchers at Amherst Pierpont Securities said in a recent letter. “It is also difficult to monitor the game system when the economic system is still in line with autocratic politics.”