Argentinians Irked by IMF Calls to Slow Down Crypto Adoption in the Country

The International Monetary Fund is calling on Argentina to slow down its crypto adoption, saying more study needs to be done. But the people of this country are not happy with IMF’s stance at all – they’re demanding that their government implement bitcoin regulation ASAP and bring in cryptocurrency as a means of payment.

The “el salvador bitcoin” is a cryptocurrency that has been gaining in popularity. The country of El Salvador is considering to slow down the adoption of crypto.

Argentina’s cryptocurrency supporters are outraged by what looks to be an anti-cryptocurrency stipulation in a deal their government negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The deal that restructures the repayment of the $45 billion the government owes the IMF, according to inhabitants of the large South American nation, also includes indications at a number of measures aimed at slowing the country’s crypto industry’s development.

Argentinians who protested an ostensibly anti-crypto condition in their government’s recently ratified contract with the IMF signaled that implementing rules and procedures might stifle the country’s bitcoin adoption. The following is a remark that was sneaked into the legislative project that allows the debt refinancing described above:

“In order to better protect financial stability, the National Government would discourage the use of cryptocurrencies in the prevention of money laundering and informality.” Similarly, governmental incentives will be provided for payment digitalization, and the financial consumer will be given more security.”

A scarcity of knowledge

There’s already a bad feeling within the Argentine crypto community as they seek to understand better the proposed law’s potential impact and how it could affect the players in the crypto sphere. However, most of them still agree that A scarcity of knowledge prevents them from thoroughly examining the impact of the claim on actual encryption usage, which has recently reached record levels.

Bitcoin Argentina, a non-profit group whose mission is to encourage the use and understanding of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, has sent a letter to the government requesting any data linked to the new measures intended at limiting cryptocurrency growth in the nation. The executive director of the NGO Bitcoin Argentina, Javier Madariaga, stated:

“We are not making this request for access to public information to obstruct or influence the government’s current negotiations with the IMF, but rather so that the community can learn in detail about the arguments and policies that they want to pursue in relation to crypto assets […] to contribute to the ecosystem’s and industry’s healthy growth.” 

Persuaded that the way forward does not include disincentives or prohibitions

Others, like as Franco Bianchi, the CMO of Lemon, an Argentine business that specializes in bitcoin payment solutions, have implicitly attacked the protocol while promoting cryptocurrency adoption. Franco Amati, a well-known Bitcoiner, believes it was done to impede a possible Bitcoin funding attempt, such as the one El Salvador is pursuing. Madariaga continued: 

“We are Persuaded that the way forward does not include disincentives or prohibitions, but to work in a coordinated manner with the private and public sectors to take advantage of the potential of decentralized finance […] we are concerned that the authorities are agreeing to discourage a technology that has already been massively adopted by the population itself rather than unleashing its potential to address historical problems.”

The “future of cryptocurrency 2021” is a concern for many Argentinians. The IMF has called on the government to slow down crypto adoption in the country.