The World Bank under fire for refusing to help El Salvador switch to BTC | Invezz

The World Bank came under fire recently after refusing to help El Salvador transition to adopt Bitcoin (BTC/USD) as legal tender — a decision that was announced only about a week ago by the country’s president. Of course, the move attracted as much criticism as it did praise, which was not surprising to anybody.

However, the World Bank’s refusal to help did not please the crypto community. The bank mentioned transparency and environmental impact as reasons why it does not support the decision, mirroring Tesla’s reasons for no longer accepting Bitcoin payments.

Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis? Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.

The World Bank did, however, say that it is willing and able to help El Salvador in other ways, such as with regulatory processes and achieving currency transparency.

While the members of the crypto industry were not pleased with this development, they could not really say they were surprised. After all, Bitcoin was the first-ever cryptocurrency, developed specifically to take the power away from the banks. It would be overly optimistic to expect the banks to help out with that mission.

Anthony Pompliano also commented in response to the World Bank’s announcement that the bank “hasn’t figured out how to make money off Bitcoin.”

Samson Mow, the acting CSO of Blockstream, who also created a blockchain-based game called Infinite Fleet, was even more displeased with the decision. In fact, he called for making the World Bank obsolete.

Mow’s stance might be a bit extreme, but many have still found it understandable, given how big of a move this is for Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto sector alike. Becoming a legal tender in one of the American countries would be huge, and it would set an example that many would soon follow.

And, while there has been a lot of skepticism, the crypto world takes care of its own, and so Bitcoin Beach announced that 30 foreign business leaders are coming to visit Bitcoin Beach to see how to invest in El Salvador, while 2 companies already instructed their lawyers to find a way to set up their legal business entities in the country.