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I think I saw this coming....

El Salvador’s Lonely Bitcoin Experiment: 'It's Either the Biggest Failure or the Biggest Con.'
In their cover story, Barron’s analyzes El Salvador’s experiment in adopting cryptocurrency as a domestic currency. In September, El Salvador’s president signed the Bitcoin Law, which legalized cryptocurrency for domestic purposes, such as shopping or paying rent. However, despite hopes of it being a success, it has had negligible impact beyond small circles. Barron’s first looks at the adoption of Bitcoin by El Salvador’s government. They found that the government has some holdings in Bitcoin, but there is a lack of clarity from officials on the size of those holdings. Bitcoin is not backed by a hard currency, which makes it a more risky gamble, as it is prone to larger fluctuations in value. The president’s determination to adopt Bitcoin has led to the breakdown of negotiations with lenders, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the destabilizing effect of Bitcoin incites concern that El Salvador’s government may not be able to repay their loans if the cryptocurrency crashes. Despite opposition and high risk, officials are continuing to attempt to turn El Salvador into a haven for Bitcoin through the creation of “Bitcoin cities”, Bitcoin ATMs, and a government-backed digital wallet for the cryptocurrency. While the push for domestic use is there, a study showed that for most citizens and business, Bitcoin has been completely irrelevant. Barron’s also notes that, when investigating the scope of Bitcoin usage, they found very few merchants or shops that were equipped with the technology needed to process a transaction. Finally, the story questions whether El Salvador is the proper place for such an experiment. Since El Salvador uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, Bitcoin is competing against a strong, stable currency, so the need for another form of currency is not present. Economists also highlight that Bitcoin was not meant to be a currency for an entire country, and the technology is not able to keep up with large-scale use.