Thousands of people protest this weekend in El Salvador after the country made Bitcoin an official legal currency alongside with the U.S. dollar.

El Salvador’s economic situation

In January 2016, El Salvador announced its plan to adopt a unified exchange rate system to allow the Central Bank to release monthly reports on the value of the currencies it oversees. The Central Bank considers the USA dollar, the Euro, the Chinese Yuan, the Mexican peso and the Venezuelan bolivar as official legal currencies. In the initial period, the Central Bank introduced an experimental system that allows traders to convert between the official currencies and bitcoins. The objective of the government’s experiment was to increase the use of digital money as an alternative to regular money. El Salvador's gov't announced plans to accept Bitcoin as official currency.

Bitcoin is now legal currency in El Salvador

Thousands of people protested this weekend in El Salvador after the Central American nation made Bitcoin an official legal currency alongside with the U.S. dollar. El Salvador is one of the few countries in Latin America to do this. The country has also recognized other cryptocurrencies, like Litecoin, Monero and Dogecoin. "I think it's a very smart decision," said Marcelino Mejia, of the BitMEX Bitcoin Clearing House, in a video interview with News BTC. "It will bring more economy and more people to become familiar with this new technology and this new, innovation [that] it brings to the market." The government also said that citizens would be allowed to exchange U.S. dollars for Bitcoin and Litecoin. Bitcoin's cost is currently just under $50,000.