A group of government officials and entrepreneurs from the state of South Carolina visited El Salvador to study the practical side of accepting bitcoin as a means of payment.
During their visit, entrepreneurs and municipal employees from the United States met with business representatives and government officials from El Salvador. They collected information about the legislative and administrative measures used by the government of the country to ensure the adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender, as well as to inform citizens about the possibilities of its use.
"The experience of El Salvador is very useful for understanding the direction of our efforts to introduce digital assets and new technologies in South Carolina. We learned how sellers took advantage of the new technology and as a result significantly expanded their business. We will look at the prospects of how South Carolinians can benefit from using bitcoin," said Dennis Fassuliotis, president of the Association of New Technologies of South Carolina (SCETA).
On behalf of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, the state treasurer Curtis Loftis also visited El Salvador. Previously, his office was tasked to study the development and potential of digital asset adoption in El Salvador, as well as to identify ways in which individuals, businesses and authorities in South Carolina can benefit from the use of new technologies.
"The goal was to see how this bold initiative works, and I was pleasantly surprised. El Salvador has taken an aggressive approach to transforming a population largely without access to banking services into a population that now uses bitcoin in settlements. I have talked to many small business owners and they are still interested in bitcoin and hope that the expansion of its use will continue," Loftis said.
Recall that on September 7, exactly one year has passed since El Salvador became the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as a legal means of payment.
