A billionaire cryptocurrency evangelist may have gotten a harder reception than he expected when proposing extensive adoption of Bitcoin to a bankrupt country.Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper was in Sri Lanka to shoot an episode of his Meet the Drapers TV show with local entrepreneurs, and met President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday to proselytize the adoption of cryptocurrency.
He journeyed to the reserve bank the next day with the very same pitch-- however embattled Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe, whos still working to relax monetary mayhem, was having none of it.
I concern the Central Bank with decentralized currency, declared Draper, worn a Bitcoin tie for the meeting that happened in a teak-paneled room neglecting the sea.
We do not accept, Weerasinghe said, taking another sip of carbonated ginger beer.During the meeting, Draper a number of times described what he referred to as Sri Lankas credibility for corruption and argued cryptocurrency was one option.
Colombo might avert graft by keeping best records after adopting Bitcoin, he argued.
Have you seen Sri Lanka in the news? Its referred to as the corruption capital, Draper stated.
A country understood for corruption will have the ability to keep perfect records with the adoption of Bitcoin.
Sri Lankas upper financial official countered: Adoption of 100% Bitcoin will not be a Sri Lanka reality ever.
Its a frostier reaction than Draper has gotten in some other areas.
The small island country of Palau in the Pacific made him the starting resident of its digital-residency program, for instance.Fuel and food lacks in Sri Lanka stirred riots in 2015 that required the then-President to flee the country and later resign.
The debt-stricken nation remains in talks with worldwide financial institutions about debt restructuring, aiming to get the International Monetary Fund to come up with a rescue plan.
Inflation stands at 54.2% and last year the economy contracted 8%, the guv said.To crypto enthusiasts, that may seem like the ideal place for Bitcoin adoption.
One of the primary use cases people see for crypto is as a stable store of worth exempt to modifications in central-bank or federal government policy.
Draper even mentioned El Salvador, which adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, in the conference.
However experiences like El Salvadors, which warded off default at the last minute just last month, may serve as a cautionary tale more than anything.
Draper, 64, a Silicon Valley investor and early backer of business like Tesla, Baidu Inc., Skype, Coinbase and Robinhood, made news in 2014 when he purchased seized Bitcoin at an US Marshals Service auction.
Bitcoin is hovering in the low $20,000 s-- but he sees it reaching $250,000 this year.He kept trying with Weerasinghe.
Does the administration have the guts to do it? he asked.
Whats the benefit of having your own currency? Weerasinghe said other technologies could effectively distribute financial services to cultivate inclusion and pay out electronic welfare payments, and kept in mind that a country without its own currency couldnt have monetary-policy independence.
We do not wish to make the crisis worse by introducing Bitcoin, he said.The conference lasted 30 minutes.Source: Bloomberg-- Agencies