Bitcoin miner Poolin immortalizes El Salvador's BTC adoption on the blockchain

Published at: June 9, 2021

As is par for the course for Bitcoin (BTC), El Salvador becoming the first nation-state to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender is now immortalized on the blockchain.

Data from blockchain explorer service Blockchair shows block 686,938 bearing the message “asamblea aprueba la ley bitcoin” — meaning "assembly approves Bitcoin law" — which is the front-page headline carried by El Salvadoran daily Diario El Salvador on Wednesday.

Esta es la portada de #DiarioElSalvador de este miércoles 9 de junio del 2021. #DiarioES #DES pic.twitter.com/D2tgNG2TPK

— Diario El Salvador (@elsalvador) June 9, 2021

Poolin, the third-largest Bitcoin mining pool by hash rate, was responsible for mining the transaction block that contained the message.

This El Salvador headline announcing #Bitcoin has become legal tender, was just embedded into the blockchain. It will now remain there for all of eternity. pic.twitter.com/DtHiFDB4XM

— Documenting Bitcoin (@DocumentingBTC) June 9, 2021

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, El Salvador’s legislature passed a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country. Meanwhile, a wave of support for BTC among key government figures in Latin America continues to emerge to the excitement of several Bitcoin proponents.

Reacting to the growing trend, Chris Burniske, partner at blockchain-focused venture capital fund Placeholder VC, tweeted that move could be a means for Latin American nations to “strike back at dollars and debt.”

Earlier this week, former United States President Donald Trump doubled down on his Bitcoin stance, stating that BTC was competing with the U.S. dollar.

Poolin’s commemoration of El Salvador’s historic Bitcoin legalization move comes over a decade after BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto etched The Times' front-page headline from Jan. 3, 2009, on the blockchain's genesis block:

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

A few blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain also contain messages and other references meant to memorialize certain occasions.

When block height 666,666 came around back in January, the “winning miner” included a verse from the Bible: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Romans 12:21.”

In April, Coinbase had Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool embed a New York Times article in block 679,187.

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Adoption
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