What do we end up with? Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador failed. Why did this happen? It’s not about bitcoin, it’s about the approach, of course. Since this is still uncharted territory and this was the first time that bitcoin was recognized as legal tender by an entire state, I believe that the El Salvadorian government was very hasty in passing this law. The point is that you can't force people to voluntarily use bitcoin, especially when they're new to it. People themselves should want to use bitcoin, and the state should create an infrastructure around this desire to make using bitcoin even more comfortable at any level, as a transfer of money, paying taxes, etc.
I think that this case will be indicative for other states that also sought, following El Salvador, to accept bitcoin as legal tender. And that in order to implement this, everything will need to be very well checked and considered. The most optimal would be to first create a separate bitcoin zone in a single city or region and, based on its data, already make a decision on the introduction of bitcoin throughout the country. Need research and infrastructure, and then the adoption of a law. El Salvador did the exact opposite.
A couple of factors are at play here. The most important one is that BTC and crypto are being treated as a band-aid for years of economic mistreatment and a generally bad state of the country. While Bitcoin is a great tool for empowering the common man and an interesting project that could show us how things might or might not work in the future, it definitely is not a complete solution to years of systematic abuse and dependency on foreign help. And unfortunately, many laser-eyed crypto influencers are giving away the impression it is, and then crypto investors that don't want to think for themselves jump on the hype train slowly chugging towards destination disappointment. The amount the IMF loans (at high rates) to third-world countries is much greater than BTC can facilitate at this point, and unfortunately, with its current state of affairs, El Salvador would be doing them a disservice by choosing BTC over that.
This brings me to another issue. Why have we put a time limit of what, half a year and determined that something is a failure without acknowledging that it's a small time frame in a country filled with economic distress? Changes like that don't happen overnight and will have their ups and downs for years to come, but that doesn't mean it's failed nor does it means there are no other alternative pathways to gradual crypto adoption.