The search for autonomy: from El Salvador’s legal bitcoin to Cuban mobile phones

It seems prehistoric when a few years ago people like the executive president of the Spanish bank BBVA foretold a situation in which large technology companies could replace many banking institutions by asking the G20 to intervene in order not to “jeopardize international financial stability” in a sector, like that of payments, in which the advent of large platforms was clearly perceived as a big problem for banks, but also for the whole of society due to a feared and excessive “concentration of power”. Today, all this fiery contrast between banks and large fintech companies is no longer visible on the horizon. Both because a sort of symbiosis has been created over time: the development of IT platforms, cloud services, tools for IT security, technologies for virtual branches … these are all businesses that have led to making banks a source very important revenue for fintech companies. Both because, on the other hand, banks smell the business behind the development of the financial potential of the major startups in the sector, both on payment systems and around cryptocurrencies and, above all, the technologies that support them. It is safe to consider the fact that fintechs and big banks are now interdependent rather than rivals. Within this increasingly pervasive symbiosis, a certain concern is beginning to stir, especially in those countries that are structurally under the pressure of both technological and financial imperialism also connected to the international banking system. Yesterday the news came that bitcoin has become legal tender in El Salvador, which effectively makes the small Central American country the first in the world to legalize a cryptocurrency. A move that, on the one hand according to analysts risks putting the economy at the mercy of the strong fluctuations of the digital currency, on the other, are the wishes of the government, could improve financial inclusion which affects 70% of the population. We are talking about one of the poorest countries in the region, with a population of 6.5 million inhabitants and which has used the US dollar as its official currency since 2001. With bitcoin it will be possible, once the law comes into force, to buy goods. and pay taxes and bank loans. Companies would be required to accept bitcoin for payment, with the bitcoin-dollar exchange rate set by the market. Converting bitcoin into other currencies would not be subject to capital gains tax, according to the law passed by President Nayib Bukele’s New Ideas party. William Soriano, member of the ruling party said: “Bitcoiner around the world, the time has come. We are ready. We have done our part, now the ball is on yours. “While El Salvador is looking, with all the risks involved, the path of cryptocurrencies to focus on a technology that can support the country from the pervasiveness of financial and technological control of the US, others like Cuba are trying to seek entrepreneurial autonomy in some key sectors such as technology. The President of the Republic Miguel Diaz-Canel is aware of the fact that the advent of Joe Biden to the US presidency will not lead to a softening of relations between the two countries, despite the promises made during the electoral campaign. For this reason, and to circumvent any other trade embargoes, it is intensifying its initiatives to make the country less and less dependent on foreigners. In this sense, Havana has developed its own Covid vaccines and Cuba is the only Latin American nation to vaccinate its population without external help. Furthermore, as a small signal, it has just announced that Gedeme, a Cuban public technology company, has produced a telephone with all the components entirely made on the Caribbean island. More than 6,000 copies of the smartphone will be distributed by the end of the month in the stores of the national telecommunications company Etecsa.