The World Bank has rejected a request from El Salvador to help with the implementation of Bitcoin as legal tender.

The international lender cited concerns over transparency and the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining.

Earlier this month, the Central American country announced plans to become the first nation to formally adopt digital currency.

The World Bank’s decision could mean the country faces problems in hitting its deadline to ensure that Bitcoin is accepted nationwide in the next three months.

El Salvador has become the first county to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender

Earlier El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele sent a law to the country’s congress proposing to make Bitcoin legal tender – that was then passed.

If approval makes El Salvador the first nation in the world to give cryptocurrency this status.

Under the legislation, prices can be shown in bitcoin, tax contributions can be paid with the digital currency, and exchanges in bitcoin will not be subject to capital gains tax.

Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele announced in a video recording shown during the Bitcoin 2021 conference held in Miami that he has a strong belief in cryptocurrency.

“It will bring financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development for our country,”

BUKELE SAID IN A TWEET SHORTLY BEFORE THE VOTE IN CONGRESS, WHICH IS CONTROLLED BY HIS PARTY AND ALLIES.

Bukele added that the use of Bitcoin would not bring risks to users.

“The government will guarantee the convertibility to the exact value in dollars at the moment of each transaction,”

El Salvador’s dollarized economy relies heavily on money sent back from workers abroad. World Bank data showed remittances to the country made up nearly $6 billion or around a fifth of GDP in 2019, one of the highest ratios in the world.

WWW creator says he’ll auction the World Wide Web source code as a NFT, starting at $1000

The creator of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee announced he’ll auction the original World Wide Web source code as an NFT.

Sotheby will be hosting the action titled “This Changed Everything” between June 23 and 30 in a standalone online auction.

“Three decades ago, I created something which has been a powerful tool for humanity,” said Sir Tim.

What will the NFT purchase include?

The NFT will include the time-stamped files containing the source code written by Sir Tim.

The WWW auction package will also include an animated visualisation of the code, a personal letter from the creator and a digital “poster” of the full code. Sir Tim will also digitally sign all parts of the NFT.

The full code amounts to nearly 10,000 lines of HTML, HTTP and URI in total, The code also includes the original HTML instructions for early web users.

“I sincerely hope its use knowledge and potential will remain open and available to us all to continue to innovate, create and initiate the next technological transformation, that we cannot yet imagine,” said Sir Tim.

“They are the ideal way to package the origins behind the web.”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

What are NFTs?

NFT stands for “non-fungible token”. Each NFT is entirely unique, and cannot be replaced. Most NFTs form part of the Ethereum blockchain.

Sir Tim says NFTs are the web’s “latest playful creation” and the most “appropriate means of digital ownership that exists.”

“Why an NFT? Well, it’s a natural thing to do as when you’re a computer scientist and when you
write code and have been for many years. It feels right to digitally sign my autograph on a
completely digital artefact,” he added.

History of the World Wide Web

The “WorldWideWeb” application was the first hypermedia browser. It allowed users to create and
navigate links between files across a network of computers.

Three decades later, that single server and website has turned into over 1.7 billion websites being accessed by 4.6 billion people around the world.

A mission to “re-decentralise” the web

Today, Sir Tim is working on a project called Solid, which aims to bring the web ‘closer to his original vision’ when things were completely open and without centralisation.

Sir Tim says the movement to “redecentralise” the web is gaining traction.

He hopes that the movement will empower users with ownership of their own data.

Bitcoin will get a privacy upgrade as concerns rise over the cryptocurrency’s ability to withstand ransomware attacks

Bitcoin’s upcoming privacy upgrade will be the crypto’s most significant change in the last four years. Bitcoin says the update will focus on the software that underpins the network.

The main advances to the network include changes that will make the network easier to manage for big embedded applications.

The update will also enhance user privacy and let more people use wallets that make it harder for people and organisations to track who paid who.

This follows U-S authorities recently linking cyber attacks against Colonial Pipeline and meat producer JBS SA to groups in Russia that used Bitcoin.

Castle Island Ventures says the upgrades are “definitely a driver in as much as it proves that Bitcoin can still innovate and can upgrade itself.”