Guest: Yesenia Portillo, East Coast Coordinator for Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).

On September 7, The New York Times reported: "El Salvador on Tuesday became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, allowing the cryptocurrency to be used in any transaction, from buying a cup of coffee to paying taxes. The bold move, largely celebrated by the international bitcoin community, has found a more skeptical reception at home and in the traditional financial world, amid concerns that it could bring instability and unnecessary risk to the Central American country’s fragile economy.

In El Salvador, many are viewing the move with confusion and distrust, afraid that the volatility inherent to using virtual tokens with no physical backing, which are apt to soar and crash in value, could be dangerous for the economy — and their own savings.

El Salvador’s move puts it at the forefront of a revolution in finance on the blockchain, where a parallel universe of crypto-based alternative banking services is booming and eliciting alarm from officials in Washington and beyond."

To talk more about this global first, we are joined by Yesenia Portillo of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador)