Samson Mow: More Jurisdictions Are Interested In Embracing Bitcoin
Samson Mow, ex-Blockstream CSO, discussed Bitcoin adoption plans of three different global jurisdictions on Thursday. One of them is Mexico, where the nation’s president has invited Mow to discuss the matter.
Mow spoke at Bitcoin 2022 conference on how he’s spent the last month working on “Bitcoin nation-state adoption,” since he left Blockstream. He’s also started a new Bitcoin tech firm called “Jan 3” – named after the date that Bitcoin’s genesis block was formed.
Prospera
His infuence has spread to places like Prospera – a privately managed developing city on the island of Roatán in Honduras, which operates Bitcoin as legal tender. Prospera’s President, Joel Bomgar said:
“That means no capital gains tax on Bitcoin, you can transact freely using Bitcoin, and you can pay taxes and fees to the jurisdiction in Bitcoin.”
Prospera has plans enable other municipalities in Honduras, and corporations outside the U.S., to float Bitcoin bonds from within Prospera’s jurisdiction. These will operate in a similar way to the Bitcoin bonds being planned by El Salvador – also built in collaboration with Samson Mow.
Madeira
Another, the autonomous region of Madeira in Portugal also has plans to “adopt” the cryptocurrency. Following up after Bomgar, Madeira President Miguel Albuquerque revealed to the audience that he believes in the future, and in Bitcoin.
Though he made no mention of making Bitcoin legal tender, Albuquerque said that Bitcoin investors do not pay tax when buying or selling the asset in his region. He also said that he will continue to work on creating a “fantastic environment for Bitcoin”.
Mexico
Mexican Senator Indira Kempis, also gave an update on her country’s Bitcoin adoption plans. Kempis has been keen to make cryptocurrency legal tender in Mexico, second after El Salvador.
While the effort has not been without barriers, she revealed today makes the odds of such a change start to look a lot more probable. Relaying a message to Mow from the President, she said that he’d like to sit down with the Bitcoin expert to discuss making Bitcoin legal tender across Mexico.
The senator has been busy submitting bills to make financial inclusion and education a constitutional right for the Mexican population. She’s also been trying to modify regulations around fintech and monetary law – summarized by Mow as a “Bitcoin law”.
