[jollybean]

The World Bank would respond to such a request from a Government, it doesn't mean it's a 'big deal'.

Their statement is clear.

They very politely and in so many words saying:

1) To start you are corrupt and none of this will work without solving that 2) it makes no financial sense and 3) there are real environmental concerns.

When they sat 'transparency' what they mean is 'you are corrupt'.

When they cite 'regulatory, financial and legal concerns' they meant it.

And the environmental concerns are legit.

It's exactly and predictably the answer that any of their sane financial leaders would expect.

[LudwigNagasena]

What are the regulatory, financial and legal concerns? Why are they a deal-breaker? If there were no concerns El Salvador wouldn’t need to ask any help, would it?

[tsimionescu]

KYC and AML are some of the biggest regulatory and legal hurdles for bitcoin. On the financial side, tying your country to a coin whose value you can't control, and is known to fluctuate wildly, is obvious financial insanity.

[errantmind]

You could say the same thing about cash.

Also, gold's value seems to fluctuate quite a bit and it was / is the basis for some currencies

[tsimionescu]

Yes, cash is problematic for KYC and AML. That's why cash transactions and ownership are highly regulated in most of the world.

And gold's day-to-day value doesn't fluctuate nearly as much as bitcoin. Still, it does fluctuate too much, which is why the entire world has abandoned the idea of using it as a representation of the value of money.

[Kbelicius]

Currently there are no currencies that are based on gold. Must be a reason for that.