According to a former MP Tonga will follow El Salvador's example

The path to Bitcoinisation is blocked by a single domino. On Wednesday, a former member of the Pacific island nation of Tonga revealed how Tongans can adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in a play-by-play style.

In a series of tweets, Lord Fusitu’a, a previous member of parliament for Tonga, announced that Bitcoin will become legal tender in Tonga. The shift may onboard more than 100,000 Tongans to the Bitcoin network by adopting El Salvador’s approach.

Fusitu’a has yet to comment on the proposed legislation. In a follow-up statement, she said that it is “modeled after and is almost identical to the El Salvador bill.”

The news was met with questions, predictions, and outright jubilation on Bitcoin Twitter before the Tongan set the record straight. He enthusiastically responded that as soon as November or December this year, Bitcoin could become legal currency; “Boom! That’s us, brother!” he tweeted in a message.

In 2021, it was widely expected that Tonga would soon follow in the footsteps of Bermuda and Malta and accept bitcoin as legal currency. Following a conversation between Lord Fusitu’a and Bedford-based Bitcoiner Peter McCormack for a podcast, speculations ran wild.

The then-MP revealed the remittance scenario for adopting Bitcoin as a legal currency during the discussion. He added, Adoption will bring about the following:

“A disposable income increase by 30%. With that extra 30%, some (people) are going to be saving it rather than putting it into the economy and stacking sats.”

Remittances from countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United States help to keep the tiny island nation of Tonga afloat. According to the International Finance Corporation, Tonga gets more money from remittances than any other country in the world, accounting for up to 30% of household income.

Furthermore, the Tongan population is just a few hundred people. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that there are about 126,000 Tongans living abroad, with up to 18,000 residing in Australia.

Aside from remittance, the Lord highlighted some domestic benefits for adopting the open-source protocol. He acknowledged that Tonga could establish a BTC circular economy and that it is “one of the few cases in which being a sparsely inhabited tiny island state archipelago is an advantage.”

The people of the Kingdom of Tonga are known for their friendliness and hospitality. Although they have a population of around 185,000 it is difficult to generalize them; because name origins can be traced back up to 1000 years ago. Its most common spoken language is English, which has served as an official language since 1875.

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