El Salvador-hosted ‘44-nation Bitcoin Conference’ Not Quite a Nothing Burger

cryptonews.com:

Central bankers attending a large-scale conference have moved to distance themselves from claims they are in El Salvador to talk about bitcoin (BTC) adoption – while local media outlets have suggested that BTC may be further down the agenda for the 44 nations attending than previously claimed. But evidence does suggest that the bankers and government ministers attending have already taken more than a passing interest in El Salvador’s adoption initiatives.

In an official release likely aimed at addressing reports that El Salvador was hosting something akin to a BTC conference for central bankers, the Central Bank of Paraguay wrote that it was actually attending an event organized by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion focused on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and financing digital services.

The Salvadoran newspaper Diario El Mundo reported that the event had been originally slated for early 2020 – incidentally over a year before El Salvador unveiled its own BTC adoption plans – but had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Paraguayan central bank explained:

“The focus of the meetings is not related to cryptocurrencies or anything similar to this. [The bank does] not plan to discuss cryptocurrencies in this environment or at [these] meetings.”

In fact, most Salvadoran media outlets covering the event have not mentioned any BTC-related talks at the summit.

And the mystery of a map posted by the Bitcoin Beach Twitter account on May 16 – causing consternation and surprise among social media users by showing vast swathes of the world shaded orange (the unofficial “color” of bitcoin) – appears to have been solved.

The image appears to be a screenshot of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s member