Parliament of the Kingdom of Tonga proposes to legalize bitcoin

Members of the Tongan Parliament are going to consider a bill to legalize bitcoin as a means of payment.

MP Lord Fusitu’a presented his bill to legalize bitcoin in the Kingdom of Tonga last fall. In a recent conversation with Cointelegraph, the parliamentarian said that this bill provides for several stages of the introduction of bitcoin.

First, it is planned to legalize BTC as a means of payment and allow money transfers across the country with it. The government will have to develop bitcoin mining, using an excess of cheap volcanic energy for this, and then invest the state budget in the first cryptocurrency.

Fusitua estimated that if the bill was successfully passed through parliament by mid-October, it would be pending in the Kingdom’s chancery for about four weeks. By mid-November, His Majesty will approve or reject the project. Fusitua suggested that if approved, the Bitcoin adoption bill would come into force as early as mid-January 2023, after the Christmas holidays.

The politician stressed that the state has great potential for bitcoin mining, and this potential will last for the next 100 years. On the territory of Tonga there are 21 volcanoes, which produce more than 2,000 MW of electricity per year. The state grid consumes about 40 MW per year, so the remaining 1,960 MW can be effectively used for bitcoin mining, Fusitua said. This creates favorable conditions for home mining. However, in order for the country to start mining bitcoin on a large scale, this initiative will require support from the government.

The possibility of recognizing bitcoin as legal tender is also being considered by the government of Paraguay, along with other Latin American countries. In January, the Sultanate of Oman also took up the formation of a regulatory framework for the legalization of digital assets.