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Binance ‘s CEO Visits El Salvador. What Will He Meet President Bukele About?

It was about time that Binance ’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, visited El Salvador. His company is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and El Salvador is the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, why did this take so long? According to the Secretariat of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of El Salvador, Binance’s CEO is visiting the country “along with other entrepreneurs, who are interested in knowing the investment possibilities.”

Hoy llegó a El Salvador el CEO y fundador de @BinanceES, Changpeng Zhao (@cz_binance), junto a otros empresarios, quienes están interesados en conocer las posibilidades de inversión, en el primer país del mundo que adoptó el #Bitcoin como moneda de curso legal. 🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/XBYVwyZ8Dd

— Secretaría de Comunicaciones 🇸🇻 (@ComunicacionSV) March 23, 2022

What will Changpeng Zhao meet President Bukele about? Reuters caused quite the commotion when they tried to guess.

Related Reading | Binance’s CZ Wants Entrepreneurs To Create Coins. Does His Argument Make Sense?

What Did Reuters Say About Binance ’s CEO Visit To El Salvador?

As far as Reuters is concerned, CZ is visiting El Salvador to assist them with the issuance of the volcano bonds. They literally said:

“El Salvador is seeking support from cryptocurrency exchange Binance for its implementation of bitcoin as legal tender and the issuance of bitcoin bonds, the Central American country’s ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday.”

Is that what he’s here about, though? In the closest source we found, EFE quotes Mayorga telling “local media,” “We need businessmen his stature to support the issue of subscription to the volcano bonds.” In the ambassador’s Twitter account, Milena Mayorga welcomes Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, “with the largest cryptocurrency wallet in the world.” Don’t ask.

Hemos dado la bienvenida a Changpeng Zhao @cz_binance, CEO de @binance, con la wallet de criptodivisas más grande del mundo.#LibertadEconómica #Bitcoin🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/PBExfF2Lwc

— Milena Mayorga (@MilenaMayorga) March 23, 2022

According to Reuters, “Mayorga said Zhao’s visit was a vote of confidence in Bukele’s decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender last September, as well as its plan to issue bitcoin-backed bonds.” According to her own tweets, they discussed, “strategic projects such as Bitcoin City, Surf City among others, was what we shared with the delegation of investors from Binance and companies.”

Proyectos estratégicos como #BitcoinCity, #SurfCity entre otros, fue lo que compartimos a la delegación de inversionistas de @binance y empresas que nos acompañan en esta 13 misión de negocios. pic.twitter.com/l6TOJNklAm

— Milena Mayorga (@MilenaMayorga) March 24, 2022

Who’s That Dark Figure Behind Binance ’s CEO?

The visit of one of the great businessmen of our time is most likely a positive for El Salvador. However, who’s that behind him? Could it be…? A pseudonymous Twitter user provides the necessary blown up pictures:

pic.twitter.com/1B38pZkyjW

— mutatrum (@mutatrum) March 23, 2022

That’s right, notorious lurker Brock Pierce. Of course, he is one of the “other entrepreneurs.” If you squint, you can also see him in one of Milena Mayorga’s pictures. Let’s remember what our sister site Bitcoinist reported the first time that the EOS creator lied his way into the Presidential Palace: 

“Something is rotten in the state of El Salvador. The first nation to declare BTC as legal tender received no other than the infamous Brock Pierce. An “Official Delegation of Bitcoin Ambassadors” reportedly met with President Bukele and other government officials. However, is there such thing as an “official delegation” of a decentralized protocol? No, there isn’t. And the whole Bitcoin community is up in arms about the situation.”

And just like that, Brock Pierce is back in San Salvador. Who would’ve thought?

BNB price chart on BinanceUS | Source: BNB/USD on TradingView.com
President Bukele Responds To The Rumors

In a since-deleted tweet, Bitcoin Magazine echoed Reuters’ take on the nature of Binance CEO’s visit to El Salvador. President Bukele asked them to “please don’t spread Reuters FUD. The Bitcoin Volcano Bonds will be issued with Bitfinex. The short delay in the issuance is only because we are prioritizing internal pension reform and we have to send that to congress before.”

I’m meeting with @cz_binance tomorrow to discuss OTHER issues, not the Volcano Bonds 🌋

Unless he wants to buy some, of course 😉#Bitcoin fixes FUD!

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 23, 2022

To that, President Bukele added “I’m meeting with Changpeng Zhao tomorrow to discuss OTHER issues, not the Volcano Bonds. Unless he wants to buy some, of course.” And Binance CEO responded, “Looking forward to it. Plenty to discuss.” And, to be fair, Reuters also said that “Zhao praised El Salvador for taking on a pioneering role in the adoption of bitcoin and said Bukele’s presidency would be remembered in “heroic” terms for its bold bet on the future.”

Related Reading | Binance’s CZ Explains Why Banning Crypto Ads Won’t Affect Demand

Is Binance CEO’s visit to El Salvador priced in? Will the BTC price move because of it? What about BNB? Will Binance make moves in El Salvador? Does the market care about this historic visit? The next few days will answer all of those questions.

Featured Image: Changpeng Zhao in El Salvador, screenshot from this video | Charts by TradingView

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EOS Community Revolts Against Brock Pierce’s Block.One, Won’t Pay 67M EOS

EOS and Block.One are back on the news. Is this one positive or negative, though? The EOS Network Foundation, a community-led organization, voted to decouple from Block.One. The ENF alleges that Block.One is no longer working for the benefit of the network. The company that created EOS will not get the 67M EOS that they had coming distributed over the next seven years. Even though the infamous Brock Pierce resigned from the company years ago, this will also affect his finances.

Related Reading | Peter Thiel and Bitmain Invest in Block.one to Support EOS Ecosystem

In The Present, What Does Brock Pierce Have To Do With Block.One?

This might’ve been the last straw. Just last month, Block.one announced that they were selling 45M EOS at a discount to one of Brock Pierce’s ventures.

“Today we are pleased to announce that we have agreed to transfer 45 million EOS tokens to Helios.

Led by Brock Pierce, Helios takes aim at serving the EOS community through several high ambitions, including creating an EOS Venture Capital fund, facilitating the creation of institutional-grade EOS financial products, supporting the creation of infrastructure, tooling and documentation for developers, and organizing community events around education, networking, and use case development.”

A pseudonymous Twitter user that broke the news, analyzed it as follows:

8.The #EOS community worked as one big DAO

A excellent example of democracy through voting and DpoS

The community is now well organized and in possession of hundreds of millions

Watch out for #EOS with the foundation and @EosNFoundation taking the lead

— PrrplFrog (@PrrplFrog) December 8, 2021

He says that “Block.One went in to a deal to sell their vested EOS tokens for a discount to their previous associate Brock Pierce!” And that, to stop this behavior, “The EOS community worked as one big DAO. An excellent example of democracy through voting and DpoS.” Even though the ENF is not a DAO, this might be a good example of how Decentralized Autonomous Organizations should work. However, should a decentralized protocol be so easy to control? Should the EOS Network Foundation be able to roll back a smart contract just like that?

In any case, according to The Block, the company is not yet in control of the 45M EOS they promised Brock Pierce. “Eight million of the tokens were already vested and controlled by Block.one while 37 million are still vesting (meaning they haven’t been released by the network yet).” Is this transaction what the EOS Network Foundation wants to block? 

EOS price chart on Coinbase | Source: EOS/USD on TradingView.com
What Did The EOS Network Foundation Want?

The ENF was negotiating with Block.One. According to The Block, their goal was to “get hold of the EOS network’s intellectual property.” However, one of Block.One’s side projects, an exchange called Bullish, owns the IP. And Block.One “wouldn’t publicly commit to getting the intellectual property back.” What did the company do instead? They announced this:

“In addition to the recently announced Helios transaction, today we are pleased to announce our intentions to offer the following grants of vesting tokens that are intended to be given over time, and subject to our token availability:

  • EOS Network Foundation – 30m EOS

  • Pomelo – 1m EOS

  • EdenOS – 1m EOS”

Related Reading | Cardano CEO Shares “Too Big Too Fast” Insight on EOS CTO Departure

How did the EOS Network Foundation react? They wanted the IP, not tokens. So, they created this proposal, which was approved. The ENF director, Yves La Rose, took to Twitter to declare victory.

“Through a super majority consensus, the EOS network has taken its future in its own hands. This begins a new era for EOS and highlights the power of the blockchain to enable a community to stand up against corporate interests that don’t align with theirs.”

Through a super majority consensus, the EOS network has taken its future in its own hands. This begins a new era for #EOS and highlights the power of the blockchain to enable a community to stand up against corporate interests that don’t align with theirs. https://t.co/8l62MBG67C

— Yves La Rose (@EosNFoundation) December 8, 2021

The community spoke. They will roll back the contract and block the 67M EOS that Block.One had coming. Where does that put them regarding the EOS network’s intellectual property? Does the ENF have any chance of getting that IP now?

Featured Image by Valentin Salja on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView