Billionaire Tim Draper says if Sir Lanka would adopt Bitcoin it could replicate the success of El Salvador and Estonia.
“My advice to Sri Lanka is, you have been painted into a corner by the press, you have to repaint yourself as a place for Bitcoin entrepreneurs and for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology business, he said.
The best suggestions I made to the president was to ask him to think in terms of attracting new entrepreneurs to this country.
If you accept bitcoin as a currency along with specialization in AI, implementing the use of AI everywhere, this could transform the entire country. Amazing things could happen here,” he said.
He made these remarks while on a panel discussion titled ‘From Troubled Nation to Startup Nation’, organized by the award-winning Sri Lankan co-working space, start-up incubator and accelerator Hatch, in Colombo, which was held on Tuesday evening. Hatch has entered into a strategic partnership with Draper Startup House, a global network of spaces connected to resources for entrepreneurs.
As the main member of the partnership, Mr. Draper arrived in Sri Lanka to engage with the key stakeholders in the government, which included President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Mr. Draper insisted, “by accepting Bitcoin, Sri Lanka could replicate the success of El Salvador and Estonia that adopted the latest technologies to transform their nations”.
“Bitcoin is going to change every industry in the world. Why don’t you jump ahead and become the country for Bitcoin and AI. He stressed that for a country such as Sri Lanka, which had seen its fiat currency depreciating by 80 percent in six months, It would makes sense to adopt a decentralized crypto such as bitcoin as the country’s official currency.
