Pro-Bitcoin politician Sitiveni Rabuka recently took office as the new Prime Minister of the Pacific Islands of Fiji. Now, it seems the new PM is actively considering the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender there.
While Rabuka himself hasn’t been very public about his opinions on Bitcoin thus far, Lord Fusitu’a, a noble and former member of parliament of neighboring nation Tonga, has reportedly confirmed that the Fijian politician is a bitcoin bull.
“The new PM is definitely pro-Bitcoin,” Lord Fusitu’a assured Cointelegraph.
Lord Fusitu’a also shared the news on Twitter.
“A new pro-#Bitcoin friendly Prime Minister in the South Pacific. Fiji’s newly elected Prime Minister @slrabuka,” Lord Fusitu’a wrote, tagging Rabuka.
In the second part of his tweet, Lord Fusitu’a hinted at the legal tender legislation. “Let’s go 2 for 2 – BTC Legal Tender Bills for the Pacific in 2023,” the tweet reads, hinting at Tonga’s own Bitcoin legal tender legislation that could reportedly go live as early as Q2 2023. The Bitcoin dream first started brewing in Tonga right after El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law came into effect.
Now, Fiji could be next in bringing BTC under its definition of legal tender. Lord Fusitu’a told Cointelegraph that Fiji’s new Prime Minister “asked to meet with me which we did via zooms since last year to walk him through step by step, how he could adopt bitcoin legal tender.”
Both countries could benefit tremendously from bitcoin adoption in two specific areas; remittances and mining.
Remittances sent to Fiji accounted for 11.3% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, per World Bank data. Tonga’s situation is even more dramatic — remittances were a whopping 45.5% of the nation’s GDP in 2021.
When it comes to mining, both countries can take advantage of their topography. Being volcanic islands, there is a lot of opportunity to experiment with and profit from bitcoin mining. Moreover, Fiji also boasts significant hydro capacity.