{"id":537845,"date":"2023-01-09T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/belgian-mp-receives-bitcoin-salary-for-a-year-heres-what-he-learned\/"},"modified":"2023-01-09T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T15:00:00","slug":"belgian-mp-receives-bitcoin-salary-for-a-year-heres-what-he-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/belgian-mp-receives-bitcoin-salary-for-a-year-heres-what-he-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"# Belgian MP receives Bitcoin salary for a year: Here\u2019s what he learned"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40e91fc6f16\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40e91fc6f16\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/belgian-mp-receives-bitcoin-salary-for-a-year-heres-what-he-learned\/#%E2%80%9D_Belgian_MP_receives_Bitcoin_salary_for_a_year_Heres_what_he_learned_%E2%80%9C\" >&#8221; Belgian MP receives Bitcoin salary for a year: Here\u2019s what he learned   &#8220;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9D_Belgian_MP_receives_Bitcoin_salary_for_a_year_Heres_what_he_learned_%E2%80%9C\"><\/span>&#8221; Belgian MP receives Bitcoin salary for a year: Here\u2019s what he learned   &#8220;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjMtMDEvNGM2YThhZWYtODA0Yy00MTU4LTliMDItMTU4MTEyZmJlMTA0LmpwZw==.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content\" data-v-6ed77c39>At the end of January 2022, member of the Belgian parliament Christophe De Beukelaer became the first European politician to convert his salary to Bitcoin (BTC). Celebrating the anniversary of this experiment, Cointelegraph reached out to a lawmaker to know more about his experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2022, Beukelaer, who represents Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH) party, cited the example of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and how American politicians are working to make their native states or cities Bitcoin hubs to justify his decision. The Brussels MP\u2019s monthly salary of EUR 5,500 ($6,140) was to be converted to Bitcoin using the Bit4You crypto trading platform. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em><u>Related: <\/u><\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Belgium says BTC, ETH and other decentralized coins are not securities<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did this political act of paying in Bitcoin to defend political ideas,\u201d shares Beukelaer, citing four ones: defending financial freedom and economic opportunity and combating financial illiteracy and growth model. The last one is perhaps the most interesting, as the lawmaker, who\u2019s calling himself a \u201cpragmatic environmentalist,\u201d sees a clear link between Bitcoin and the environmental clause: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat does the central bank do when it prints money as it has done in recent years? It gives the illusion of infinite resources and thus encourages all economic actors to produce and consume more and more.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Beukelaer considers his experiment successful in both putting Belgium on the global crypto map and encouraging local officials to educate themselves on digital assets:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0\u201cA lot of politicians said to themselves: \u2018De Beukelaer is not an anarchist. If he is interested in Bitcoin, there must be something interesting behind it.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Was it comfortable in practical terms? The positive answer is hardly imaginable, given the BTC\u2019s decline from almost $38,000 in Jan.2022 to $17,246 by press time in Jan.2023, but the MP didn\u2019t regard his experiment as an economic strategy from the very beginning:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt was a political act and not a financial gesture. Like those who grow mustaches in November to fight prostate cancer. I put this salary in Bitcoin on a cold wallet every month and I haven&#8217;t touched it. My goal was not to live in crypto.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While the first major step to Pan-European regulation is undertaken, Beukelaer highlights the reservations of the Markets in Crypto-assets legislation (MiCA):\u00a0 the excessive constraints imposed on the personal holding of crypto or the way stablecoins are considered.<\/p>\n<p>Europe is heading towards hard times, a politician believes, citing the crises in energy supply and climate, and the rise of authoritarian leaders. It is in that regard how Western countries will gradually understand the usefulness of crypto.<\/p>\n<p><template data-name=\"subscription_form\" data-type=\"law_decoded\"><\/template><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/belgian-mp-receives-bitcoin-salary-for-a-year-here-s-what-he-learned\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8221; Belgian MP receives Bitcoin salary for a year: Here\u2019s what he learned &#8220; At the end of January 2022, member of the Belgian parliament Christophe De Beukelaer became the first European politician to convert his salary to Bitcoin (BTC). Celebrating the anniversary of this experiment, Cointelegraph reached out to a lawmaker to know more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":537846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=90,width=1200\/https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2023-01\/4c6a8aef-804c-4158-9b02-158112fbe104.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74862,74937,74858,128266,74355,59226,70934],"class_list":["post-537845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoin-price","tag-bitcoin-regulation","tag-mica","tag-adoption","tag-belgium","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}