Just 10 Days After El Salvador’s “Bitcoin Day”, President Bukele Confirms 1.1 Million Citizens Have Chivo Wallet
September 18 2021 - 7:00PM
NEWSBTC
El Salvador has now marked its 10th day of bitcoin being legal
tender in the country. This is a huge milestone that could not have
been predicted to happen this soon. But as with bitcoin, everything
is happening on an accelerated timeline. The country had introduced
its own government-backed crypto wallet named Chivo in order to
enable its citizenry to spend bitcoin in the country. The adoption
of this wallet was incentivized by the El Salvadoran government,
which said that it was giving away $30 in BTC to every citizen 14
and above who downloaded the Chivo app. This announcement had come
about a month before the law went into full effect and as of
September 7th, El Salvador became the first sovereign nation to
accept a cryptocurrency as legal tender. Related Reading | New To
Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course One
important point remained if the citizens of the country would
actually assimilate into using bitcoin as a way of buying and
selling. This is because BTC is not the only legal tender in the
country. It operates alongside the U.S. dollar, which is already
familiar to the residents. According to a recent tweet by President
Nayib Bukele, it looks like El Salvadorans are adapting to using
the crypto as legal tender just fine. 17% Of El Salvadorans Have
Downloaded Chivo Wallet The president took to his Twitter account
to announce that 17% of the country had now downloaded the
government-backed Chivo wallet. This number translated to about 1.1
million citizens who have already downloaded the wallet. This comes
only 10 days after the country had officially started using BTC as
legal tender. The president added that this number was despite the
fact that 65% of all of the smartphones in the country do not
support the wallet. Yet they were recording an impressive number of
downloads. Related Reading | While Broader Crypto Market Holds
Its Collective Breath, Whales Are Loading Up On Bitcoin El Salvador
might not be seeing the smoothest transition to using BTC as a
legal form of currency in the country but the current numbers show
that its citizens are adjusting to the new normal. The $30
incentive for downloading the wallet is paid after a user registers
and confirms their identity on the app. Paying With Bitcoin Paying
with bitcoin in El Salvador is getting easier as outlets implement
bitcoin payments. Big franchises like McDonald’s and Starbucks have
already begun accepting bitcoin payments on “Bitcoin Day.” Another
interesting fact about using BTC in the country has to do with the
number of crypto ATMs currently installed. Data shows that just
behind the United States and Canada, El Salvador now ranks third in
the highest number of crypto ATMs installed. The government had
installed crypto ATMs across the nation to facilitate ease of use.
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