A team from BTC-ECHO spent ten days in El Salvador, the first country in the world to introduce Bitcoin as legal tender. We wrote down our impressions in the current edition of the Kryptokompass.
BTC-ECHO in the land of volcanoes – or should we say in the land of Bitcoin? For a full 10 days, a BTC-ECHO team looked around the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender.
The impressions were mixed. Sure, President Bukele has with him Ley Bitcoin, as the law says in Spanish, gives adoption a big boost. But in the land of volcanoes, not all (digital) gold that glitters is. Especially the government-owned Chivo Wallet, which is supposed to make it easier for the population to pay in Satoshis, creates problems. According to our estimates, around 20 percent of Salvadorans were unable to access the US $ 30 in BTC promised by the government. The problem: identity theft. With the ID numbers of third parties – you can’t put it another way – BTC was stolen.
The Chivo ATMs are not working smoothly either. For example, we tried to exchange $ 20 worth of Bitcoin for US dollar cash. That didn’t work and we’ve been in a clinch with Chivo Support ever since.
Bitcoin: a real opportunity for the country
But back to the positive side. Bitcoin has clear advantages for the population of the emerging market. The roughly three million Salvadorans living abroad can, for example, use digital gold to send remittances to friends and relatives in the country – and do not have to resort to cash services such as Western Union. So much has been done for financial inclusion in the country.
Are you curious? In the cover story of the current Kryptokompass you will find our travel report with lots of photos, interviews and impressions – you can’t get any closer.