El Salvador official wallet app @chivowallet go offline

[Shenzou]

Today marked the history of Bitcoin becoming a legal tender, El Salvador a country in north-central America has become the first country to approve the operation and acceptance of Bitcoin as a legal currency.

The government wallet App chivowallet got overloaded in the early hours, which resulted in it going offline citizens are having miss feeling about the stability of the app and the El Salvador economy.

This no suprise, every big scale launch is bound to be bugged or overloaded, not to mention that this is a launch that every crypto user is following and probably millions of people from all around the world have planned to use this wallet, which probably was unexpected which lead to it being over sold.

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[matjas]

I wouldnt be surprised if this was a planned attack on their app. Judging by yesterday’s responses, there are a lot of influential individuals and cooperation’s which see El Salvador president as a threat to worlds economics.

[heatstreak_2012]

I wouldnt be surprised if this was a planned attack on their app. Judging by yesterday’s responses, there are a lot of influential individuals and cooperation’s which see El Salvador president as a threat to worlds economics.

Yes you are right and it can be one of the reason for this planned move

[DdmrDdmr]

Going over the twitter account both for Chivo Wallet (https://twitter.com/chivowallet?lang=en) and Bukele (https://twitter.com/nayibbukele), I’ve grabbed a few small intakes that may be interesting to know:

- Chivo wallet is now available on Google Play, but currently only for Samsung Galaxy S20 and Samsung Galaxy S21. The alleged reason is to delimit the amount of people trying to simultaneously register.

- The Chivo System was down for maintenance between 1 am and 6 am local time. Hopes are high on a better service today …

- They’ve created an official, not too brilliant, formulary for people to report their problems and/or forward their queries (https[colon]//consulta[dot]chivowallet[dot]com/) on Chivo Wallet.

[stompix]

Probably millions of people from all around the world have planned to use this wallet, which probably was unexpected which lead to it being over sold.

Why would millions of users from other countries rush to use this wallet? There is no point in it without having a Salvador ID card.

I can't speak for El Salvador government but it seems to me that they don't want people to just receive the $30 and go away to forget about bitcoin altogether. They are trying to build the bitcoin economy and encourage people and merchants to start using bitcoin and the $30 acts as the free money to "try things out" instead of just being $30 free money.

Since a merchant can opt for instant conversion in USD once it receives a payment this is circle can be broken in just one purchase, and probably that's what's causing the outage right now, people trying to get their coins as fast as they can and spend it.

I think it is rather a security mechanism that unfortunately wasn't deployed successfully, I see no reason for them to allow this withdrawal outside the ecosystem without a purchase since it's airdrop money that was supposed to be used as testing the economy not just handing them free money.

Checking the tweet mentioned by SFR10, unfortunately indeed a rush product
https://twitter.com/MattAhlborg/status/1435307724774989829

Apart from the bugs mentioned, the one with the fee being subtracted which is a bit serious, I wonder what he meant by "on-chain are NOT being batched", how does this work on a custodial wallet?

[DaveF]

I did a very quick look and could not find any source code for chivowallet, is it closed or am I just having a bad google day?
Also wonder how much training the police have received in dealing with crypto issues. I can see that causing issues down the line.

-Dave

[stompix]

I did a very quick look and could not find any source code for chivowallet, is it closed

Yes. And besides, it's not really a wallet, it's an app, with a normal wallet they wouldn't be able to keep the transactions fee-free.

[TonyBR]

Today marked the history of Bitcoin becoming a legal tender, El Salvador a country in north-central America has become the first country to approve the operation and acceptance of Bitcoin as a legal currency.

The government wallet App chivowallet got overloaded in the early hours, which resulted in it going offline citizens are having miss feeling about the stability of the app and the El Salvador economy.

If the government developed wallet App chivowallet can't handle the load, then its fault for the government for not developing the good application. There is no fault for bitcoin in this case.

[dallax]

Do you think that news related to the regulation of bitcoin as the official currency in el savador can have an influence with the fall of bitcoin?

[OcTradism]

Yes, it's custodial since they could reject your transaction and no private key will be given, just like ordinary exchange you access with email password pin code etc.

I can understand why El Salvador government did not create a non custodial wallet for their citizens. They want to control citizen transactions if necessary.

I can't speak for El Salvador government but it seems to me that they don't want people to just receive the $30 and go away to forget about bitcoin altogether. They are trying to build the bitcoin economy and encourage people and merchants to start using bitcoin and the $30 acts as the free money to "try things out" instead of just being $30 free money.
In that spirit the 5 transaction would mean the user has at least tried the wallet out and experienced what it means to use bitcoin.

The government did a good thing, bring exposure of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency to their citizens and this effect expands to the world. It is only the good thing I see from El Salvador legal tender.

I hope their citizens will soon realize the importance of non custodial wallet and will choose one to use. Chivo wallet is for their first experience with Bitcoin, first 5 transactions maybe. Later they should use another wallet.

Not your keys, not your coins.
https://notyourkeys.org/

[BIN-BIN]

For sure, El Salvador, or the creator of chivo bitcoin wallet didn't expect a massive of users. Especially the even of the day that El Salvador is officially using Bitcoin as legal tender.
This is one of the major challenges if you are a software developer, but I believe it will be handle as time goes by, they don't expected a massive user I believe.

What is the Chivo wallet? Is it custodial or non-custodial wallet?

If it is a non-custodial wallet, it is good for El Salvadorians to use it and have keys. Nevertheless, I think if a wallet is created by government, it would be a custodial wallet.

Is Chivo wallet restricted to El Salvadorians or for everyone globally?

Anyone has been able to check the Chivo wallet? Let's share it, please.

Yes, the government has designed the wallet in a way that it controls the monetary activities of its citizens using the Bitcoin blockchain as the custodian for that, their monitor and regulate everything through the government's own wallet.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…> Is Chivo wallet restricted to El Salvadorians or for everyone globally?

Their faqs (*) state that you need to have an ID or passport from El Salvador, and have a phone number from one of a set of delimited countries, namely :
"El Salvador, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Australia."

It’s not really meant to be a custodial wallet for anybody to use, but rather much solely aimed at their citizens.

Amongst other things I read through on their site and tos today (daily limits, monthly limits, and so forth), the feature whereby its use does not require a data plan, nor does it consume data (but you do need an internet connexion) is still unclear to me.
I figure that the data carriers are obliged to establish the connection and operative for free, and that is likely feasible locally (as per some sort of agreement between the government and the carriers), but I wonder if that applies to those Chivo users residing abroad in one of those countries I cited above (seems like a long stretch).

(*)English Google translation accessible here: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://chivowallet.com/preguntas-frecuentes.html%23item-1

[verita1]

"0 fees" in bitcoin transfers in Chivo wallets work from Salvadoran to Salvadoran because each user must register their DUI, which is their identification card.
The Chivo wallet works with the Lightning network to guarantee immediate transactions.
President Nayib Bukele has said that the costs generated by the Chivo Wallet, ATM, and Chivo points of sale will be borne by the government.
We all know that it will work because we have already checked it and also because we have paid the fees and for them it will be easier for sure.

[TelolettOm]

The enthusiasm of using the wallet may be increasing, moreover many people are willing to get that free $30 in Bitcoin by installing the wallet. of course, it is normal when the users are highly increasing on that day, moreover on the day of the legal tender announcement.
Overload is something normal. But at last, they worked hard to manage it and also recover it soon.
Btw, I am still wondering how if the citizens only install to get that free airdrop by the government and then after that willing only to sell and get money?
I am also wondering about the success of this Bitcoin implementation because the government really takes big risks.

[Assface16678]

Today marked the history of Bitcoin becoming a legal tender, El Salvador a country in north-central America has become the first country to approve the operation and acceptance of Bitcoin as a legal currency.

The government wallet App chivowallet got overloaded in the early hours, which resulted in it going offline citizens are having miss feeling about the stability of the app and the El Salvador economy.

I think it's normal though, and it's obvious that the wallet provider faces some congestions, so it's going to be bumpy in the beginning. Even huge exchange such as Coinbase will suddenly went offline or in a maintenance mode when they are overwhelm by huge trading.

So the big question is how Chivo Wallet will react to this because for sure a lot of El Salvadorian are going to used their services. Consider this as one big test for them.

They already expect the volume of the users however early stages app mostly get overloaded in its early phase due to congestion. What they need to prove is the stability and improvement of the app, which we look forward to, but so far its normal. Most of experimental decisions are prone to problems in early stages.
Hoping they fix this problem as it will be the lead for the future of BTC as currency in other countries in the future.

[TravelMug]

Today marked the history of Bitcoin becoming a legal tender, El Salvador a country in north-central America has become the first country to approve the operation and acceptance of Bitcoin as a legal currency.

The government wallet App chivowallet got overloaded in the early hours, which resulted in it going offline citizens are having miss feeling about the stability of the app and the El Salvador economy.

I think it's normal though, and it's obvious that the wallet provider faces some congestions, so it's going to be bumpy in the beginning. Even huge exchange such as Coinbase will suddenly went offline or in a maintenance mode when they are overwhelm by huge trading.

So the big question is how Chivo Wallet will react to this because for sure a lot of El Salvadorian are going to used their services. Consider this as one big test for them.

They already expect the volume of the users however early stages app mostly get overloaded in its early phase due to congestion. What they need to prove is the stability and improvement of the app, which we look forward to, but so far its normal. Most of experimental decisions are prone to problems in early stages.
Hoping they fix this problem as it will be the lead for the future of BTC as currency in other countries in the future.

Yeah, you have to expect the unexpected specially in the beginning. Even the President has to calm down the public, and tells them to restart the app if they see the "under maintenance" error.

Here is the official twitter of President Bukele: https://twitter.com/nayibbukele

As you can see, he made a series of tweets since the rollout. And obviously, he is active and really stepping up the plate for his country and bitcoin in general.

[OcTradism]

Their faqs (*) state that you need to have an ID or passport from El Salvador, and have a phone number from one of a set of delimited countries, namely :
"El Salvador, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Australia."

It’s not really meant to be a custodial wallet for anybody to use, but rather much solely aimed at their citizens.

It is solely for their citzens and mostly a few neighborhood nations and a few Western nations.

It is understandable if they accept users pass through their KYC from neighborhood nations in Latin America but I can not understand reasons they expand it to Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Australia.

Amongst other things I read through on their site and tos today (daily limits, monthly limits, and so forth), the feature whereby its use does not require a data plan, nor does it consume data (but you do need an internet connexion) is still unclear to me.
I figure that the data carriers are obliged to establish the connection and operative for free, and that is likely feasible locally (as per some sort of agreement between the government and the carriers), but I wonder if that applies to those Chivo users residing abroad in one of those countries I cited above (seems like a long stretch).

Thank you for this information. Maybe we will need to see feedback from El Salvador communities about the wallet and this point from their experience.

Will the government do serious censorship about it? How about censorship in El Salvador?

[Ozero]

The government wallet App chivowallet got overloaded in the early hours, which resulted in it going offline citizens are having miss feeling about the stability of the app and the El Salvador economy.

pretty sure they'll make adjustment to that to cater to a much larger user base. but to be honest they should have expected it and made proper adjustment when the app finally went online. besides, it happens/happened to a lot of apps that gets a sudden surge of traffic in just a short time. give it time.

At the same time, there is also a positive point in this. While there is a direct interest among Salvadorans in using the Chivo wallet to dispose of $ 30 worth of free bitcoins, this network congestion indicates that, despite some protests, the citizens of this country have begun to massively and very actively use this wallet. Even if the problem of overloading is not immediately eliminated, then after a while the workload of the wallet should return to normal, and the problem will soon be eliminated by specialists.
The experiment, of course, is very interesting and the activity of the spread of cryptocurrency around the world will depend on its result. Now everyone is watching the events in El Salvador.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…> It is understandable if they accept users pass through their KYC from neighborhood nations in Latin America but I can not understand reasons they expand it to Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Australia.

Most seem to emigrate to EEUU, but with (much) smaller numbers, Italy, Australia, Spain and Switzerland figure on the list of sought countries (see data for 2019 here: https://datosmacro.expansion.com/demografia/migracion/emigracion/el-salvador). I figure they want as many migrants as possible to be able to send their remittances over to El Salvador through Chivo and bitcoin.


Remittance fee can be pretty steep. I’ve recovered this from my drafts, since the thread I posted the data in yesterday was unfortunately deleted:

The commission topology for Western Union (for example) depends on various factors, such as the amount being sent, and the selected payment method. I used their price simulator to get a rough feeling of how the system works, rendering the following results (see https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/web/send-money/start):

-Sending 10$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a credit card -> due payment 13,24$ (32,4%)
-Sending 10$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a debit card -> due payment 10,99$ (9,9%)
-Sending 10$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a bank account -> due payment 10,99$ (9,9%)

-Sending 100$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a credit card -> due payment 112,50$ (12,5%)
-Sending 100$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a debit card -> due payment 108,00$ (8,0%)
-Sending 100$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a bank account -> due payment 105,00$ (5,0%)

-Sending 1000$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a credit card -> due payment 1063,00$ (6,3%)
-Sending 1000$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a debit card -> due payment 1036,00$ (3,6%)
-Sending 1000$ payment to a cash pickup (agency) using a bank account -> due payment 1019,00$ (1,9%)

The above is choosing the Pay online option. Pay cash in-store opens another array of fees, depending where you make the payment.
I’ve also simulated US prices above. If you change the country of origin (the "/us/" parameter in the URL, the fees and payment methods change). Quite a broad topology of fees …

Note: There’s something on the page about paying with a mobile wallet, which is apparently only available in some countries, which seems to lack WU fees, but others may apply. I’m not sure how this one actually works.
   

Logically paying in bitcoin will simplify the above.

[OcTradism]

Most seem to emigrate to EEUU, but with (much) smaller numbers, Italy, Australia, Spain and Switzerland figure on the list of sought countries (see data for 2019 here: https://datosmacro.expansion.com/demografia/migracion/emigracion/el-salvador). I figure they want as many migrants as possible to be able to send their remittances over to El Salvador through Chivo and bitcoin.

I did not think of the purposes of El Salvador government to attract more migrators to use Bitcoin as remittance tool for their transactions.

From the data, I can understand why the nation opens the doors for some countries that are not in Latin America continent.