El Salvador Bitcoin payment option

[Charles-Tim]

The president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has announced that the Chivo Wallet has already reached 500,000 users, this is positive in my opinion because Salvadorans are benefiting from the solution that their government seeks.

The president tweeted recently that 2.1 million Salvadorans are now using Chivo wallet and not including the people that only downloaded it, but people that are also using it.

2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING
@chivowallet
 (not downloads).

Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks, it now has more users than any bank in El Salvador and is moving fast to have more users that ALL BANKS IN EL SALVADOR combined.

[patientforzhou]

Very scientific design, even for El Salvador, it is difficult for all citizens to immediately and unconditionally support Bitcoin. In this way, Bitcoin's related operations can be popularized, and people who are more inclined to the US dollar will not be forced to hold Bitcoin.

As the first country to use Bitcoin as legal tender, El Salvador’s policy will be the subject of research in other countries in the future. I very much approve of this proposal by El Salvador.

[Vishnu.Reang]

The president tweeted recently that 2.1 million Salvadorans are now using Chivo wallet and not including the people that only downloaded it, but people that are also using it.

2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING
@chivowallet
 (not downloads).

Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks, it now has more users than any bank in El Salvador and is moving fast to have more users that ALL BANKS IN EL SALVADOR combined.

That's really huge. The total resident population of El Salvador is around 6.5 million and the expat population is 3.5 million, which combined to around 10 million in total. Out of that, the adult population may be 6-7 million. Latest figures indicate that one-third of the adult population is using the Chivo wallet. And at this rate, the vast majority of the population would be at least nominally using Bitcoin by the end of this year (by the time Bitcoin was made legal tender early this month, there were only half a million users).

[Charles-Tim]

Fake Chivo Bitcoin wallet on Googleplay store.

[Scam] Chivo Bitcoin wallet fake

It will be good if El Salvadorians on this forum can spread this to their citizens and other people that are using this bitcoin wallet for not to download this fake one on playstore before it will be taken down.

[Charles-Tim]

even though it has been legalized, bitcoin users are still minimal in elsalvador which is only half a million of the total 10 million population.

El Salvadorian population is still not up to 7 million people.

Chivo wallet users in El Salvador was estimated to more than 2.1 million last month, probably the recent bitcoin price uptrend would have encouraged more El Salvadorians to use it.

The president tweeted recently that 2.1 million Salvadorans are now using Chivo wallet and not including the people that only downloaded it, but people that are also using it.

2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING
@chivowallet
 (not downloads).

[Taskford]

The president tweeted recently that 2.1 million Salvadorans are now using Chivo wallet and not including the people that only downloaded it, but people that are also using it.

2.1 million Salvadorans are ACTIVELY USING
@chivowallet
 (not downloads).

Chivo is not a bank, but in less than 3 weeks, it now has more users than any bank in El Salvador and is moving fast to have more users that ALL BANKS IN EL SALVADOR combined.

That's really huge. The total resident population of El Salvador is around 6.5 million and the expat population is 3.5 million, which combined to around 10 million in total. Out of that, the adult population may be 6-7 million. Latest figures indicate that one-third of the adult population is using the Chivo wallet. And at this rate, the vast majority of the population would be at least nominally using Bitcoin by the end of this year (by the time Bitcoin was made legal tender early this month, there were only half a million users).

even though it has been legalized, bitcoin users are still minimal in elsalvador which is only half a million of the total 10 million population. of course this requires a process to socialize so that they can use bitcoin fully, so that the experience that will be in elsalvador can be a lesson for other countries later

Yes for now maybe the usage of it still minimal knowing that majority of their country still adjusting on the new payment processor or digital currency introduce to them, but for sure in future we can see bitcoin will circulate more in their country. For now I'm wondering on how many of them became rich or earn a thousand of dollars knowing that bitcoin price soar high and reached another ATH.

[Vatimins]

     This is why leaders should clarify everything they say because most of the time, a lot of people have problems comprehending multiple things in a single moment. And worse is that others find loopholes on the wordings to either say something positive or negative to mislead others that have low comprehension or are too lazy to try and understand what they read or hear better. And then these people spread the misleading news misleading more people that then does the same. Maaan politics is such a headache.

[Koro-Sensei]

I don't know if someone has post of updates about bank in El Salvador but Sovryn - the DeFi for Bitcoin is already building a decentralized bank for all El Salvadorian now. They partnered with Banco Hipotecario, TESOBE (company behind Open Bank Project - API3) and QREDO to bring this forth. This could potentially be a step forward for bitcoin itself. You can now Lend, Borrow, and in the future apply for your save for your retirement plans for BTC in the near future.

[perfect999]

even though it has been legalized, bitcoin users are still minimal in elsalvador which is only half a million of the total 10 million population. of course this requires a process to socialize so that they can use bitcoin fully, so that the experience that will be in elsalvador can be a lesson for other countries later

But, did you see what the comment that talked about the El Salvador president’s tweet said? That the 2.1 million active users of the Chivo wallet is more than the number of all banks users in the country combined, how is that even possible? So, is that to say that over seventy to eighty percent of people in that country are not making use of banks and doesn’t have a bank account? That’s quite hard to believe, so the number of people in that country that are unbanked is up to that level?

Well, I do understand that it is possible that a lot of people would sign up for bitcoin because of how easy it is for it to be used.

[henmark]

even though it has been legalized, bitcoin users are still minimal in elsalvador which is only half a million of the total 10 million population.

El Salvadorian population is still not up to 7 million people.

Chivo wallet users in El Salvador was estimated to more than 2.1 million last month, probably the recent bitcoin price uptrend would have encouraged more El Salvadorians to use it.

That is like 30%+ of the population is using Chivo or basically crypto right now, there could be some that uses something else maybe? I am not sure, if you are interested in crypto and there is something like that in your nation then you would have it, that is really a good thing. This is not even just the regular numbers neither, we are talking about literally the amount of people who are actively using it, so that should tell you something. I believe that we are in a situation where we should be getting a lot better results in the future, 3+ million is not a big dream, it should be done soon.

I believe that if they could make some profit from this crypto movements here and there, they could actually "tax" it with a tiny bit transaction fee, like 1 satoshi per movement, that should help right? That way they would increase their bitcoin holding a lot as well, 3 million people making at least 1 move? There will be even more people and we are going to be seeing a ton of increase in El Salvador bitcoin treasury.

[Nathrixxx]

El Salvador Bitcoin payment option mandatory but people can decide to accept fiat

What some people do not like about El Salvadorian government move is that they made bitcoin a legal tender, that it should have just been a legal form of payment instead of making it a legal tender. In El Salvador, anything government make a legal tender can be used as payment of goods and services while marchants and other dealers must accept it as a form of payment. But when I read news today, I later knew that Bitcoin payment is mandatory but yet optional, the payment can be in Bitcoin but marchants can decide to either accept Bitcoin or fiat, the transaction will be processed automatically in accordance to what chooses by the recipient.

El-Savador has a clearer understanding of how economy policies should be run considering human rights, it is expected not to be imposed (mandated) on the people but an option for individual to choose between the fiat and the bitcoin transactions, everyone has equal right and not to be deprived of, the government has done its own act by endorsing bitcoin a legal tender but one cannot expect the whole populace to immediately effect the utilization, else this Will need a little space of time before it overall circulation and acceptability by the citizens.

[qwertyup23]

In my opinion, I think this is a welcome development, it can be said that El Salvadorian government are not making Bitcoin payment mandatory (although mandatory) even as it is a legal tender because the payment can be in Bitcoin while the receiver can choose to receive it in fiat and processed automatically.

The concept behind 'legal tender' is that you can compel a person to pay you in case of debt using the available and recognized means accepted in your country. For example, if A were to incur debt, he can compel B to pay you in legal tender. In addition, companies can also pay your income in the form of the available means of legal tender. So in the case of El Salvador, people may compel merchants or establishments to receive BTC as payment but this is subject to certain exceptions.

This is indeed, a good move for El Salvador. The fact that they have recognized BTC as legal tender opens a plethora of opportunities that may soon see development in the near future.

[dezoel]

I would say that "option" is mandatory is alright, it is the option in the end, and people could still get fiat anyway, so it is really not that much of a deal. I prefer to see it not even be mandatory option, there are elder people who own places that do not know how to use a mobile phone properly let alone crypto. However, it is definitely a great thing for the future generations. Yes people who are 70+ year old will not see the benefits of this very easily, they will be old when this is a big deal for the nation anyway, or maybe they will be dead.

However people who are under 30 right now, will see how much their nation grow thanks to this, and that is a very important part of this deal. That is why I believe that having a mandatory OPTION is still fine, at least people could be hinting at what they want to get paid with as well.