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[stompix]

As we can see, since July (when El Salvador's plans to accept bitcoin were announced), Western Union and MoneyGram began to fall, and continue their downward trend.

If you spread the graph to one year it tells a different story for both cases
In the case of WU it has been declining since April, and if we look at MG is up 20% since that date.

And for WU, the fall in the last month is from 21.09 to 20.89, at this rate, it's going to be a long way to really come down, it could be at most the beginning of the start of the beginning,  at this point, it's more the virus and restrictions killing the remittance sector than cheaper transfers.
The main point of resistance in this is that for poeple to completely avoid WU and MG it needs that the other part in the US or in other countries to be just as friendly with bitcoin purchases, the sender must get those as cheap as possible without paying extra for the exchange. That will be the turning point, till then, no, only one part of the bridge has been built.

[avikz]

I personally wouldn't say this is the beginning of the end of traditional payment processors. It's happening in El-Salvador because the government is promoting the use of bitcoin over anything else. One of the arguments he made while making bitcoin legal is that El-Salvador will save a huge sum of money from remittances. But that's a concentrated use case. The rest of the world may not follow the same pattern here.

The payment processors need to be smarter and cheaper to beat cryptos in this space, buy that might not be possible unless government supports them. I would say, changes will happen and the remittance market will become more competitive, but that's not the end of it. At least not anytime soon.

[kryptqnick]

El Salvador is indeed taking some unprecedented steps in Bitcoin adoption, and it's really great that they're making use of the Lightning network, the adoption of which wasn't going too well before this. It's also impressive that Bitcoin is valued more than Western Union there, but IMO the comparison should be between the number of international transfers (per month, per day) via Western Union and Bitcoin to really see if payment processors are going away there. That being said, El Salvador isn't saying goodbye to the USD, right? So it might be the end of payment processors, but not of fiat and probably also not of traditional banks in this country.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

As we can see, since July (when El Salvador's plans to accept bitcoin were announced), Western Union and MoneyGram began to fall, and continue their downward trend. While bitcoin is growing and gaining strength.

I'm not sure whether this is due to people not liking El Salvador's native currency or if it's actually that they don't like their banks and money transmitting services.  It makes sense that their reviews are so negative for Banco Agricola and Tigo Money, since sending money through the traditional banking system takes way more time than sending bitcoin, in addition to the fact that you have to deal with middlemen.

However, that's El Salvador.  I'm not sure if the rest of the world is ready to give up using the banking system and money-sending services like Western Union or PayPal.  In the US, the dollar isn't inflating at a rate that people are desperate to switch to cryptocurrency, nor is sending money so cumbersome that they're looking for alternatives.  That could change in a heartbeat if inflation ramped up or some other economic disaster happened, but for now I'm not sure the bitcoin fever that's hit El Salvador is ready to spread.

[BITCOIN4X]

Interested to know how other countries will react after learning about the development of bitcoin usage in El Salvador in the next 2-5 years. Being the first country to adopt bitcoin as a currency will make many other countries use El Salvador as a test example of how bitcoin can develop and be accepted in the wider community. Maybe El Salvador's move will have an impact on other countries in the next 2-5 years, I'm not sure it will spread so fast. Inflation and poor economic condition will accelerate its spread to other countries, but it seems unlikely for now. One fact that seems good is the increasing number of LN users since El Salvador adopted bitcoin.

[Sterbens]

I had a serious question from an economics student in my country, and he was intrigued by the news that El Salvador had adopted Bitcoin.

He said: Would it be enough with the current available supply, if all countries adopted Bitcoin as a legal payment like El Salvador did? if enough what is the reason?

As someone who has limited knowledge, of course, I can't answer it scientifically with strong references. So dealing with this exact topic would be invaluable for me to gain enlightenment from those of you who understand more than what I know.

thanks ...

[dothebeats]

This only tells the story of one country, and I'm pretty sure other countries with a pretty stable banking system and money remittance services would like to keep things how it is for quite some time. But what's happening in El Salvador might be a catalyst of what's to come in the future. Perhaps banks and money remittance services would adopt a similar structure to crypto, but them as an entity would still surely remain solid as they are right now. They'd need to adapt to the changes, and if copying how bitcoin and crypto does it is the only way to do it, they'd do so in a heartbeat.

[dezoel]

For sure, it is definitely going to be a loss for most of the centralized platforms out there. Some of these centralized means of transactions are  fond of charging high fees when it comes to making transactions that are international, and that is unlike Bitcoin where you have to pay just a fraction of what you are going to be sending and sometimes the fees you are even paying to send Bitcoin is close to nothing at all. So, people are definitely going to be choosing Bitcoin over centralized means.

Western Union and MoneyGram are very expensive means when it comes to international transactions, and a lot of people have been avoiding them for years now. Bitcoin is not a legal tender in my country, but I have been using it for over five years now to be sending transactions to my family and friends that are living abroad and they can make use of exchanges to convert them immediately and have the money in their bank that same minute. So, tell me why Bitcoin wouldn’t take over?

[Lucius]

I'm not sure whether this is due to people not liking El Salvador's native currency or if it's actually that they don't like their banks and money transmitting services.

El Salvador has been using the US dollar as its national currency for 20 years, so there is no room for some theories in this regard, especially considering that most of their emigrants live in a country whose currency is also identical. Sending money from the US in dollars to El Salvador using the same currency does not incur any additional costs due to the conversion.

That could change in a heartbeat if inflation ramped up or some other economic disaster happened, but for now I'm not sure the bitcoin fever that's hit El Salvador is ready to spread.

From what can be seen so far, the Chivo wallet brings the best of both worlds, LN and automatic free conversion between BTC and USD. I am sure that this will not extend to countries such as the US, Japan, or the EU - but the countries of Central and South America will follow the development of the situation in El Salvador very closely.

The main point of resistance in this is that for poeple to completely avoid WU and MG it needs that the other part in the US or in other countries to be just as friendly with bitcoin purchases, the sender must get those as cheap as possible without paying extra for the exchange. That will be the turning point, till then, no, only one part of the bridge has been built.

I agree that this will affect people’s decision to transfer BTC or USD, but in the case of El Salvador, we know that they have set up 50 Chivo ATMs in the largest US cities, which means you insert USD into ATM and automatically get BTC free of charge into your Chivo wallet, and then you send that same BTC for a minimal fee to any other Chivo wallet. Let someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I realized that the whole thing works that way.

[hatshepsut93]

Isn't Chivo giving away $30 to anyone who registers? Of course a lot of people in a poor nation would want to claim free money. The article claims that millions of users were added to Lightning Network, while in reality millions of people just installed an app. Not a fact that they will use it in their daily lives. A lot of people will uninstall it once they claim the free $30 or will use it a few times per year. It's completely unrealistic to think that millions of people who a few weeks ago didn't care about Bitcoin are not "Bitcoin users" who conduct their purchases through LN.

[oHnK]

Indeed, if we only look at the graph once we will conclude that.  However, as a good analysis, moreover the variables being measured or compared are variables that have very many supporting factors, so it cannot be concluded that it is that simple.  It is true that the growth of BTC users has increased and one of the reasons is supported by the El Salvador government's decision, but it is not significant enough to support that the use of WU and MG has decreased due to this policy.  As other users have said that if you drag the graph further the reason is much different.  Because it is true that if the comparison period is as short as that, the results will be biased.

[bittraffic]

With the adoption not just in El Salvador, those old modes of payment will likely die unless they also adopt BTC like what PayPal had done. Paypal must have seen it coming too just like Visa and Mastercard.

Bukele bragged the news on his Twitter about how much Chivo users had spiked since the day he announced making BTC a legal tender in Miami. I thought from the start it was the Stripe app that he is going to introduce to El Salvadorans but it's his new Chivo with a $30 airdrop of BTC. $30 is enough of a reason to make people install an app and technology that they may try learning.

[Kakmakr]

Western Union and MoneyGram will not go down, simply because one country shifted to another money transfer method.... they are much too dominant in other countries.

What did happen...was the following :

1. People in El Salvador were introduced to an alternative remittance payment option and they saw that it can be a viable alternative.
2. People sending money home from income that they have received from jobs in 1st world countries ..has seen the benefits of using the Lightning Network.

The eye opening experience is the disruption we (Bitcoin users) want to see happen in 3rd world countries.  

[Silberman]

Isn't Chivo giving away $30 to anyone who registers? Of course a lot of people in a poor nation would want to claim free money. The article claims that millions of users were added to Lightning Network, while in reality millions of people just installed an app. Not a fact that they will use it in their daily lives. A lot of people will uninstall it once they claim the free $30 or will use it a few times per year. It's completely unrealistic to think that millions of people who a few weeks ago didn't care about Bitcoin are not "Bitcoin users" who conduct their purchases through LN.

Agreed, it seems too early to make any kind of conclusion about what it is happening at El Salvador, there are some good signs obviously but that is it, we know that just as things have been going on in a favorable direction it could as easily change if for example bitcoin crashed and then all of those people uninstall the app out of fear of the volatility of bitcoin, we need to give it more time before some conclusions can be made, probably a year will be enough to see more relevant long term tendencies we could analyze.

[fiulpro]

So when we are taking about the lightning network being used, are we moving towards a way safer network? Which was much needed for Bitcoins to become a good currency, not just an investment.

Plus even if people are actively registering, the amount of people using the network would be less as compared to the actual numbers hands down, so we have to consider this as an experiment perse for the time being, the economy will definitely grow stronger since the price of Bitcoins despite the Impact China had was really stable. Therefore having such a strong currency indirectly is a good idea anytime of the day.

I think we still have to wait to make any kind of conclusion , monitoring the situation is much needed since it's not just the country but all other countries as well looking at El Salvador and making judgements, if it's a good idea to do this or not. So I do think that they really doing an important job here.

[Coin-1]

The era of traditional money transfers is coming to an end and this business, if it does not disappear completely, will significantly reduce its influence in the world. Other countries will follow in the wake of El Salvador, and millions of new users will join the ecosystem. What do you think about this?

I think it's too early to talk about the end of traditional money transfer processors like VISA, Western Union, etc. Bitcoin was born 12 years ago and has definitely had a significant influence upon this economic industry. It is undeniable that over the past years most of the traditional payment systems have made less profit than expected, so they enlisted the aid of national governments and began to compete with cryptocurrencies.

From my understanding, El Salvador's banks provide poor quality services and therefore have low user ratings. Bitcoin has a highly developed infrastructure, so this country decided to use it to its full potential. In any case, they have not given up on fiat money, because it makes more sense to take advantage of the certain payment processor that is suitable for the task at hand.

I assume that cryptocurrencies and traditional payment systems will exist at the same time and will complement each other.

[batang_bitcoin]

With the adoption not just in El Salvador, those old modes of payment will likely die unless they also adopt BTC like what PayPal had done. Paypal must have seen it coming too just like Visa and Mastercard.

The big remittance processors aren't going to die but they'll have to think of another way of getting back those customers. What they can adopt is the technology and making their service ease and cheaper than the usual transfers. That goes the competition first but if they've done that and there's not that much sales from that action then the last is what you've said, they're going to adopt it but I can't think how they'll add it to their service if using bitcoin alone is the actual payment and processor already that can be done by any individual without going through a third party.

[verita1]

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are of interest to people when inflation absorbs their economies that is a good sign for businesses to start including cryptocurrencies as a means of payments. I could perceive it when I shared with the owner of a business that I bought her construction materials to repair my roof. The owner of the business approached me and asked me to teach her how to use cryptocurrencies. I have not taught her yet because I have had very little time to dedicate to her but I will, but in addition to time I was stopped by the knowledge that the owner of the business is a usurer.

[Victorycoin]

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency services as a payment system are good and when the economy suffers, the details of all types of transactions that take place in the bitcoin network through transactions are stored through a huge general ledger called blockchain. This means that the user does not have to store all the details of his transaction separately it also allows cryptocurrencies to allow paypal customers to make payments to those sellers in virtual currency. Such currencies can be transacted through paypal digital wallet service.