El Salvador payment app Chivo processed $52 million in remittances over the past six months, as expatriates make use of commission-free BTC transfers.
El Salvador Chivo Bitcoin Wallet Relaunch To Serve 4 Million Users
El Salvador, a country that has become infamous for being the first sovereign nation to accept bitcoin as a legal tender, continues its journey through uncharted waters. To make this move a reality, the country had launched its own government-approved bitcoin wallet, Chivo for carrying out crypto transactions in the country. Encouraging residents to accept the wallet by offering a $30 bonus on sign-up.
“Bitcoin Day” has since come and gone since then and El Salvadoran citizens are settling into using the cryptocurrency as a legal tender alongside the US dollar. However, there have been some kinks to work out with the bitcoin wallet, and one of those kinks being the ability to function properly for all of the residents of the country has led to the relaunch of the Chivo wallet.
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Chivo Wallet Relaunch
Since Chivo first launched last year, it has quickly grown in the number of active users. It eventually grew to 2.1 million users, a milestone that was celebrated by the president. However, this had started to present problems with stability and scalability. As with any good wallet, the Chivo wallet has to be able to expand to accommodate a large number of users, giving rise to the relaunch.
This new version of the app will allow more users to be able to access and use it seamlessly. It will eliminate the stability issues that arose with the first version. Thus making it a better fit for the expected more than 4 million users that will be using bitcoin as legal tender in the country. Users have been experiencing issues like missing funds, system issues, fradulent transfers, etc, which will be handled with the relaunch.
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The El Salvadorian government is said to have partnered with AlphaPoint, a white label infrastructure provider that will work on making sure the Chivo wallet is always running and stable, as well as handling issues regarding scalability and social impact. This relaunch will solve a variety of existing issues, as well as add new features to provide a better user experience.
“El Salvador and President Bukele are truly leading globally with this first major experiment in Bitcoin adoption at a country-wide level. We are honored to be involved in the process and provide the scalable and reliable solutions needed for this massive undertaking,” said Igor Telyantnikov, CEO/Founder of AlphaPoint.
El Salvador To Install 1,500 Bitcoin ATMs
In addition to the Chivo app relaunch, El Salvador has announced that it plans to deploy more ATMs to make bitcoin accessible to residents. The acceptance of bitcoin as legal tender had come with the installation of multiple bitcoin ATMs around the country to enable easy and swift payments. But the country is taking another step towards securing its title as bitcoin capital of the world.
BTC at $36K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
El Salvador will add another 1,500 Bitcoin ATMs around the country, to be deployed in different locations. The country is putting these ATMs in place “to more readily serve the population of El Salvador, the statement read.
Featured image from Reuters, chart from TradingView.com
El Salvador relaunches Chivo wallet, plans to deploy 1,500 Bitcoin ATMs
Seeking a permanent solution for over 4 million BTC users, the government of El Salvador focuses on Chivo wallet’s stability and uptime, scalability and social impact.
2.1 Million Salvadorans Actively Using Chivo Wallet, El Salvador’s President Claims
Nayib Bukele, El Salvador president, has claimed that 2.1 million citizens are using the new government-backed Chivo cryptocurrency wallet. In a tweet, he implied the apparent success of Bitcoin in the country.
El Salvador recently adopted bitcoin as a legal tender on September 7, 2021, being the first country to do so.
Related Reading | Just 10 Days After El Salvador’s “Bitcoin Day”, President Bukele Confirms 1.1 Million Citizens Have Chivo Wallet
On Saturday afternoon, president Nayib Bukele shared this update with his 2.9 million Twitter followers. He claimed that Chivo “now has more users than any bank in El Salvador” after just three weeks in operation. He also said that despite Chivo not being a bank, it already has more users than any bank in El Salvador and that it is only a matter of time before the wallet’s adoption surpasses all banks in El Salvador combined.
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.
This is wild!#Bitcoin🇸🇻
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) September 25, 2021
El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet
The state-issued wallet launched in early September as El Salvador officially recognized Bitcoin as legal tender. Chivo enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments in Bitcoin (BTC) or dollars (USD) from anywhere in the world. Merchants must offer the ability to use both currencies. However, some merchants saying they would rather lose sales than accept bitcoin payments.
Related Reading | El Salvador’s Chivo And Bitcoin Adoption In Mindblowing Facts And Stats
The wallet is available on both Android and Apple devices. Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Bitso is the core service provider for the Chivo wallet. There are now over 200 bitcoin ATMs in El Salvador, the third-largest number of ATMs after the U.S. and Canada.
President Bukele’s goal is 2.5 million Salvadorans, which is approximately 39% of the population. As an incentive, the government offers $30 in bitcoin when people download the wallet app.
Bitcoin Adoption In The Country
President Bukele’s latest update implies that the Bitcoin Law is being received positively by the citizens of El Salvador. However, many protestors have taken the streets to assert their disapproval.
As reported, some protesters even set fire to a brand-new Bitcoin machine, while others held signs reading “Bukele Dictator”. According to the protesters, the president is using authoritarian means to tighten his grip on power. They gathered in the capital San Salvador on the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence, with placards that read “No to Bitcoin” and “Respect the Constitution”.
BTC trading at $43.2K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Apart from the protests, there were reported glitches during the initial rollout. In the first week, one machine completed only three successful transactions out of many. A lot of Salvadorans also do not trust bitcoin because of its volatility.
According to a recent survey from Sherlock Communications, an agency in Brazil, 54% of Salvadorans are not familiar with Bitcoin.
Featured image from Nairametrics, Chart from TradingView.com
El Salvador’s Chivo And Bitcoin Adoption In Mindblowing Facts And Stats
Why didn’t we thought of measuring Chivo and Bitcoin adoption this way? Cero anecdotal evidence. Only facts, numbers, and reports from wherever we can get them. What do we know about the Chivo Wallet’s Lightning node? What apps besides the government wallet are the Salvadorans using? Are they happy with them? Investor and blogger Kevin Rooke has a fresh take on El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption and we’re here to summarize it.
“I wanted a deeper understanding of how real people in El Salvador are interacting with Bitcoin, so I went off in search of other success metrics.”
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However, since “the Lightning Network is private by design,” it’s hard to accurately measure “payment volumes and the flow of funds between various wallets and exchanges.” So, what did Kevin Rooke do? He looked everywhere else for hard data about Chivo and Bitcoin adoption. Let’s explore what he found.
BTC price chart for 09/24/2021 on Exmo | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
The Chivo Ecosystem Is Growing Fast
To measure the Chivo wallet’s adoption, Rooke used the official information provided by President Bukele. Not ideal, but not uncommon either. It’s easier to get info about the Chivo Lightning node because you can check all the public info here. But wait, why is the Salvadorean government running a Lightning node?
“Just like every other participant on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Chivo runs a Lightning node. Since Chivo is a custodial wallet, all Lightning payments that Chivo users send to and from other Lightning wallets will transfer liquidity to and from Chivo’s node.”
Through those sources, what did the author find out about the Chivo ecosystem?
- At the moment, “Chivo’s node has 12.7 BTC of public capacity.” Which is 1,269,941,898 sats.
- The Chivo node “ranks 83rd among public Lightning nodes.”
- At the time of writing, it’s connected to 58 other channels, but this number changes daily.
- Back to the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, the Chivo wallet remains at the top of the popularity list, “beating all the most popular social media apps like WhatsApp, TikTok, and Instagram.”
- O bet you haven’t thought about this one, “By onboarding over 1.6 million users in just two weeks, Chivo is likely the most popular Lightning Network app in the world today.”
What About The Other Bitcoin Apps? Are They Popular In El Salvador?
Ok, granted. El Salvador’s government incentivizes the downloading of the Chivo wallet app with $30. That has to move the needle. However, when it comes to all the other Bitcoin apps, such an incentive doesn’t exist. How are they measuring up to other financial apps?
El Salvador’s most popular apps for September 2021 | Source: Kevin Rooke
This infographic says it all:
- “Salvadorans are already showing strong preference for Bitcoin apps over banking and remittance apps on a national scale,” as the graphic shows.
- To put it in numbers, “9 and 13 of the top 20 apps on the respective app stores” are Bitcoin apps. And Chivo is at number one.
- “Most of El Salvador’s banks and payment processors have user ratings of 2-4 stars,” that’s the traditional banking system for you.
- On the other hand, “Bitcoin related apps have user ratings of 3-5 stars.” Even though it’s still early, the facts are the facts. It should be noted that the Chivo app is at the lower end of that spectrum.
Related Reading | How Big Is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network? The Answer Will Surprise You
Besides that, Kevin Rooke identified a truth that might be obvious to some, but has to be said:
“The millions of Salvadorans that have already been onboarded to the Lightning Network aren’t Silicon Valley nerds or early tech enthusiasts. They’re regular people that are making a conscious choice to use the Lightning Network because it saves them time and money.”
And they don’t have to use the Chivo ecosystem if they don’t want to. That’s a fact.
Featured Image by Ray Aucott on Unsplash – Charts by TradingView
El Salvador says merchants must process BTC transactions — or they may face action
A Salvadoran government official has said that while businesses must accept BTC transactions, they can choose whether to receive BTC or USD upon settling transactions.
Salvadorans will not be forced to use the government’s Bitcoin wallet
The government’s new “Chivo” Bitcoin wallet will be interoperable and commission-free.
