El Salvador’s President Bukele Reveals National Demand for BTC Outweighs USD
As the latest in a long series of news being distributed by the El Salvadorean government following its induction of bitcoin as a form of legal tender, the country’s President Nayib Bukele has published a tweet containing two supposed “facts” regarding the country’s ‘Chivo’ project.
Recently, back in late September, President Bukele announced that the first value of bitcoin had been mined through an experimental natural energy-powered crypto mining project. This project uses energy naturally conducted by leveraging the geothermal power generated by a local volcano, with one of the primarily cited benefits being a “zero-emissions” footprint.
In the most recent tweet, published October 16, 2021, President Bukele announced that so far, Chivo can boast the following notable accomplishments:
The volume of USD being transacted to bitcoin via government-issued Chivo ATMs greatly exceeds that of the inverse conversion (bitcoin to USD), based on the amount of USD input into these devices versus the amount withdrawn.On October 16, 2021, the Chivo network had received “24,076 remittances, adding up to $3,069,761.05 (in one day)”.
El Salvador is a Central American country that shares borders with Honduras and Guatemala, which recently introduced bitcoin as a form of legal tender. Chivo is the given name for the El Salvadorean governments’ official wallet for the bitcoin cryptocurrency. The wallet was launched on the same day and date that the country first welcomed bitcoin as a form of legal tender, on September 7, 2021.
El Salvador isn’t the only country in the Americas to nationally implement a cryptocurrency at a government level, however, it may be the most interesting right now. Another example is Venezuela, which attempted to launch proprietary government crypto pegged to the oil economy called the ‘Petro’. To this day, the Venezuelan government has been active in promoting the utility and value of this token.
El Salvador, Post-Bitcoin
Bear in mind that it has not all been smooth sailing with regards to the relationship between cryptocurrency and bitcoin, and the country/government of El Salvador. On the technical side, it appears that there has been a lot of critical opinions published regarding the official government bitcoin wallet, Chivo.
Also, affecting a broad and vocal cross-section of the populace is the economic and cultural impacts as perceived by the average citizen, which was reflected by the rioting and criticism reported to be the result of the national adoption of bitcoin as legal tender. In early-to-mid September country-wide riots across El Salvador were being reported by mainstream international media institutions including the BBC and Al Jazeera.
The country of El Salvador’s central government is far from admitting defeat, however. As time marches on and criticism continues, the El Salvadorean government appears to be doubling down on its efforts to encourage and drive the mass adoption and active utilization of bitcoin as a form of legal tender, being one of the first international countries to undermine the inherited value of the United States Dollar.
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