Bitcoin Goes Live in El Salvador as Official Currency

El Salvador purchased 400 bitcoins prior to the launch, worth around $20 million at the current market price, and wants to purchase “much more.”

Today, El Salvador becomes the first nation to embrace Bitcoin as legal cash, putting it to test in its 12-year history. Both proponents and opponents of cryptocurrency will be watching the experimental investigation. It remains to be seen if a large number of people desire to trade with Bitcoin when something like USD coexists and if it improves the vicious, underfunded Central American country.

The state purchased 400 BTC, worth around $20 million at current market prices, prior to the launch. President Nayib Bukele declared on Twitter that the nation expects to buy “much more” following the initial purchase set of 200.

If El Salvador succeeds in its attempt, other states may soon follow suit. The state’s Bitcoin wallet Chivo comes with $30 worth of digital currency for people who enlist with a Salvadoran national ID. They are seeking ways to help in accelerating the adoption.

Businesses will be motivated to adopt Bitcoin as a means of payment, and the state would accept Bitcoin as a form of taxation. El Salvador’s president devised the scheme, which he claims will encourage people to come into the financial system by making payments affordable.

According to the Head of Research, Garrick Hileman, Bitcoin is the risk that the modern world is willing to take. He shares his plight that they are in untested waters but it is exciting to experiment the same as they are assured to gain experience from it. 

Bitcoin ATMs

On Saturday, August 28, 2021, a pedestrian unlocks the door to Chivo, a wallet for Bitcoin, also an automated teller machine (ATM) at Gerardo Barrios Square in San Salvador, El Salvador. According to the state’s goal to create Bitcoin a legal currency, El Salvador started installing BTC ATMs, allowing the public to exchange the virtual currency into dollar bills and retrieve it in cash.

Mr. Bukele’s government has set up 200 Bitcoin ATMs across the state, which can be utilized to convert the currency to  USD dollars. To underpin the transactions, the state’s Finance Ministry established a $150 million fund at Banco de Desarrollo de la Republica de El Salvador, Bandesal, a state-run bank. 

According to the state, USD will continue as the national currency for obvious reasons. Also, the merchants who are unable to accept digital currency will surely be exempted by the law.

El Salvador’s dollarized economy is primarily dependent on payments from foreign migrants, which is approximately $6 billion. The calculation is based on last year’s data and happens to be one-fifth of the country’s GDP. Mr. Bukele claims that Bitcoin may save  $400 million per year in complete transaction fees.