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Topic: Reducing Bitcoin Transactions in El Salvador (Read 410 times)

sr. member
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It is all up to the people of El Salvador to decide which among their two legal tenders is more convenient for them to use. It is enough for the government to present Bitcoin to the country as a legal tender.

To be fair, I think the government of El Salvador did not fail in this regard. Bitcoin did not also fail in this regard. Bitcoin has strengths and weaknesses. If Bitcoin's strengths do not matter to a certain portion of the population, then they're free to make use of the USD. After all Bitcoin is there not to replace the USD but to serve as an alternative.

It is more than enough that the government of El Salvador is open-minded to let the people have freedom in choosing their preferred currency.
hero member
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What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?


Their strategy is quite good despite a few numbers population they have, they keep pushing it and continue to promote it by being transparent to their people about their roadmap and other projects in the future regarding bitcoins.

when it comes to the people transacting using bitcoin, it will take years for the result to show up just like the current local exchanges we have in our country where I can say most of them are successful even though our country is neutral when it comes to Cryptocurrencies.
hero member
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Despite the government's emphasis on using bitcoin in daily transactions, people are reluctant to use bitcoin in their transactions (according to a US academic research study).
In September, Chivo was launched by El Salvador. The purpose of launching Chivo was to encourage people to use bitcoin and for every new sign-up, users would receive a $ 30 bitcoin giveaway. But many people stopped using Chivo after receiving the free bonus, and only 20% of users continued to use Chivo after receiving the free bonus.



What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?



That seems perfectly normal.

If I was in El Salvador I wouldn't use a closed source wallet like Chivo, but use an open source one instead, like Muun, Breez, Blue Wallet, Blixt, Phoenix, etc.

Now, if they offer me $30 to open an account there, sure, I would get it and transfer it to any of my other wallets and then stop using Chivo.

The fact that they were tracking the users of Chivo to see how many users they had is another reason why I would stop using it.

So, in reality, this statistic only talks about Chivo usage, not Bitcoin usage, which might have increased for all we know.
sr. member
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This is going to picture out that El Salvadorians aren't appreciating much for Bitcoin. It was to see that even though all the countries will legalize Bitcoin this never means that it increases the use of Bitcoin for daily transactions and cuts huge transactions using fiat money. As the chart says people just got hypes on the trial stage but never see they will continue using it in the long run. It's on the downhill which is really not a good sign to see.

I didn't see wrong with the use of the Chivo wallet, it was that people aren't prepared yet nor they already have knowledge on how to use this.
full member
Activity: 1848
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I think if 20% using Chivo wallet it's pretty normal. Because those create a wallet or open an account on Centralized exchanges all of them haven't been used. I think max 20 to 30% of users are active there, others just sleeping. Citizens aren't using the Chivo wallet doesn't mean they aren't using Bitcoin. Different people have a different choices, no one could force to use them any specific wallet anyway. At least Citizens familiared with Bitcoin, now depends in them whether will us it or not.

Because we have alternatives now owed to other centralized exchanges and other trading platforms, which may be one way or another has better exchange rates than what Chivo is offering. So if you want to pay something, and you have better option than using Chivo, what would you use? So yes, not using Chivo means people are not transacting with bitcoin. They may even have founnd better choices by knowing what Chivo is offering. Figures from Chivo users doesn't mean that's the crypto figures for El Salvador. And also, it would take time for its citizens to adopt the crypto business. Once they internalize its advantage, more than likely they will patronize this market and at the same time endorse it to their family, colleagues and friends.
legendary
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I think if 20% using Chivo wallet it's pretty normal. Because those create a wallet or open an account on Centralized exchanges all of them haven't been used. I think max 20 to 30% of users are active there, others just sleeping. Citizens aren't using the Chivo wallet doesn't mean they aren't using Bitcoin. Different people have a different choices, no one could force to use them any specific wallet anyway. At least Citizens familiared with Bitcoin, now depends in them whether will us it or not.
sr. member
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The reason for this reluctance may be because the government has not created much learning system for the people before legalizing it. Or in simpler terms, they did not give a proper introduction like seminars. El Salvador would have been better off delaying the legalization and focusing on educating their people about this industry to rake in interest. While it may be a bit too late for this, they can still hold seminars having a few bucks as baits to make people show up or free courses. One way or another, some people joining these seminars/free courses will finally learn to love the innovation that the blockchain can offer specially when the speaker on these seminars are well versed when it comes to talking about crypto and speaking on seminars.
I would guess that making people learn is not the way to go, if they are not interested then they are not interested and that is the end of it. If they are interested then there is really nothing that would stop them from learning it neither. Don't you think there are enough places online that would teach them already?

I do not know their language, Spanish? Portuguese? Whatever it is, I am sure they could just open up youtube and learn about it and there must be some from El Salvador itself, and that would basically mean that they could have learned if they wanted to. They did not because they didn't really want to and that is the problem.

Look brother, it is like this, if people do not know anything about it, or never hear about it, how will they have interest about it? Having these seminars or learning courses for the people really interested is a good way not just to educate but also to advertise bitcoin and spread word about it to people that don't get easily reached by social media.

Also, if they get to hear about it, they are sure to at least be curious since whenever money is involved people tend to pay attention more compared to other things that does not involve money making. Just like how some people that do not understand the value of education so they don't bother with it while others that understands strive hard to be educated and get a degree, bitcoin will also be in demand for the people that comes to understand it.
legendary
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Google Trend on Bitcoin searching in El Salvador shows two dramatic spikes around May - June 2021 when their President announce his national law on Bitcoin in a conference. The second spike is in September 2021 when Bitcoin is Legal tender in the nation.

When people use all their airdrop (selling) and don't mind to buy back or open for Bitcoin as a payment method for their business, the hype goes away and searching stats decreases too. In addition, it is more easily acceptable when you receive Bitcoin (as one of payment method for your business) and see it increases in value. Oppositely, it is very unacceptable if you receive it and see its value falls in downtrend.

Lastly, most of El Salvadorians are not Bitcoin investors and if they are, they are unexperienced ones.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=SV&q=bitcoin
legendary
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I do not know their language, Spanish? Portuguese? Whatever it is, I am sure they could just open up youtube and learn about it and there must be some from El Salvador itself, and that would basically mean that they could have learned if they wanted to. They did not because they didn't really want to and that is the problem.

Then you have a very narrow knowledge of some basic things, because Portuguese is the official language only in Brazil, while in some countries there is a mix of different languages that include Portuguese. What you and some others see as a problem is actually a matter of choice, because no one is forced to use Bitcoin, nor does they have to understand it - and this applies not only to El Salvador but to the whole world.

People who have never used Bitcoin as a currency in their lives (and there are many) should not preach to other people because for some reason they do not want to use Bitcoin. If no one in El Salvador uses Bitcoin in x years, does that mean Bitcoin is defeated?
legendary
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The reason for this reluctance may be because the government has not created much learning system for the people before legalizing it. Or in simpler terms, they did not give a proper introduction like seminars. El Salvador would have been better off delaying the legalization and focusing on educating their people about this industry to rake in interest. While it may be a bit too late for this, they can still hold seminars having a few bucks as baits to make people show up or free courses. One way or another, some people joining these seminars/free courses will finally learn to love the innovation that the blockchain can offer specially when the speaker on these seminars are well versed when it comes to talking about crypto and speaking on seminars.
I would guess that making people learn is not the way to go, if they are not interested then they are not interested and that is the end of it. If they are interested then there is really nothing that would stop them from learning it neither. Don't you think there are enough places online that would teach them already?

I do not know their language, Spanish? Portuguese? Whatever it is, I am sure they could just open up youtube and learn about it and there must be some from El Salvador itself, and that would basically mean that they could have learned if they wanted to. They did not because they didn't really want to and that is the problem.
hero member
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Let's say 100% installed chivo and got $30BTC.
Then 20% of the people who installed Chivo continued to use it after receiving the $30.

My question:
1. Is there a data that shows how many percentage stored using chivo app because it is difficult for them to use. Maybe at first they gave it to someone to help them claim the $30, after getting the welcome bonus they could not continue the journey which seem complicated to them.
If we can get the number of citizens who wish to use but don't know how to use, you will understand the true nature of things in El Salvador.
2. Are there not people who uses bitcoin in El Salvador but are not interested in the chivo app. Where is there own percentage?
legendary
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20% is a good percentage for a start, do not forget that El Salvador is a poor country and there are many people who do not know anything about Bitcoin and the technologies related to it, so this percentage is considered rather good for such a bold project that is still in its infancy, do not forget also that the age of Bitcoin is not very big ( A little more than ten years) This makes it new and difficult to deal with a large number of people, especially the elderly, so in my opinion the government of El Salvador should do more to spread the Bitcoin culture more and more.
legendary
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Adopting bitcoin by El Salvador's government is a very good idea but as it was said before. It will be very difficult for any country to adopt bitcoin or Crypto Currency in the country base on it that the capitalist system will not allow Countries to adopt bitcoin fully to use. "El Salvador usage is even encouraging. 20% of the citizens are currently using the chivo. That is nice but how did you get your 20% from? It would have been nice if you provide the source douse our minds.

The population of El Salvador as of now is estimated on 6.55 millions.



https://tradingeconomics.com/el-salvador/population

Out of the 6.55 millions people, 20% are using the chivo wallet that means, a quite number of people are using the wallet. And it might increase in number or decrease in number, That is the probable failure or probable success in the bitcoin adoption in the country. But all depends on the business tycoons to decide.

hero member
Activity: 1890
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It is extremely personal considering if people choose to actually use the bitcoin network or to use it as an asset. I do think that :
Bitcoins as a whole is more preferred as an asset especially when the price is going up and the volatility is ever increasing as well, therefore people might be waiting on their bitcoins as well.
It's hard to get the hold of the government since their helplines are not working that well according to the people. I think what they need to do is :
1. Give it time
2. Improve
3. Make things more functional
We cannot really force someone to use Chevo tho, they might have their own wallets and softwares that they use. People also have a probelm with where the ATMs are placed as well, apparently they are not really accessible. 
hero member
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I don’t know about all this but let me ask you what is the purpose of Chevo, and you can tell me it’s just to give out money to people so they can use Bitcoin, Chevo should have a use and I am not sure maybe the people of El Salvador don’t really like it or probably there is an issue, I don’t know the statistics, but if the government of El Salvador are as friendly to crypto as the media is painting them then I believe their citizens would also have an interest in it, but we must also recognize El Salvador is still a developing country and many of them are average to low earners so the so this may affect the statistics.
legendary
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What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?
I don't think we as bitcoin users in different countries can impose advice on the government of El Salvador to increase the use of bitcoin as their daily means of payment. It doesn't really matter to us and we don't think we have to find a solution for it. It is clear that anyone can choose any means of payment [currency] authorized by the government, so bitcoin is not a payment instrument that is forced by the government to be used even though it is legalized as a currency.

OP, I don't think you need to worry about the growth of bitcoin users in El Salvador especially those still using Chivo. Every user has their own choice about their bitcoin wallet and perhaps the research would be more accurate if some other wallets [besides Chivo] were also included in the variables.
hero member
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Despite the government's emphasis on using bitcoin in daily transactions, people are reluctant to use bitcoin in their transactions (according to a US academic research study).
In September, Chivo was launched by El Salvador. The purpose of launching Chivo was to encourage people to use bitcoin and for every new sign-up, users would receive a $ 30 bitcoin giveaway. But many people stopped using Chivo after receiving the free bonus, and only 20% of users continued to use Chivo after receiving the free bonus.



What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?



For me, even as the president already made Bitcoin a legal tender, it doesn't mean that all of them would accept in using it. Of course, crypto is still very young and the adoption was slow in which it is reasonable. But at least it's much better than none at all. They can't please every citizen out there. It will be accepted gradually but not swiftly. Slowly but surely the citizens would start to embrace Bitcoin in open arms as long they are being educated properly about it and not being mislead with some ponzis using Bitcoin as front.
legendary
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Many factors may be in the dark side that researchers don't know about. It could be that the account created is just an account from one owner, they take advantage of it to get free Bitcoin. I think this must have happened.
El Salvador does not use Bitcoin as a mandatory currency. They still use two currencies, Bitcoin and the U.S. Dollar. For those residents who don't know then I think they still use a lot of banknotes or USD metal.
The government is certainly aware that not all residents have the ability and intelligence to use Chivo or Bitcoin. I think counting the number of users may not be accurate. They could have used other types of wallets. But what I heard was that their government bought a few hundred BTC a few months ago.
full member
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Despite the government's emphasis on using bitcoin in daily transactions, people are reluctant to use bitcoin in their transactions (according to a US academic research study).
In September, Chivo was launched by El Salvador. The purpose of launching Chivo was to encourage people to use bitcoin and for every new sign-up, users would receive a $ 30 bitcoin giveaway. But many people stopped using Chivo after receiving the free bonus, and only 20% of users continued to use Chivo after receiving the free bonus.



What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?


So I would say that this is a clear example of allowing people to understand, adopt and invest in Bitcoin by themself eventhough I want to believe that the El Salvador Government has not forced Bitcoin useage on its people but rather made it an option to their local currency, however, when Bitcoin adoption was not directly from the people, you would expect to see what we are experiencing in El Salvador once the market turns Bearish, if it was Bullish all along more people would have continue to use it and as we know, this is not particuler to El Salvador, a lot of traiders dump durring the bear market at least we see all the complaints of the market here on the forum.
member
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What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?

I talked about this a long time ago in a post and it really is a bit complicated to encourage most people to use this cryptocurrency, for the sole reason that these people have been used to daily use of their economy for their entire lives. . as are the banks, that is to say that these people have been trusting in a controlled system, so they place their trust in this "they know" and not in Bitcoin "which is the newcomer" (to put it in some way) what is happening in el salvador is that people do not have the bases to integrate into this economy… currently it is known that the political entities of el salvador are waiting for an ascending chain to deposit their next bond, hopefully by then people will be more oriented and know Take advantage of this opportunity offered to you.
hero member
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That's still a good percentage after those claims for their airdrop.

Do not worry about it. It's like bitcoin there is on its infancy and many citizens are still not aware of it. Imagine just like the whole thing about bitcoin when it's on 2009-2016 when most people don't like bitcoin.

You cannot also see a good result at the beginning. It's always like a test run but still an impressive number then for El Salvador.
legendary
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Guys, it's true that 20% is acceptable!
But is there a way to turn this 20% into 50%?

I think that you are somewhat off reality. The vast majority of people don't understand nor trust Bitcoin. The vast majority of people find difficult to use bitcoin. The vast majority of the world is.. not bitcointalk; we're a minority.
This being said, expecting 50% is unrealistic. I'd guess that the pretty high 20% covers those who invest/use bitcoin, it covers the businesses that must accept bitcoin (although most will convert instantly to USD) and it also may cover those who have used the wallet only for the free money and didn't uninstall it yet (for laziness, for not knowing how to do that, or - very few - just in case, because they may need it someday). So yeah, 20% is still overly high.

How to get to 50%? Wait 10 more years, maybe. Maybe more. Some older people will die, some younger people will get to use money, worldwide acceptance will rise... all goes in that direction.
hero member
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What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?

I'm not really familiar with their government, and political-economic decisions regarding their currency, but from what I can see on the news and different articles some people are unhappy because their governments prefer using bitcoin instead of the traditional fiat currency, regardless of being a good decision or not, If people are unhappy and even if there are some a few unhappy people the governments should not force them to use bitcoin. otherwise, this will have a negative effect on el Salvador and there will be many bitcoin haters there because no matter if bitcoin is good or bad for them, at the start of any adoption there are some people who do not agree with the decision.
legendary
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I'm starting to think that there is some El Salvador Bitcoin fever on the forum, because in the last week I've seen at least 4-5 threads with questions like this. I wrote part of my thoughts in the main thread about El Salvador (and I'm sorry that people don't use it but open new topics) so I won't repeat myself.

Maybe for the average inhabitant of that country, Bitcoin is not the solution, maybe it will take more time for them to understand - and maybe inflation in that country contributes to people spending less, or for some reason people believe in the US dollar more than in BTC?

I may be wrong to mention remittances from abroad, but are they included in these statistics under discussion? More than 2 million people from the ES live and work in the US, and Chivo ATMs have been set up in the largest cities - do these people send money home via the Chivo wallet or not?
legendary
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and only 20% of users continued to use Chivo after receiving the free bonus.
There is another topic about this which you may want to look at.
The 20% does not necessarily show the percentage of adoption in El Salvador because it is showing usage of Chivo not usage of bitcoin. For example a lot of them may be using Electrum and not Chivo!

We all know that El Salvador is one of the leading countries in the Bitcoin world
El Salvador is the first country that adopted bitcoin as legal tender but it is not leading because many other countries adopted bitcoin as legal years ago.
legendary
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Going over the original survey again, I see that they themselves do reference the said (in the OP) 20% of people that continue to use Chivo after spending the initial 30$ bonus (pages 2, 18 and 26).

Nevertheless, I’d point out that:

- We’re not talking about "users" here, but rather the 20% references adults citicens, meaning general population (not just Chivo downloaders).

- Going over the charts to see where the 20% comes from, it looks like it may be originated roughly in this manner:

Page 11: 68% of the surveyed adults knew about Chivo.

Page 16: 47.79% downloaded Chivo (I’ll take "tried" means "managed" here) and 30,88% did so with the aid of someone.

They also state that 39,24% still used Chivo after spending the 30$ bonus.

That would mean that 68% * (47,79%+ 30,88%) * 39,34% = 21,05% of the people continues to use Chivo after spending the 30$ bonus (close, but I still did not derive the 20% they mention). The figure is therefore with regards to the general population.

- Bear in mind that the 20% (or 21%) is referring to those that continued to use Chivo. It does not state if they used it frequently or scarcely, for BTC or for USD TXs. To see the usage distribution after spending the 30$ bonus, we’d need to look and interpret table 3 on page 17.
legendary
Activity: 2436
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The "reducing transactions" was always going to happen because not everyone was going
to continue using their Chivo wallet after cashing out their $30. Expecting everyone to continue
using Chivo and Bitcoin day to day was very optimistic.

Bitcoin in El Salvador for many was like home computers becoming accessible back in the
early 80's or like mobile phones becoming popular in the 90's, it takes time before the
infrastructure and services are in place and accepted by the majority but I feel it will
happen, its still early and the majority still have to fully embrace it.
legendary
Activity: 4410
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some corrections needed

A, el salv citizens do not get a bitcoin UTXO&privkey of ~$30 upfront. they get a centralised mysql balance of $30, which if they decide to, they can cash out to paper fiat or withdraw (at fees) to a bitcoin address. request a lock(with fee's) and have a chivo partnered(previously strike, now aplhapoint) LN node create a channel balance of msats for

B. the 20% is of people did not cash out their chivo balance
this could mean they signed up to claim their $30, but then after converting it to LN(pretend bitcoin)(which they had to do before using) just never bothered using it/cashing it out thus just still active balance that they play around with in the app

C. part of the 20% is not citizen balance on accounts set up being non-zero. but also 'some' merchant accounts/businesses using wallet to test their own methods to accept chivo/ln balance/bitcoin

D. many people responding to surveys will just say they use/have something just to seem socially normal. even if they dont actually have/use it
legendary
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It's sad that full-scale adoption failed despite significant governmental efforts. However, El Salvador was a difficult case for such adoption. Just look up the percentage of unbanked population and those who don't use online banking. On the one hand, one might think that unbanked population is an opportunity because there's no real competition with banks in this case. But on the other hand, how likely is a person to start using digital stuff when this person has always heavily relied on using cash? Cash is faster, simpler, more understandable. This can be a big challenge. But hey, does any other country have 20% Bitcoin users? Still sounds pretty good.
sr. member
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Despite the government's emphasis on using bitcoin in daily transactions, people are reluctant to use bitcoin in their transactions (according to a US academic research study).
In September, Chivo was launched by El Salvador. The purpose of launching Chivo was to encourage people to use bitcoin and for every new sign-up, users would receive a $ 30 bitcoin giveaway. But many people stopped using Chivo after receiving the free bonus, and only 20% of users continued to use Chivo after receiving the free bonus.



What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?


You cannot push people about using Bitcoin and that is why this is happening , remember that Bitcoin is still not accepted by majority in EL Salvador and it is the government that pushes this to be used so the use or the transaction of Bitcoin is not increasing and yet decreasing till now.
maybe the government need to hear what their people says and have a dialogue to the against party so the case will be healed .
hero member
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What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?

The strategies were already in place which was the adoption at first as a legal tender, the launch of the proposed volcanic bond as well as the socio economic  tourist centre it has become for the entire world of bitcoin, in which this will serve as a home for bitcoin enthusiast and love to visit, and the citizens were quite alright using bitcoin in their economy runnings and businesses except for those with the challenges of accessible media for bitcoin transaction to be performed.

Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?

They are quite alright using it, we don't have to feel geek by the news on the staged protest claiming anti bitcoin and the likes, if El-Savador has not been finding it suitable enough in using bitcoin then we might not have Central Africa Republic to follow the trail, while Panama as well is given a serious consideration on bitcoin adoption as well, payments in El-Savador were pretty made in bitcoin and over 90% of El-Savador's citizens have participated in bitcoin related transactions and are still making use of it.
sr. member
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The reason for this reluctance may be because the government has not created much learning system for the people before legalizing it. Or in simpler terms, they did not give a proper introduction like seminars. El Salvador would have been better off delaying the legalization and focusing on educating their people about this industry to rake in interest. While it may be a bit too late for this, they can still hold seminars having a few bucks as baits to make people show up or free courses. One way or another, some people joining these seminars/free courses will finally learn to love the innovation that the blockchain can offer specially when the speaker on these seminars are well versed when it comes to talking about crypto and speaking on seminars.

Another reason that I can think of is because of the decline happening in terms of price in the market. Which is pretty natural in my opinion considering that most of the people that are not interested in crypto do not know much about it. Hence they take the $30 then bounce out. On good market conditions though, the numbers may change drastically.
legendary
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Chivo roughly has four million users. So 20% of it is roughly 8,00,00 users. That means, 8,00,000 users are actively using bitcoin for their daily transaction needs. That is awesome! The president of El-Salvador didn't ban usage of dollar so it's upto the citizens on what mode of payment they want to use. So with this choice available, 8,00,000 users is an encouraging number I would say.

But the practical challenge of using bitcoin is the price volatility. A product that costs 0.01 btc today, might become 0.015 bitcoin tomorrow. That's the challenge and that is probably discouraging a lot of users from suing bitcoin for daily purchases. 
member
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20% continuing to use it does sound quite high though (especially if those people are actively holding/using it). Crypto is still young and in its early stages, it's got far to go until it becomes more stable and less risky (especially for a poorer nation with less disposable income).

Why should force El Salvador's citizens to use Bitcoin? I don't see El Salvador's government is forcing their citizens to use Bitcoin for daily payment, they only force businesses to accept Bitcoin as payment option. I think it's a right move from Nayib Bukele, Bitcoin is freedom to choose unlike fiat you're forced to use that.

If anything, I was actually expecting something in the ballpark of 5%; getting 20% retail usage is pretty big for usage of an asset that’s volatile as heck.

Right if the 20% of the users are still continuing bitcoin transaction through Chivo wallet that's high because try distributing free money to people and how many will still continue to use it with their own money?


Guys, it's true that 20% is acceptable!
But is there a way to turn this 20% into 50%? We all know that El Salvador is one of the leading countries in the Bitcoin world and there is definitely a way to increase bitcoin transactions by El Salvador's citizens!
After that, the number of daily bitcoin transactions will be much higher and we can definitely see the effects on the price of bitcoin!
legendary
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If anything, I was actually expecting something in the ballpark of 5%; getting 20% retail usage is pretty big for usage of an asset that’s volatile as heck.

I also see the bottle as half full. Also, one should not only take into account volatility, but Bitcoin is better than fiat currency, as it tends to appreciate in value as opposed to fiat which depreciates. Therefore, those who save will tend to do so in Bitcoin and spend fiat (USD, in this case). Let's give El Salvador time, and in a few years we will see if the trend has been increasing since that 20%.
full member
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If anything, I was actually expecting something in the ballpark of 5%; getting 20% retail usage is pretty big for usage of an asset that’s volatile as heck.
Right if the 20% of the users are still continuing bitcoin transaction through Chivo wallet that's high because try distributing free money to people and how many will still continue to use it with their own money? So yes it's still good percentage depending on the conditions of people and volatility could affect them hard and making payments through LN will boost more transactions in future.
mk4
legendary
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If anything, I was actually expecting something in the ballpark of 5%; getting 20% retail usage is pretty big for usage of an asset that’s volatile as heck.
hero member
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Why should force El Salvador's citizens to use Bitcoin? I don't see El Salvador's government is forcing their citizens to use Bitcoin for daily payment, they only force businesses to accept Bitcoin as payment option. I think it's a right move from Nayib Bukele, Bitcoin is freedom to choose unlike fiat you're forced to use that.

It will depends by each people to use Bitcoin for daily expense or not, as long as they're have or buy Bitcoin, it's enough to say they're trust/want to learn about Bitcoin.
copper member
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https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
20% continuing to use it does sound quite high though (especially if those people are actively holding/using it). Crypto is still young and in its early stages, it's got far to go until it becomes more stable and less risky (especially for a poorer nation with less disposable income).

There government might try to do more on it or they might just hope some news stories come out about crypto being used there and get more acceptance that way.
member
Activity: 312
Merit: 24
Despite the government's emphasis on using bitcoin in daily transactions, people are reluctant to use bitcoin in their transactions (according to a US academic research study).
In September, Chivo was launched by El Salvador. The purpose of launching Chivo was to encourage people to use bitcoin and for every new sign-up, users would receive a $ 30 bitcoin giveaway. But many people stopped using Chivo after receiving the free bonus, and only 20% of users continued to use Chivo after receiving the free bonus.



What is the El Salvador government's strategy to increase the usage of bitcoin by the people?
Will El Salvador people use bitcoin for their daily transactions or not?

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