El Salvador is a country in Central America which is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. It has recently adopted bitcoin as a means of payment in legal tenders.
The President of El Salvador has announced that the government will give $30 Bitcon (BTC) to every adult citizen of the country. The announcement was welcomed by Bitcoiners from all around the world, with influential individuals speculating that the Salvadoran government will need to purchase the required BTC it intends to distribute, adding over $100 million in buying pressure in the markets.
A quick Google search of El Salvador's adult population estimates varied, with onchain analyst Willy Woo tweeting that Bitcoin's global user base would grow by 2.5% thanks to an influx of 4.5 million Salvadorans. Others put El Salvador's adult population at 6.5 million (which is actually the total population), and Yahoo Finance anchor Zack Guzman used that number for some roughly back-of-the-envelope calculations, suggesting that $195 million worth of Bitcoin would be dumped across the country .
The Chivo wallet
During his address, Bukele gave a tutorial on how to use Chivo, a crypto wallet app that the government has helped to develop to boost the use of Bitcoin. Chivo will allow Salvadorians to send and receive Bitcoin, as well as convert the cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars. The government-provided wallet, which employs facial recognition, can be used on devices without a mobile data plan.
To receive the free $30 worth of Bitcoin, citizens need only sign up for the Chivo wallet. If they all took up the offer, the government would need to distribute around $200 million in Bitcoin to more than six million people.
With Bitcoin becoming legal tender in El Salvador, citizens who sign up for state-sponsored crypto wallet Chivo will get a Bitcoin airdrop.
1,500 Bitcoin ATMs to be installed in El Salvador
An infrastructure to support the government’s cryptocurrency agenda is rapidly being assembled. On Thursday, ATM operator Athena Bitcoin announced plans to install some 1,500 crypto ATMs throughout El Salvador, targeting areas where people receive remittances from abroad. The firm said it was investing more than $1 million in the enterprise, which allows users to buy Bitcoin or convert it to cash.
Remittance payments sent home from Salvadorians working abroad make up around a fifth of El Salvador’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019. It’s one of the highest ratios in the world, according to the World Bank. The high cost of sending remittances has often been cited, by Bukele, as a primary reason for making Bitcoin legal tender.
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