Technical issues plague the Salvadoran government’s bitcoin digital wallet Chivo for the fourth day in succession. Additionally, a setback could dissuade locals from enrolling up for the service championed by President Nayib Bukele.
Technical Difficulties
Accessing the wallet, withdrawing cash from ATMs, and data authentication are all issues. Moreover, also including the government’s failure to deposit the $30 bonus. According to conversations with at least 10 Chivo users and user concerns published on Twitter and Facebook, Bukele assured all Chivo users were the most common issues.
Melvin Vasquez, a 30-year-old tattooist, installed Chivo when the bitcoin law took effect on Tuesday. However, is unable to access it since.
In Alphabet’s Google Play and Apple’s App Store, user complaints were also piling up.
Bukele rushed in to oversee the tumultuous launch of the payments software that supports bitcoin as legal cash. Chivo guarantees commission-free transactions and which his government intends the unbanked to embrace. However, Chivo has been unplugged multiple times due to technical difficulties.
Not so ‘Chivo’
Bukele’s administration hopes that 2.5 million Salvadorans, or 39% of the population, will download Chivo, named after a local term that means “good.” He claims that using bitcoin will save Salvadorans $400 million in remittance charges every year.
However, most of those people who send or receive dollars in El Salvador are sceptical of bitcoin.
According to Refinitiv data, Bitcoin has witnessed daily trading swings of 10% or more ten times this year and in 2020 and 2019. There were 17 days in 2018 and 2017 when the market moved by 10% or more.
