- According to an NBER research, El Salvador Bitcoin adoption failed.
- Most Salvadorians have never used Chivos ATMs that were installed throughout the country.
- Ripple’s Director of Public Policy says about El Salvador, “It’s a country to watch with lessons to be learned and applied to other jurisdictions.”
According to recent research, Bitcoin adoption has failed to take off in El Salvador. The research was led by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), an American nonprofit research organization.
As a result, more than 60% of respondents dumped the government’s Chivo wallet after using the $30 bonus. A staggering 89% of Salvadorans have never received remittances with the app, only 3% of the respondents received them in Bitcoin. However, 99% of the respondents never settled taxes with Bitcoin.
Additionally, 60% of citizens did not download Chivo wallet at all. Even though most of them have internet access on their smartphone. Moreover, any Salvadorans have never used Chivo ATMs that were installed throughout the country.
Meanwhile, the usage of cash, debit, and credit cards remained virtually unchanged after downloading the Chivo wallet for the vast majority of users.
On the other hand, Ripple’s Director of Public Policy and Vice-Chair of Blockchain for Europe Susan Friedman, says:
It’s is an experiment in progress. It’s a country to watch with lessons to be learned and applied to other jurisdictions.
El Salvador officially adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021 to much hype. Since then, not a single country has followed suit. Recent news about the Central African Republic (CAR) making Bitcoin legal tender has been false.
President Nayib Bukele used to tweet about his poorly-timed Bitcoin trades. Now, is mostly silent about crypto as he is posting photos of handcuffed gang members.
El Salvador grew into a state of emergency in March to battle gang violence. Earlier this Month, Bukele called off his appearance at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami.