As early as September 7, the law making Bitcoin legal tender will go into effect in El Salvador. Meanwhile, the government of the Central American country, supporting the internal adoption of the king of cryptocurrencies, decides to distribute it to its citizens.
Satoshis for everyone
The program in which every age-eligible Salvadoran citizen is entitled to receive $30 in Bitcoin was announced by President Nayiba Bukele, at a specially arranged conference. To date, El Salvador’s legal tender is the U.S. dollar. To encourage the public to use Bitcoin, the government decided to create a downloadable wallet for the phone. With it, anyone who just wants to use the app will be entitled to airdrop. However, it will not be available to holders of other wallets. This procedure is intended to prevent the same people from receiving the benefit multiple times. It will also make it easier to identify citizens involved in the new national project. Subsequent transfer of Satoshi to other wallets will already be fully possible.
Considering the population of El Salvador, as well as the number of people eligible for the airdrop, the total value of BTC distributed could be just under $120 million. Considering the current value of Bitcoin, we are talking about an amount close to 3,400 coins.
President Bukele justifies his decision by the fact that most Salvadoran citizens are excluded from the banking system. We wrote about this topic in the article “El Salvador is the first country to accept Bitcoin”. If you haven’t read it yet – be sure to take a look!
Bukele also pointed out that this way of spreading the cryptocurrency, is an incentive to use the new system, the effect of which is to multiply money in the economy.
A specially dedicated wallet
Chivo, which is the name of the created application for receiving airdrop, is a public and completely free wallet for Salvadoran residents. Its name is a reference to local slang meaning something that is novel yet popular. According to the government’s plans, it will support not only Bitcoin but also the U.S. dollar, both the country’s legal tender. It is also supposed to allow easy internal conversion from one currency to another. By depriving it of any commission, it is an interesting proposition for any citizen. For obvious reasons, doubts have arisen among Salvadorans as to whether the government, by making such a tool available, is not forcing the acquisition of sensitive data. However, they were quickly dismissed by the president, who indicated that the app will not interfere with the privacy of its users, and will not collect any data that is not already in the possession of the state.
Chivo has not yet been put to use. However, its launch is expected to take place soon. It will be available for Android and iOS devices.
