El Salvador Day To Day

The reality of Bitcoin in El Salvador was more nuanced than either its cheerleaders or critics suggested.

The Chivo wallet — the government-issued Bitcoin app — had a rocky launch. Technical glitches frustrated early users. The $30 sign-up bonus attracted people who withdrew the dollars immediately and abandoned the app. Survey data suggested a significant portion of the population tried Chivo once and didn’t use it again.

Smaller businesses, particularly in tourist areas and around Bitcoin Beach (a community in El Zonte that had been running a Bitcoin circular economy since 2019), adapted well. Surfers paying for accommodation in Bitcoin, restaurants pricing menus in sats, local vendors accepting Lightning payments — all of this worked and continues to work.

The remittance corridor improved measurably. Salvadorans working in the United States could send money home via Lightning Network for a fraction of the fees charged by Western Union and MoneyGram. For families whose primary income comes from remittances, this was genuinely meaningful.

The Bitcoin bonds, the Bitcoin city, and many of the more ambitious government plans moved slower than announced or stalled entirely.

What El Salvador demonstrated is that Bitcoin adoption at a national level is possible — but it’s not magic. The infrastructure, the education, and the incentives have to be right. A top-down legal requirement doesn’t automatically create bottom-up adoption.

The experiment continues. El Salvador is still the world’s most important laboratory for national Bitcoin adoption, and what it learns will matter to every country that eventually considers following.

Tomorrow: the 2021 bull run — $69,000 and the institutional wave.

— The Daily Bit