- El Salvador’s Congress has approved a $150 million trust fund to support the deployment of Bitcoin in the country, including setting up 200 ATMs.
- President Bukele also published a video on his Twitter account that breaks down what Salvadorians should expect once the Bitcoin Law takes effect.
El Salvador’s Congress has approved a trust fund that will see $150 million set aside to support the country’s Bitcoin adoption ambition. The money will go towards deploying about 200 ATMs and 50 ‘consultation’ centers across the country. Elsewhere, President Nayib Bukele has continued preaching the Bitcoin gospel and in a video he posted Tuesday, he explains what to expect once the Bitcoin Law takes effect in El Salvador.
Since the President announced at the Bitcoin Miami conference that El Salvador would make Bitcoin legal tender, the progress has been swift. His Congress passed the Bitcoin Law almost unanimously and is now supporting it with $150 million.
According to local reports, the money will go towards deploying the 200 ATMs that President Bukele announced a few weeks back. It will also go towards the $30 bonus that the president promised any Salvadorian that will download Chivo, the digital wallet that the country chose for the conversion of Bitcoin to dollars. The government will also establish 50 consultation centers across the country in which citizens can convert their Bitcoin to dollars.
Bukele pushes Bitcoin, but Salvadorians fight against it
President Bukele has continued to push Bitcoin on his people. In his latest move, he has posted a video that depicts what Salvadorians can expect once the Bitcoin Law takes effect come September 7.
A partir del 7 de septiembre 🇸🇻#Bitcoin @chivowallet pic.twitter.com/HNiHWdY3x1
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 30, 2021
According to a translation of the video (which is in Spanish), the president reminds the citizens that Bitcoin becomes legal tender this month, alongside the U.S dollar.
All cash transactions, prices, salaries, and pensions will continue to be in Dollars. You will have the option to use the government’s wallet for free, to make transactions in Bitcoin or in Dollars at any time of day and without fees.
In this video, he also reminds the citizens that “using Bitcoin is not mandatory. You will have the option of paying and collecting in Bitcoin or Dollars.”
This, however, is simply not true. The Bitcoin Law states that “every economic agent must accept Bitcoin as payment when offered to him by whoever acquires a good or service.”
What this implies is that for merchants in El Salvador, whether or not they want to, they must accept Bitcoin. That contradicts the message that President Bukele has been preaching, that of Bitcoin being an optional tool for economic freedom.
This could be a big challenge, especially since merchants are opposed to accepting payments in Bitcoin. A study done by a local university found that over 60 percent of merchants will not accept payments in Bitcoin, which would be against the law. Overall, 3 in 4 Salvadorians are opposed to Bitcoin becoming legal tender.
Based on this data, it comes as little surprise that Salvadorians have taken to the streets in recent weeks.
Protests have continued to take place in the Central American country against the Bitcoin Law, further entrenching the fact that Salvadorians don’t want Bitcoin to become legal tender. Now, retirees, veterans, workers and disability pensioners have joined the protests, according to a report by Euronews TV.
