Elsavador has partnered with AlphaPoint to upgrade its Chivio wallet for Bitcoin. The country is also planning to deploy 1,500 bitcoin ATMs in the country.
El Salvador has been working on its Bitcoin adoption to make sure that the initial challenges encountered by users are surmounted.
The country which is the very first to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender had launched the Chivo wallet to facilitate convenient use of the cryptocurrency. The Chivo wallet garnered more than 1.2 million users by the end of the 2021.
Initial Challenges of Mass Adoption
According to the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, the high adoption of the wallet also came with some challenges such as loss of coins and system failure. Other challenges that users encountered are the conventional scalability and stability of Bitcoin. The latest upgrade of the Chivo wallet would ensure that some of the challenges associated with its use in the past are remedied.
According to the co-founder and CEO of AlphaPoint, Igor Telyatnikov, the white label company behind the Chivo integration that the government partnered with, is working to improve the wallet’s stability, scalability and uptime. This considered the fact that 75% of the population have already signed up to use Chivo.
Improvements in the Chivo would ensure that users are able to handle daily transactions such as the payment of taxes and bills. AlphaPoint is also working to make sure that everyday transactions are conveniently taken care of through the wallet’s interface.
According to Igor Telyatnikov,
“The project has aspirations to Chivo is also in the process of deploying 1,500 Bitcoin ATMs around the country to more readily serve the Salvadoran population.”
Addressing Everyday Transactions Need
Other integrations that AlphaPoint is working on include point-of-sale systems, websites and the official portal of the government of El Salvador. Also, the project would comprise Lightning Network integration to facilitate low Bitcoin transaction fees.
Telyatnikov highlighted the importance of the El Salvador project to Bitcoin adoption:
“El Salvador and President Bukele are truly leading globally with this first major experiment in Bitcoin adoption at a country-wide level. We are honored to be involved in the process and provide the scalable and reliable solutions needed for this massive undertaking.”
The government is also looking at the use of bitcoin for lending services. Mónica Taher, the country’s Director of Technology and Economy International Affairs, stated in a recent live Facebook session:
“The Bitcoin small loans will provide access to digital money for the unbanked while helping them create a credit history. El Salvador’s economy will strengthen by empowering its small businesses.”
