The first weeks of a Bitcoin Nation
I’ve been in El Salvador for a month, and already so much has changed
It’s been a whirlwind.
When I arrived in San Salvador in August, I was shocked at how little a presence Bitcoin had here. In my first days walking around, I did not see a single store that accepted Bitcoin and did not meet any locals with more than superficial knowledge, even though I brought it up every chance I got. It did not look like a nation on the verge of adopting Bitcoin.
Today, just a month later, I woke up and walked to the local mall to grocery shop. “Acceptamos Bitcoin’ signs were ubiquitous and I paid for all my shopping with Bitcoin. Then I came here, to a coffee shop, and exchanged a few thousand Sats for my chai tea, a constantly updating digital screen of how many sats per dollar next to the register. It already feels normal. How quickly things can change.
In the meantime, I’ve met a group of Salvadoreans with deeper knowledge. Some have just discovered Bitcoin, others have been in it for longer but the commonality is that this new normal is motivating them to go ever deeper down the rabbit hole.
It’s going to be strange whenever I do leave El Salvador. It’s already hard to imagine not using Bitcoin in my everyday life.
There are also protests and plenty of bugs in the system. I’ve been able to speak with a range of protesters. Most seem to be against the current president, Nayib Bukele, rather than against Bitcoin itself though others do seem to have a good grasp about what Bitcoin is and their opposition is to how fast it’s being rolled out.
Chivo, the government-sponsored wallet, has plenty of its own problems beyond any philosophical qualms. The Point-of-Sale devices are optimized for other Chivo wallets and can only create invoices to pay on-chain. The mobile version has a lightning option but last week a friend paid a bar tab that way via his Muun wallet and while the Bitcoin left his wallet it somehow never arrived at its destination. Beyond a core group, almost everyone is still under-informed about what Bitcoin is and how it works. It’s common to see long lines at Chivo ATM’s but a quick survey of the people waiting will show you even people using Bitcoin know little more than how to use the Chivo app.
There’s a long way to go, but we are off the start line.
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