El Salvador’s president acknowledged technical difficulties in implementing Bitcoin payments

In El Salvador, the registration of new users of the Chivo digital wallet was suspended and the app was blocked from being downloaded on new smartphone models. President Nayib Bukele назвал the compressed timelines for building the cryptocurrency infrastructure the reason for the problems.

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“We set ourselves a task too ambitious—to implement everything in three months—and we made mistakes. But we are fixing them, and hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans can use their Chivo without problems,” he said.

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According to him, some accounts were blocked for not completing registration due to errors in the app.

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Bukele noted that 95% of the technical difficulties with Chivo have been resolved, and the wallet “will begin operating at 100% in the coming days.”

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The president also announced that:

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• the number of Chivo users has reached 500,000 or about 7% of the population;
• 200 ATMs with cryptocurrency wallet support, installed in the country, are working without issues, as are 50 devices in the United States;
• 51 offline branches supporting Chivo are also operating “at 100%”;
• the minimum transaction size was reduced from $5 to $0.01;
• has expanded the list of companies and networks that accept cryptocurrency.

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The president announced the addition of a feature to top up the wallet balance using credit and debit cards.

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He also reminded that the use of the app is voluntary.

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On September 7, in El Salvador, the law came into force recognizing Bitcoin as an official means of payment alongside the U.S. dollar.

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After the approval of the bill in June, the opposition called it unconstitutional. In August, in the country there were protestsagainst the legalization of cryptocurrency.