El Salvador relaunches Chivo wallet, plans to deploy 1,500 Bitcoin ATMs

Chivo users complained about the problems they are facing such as the disappearance of funds from their wallets, identity theft, unauthorized transactions, and blocked accounts. However, people who cried out for help on social media were targeted by bots and phishing scams. Many users of Chivo wallet cried out on social media for help and answers to their problems.

After El Salvador declared its adoption of bitcoin wallet as its legal tender in September, a Chivo wallet was launched and issued to its citizens. The mobile app allows businesses and people to receive and send bitcoin.

After a while,  In a bid to encourage users, every wallet received bitcoin worth $30 from the government. According to a report from the Block, there were cases of hackers using users’ ID numbers to open their Chivo wallet thereby claiming their incentives.The technology the Chivo wallet uses was supplied by an operator and provider of BTC ATMs known as Athena Bitcoin before they were eventually replaced by AlphaPoint.

Bitcoin had been accepted as a legal tender in some countries. El Salvador being the first has reinitiated her formerly-used Chivo wallet thereby addressing the local BTC transfer challenges. With an integration of AlphaPoint, the Chivo wallet which has been updated is proposed to process fast transactions of low fee bitcoin while resolving concerns connected to scalability and stability.

During the first month of BTC’s establishment as a legal tender, it was announced by President Nayib Bukele that the Chivo wallet has mobilized a huge number of Salvadorans which is about 2.1 million and by the end of the year, 75% of the population has adopted it. However, there were numerous obstructions related to the mass adoption which include missing funds and system issues.

In a bid to give over 4 million users of BTC an indelible solution, El Salvador’s government agreed on partnering with AlphaPoint, an infrastructure provider that is white-labeled. The reason for the partnership is to heavily focus on the uptime and stability of Chivo’s wallet.

Based on an official statement, the intentions of Chivo is in expanding its present use cases which are consumers faced with daily transactions such as making the payment of taxes, home utilities, and many Bitcoin day-day transactions simpler.

The recent integration of AlphaPoint will expand the support for websites, the point of sale system, and the console of the administrative government of Salvadorans. Additionally, the update encompasses enhanced “integration of lightning for almost transactions of Bitcoin that are instantaneous through lightning addresses and QR’.

It was reported that the CEO and co-founder of AlphaPoint, Igor Telyatnikov said that President Bukele and El Salvador with their first and major trial on the adoption of Bitcoin on a country level are globally leading. 

The CEO continued by saying that they are wdignified to be a part of the process and also in providing the reliable and scalable solutions required for the huge undertaking. He concluded that support is being offered to millions of El Salvador’s citizens who have not accessed financial services before.

According to data by Statista, it showed that about 71% of El Salvador citizens are not owners of bank accounts. The President then said that legalizing bitcoin will create easy accessibility of financial services to people and that they will be able to receive and send remittances abroad.

In January, a call was rejected by the President of El Salvador with IMF urging the country not to make Bitcoin their legal tender, highlighting the risk on consumer protection and financial stability

The possibility of a rate of lower interest with BTC loans is being explored by El Salvador’s government in a chase of examining greater BTC use cases.

According to a report by Cointelegraph, the director of El Salvador Economy and Technology International Affairs, Monica Taher organized a live event on Facebook sharing the plans on providing BTC loans of low interest to micro-businesses. 

She said while speaking to Cointelegraph that the main purpose of the small BTC loan is to provide to the unbanked, access to digital money while rendering assistance in creating a credit history for them. She concluded by saying that El Salvador’s small business empowerment will strengthen its economy.