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Tech

Nayib Bukele, IT guy-in-chief: El Salvador’s head tackles bitcoin woe

By
Reuters
Published Sep. 8, 2021, 2:41 p.m. ET

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele stepped in on Wednesday to closely manage the fraught roll-out of a payments app that underpins the nation’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender, and called on users to report any problems on his Twitter feed.

Adopting language similar to IT departments in offices around the world, Bukele asked users to close and restart the app if a “currently under maintenance” error screen appeared.

The historic adoption of bitcoin as legal tender by the Central American country has been beset by teething problems that have contributed to a rout in the value of the digital currency globally.

Bitcoin continued to lose ground on Wednesday, trading down by more than 1.7% to about $46,000 at 12 p.m. EST.

That has not stopped some bullish forecasts about its future, with a new cryptocurrency research team at Standard Chartered predicting bitcoin will hit $100,000 by early next year and could be worth as much as $175,000 longer-term.

Bukele has sent a stream of Twitter messages over the past 36 hours instructing users on how to download the government-backed Chivo app which promises commission-free transactions and which his administration hopes will be adopted by the unbanked.

A woman in El Salvador in front of a store counter with signage indicating bitcoin is accepted there
The historic adoption of bitcoin as legal tender by El Salvador has been beset by problems. AFP via Getty Images

Overnight the president said the app, a digital wallet, was being disconnected for the second time to “improve user experience and the problems it had during the day.”

“We hope that tomorrow will be much better,” he wrote in a tweet.

Several users replied in his comments section to report ongoing installation problems.

A man wearing a Nayib Bukele face mask poses in front of an ATM with the Chivo logo above it.
A man wearing a protective face mask with the image of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele poses in front an ATM with the Chivo logo above it. AFP via Getty Images

Notwithstanding the technical issues, the app’s roll-out appears to have created a buzz in El Salvador, in part due to a government handout of $30 in bitcoin to every local user who signs up, and despite polls that show many people are wary of bitcoin’s volatility.

On the El Salvador edition of Apple’s App Store, Chivo was the No. 1 downloaded financial app on Wednesday.

Bukele earlier said only a few phone models would initially have access to the app on Google Pay to avoid a rush that could collapse the system.

A group of people hold colorful signs against El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's decision to accept bitcoin as legal tender in the nation.
Polls show many people in El Salvador are wary of bitcoin’s volatility. AFP via Getty Images

Reuters could not immediately determine how many times the app had been downloaded.

Global retailers operating in El Salvador were accepting bitcoin at some stores, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, along with several local outlets.

Bukele, 40, who is doing well in opinion polls but has been accused of eroding democracy, is a heavy user of social media to govern and engage with the population.