An important factor that led to the adoption can be the $ 30 bonus for those citizens who install the app. In El Salvador, there were criticisms of the Chivo purse at first, but the authorities affirm that it already works well.
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, revealed through his Twitter account that the Chivo wallet already has 1.6 million users and predicted that this number might keep increasing.
Chivo wallet is the application with which the citizens can access bitcoin (BTC) as legal currency. On Monday, September 20, on the social network, Bukele wrote that 1.6 million Salvadorans already use @chivowallet. In addition, he added an emoji to express his joy at the news.
The population of El Salvador was 6,453,553 in 2019. According to World Bank data, the 1.6 million people who have already downloaded the wallet are equivalent to 24.79% of the total population.
In other words, 1 in 4 inhabitants of the Central American nation now uses bitcoin or, at least, has done so when receiving the initial balance provided by the app.
The Chivo wallet received a promotion from the Government of El Salvador to achieve the Bitcoin Law, which entered into force in the country on September 7.
Although there are polls that indicate that more than half of the population would be against the use of cryptocurrency, something that could explain the popularity of Chivo is the USD 30 bonus in bitcoin that each user receives when downloading it.
The challenge will surely be to retain those citizens who install the application motivated by this “gift.”
How Chivo Displays its Functionalities
The first functionalities of the Chivo wallet are to send and receive bitcoin to transform this cryptocurrency into dollars instantly. Thus, the application allows users to pay in stores or make transactions between people through the Lightning Network.
In its first hours after its release, the application experienced technical problems that, according to Bukele himself and the application’s developers, got solved over time. The president recently pointed out that Chivo is “working 100%.”
The Google application store details that Chivo has more than 100,000 downloads. Regarding its rating, the 4,427 people who rated it averaged a score of 3.6 out of 5. Many users give it the highest grade, but a significant percentage has given it only one star.
The application is now available in the Apple app store for download. According to data from the store’s official site, the application has a rating of 4.2 stars (5 is the maximum) thanks to the 1,700 people who gave their opinions about it.
The number of downloads is unclear because it does not appear in a report. The app is ranked 35th among the most popular in the Finance category.
Other options to download the Chivo wallet are the application website and other stores, such as Huawei. The app accumulates the most downloads, although its score is the lowest: 3.5 out of a maximum of five.
By: Jenson Nuñez
