El Salvador's world-first adoption of bitcoin endures bumpy first day

chadktt

Goodlike
Messages
722
Reaction score
217
Points
43
El Salvador's historic adoption of bitcoin as legal tender on Tuesday was beset by teething problems, as an angry protest by mistrustful citizens, technological glitches and a dip in the cryptocurrency clouded the rollout.

The bold experiment got off to a bumpy start when shortly after midnight, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele complained the government-backed bitcoin app was not available on various internet platforms including Apple and Huawei.

Bukele used his Twitter account to press online stores to stock the app, or digital wallet, known as Chivo, and Huawei later began making it available. But when the app proved unable to cope with user registrations, the government unplugged it in order to connect to more servers and increase capacity.

Still, as the app began appearing on more platforms, Bukele was by afternoon retweeting videos posted on social media with people making payments using bitcoin at retailers in El Salvador including McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) and Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O).


"El Salvador is taking a great step forward today," said Carlos Garcia, who went to a booth at a San Salvador shopping mall giving out advice on how the new currency would work.


full article
 
1200_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjEtMDkvYTZlMGEwYWMtYjFlYS00MDk1LThhZ...jpg


McDonald's now accepts Bitcoin, but only from country El Salvador.
 
Top