El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet Gets An Upgrade With New Service Provider
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The Chivo wallet is a government sponsored Bitcoin wallet for El Salvadoran citizens. Anyone who signed up for an account received $30 worth of bitcoin and could make free transactions in U.S. dollars or bitcoin. Released on September 7th, 2021 during Bitcoin Day, an estimated 500,000 users signed up for Chivo by September 16th, 2.1 million users by September 27th, and currently an estimated 4 million users are now on the app.
4 million users account for 61% of the 6.5 million El Salvadoran citizens in the country. While a very successful launch, the rapid user signups has strained the frontend and backend infrastructure for Chivo. Additional help was required and a recent announcement stated that AlphaPoint will be providing its expertise for Chivo.
Alphapoint will specifically offer more stable infrastructure with their Wallet Solution team. The company specializes in exchange, wallet, brokerage, trading, and liquidity solutions for their clients. They have a partnered ecosystem with companies like BitGo, Fireblocks, Ledger, and Trezor.
AlphaPoint co-founder and CEO Igor Telyatnikov stated that “El Salvador and President Bukele are truly leading the world with the adoption of bitcoin on a national scale”. Alphapoint recognizes the improvements needed for the Chivo app to function with its large number of users.
Telyatnikov says, “No one else has attempted to execute a project of this nature. We at AlphaPoint are honored to be involved in the process and provide the reliable, scaled solutions needed for this effort. The Chivo Wallet app is currently supporting millions of Salvadorans, many of them accessing financial services for the first time”.
Chivo app users also have the option to use other bitcoin and Lightning wallets such as: Strike, Bluewallet, Wallet of Satoshi, and Muun Wallet. However, the importance of getting Chivo to work properly is to gain confidence from the citizens. With a successful app provided specifically for El Salvador, quicker adoption for bitcoin will occur within the country.
Despite many of the complaints from early December, the El Salvadoran government is taking the necessary steps to troubleshoot and resolve these issues. Along with improving the current features for the Chivo app, Telyatnikov also plans on improving the administrative tools in the app for quicker response times when issues occur. The support of AlphaPoint will help diminish growing pains for Chivo and continue widespread adoption for bitcoin in the country.
Deniz Saat is an IT services specialist and technical writer. His mission is to onboard as many people as possible into the Bitcoin overlay through education and content creation.
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