El Salvador’s Chivo bitcoin wallet struggles to take off on launch day

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El Salvador launched its state-run bitcoin wallet, Chivo on Tuesday, but it still fixes a few tech issues.

Last month, the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced that Chivo Wallet would become available on the same day Salvador’s bitcoin law was due to come into effect. The country’s legislature approved a law recognizing bitcoin as legal tender in June, with an implementation date of September 7.

The idea was that the Chivo wallet would hit app stores today, with users receiving a $ 30 BTC credit upon uploading, and they did so after considerable lag and Bukele’s tweet as a form. technical support.

Download down

The app was slated for release on the Apple, Google and Huawei app stores at midnight. However, it appeared to be unavailable for download early in the morning.

At 3 a.m. El Salvador time, Bukele tweeted a link to the Chivo app on Huawei’s platform, but said the team behind the wallet was still working to list it on Google Play and the App. Store. By 11 a.m. El Salvador time, Chivo had reached Apple’s App Store. It is not known if the app has reached the Google Play Store.

But even after the app was installed, some still claimed to have issues. This led the Chivo team to temporarily pull the plug as a lack of server capacity prevented users from entering their data, a necessary step to set up the wallet and receive the free bitcoin.

After the team reconnected the wallet with a new set of higher capacity servers, Bukele asked users to respond to any ongoing issues. Some complained that they could not register, but many submitted pictures of their fully functional wallets, with various BTC sums approaching $ 30.

Transfer problems

Some users have reported issues sending funds credited to their accounts. It appears that the initial $ 30 can only be sent to other Chivo users and merchants rather than other wallets outside of the Chivo ecosystem. Some have taken to Twitter to post possible workarounds to allow users to withdraw the $ 30. They claim that the funds have to go through a few Chivo-to-Chivo transactions before they are released for withdrawal.

But participants seem interested in using the wallet and credited funds for bitcoin transactions. Bitrefill CEO Sergej Kotliar, the crypto startup specializing in gift cards and prepaid connectivity services, told The Block that the company has seen more than 20,000 pending transactions for Chivo wallets. These could not be completed, according to Kotliar, due to spending limitations on the initial funds.

As Chivo resolves these issues, they may be able to buy from Bitrefill later, says Kotliar. The company is also positioning itself to capitalize on the bitcoin rush in El Salvador with a partnership with Hugo, a delivery service that is gaining popularity in Central America.

Matt Ahlborg, head of research at Bitrefill, tweeted his test of the Chivo feature. He found that the $ 30 in BTC could be sent off-chain after three to five Chivo-to-Chivo transactions and that Lightning payments could be sent to and from wallets.

When users buy their own BTC in the wallet, it doesn’t seem to have the same limitations as the $ 30 credit.

Alex Gladstein, strategy director for the Human Rights Foundation in Oslo, reported that a Chivo wallet and its own non-custodial Muun wallet were able to exchange $ 5 Lightning payments without any issues.

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2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.

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