El Salvador has decided to do an airdrop of $30 in Bitcoin (BTC) to every citizen in the country. The information was announced by President Nayib Bukele while addressing the nation. Individuals that want to receive the $30 worth of Bitcoin would have to download the wallet “Chivo” on their smartphones.
El Salvador Airdrops $30 in Bitcoin
Every citizen of El Salvador will now be able to receive $30 in Bitcoin as part of the new plan to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country. Salvadorans will be able to receive these “free” Bitcoin after they register on the official Bitcoin wallet of the country.
Users will also have to share their local Identification Cards (IDs) and telephone numbers in order to get the $30 in BTC. This is just one of the initial plans to expand the use of virtual currencies in the country after making Bitcoin legal tender.
In addition to it, there will be a possibility for users to convert their Bitcoin to U.S. dollars (USD) and vice versa if they would like to do so. The app will support both Bitcoin and the U.S. dollar. Additionally, the application is expected to work anywhere in the country with just a cell connection. Users would not even need to purchase a cell plan to get access to the application.
In order to make the application easier to use, they have added QR codes that would make it easier to send and receive funds in BTC. Merchants that want to receive a Bitcoin payment would only have to show a QR code with the information related to the payment, which will be then scanned by the payer.
Starting in September, the country will see Bitcoin implemented as legal tender. This is something that many individuals were waiting for and would like to finally see in action. Indeed, the bill was passed a few weeks ago on June 9 but it would be implemented in three months.
At the moment, the wallet is not available in the App Store or Play Store. It would be made available once the bill becomes effective in September. Analysts still do not know which impact this could have on Bitcoin, on the country, and on the entire crypto ecosystem.
At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin is being traded close to $34,200 and it has a market valuation of $640 billion. This is just the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender.
