Dear fellow LeoFinancers, during the last weeks some Hivers - among whom @selfhelp4trolls - upon discovering that I live in El Salvador, have been utterly welcoming and interested to hear how life has been for us since the adoption of BTC as our second legal tenant currency. That’s why I decided to write down 3 small articles, sharing an analysis of the evolution I’ve been a witness of, and trying to intentionally discard any media fueled FUD or shill around that BTC State supported implementation.
I’m gonna focus first on the benefits I spot in this game-changing environment, for the Salvadorans and the economy as a whole, will tackle in a second article the risks and drawbacks related to how our economy’s BTCization is being implemented, and describe, in a third publication, one of the grassroots initiatives currently unfolding to promote cryptoeducation among our fellow compatriots.
A couple of observations from living in « BTC-Land »
a) « Unbanking through crypto » has become a reality
As someone who doesn’t own a bank account (or should I say : « who isn’t owned by a bank account »…), I’ve found in the current Lightning Network / « Chivo » app deployment a hint of how a day to day crypto economy can and must work.
Let’s first clarify that not owning and using a bank account in nowadays’ society, constitutes for me a basic self-preservation measure, as much on the privacy side (I wouldn’t stand a private company – nor a State - to have access to almost all my earnings & purchases data) as because of the vulnerability it’d create on my incomes fate (let’s take a look at what’s happening in Lebanon, for example, where for 2 years now the whole population has seen its savings and wages being locked down in the banks – a hell of an efficient custody!).
Well, now in many cases I don’t even have any reason to WANT to cash out my BTC – and any pressure to open a bank account : I may turn my dollar banknotes into satoshis, through one of the 205 ATMs that were implanted on our territory, and spend them in a growing array of shops and companies next door. The same applies to a part of my incomes, being paid directly to my Lightning Network wallet (better if it’s not a Strike / Chivo wallet, I’ll touch that point later).
b) A quite consistent State’s commitment
From the day 1 of downloading and using the State sponsored "Chivo" app, my whole family has been accompanied by abundant and easily accessible « how to » info. And when speaking of « my whole family », I include people like my mother-in-law or her own mother, who had previously heard of BTC and crypto almost only through the TV and Facebook communications our President, Nayib Bukele, hold about those topics during the last 3 months.
As most of you would probably know, each Salvadoran citizen who registers on « Chivo » instantly receives the equivalent of $30 in BTC. I never thought I’d ever in my lifetime praise a State for inciting us to use a cryptocurrency, being myself an autonomous cryptos and self-custody promoter, but here in El Salvador, where someone holding a computer science degree and working as a network coordinator in a public school earns $300 per month, and most rural workers don’t reach a monthly $150 revenue, that $30 BTC “gift” has converted the Strike / Chivo app installation into a very popular move (a move that must increase our vigilance even more, though, around the next steps of such a State-stewarded nationwide “experience”).
« Chivo » itself is a private company, but there’s no doubt that the State’s hand has accelerated all kinds of procedures for them to implant 205 BTC ATMs in malls and strategic locations (our country is now the third, planetary wise, on the basis of crypto ATMs quantity, just after the US and Canada – and for sure the first one for the ATMs territorial density – 1 ATM per 102 km²). A series of « Puntos Chivo », « Chivo Points » (see picture), with employees available to explain how the app works and to allow non tech savvy people to load their account with BTC or to cash out to dollars, without recurring to a bank, have also been set up in the cities.
c) Sowing the seed of self-sovereignty
A lot has been written about the fact that El Salvador has adopted a cryptocurrency, and was the first nation to do so.
But almost nobody stressed something maybe more fundamental : our State is the first one, at least in contemporary history, to adopt two currencies, be them cryptos or not. When several European States have embraced the euro, back in 2002, each one of their national currencies have been kicked out of circulation, and that measure was an enforcement of the « One State / One Currency » principle, that States like the Chinese and the American ones are currently hammering all cryptos with. The coming digital reminbi (« yuan ») and digital dollar (Central Bank Digital Currencies) will tolerate no competing currencies, and seal – in my opinion – the prohibition of all autonomous cryptos in those countries.
That CBDC’s victory was poised to be undisputed… Until our tiny country reversed the tide, and demostrated that « another future is possible ». A future in which the concept of « State » might be disconnected from its traditional monopoly on minting money, and where monetary pluralism can become a whole new trend among outsider political entities and non aligned nations.
Both at an individual and collective levels, this BTC journey will have been worth the ride, at least as a self-sovereignty can opener :-)
A closing invitation :
4 months ago I created a Telegram group around this process, to share tips and data with other Salvadorans and any crypto-user willing to support the Salvadoran population in that crypto adoption for our daily purchases.
Feel free to join us, here: t.me/BTC_El_Salvador (the threads are in Spanish, but "DeepL" is a very efficient online translator ;-)).
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I'd love for you to give this a try, use my Hive to Lightning gateway with the Chivo wallet.
lnd.v4v.app -> send a small amount of Hive or HBD direct to a Chivo Wallet. I really want to know if that's possible.
What I haven't built YET but I'm working on, is the other direction of sending Lightning in and getting Hive. This can be done at present, but only by listening to a podcast!
Of course, Brian, I'm trying it out right now!
May the sent amount be as low as 1 Hive?
I take a 50sat flat fee and 0.5% right now so while there is a minimum of 133sats it's realistic to use it for 2000 sats and above which is a little over $1 USD right now. I just sent you 5 HBD to give it a try. That should be good for up to 7000 sats.
Hey Brian!
Here in the Chivo app our invoice is accessible only through a QR code. Is it possible for the https://lnd.v4v.app/ on desktop to recognize that QR, or the whole process must be done on a phone?
The QR code just contains a block of text d which looks like this:
lnbc50u1pshrk6cpp5zxyrp4vuj0ee0uq0ctaj7wk9w92tnhlwcq6m6qyyugkpd2rwvcqqdqqcqzpgxqrrssrzjqvgptfurj3528snx6e3dtwepafxw5fpzdymw9pj20jj09sunnqmwqzjs25qqf8sqqqqqqqlgqqqqqqgq9qsp5nuygp784gukrem4y94lhxh8s4gl8cue90d44vxuzldz2vfr97tsq9qyyssqgckj9x3a84nglf6c5xwkxyuruthgqal9v8sl5qwtervefdftkc2zjuuf7tuk3yn3zr0ravwppfrtyw0gkmk8mm2rpjurdgcznegh9qgqrppgnh
There's usually a button to copy the invoice as text.
Allright! That button doesn't exist in "Chivo" (not sure why), another LN user suggested I use qrdroid to extract the block of text. Am gonna do that when my daughter will give me access to the phone, lol.
That seems weird and just the kind of annoying thing you can expect from a government product! Any other Lightning wallet like Breez will give you that. I wonder how easy it is moving from Chivo to other wallets.
Thanks for this fantastic update and I look forward to the next ones.
I have been looking for grassroots reports of what is happening in El Salvador and this is a great first hand acccount.
I also wanted to bring to your attention and that of other El Salvadorans, the crucial work @brianoflondon has done in Hive/Lightening integration.
He has created a HIVE <--> LIGHTENING Bridge that allows instant and virtually feeless swaps between HIVE & HBD and Sats (BTC).
Its designed for small amounts that are uneconomic to transfer via BTC mainnet and allows something amazing ... Earning 10% interest on tiny amounts without incurring fees that would wipe out earnings.
How this works is that when an El Salvadoran accumulates an amount of Sats in his/her Chivo or other Lightening wallet that is more than his/her everyday needs and they want to save it they can use the Bridge to convert the Sats to HBD and earn 10% interest.
Then when they need some of those funds they can use the bridge to convert the HDB back to Sats.
All this is instant and virtually feeless by avoiding BTC mainnet and going direct from Hive to Sats on Lightening.
You can read about it in these posts:
https://peakd.com/development/@brianoflondon/who-wants-a-bidirectional-bridge-from-lightning-sats-to-and-from-hive-or-hbd-and-back
https://peakd.com/lightning/@brianoflondon/lightning-and-hive-same-same-but-different
https://peakd.com/development/@brianoflondon/who-wants-a-bidirectional-bridge-from-lightning-sats-to-and-from-hive-or-hbd-and-back
From what I understand the bridge is already working but @brianoflondon is looking to decentralise it and make it more user friendly before the big reveal.
Incredible, @apshamilton , and many thanks for this thorough explanation about that Hive / Lightning Network integration! I knew that the LN mechanism could be implemented virtually on any blockchain, but had no clue that @brianoflondon had made it a reality in Hive's case!!
Our cryptoeducation network here is still nascent and small, but I'm for sure gonna share this data and extend an invitation to the LN Salvadorans users - and, why not, all Latin American BTC user I know of - to hop on that Hivewagon 😊.
Yes, I think its a real opportunity to both provide the next stage of financial inclusiveness (earning interest on savings) as well as introduce LN Salvadorans to the possibility of earning on Hive from their content and then being able to immediately turn those Hive earnings into Sats that they can buy food etc with.
I'm certainly not alone in wanting to see first hand accounts of the new BTC economy in El Salvador so there is plenty for new users to post about.
Might be worth creating a collection of first hand accounts using PeakD's curated collections feature.
Absolutely! I haven't used that curated collections feature yet, but will look for it. There are so many options available on Hive 🙃.
Could we imagine creating a specific front-end for Salvadorans LN users wanting to publish on Hive, similar to LeoFinance's Hive based own webpage? I could publish info about it on Twitter, and who knows, perhaps Nayib Bukele would like it, and echo the initiative? @acidyo @brianoflondon
Honestly I'm more interested in hearing what citizens of El Salvador have to say about the protests against Bitcoin. I hear a lot of talk about these protests and I want to know if they are legit or if they are being blown way out of proportion.
Do you think the protests against this are valid or propaganda?
Heellooo @edicted, and very Hive to meet you!
Those protests are definitely an instrumentalisation from the old political parties ("ARENA" and the "FMLN") that are seeking by all possible means to tarnish Nayib Bukele's reputation, without even trying to understand what a crypto is. They systematically associate Bukele's image with the one of a dictator, and for the very reason of such a manipulation being impossible to achieve when dealing with the adoption of a decentralized and algorithmically regulated currency, prefer to spread false information about what BTC is.
On September 15th, during our National Day, most assessments I've read mention that 15,000 people gathered in San Salvador, to protest against the government decision on BTC, and more globally to disapprove its political line. Our country is a very small one, but under no latitude a 15k strong demonstration reflects a big movement, above all when on a daily basis around 10 times more Salvadorans install and begin using the Chivo LN app.
Your question will incite me to add a fourth part to this "BTC in El Salvador" series, to tackle the reactions I've most heard from persons who're reluctant to give a try at BTC. Thanks for that!
people not understanding what crypto is all about or paying attention to some post on Facebook about "money laundering in crypto", most of the latin protests are like this without really understanding what they are protesting about, no offence.
This made me check - very interesting development:
If you tagged #hive you'd also be eligible for $posh rewards to your hive-engine wallet!
You have to connect to hiveposh.com though so we know where to send the rewards.
Just dropping this in in case you weren't aware. :)
thanks - I forgot, normally I do.
Hey! Would you be interested in attempting to onboard people to Hive through our Onboarding Program we have set up in OCD? Seeing as people are more prone to using crypto there and understanding it's "safe" to use and earn it could be a nice opportunity to show them what Hive has to offer for content creators.
Let me know, we usually don't accept newcomers who haven't been around but could make an exception considering your situation and help you guide them in the beginning. You can check out some of the posts in @ocdb of previous onboarders.
Aho! Lets bring El Salvador to Hive!!
Heeeey @acidyo, so cool to Hive you! 🙃
It's definitely a great idea!! I think it has a lot of potential, and at the same time it'd probably be a slow process, seeing how the most popular "social network" here is still Facebook (as an example of how it may be very gradual to attract people to Hive).
What I have in mind is to suggest my Salvadoran cryptofriends to get in touch with national content creators on the "legacy" platforms (FB, Instagram, their own personal blogs,...) to give them a taste of how publishing here, and besides, being able to convert Hive or HBD to sats, will extend their financial and creative freedoms.
I'll be travelling for the next few days, so could be less reactive in these comments, but am gonna check out the ocbd posts. Tons of thanks for your proposal!!
Is complicated Man i am try but people are lazy very lazy see this acound, there are friends of my but do not nothing i am feel sad.
@cberrios
@alberto2021
Nothing
Great to read your experience in El Salvador. I'm currently using a lighting wallet as well and my experience has been very good. Also, the Leo Finance crew managed to get @kaleelkazi a podcast guest from IBEX, a company that is helping vendors with the adoption of BTC in their businesses:
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I think we in the crypto communities are seeing if this is effective in the long run, and with the way governments are thinking, this is only the beginning.
!PIZZA
Heellooo @dadspardan, very nice to Hive you! 😃
I agree this is only the beginning of a hard process, where all crypto communities, like the Hive one, will have a crucial part to play in defense of decentralized economic mechanisms and cryptos, even in some cases when centralized governments, like El Salvador's one, decide to adopt such mechanisms.
I actually foresee a period of several years where many developed countries (China, the US, the European Union) will outright ban cryptos, but if we do resist and carry on using them under a black market, we'll eventually party on the corpses of fiat currencies 🙃.
I want to believe that El Salvador's experiment will succeed but the government's latest moves (basically centralizing its economy) give me a bit of a downer.
Heellooo @burnoutawesome ! I'm not sure which are the decisions or measures you're referring to, would you have any link to an article or video about them?
The current government in El Salvador is mainly criticized by people living outside of the country - while an impressive majority of Salvadorans does support its vision and acts - and for some conflicts with political entities (above all opposition deputees from the previous Congress and the Supreme Court of Justice).
Es muy curioso y gracioso que la empresa se llame Chivo!! 😂
Por eso de ser el "chivo expiatorio".. Que es lo que estaría siendo tu pais ahorita! Jaja
Que bueno que compartas esta experiencia aquí. Bravo! Te sigo para a estar al tanto. Saludos desde Sinaloa Mexico!
¡Las mejores vibras para vos, @palimanali , y muchas gracias por tu apoyo! 😃
Sí, más allá de los vocablos nacionales ("Chido" en México, "Chivo" acá, "Chilero" en Guatemala,...), mucha mara acá está imaginando que medidas de represión vendrán desde los Estados que ya se manifestaron férreamente en contra de las criptos (entre los cuales México, lastimosamente) y que nos volverán "Chivo exFIATorio", jajaja. Por ejemplo, se volvió viral acá en las últimas semanas una foto de la Embajadora de EE.UU. en El Salvador, donde se ve que sostuvo un encuentro con altos mandos del ejército... estadounidense, no salvadoreño (y empezaron a correr rumores de preparativos de invasión).
En nuestro grupo de Telegram ya contamos con un par de mexicanos, así que no dudes en caernos por ahí 😉.
Chivo exfiatorio 😂.
Bueno, no paranoiqueen, no va a haber ninguna invasión.. Esperemos 😐!
Boicot económico probablemente!
Mira, yo estoy en Mexico pero soy de origen Uruguayo, en uruguay fuimos chivo FUMAtorio con la mariguana y varios paises siguieron la legalización. Esperemos que suceda lo mismo con las cripto!
Pues mirá, coincido con que lo de la invasión parece ser pura película hollywoodense, pero recordémonos que el ejército estadounidense existe únicamente para ese fin: nunca tuvieron que defender su propio territorio, ni siquiera padecieron en su historia un simple bombardeo... En cambio, derrocar Gobiernos que no estén alineados con ellos se asemeja más a rutina para ese ejército (si bien me recuerdo, en más de 100 ocasiones invadieron países "desobedientes", y soberanos - la lista con las fechas se ha de poder encontrar en Internet sin mayor dificultad).
Si agregas a este historial el hecho de que Biden es mucho más belicista que Trump (más cercano al Estado Profundo y a otorgarle créditos al ejército) y que lo de la unicidad de su moneda, además moneda del comercio mundial, es un motivo mucho más crucial para ellos que el comportamiento de tal o tal Presidente de un país de segundo rango, la verdad, veo que varias condiciones se están juntando.
Como siempre, no hay que desear lo peor, sino prepararnos para enfrentarlo 😊.
Frase de navegantes:
"Esperando lo mejor
Preparados para lo peor."
A mi me encantaría en esta eterna lucha -o defensa- de los pueblos de la Gran América Latina contra los/as *villanos/as del norte, dejar de nombrarlos/as.
Hasta que desaparezcan.
¡Muy bien! Nombremos mejor a nuestros ancestros, a las energías que nos atraviesan, a los Elementos, y convoquémoslos alrededor del Fuego Sagrado, cuando juntos anclamos y después levantamos la espiral del "poder con" (en lugar del "poder sobre").
Aho!
Do you expect migration to El Salvador from other large nations? Specifically people already using crypto in the major nations moving El Salvador because of the new crypto markets emerging?
I know a lot of the newly crypto wealthy are looking closely at immigration or 2nd passports, investment etc in El Salvador if the BTC rollout goes well.
This could end up being huge for El Salvador, especially if crypto entrepreneurs begin to influence the area with development dollars.
I definitely think so, not only thanks to cryptofriendly laws on our territory, but also because of crypto repression in other countries (the famous bipartisan "Infrastructure Bill" targeting cryptos in the US is just a beginning) and on the basis of the standards of living here.
Where I live (Western part of El Salvador) buying a family house usually costs around 30k to 35k USD. In the US or in Europe even the swimming pool may end up costing more than that, lol.
It definitely is looking like an option for the lower and lower middle class Americans that can do without some of the modern luxury of the first world. Between the digital meeting places and decentralized Finance, the most lassez-faire countries will attract more immigration. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few years.
Haha, I maybe should set up a real estate company here 😊.
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