The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced on national television on the night of Thursday, June 24, that the government’s bitcoin (BTC) wallet will be available next September for all Salvadorans. It is a mobile application for iOS and Android that the inhabitants of the country can use to send bitcoins from one address to another with immediate convertibility to dollars, if the user so wishes.
Salvadorans will be able to download the application from Google Play or Apple Store and, at the time of registration, each citizen you will receive a reward of USD 30 in BTC. ” It will be the only balance in bitcoin that a person will have who does not want their funds in bitcoin, but in dollars, ” Bukele said during the transmission.
The application that the government decided to call “Goat”, (great or well done in Salvadoran slang) it will work anywhere in the country with an Internet connection from a mobile device.
“It will not be necessary that you have a data plan or balance on your cell phone, simply if there is Internet signal you can use the wallet either for transactions, to pay, receive money, receive remittances or review the statement. And you will not need balance, just Internet signal in the area, ” the president said without specifying whether the state will enable wifi throughout the country.
Bukele also explained that the government’s bitcoin wallet has two linked accounts, one of which reflects the available balance in bitcoin and the other in dollars. That will allow Salvadorans accept payments in BTC, but will have the option to receive it in dollars, thanks to the immediate convertibility that the platform will guarantee them, according to Bukele.
“It means that, if a user goes to a pharmacy and wants to pay in BTC, he can do it, but the pharmacist will be able to receive his payment in dollars because he will indicate it in the wallet. Then the pharmacy, or any trade, will not bother as they did not receive their payment in bitcoin because that is something completely optional for them. It will also not affect the consumption because he will be in full right to pay with BTC.”
Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador on national television.
To register on the Government platform, Salvadorans must enter their personal identification number, as well as their telephone number. Next they will have to undergo a facial recognition checkup and a verification process through a call center to be able to create the account.
The government bitcoin wallet will be compatible with other similar applications and its use will be optional, since every citizen will be able to use any of the BTC wallets that are available in the worldas the head of State indicated. “The government wallet will be compatible with all the others in the world and in it we will have an application for people and one for companies. They will work the same, only in one the person will be registered and in the other the companies will be registered, ” he added.
Bukele “ ” There is no article 7 of the Bitcoin Law without an 8 or 12”
The Salvadoran president also offered details of the Bitcoin Law. He said he was doing so because it was necessary to keep up with what he called a “dirty campaign” against the measure. He added that the legislation will take effect on September 7 and that it seeks to connect the country with the rest of the world, attract foreign exchange, investments and tourism. In short,”what we want is to boost the economy”.
He insisted that no Salvadoran will be obliged to receive bitcoin if he does not want it, nor will bank accounts in dollars be converted to BTC. Therefore, wages and pensions will continue to be deposited in dollars.
Also, the president cleared doubts about article 3 of the Law, which states that any price can be reflected in bitcoin. In that regard, he said there would be no obligation to do so, unless traders preferred. The same goes for taxes, which can be paid with BTC or dollaraccording to everyone’s preference.
Regarding article 6, he said ” for accounting purposes the dollar will be used as the reference currency. “This is a question that has worried banks and some companies. Bitcoin will not be used for accounting purposes.”
The ruler said his opponents have used article 7 to confuse the population. This points out that every economic agent must accept bitcoin as a form of payment when it is offered by the person who acquires a good or service.
“By taking it out of context and referring only to this article, it seems like everyone is obliged to accept BTC as a form of payment, and therefore receive it, but it is not so, because everything is optional. More importantly, article 7 cannot be taken out of the context of Article 8 or article 12. Above all, because article 8 says that the State will provide alternatives that will allow the user to carry out transactions in BTC, as well as have automatic convertibility of bitcoin to dollar.”
Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador on national television.
He added that section 12 is key to understanding the Law because it states that those who do not have access to the necessary technological tools that allow them to execute transactions with bitcoin are excluded from article 7.
In any case, as Crypto News has reported recently, El Salvador’s Supreme Court of Justice will judge whether the Bitcoin Law goes against the constitution. This is because a petition was filed with the Constitutional Chamber of the highest judicial authority in El Salvador, indicating that the legislation approved expeditiously by 62 of the country’s 84 deputies does not have social support nor was it consulted with the people.