So the key reason for btc adoption in El Salvador is cheaper remittance payments, I find it odd that an article that sets out to criticize btc in El Salvador doesn't even mention the original intended use case.
What I've seen is that Salvadorans in the U.S., that have bought or sent bitcoin using their U.S. credit/cards with the Chivo Wallet App based in El Salvador, is that have been hit by 1%-3% foreign transaction fees or cash advance fees from their U.S. banks.
So for some larger amounts it may end up being more expensive than a normal remittance.
I mostly think of Chivo as a real wasted opportunity as a payments system. A government-backed electronic dollar system that worked well, and which subsidised remittances from the US, could have been excellent for El Salvador. Instead they came up with semifunctional rubbish with a massive fraud scandal.
I believe the previous Chivo developers have been fired and a new team is being hired (based on LinkedIn job ads). Trying to find out more about this.
That the most possible answer is that...
Someone from the government tweeted or said that they had to do it on a tv interview, otherwise they would officially face fines or perhaps closures.
BTC fees does not include the conversion from currency1 -> btc acc 1-> btc acc 2-> currency 2. Where conversion from 1 currency to another would be more expensive than the BTC fees itselve.
From which currency to which currency did you transfer?
I would rather remit funds by BTC any day, but not everyone at the other end has the competency to handle this yet. One day.
Also, it took days to clear. Most of that time was waiting on the local side for cash to clear. BTC settles every 10 minutes, with a 60 min window for 6 confirmations for security. The markets are 24/7. For countries where withdrawals from exchanges hit the bank account quickly, it can be in the order of days faster…
I notice that earn is also reporting way way too high numbers. The fact is you can send 1sat/vbyte right now and it will confirm. 7 cents. Anyone actually using BTC will agree with me here.
Look at the mempool. If it’s empty, BTC is super cheap. It is empty right now and frequently is on weekends.
1,7$ at the moment, which isn't much. I used to remember it much higher.
But for me, a wire transfer is free though ( Belgium - European transfers, also suppliers swallow transaction fees)
2. They’re not cheaper than other methods. They’re more expensive.
Currency has a gigantic network effect and this is seeding the network.
It’s not about the remittance per se.
Exactly my point.