Some citizens doubt that they will be charged commissions for sending remittances through the government-managed portfolio
The $ 30 bonus received by Salvadorans who download the Chivo application, owned by the company Chivo SA. de CV., a company created with public funds, cannot be converted into cash dollars unless some bitcoin enthusiast buys them.
And this is what Edgar Iraheta does, who has a business in Sensuntepeque, 80 kilometers northeast of the capital, San Salvador, in the Cabanyes department, where he already accepts transactions with the “Chivo Wallet”. And he already alerted his contacts by WhatsApp.
“What I did was help people to facilitate the process, the procedure, because in some places they have not yet been updated, they have not downloaded the application and they are not accepting this payment method. What I am doing it is buying people’s bitcoins, ”and giving them the cash equivalent, he explains.
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Vanessa Rodríguez, 20, comes into the business. After installing the “Goat” with Edgar’s help, he transfers the equivalent of $ 25 to him and he hands him the cash. She also often receives remittances, so she already warned her family abroad.
“I don’t know how much more they charged there, I think if they put 100 (dollars) they are charging 8 dollars more. If they charged them there, let them send me with Bitcoin,” he said.
Experience volatility
On the other hand, Deysi Méndez, 52, already received her $ 30 in Bitcoins on her cell phone and has just had a quick lesson in volatility.
“Now (I’m) 29.36 … in the morning it was 30, right now it’s down a bit. Hopefully it will go back up. That’s why I’m not going to spend it all because I know it’s going to go up slowly” , he comments.
“There are a lot of people who get remittances every month. Can you imagine in a year how much you can save if they are 20 (per cent commission) every time? I think it’s okay, that in the near future, it’s for a good thing, it can work, ”says Juan Antonio Alfaro, Deysi’s husband and 51-year-old waiter.
To convert their bitcoins to dollars or buy more bitcoins, the government has enabled 200 Boc ATMs across the country. And he wants his “Chivo Wallet” to also be a way for Salvadorans living abroad to send remittances to their relatives, supposedly, without paying transfer agency fees.
vital remittances
David, 25, also lives in Sensuntepeque. In his neighborhood, most residents receive remittances from relatives in the United States. Her cousin just sent her a shipment. He has been told that now, using Bitcoin, he will no longer pay commissions. “Let’s see, we hope it’s true,” he says.
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This week, El Salvador became the first country to authorize Bitcoin as a legal tender in the currency of the dollar, a currency that has been in the Salvadoran economy for 20 years.
Cabanyes is one of the poorest departments in the country. Its population of 42,000 inhabitants is mainly engaged in subsistence agriculture and livestock.
But among its narrow streets and homes with tile or zinc roofs money-sending businesses abound. According to official data, Cabanyes has received between January and July 2021 about $ 200 million from abroad.
Houses of noble material and crowded shops with no evidence of an improvement in their quality of life.
The remittances “were sent to me by a cousin and yes, they charged me something here at the bank. And now with the Bitcoin cashier here, then, he says it’s supposedly interest-free. Hopefully it’s true,” David explains, as he is backed by an official to understand the Chivo cashier installed next to the main square of the town.
He alerted his cousin because I sent for the “Goat Wallet.” Finally, it turned out. “The transaction is fast, I instantly dropped the money, I came to pick it up here quickly,” he explains. Although he does not detail how much he received.
Remittances from the Salvadoran diaspora – 25,000,000 of them in the United States – represent 22% of the country’s GDP. In 2020 they totaled $ 5,918,000.
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