LONDON (Dispatches) - El Salvador will give every adult citizen $30 in bitcoin, provided they download and register the government’s cryptocurrency app, known as Chivo, according to President Nayib Bukele.
The nation’s 39-year-old president made the announcement late Thursday during a televised presentation where he tried to explain what will happen when El Salvador starts treating Bitcoin as legal tender after Bukele’s so-called “Bitcoin Law” takes effect on September 7.
“What we are doing is encouraging the use of Bitcoin and encouraging the use of this system, which is going to generate the multiplication of money in the economy,” President Bukele said on Thursday according to a machine translation of his speech from Spanish to English.
Bukele spent an hour trying to explain why he was investing so much government money into handing out Bitcoin to Salvadorans as his country becomes the first in the world to treat Bitcoin as legal tender. The president showed off graphics of the new app that will allow people to trade their Bitcoin for U.S. currency or hold Bitcoin. The crypto wallet app, which hasn’t been released yet, is coming to iOS and Android soon and will reportedly be compatible with other Bitcoin wallets.