El Salvador made history as the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender within its borders. It did so less than two weeks ago, and so far, the Bitcoin experiment has been rather divisive, although not damaging.
The country doesn’t seem to regret the decision and is instead pushing the installment of new Bitcoin ATMs, which now count more than 200, according to recent reports.
El Salvador becomes the third country based on ATM count
According to Coin ATM Radar, El Salvador is the third country in the worlds based on the number of Bitcoin ATMs, bested only by the US and Canada. With more than 200 of them installed and fully operational, the small country accounts for 0.7% of all crypto ATMs across the world.
Of course, US and Canada are far above it, with US having 86.4% of the global Bitcoin ATM count, and Canada with 6.6%.
Bitcoin ATMs are just another necessary tool in pushing BTC adoption, just like the country’s digital valet Chivo or the 400 BTC-large reserves that El Salvador bought in preparation for the introduction of Bitcoin as legal tender.
The country’s citizens resort to destroying ATMs in protest
Unfortunately, the adoption has been a difficult process, despite all the preparations. Just before the law that would accept Bitcoin as a legal form of payment, the small country saw major protests from its senior citizens, people with disabilities, and others who rely on pensions and help from the authorities, as they assumed that they would be forced to accept BTC.
While the president explained that this would not be the case, there have been other forms of protest against the recent move, such as ATMs being completely destroyed.
While many admit that cryptos do come with advantages, their volatility is extremely concerning to the users. The fact that the protesting groups also have other issues with the president’s government also did not help matters. But, it is still too early to be able to tell whether, and if so how much, will the move affect the country. One thing that is certain is that every other nation in the world will be keeping an eye on El Salvador, trying to deduce whether or not this was a good move or a bad one.
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