Quote (Bloomberg)

Its adoption will get an initial boost from the government’s Bitcoin wallet Chivo, which comes pre-loaded with $30 worth of the currency for users who register with a Salvadoran national ID number. Businesses will be required to accept Bitcoin in exchange for goods and services and the government will accept it for tax payments.

Bukele’s administration has installed 200 Bitcoin ATMs around the country that can be used to exchange the cryptocurrency for U.S. dollars. The Finance Ministry created a $150 million fund at state-run bank Banco de Desarrollo de la Republica de El Salvador, Bandesal, to back the transactions. The dollar will remain the national currency for public accounting purposes and merchants who are technologically unable to receive the e-currency will be exempt from the law, the government has said. El Salvador’s dollarized economy is heavily reliant on remittances sent home by migrants overseas, which totalled $6 billion last year and account for roughly a fifth of gross domestic product. Bukele says Bitcoin could save Salvadorans $400 million a year in fees for these transactions.

While Bukele himself enjoys approval ratings of more than 80%, a poll last week by El Salvador’s Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas found his Bitcoin law is widely unpopular. Two-thirds of respondents said the law should be repealed while more than 70% said they prefer to use U.S. dollars instead.