Eight days before September 7 has passed legislation to set aside $ 150 million for a state-owned BTC trust to support the development of a state cryptocurrency infrastructure.
The bill passed on August 31 – 64 deputies voted in favor, the remaining 14 were against. The BTC Trust is designed to facilitate the conversion of BTC to US dollars and to support the establishment of a vital technological infrastructure that will enable the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies in the country.
$ 150 million will draw from 500 million loans which El Salvador received from Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). This loan was originally provided for the purpose of economic recovery for small and medium-sized enterprises. However, its use for the adoption of BTC is unlikely to be hampered by CABEI, as this international banking institution is willing to assist El Salvador with legislative steps to legalize BTC as a currency (unlike the World Bank, which has refused to help El Salvador).
$ 23.3 million from this fund will be designed to support the construction of BTC ATMs so that Salvadorans have easy access to exchange BTC for dollars and vice versa. These machines should not charge a fee for the change.
Others $ 30 million will be used to support the acceptance of a government cryptocurrency wallet Chivo, which will also not charge any fees for changing USD to BTC and vice versa. Each adult Salvador user will receive $ 30 in BTC for this wallet, provided they undergo an authentication process.
El Salvador has approx 6.5 million inhabitants, of which more than 4 million are adults. So $ 30 million would be far from enough if everyone was interested in this wallet. The government probably does not expect that the interest of its citizens in the Chivo wallet will initially be so great that the allocated amount will not be enough.
