El Salvador is the first country in the world to reintroduce the chivo, a currency that was phased out in 2001.

The Central Bank of El Salvador has been working with a team of developers from Colombia to deploy 1,500 ATMs that will allow users to withdraw or deposit cash from their bank accounts using the chivo. These special ATMs will use the latest in blockchain technology to facilitate the exchanging of El Salvador’s local currency for bitcoin.

The reintroduction of this currency is part of a broader plan by President Sánchez Cerén to increase financial inclusion and promote economic stability in El Salvador.

Within the first month of BTC being legally accepted in El Salvador, president Nayib Bukele announced Chivo Wallet onboarded 2.1 million Salvadorans, which amasses 75% of the population. However, the mass adoption met with many roadblocks. These included system issues and insufficient funds.

Seeking a permanent solution for their bitcoin users, El Salvador turned to AlphaPoint to provide them with white label infrastructure that was focused on wallet stability & uptime, scalability, and social impact.

Chivo announced that they plan to expand their current consumer-faced use cases to other day-to-day transactions such as utilities. The official statement is issued by the government,

“The project has aspirations to Chivo is also in the process of deploying 1,500 Bitcoin ATMs around the country to more readily serve the Salvadoran population.”

The latest AlphaPoint integration will enable users to access point-of-sale systems like websites and the Salvadoran government’s administrative console. The update also includes an improved “Lightning framework for near-instant, low fee Bitcoin transactions” AlphaPoint CEO and co-founder Igor Telyatnikov said:

“El Salvador and President Bukele are truly leading globally with this first major experiment in Bitcoin adoption at a country-wide level. We are honored to be involved in the process and provide the scalable and reliable solutions needed for this massive undertaking.”

El Salvador is looking into the possibility of running Bitcoin loans, which would come with lower interest rates. This idea of Bitcoin loans is not new, but El Salvador is the first country to have this conversation.