Bitcoin made legal money in El Salvador, people now protesting on roads against crypto currency

A day after El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, thousands of citizens of the country marched in El Salvador's capital to protest the decision. The protest came amidst a faulty initial rollout of systems that will support the cryptocurrency in the country going forward.

Many citizens of El Salvador are worried over the government's decision to incorporate Bitcoin as a legal currency in the country. However, just as the cryptocurrency was made legal, the country bought 400 Bitcoins worth around $20 million. President Nayib Bukele also promised that the country would be buying more of these in the future.

As was expected, the monumental purchase sent the price of Bitcoin soaring in the cryptocurrency market on Tuesday. However, it came down crashing hours later and now hovers around 8 per cent below its price point before El Salvador accepted it as a legal currency. The event highlighted the concerns of many Salvadorians against cryptocurrency.

People in the country are wary of the volatility of cryptocurrency. Even Bitcoin, the most important of the cryptocurrencies in the world right now, fluctuates rapidly in the market, possibly losing an enormous amount in a very short time if the crypto market goes down. Market activities over the past 24 hours are a glaring example of that.

Concerned for such reasons, protesters in El Salvador burned a tire and set off fireworks in front of the Supreme Court building. As reported by Reuters, the government had to deploy heavily militarized police to the site of the protest.

"This is a currency that's not going to work for pupusa [food item] vendors, bus drivers or shopkeepers," a protestor was quoted as saying. "This is a currency that's ideal for big investors who want to speculate with their economic resources."

Bukele's government, on the other hand, hopes that the adoption of Bitcoin will help the country mitigate the economic crisis that has resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic. Bukele mentioned earlier that trading in Bitcoin will help provide banking access to more Salvadorians than before and that the cryptocurrency can help the country avoid around $400 million in fees that are levied by banks and financial institutions on the money sent home by ex-pats.

Though well-intentioned, the rollout of Bitcoin in the country's financial system was met with technological snags. Post the digital currency's authorities had to take down Chivo, El Salvador's virtual Bitcoin wallet, in order to increase the capacity of its servers.

Even without the technological letdowns, the people of El Salvador do not seem too keen on adopting Bitcoin. A recent poll by the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas, a Jesuit college based in El Salvador, found that 67.9 per cent of the country's citizens disagreed with the use of Bitcoin as a legal currency. The majority of the respondents did not know how to use the cryptocurrency, the results showed.