INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
When El Salvador announced in June that it would adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the US dollar, it was met with excitement and
scepticism in equal measure
While the government said Bitcoin will promote financial inclusion and development, not many were convinced
They waited for three months to see how the proposal matured and how the central American country rolled out
More than anything, there would be wide acceptance for such a bold move that dominated the initial response
Later, all eyes were set on making sense of how the world's largest cryptocurrency will behave when the decision came into effect on
September 8.The initial rollout was marred by technical snags
The El Salvadoran government's wallet, Chivo, was not available on many app stores
Then the huge number of users registering on it forced the government to suspend the app briefly to add servers and increase capacity
All these hiccups had a bearing on Bitcoin's price.The crypto coin dropped sharply from its then peak at $52,000 (Rs 38 lakh) to $44,000
(Rs 32 lakh) within 24 hours on September 7-8, losing more than 15 percent, according to CoinMarketCap
It has since stabilised around $46,000 (Rs 32.37 lakh).While the recent rise in the value of Bitcoin was linked to El Salvador news, the
excitement appears to have given way to the reality of the disruption it may cause at least immediately.Still, the fluctuation in Bitcoin's
price is not much compared to April-May when it had slid below $30,000 (Rs 22 lakh) in a massive crash, soon after reaching its all-time
peak at $65,000 (Rs 47.81 lakh).The new El Salvadoran law mandates that businesses accept Bitcoin as payment for goods and services,
Merchants who are not technologically able to accept the virtual currency have been exempted
It also bought 400 Bitcoins worth about $20 million (Rs 147 crore) and is offering $30 (Rs 2,207) worth of Bitcoin to El Salvadorans, who
register on the Chivo wallet.Many expect more countries to follow El Salvador in adopting Bitcoin after learning from its experience.
