Salvadorans Continue to Mistrust Bitcoin, Survey

Salvadorans Continue to Mistrust Bitcoin, Survey

• The majority of the population of the Central American country is still wary of cryptocurrency, a recent survey showed.
• Salvadorans also do not agree with the use of public money to buy and market Bitcoin.
• 41.6% of the respondents consider that BTC benefits the rich and the government more.

70.1% of Salvadorans still distrust Bitcoin, despite having been approved by the government as legal tender last September. This is revealed by a university survey whose results were released last week.

According to the study carried out by the University Institute of Public Opinion (Iudop) of the Central American University (UCA), 34.8% of the Salvadoran population does not trust the cryptocurrency with the highest capitalization in the world at all.

While 35.3% of those surveyed said they have little confidence in the digital currency. While 13.2% stated that they have some confidence in BTC and 14.1% said that they fully trust it.

El Salvador was the first country in the world to adopt BTC as legal tender on September 7, 2021. Since then, President Nayib Bukele has announced a series of infrastructure projects related to Bitcoin mining.

Among them, Bitcoin City to be built at a cost of 300,000 bitcoins and geothermal energy generated by a volcano. Also schools to create crypto culture and teach everything related to blockchain technology. To finance these works, crypto bonds worth 1,000 million dollars will be issued.

BTC “benefits the government and the rich”

According to the survey, 25.6% of Salvadorans consider that BTC benefits “the rich” more. Another 20.5% of those surveyed stated that the most benefited is the Government and for 19% foreign investors.

The study also polled the opinion of the population about the use of the Chivo wallet created by the government. To encourage commercial use of the digital wallet, the government deposited a bonus equivalent to $30 for each user.

According to the survey results, 56.6% of Salvadorans have already downloaded the Chivo Wallet on their smartphones. But, 55.1% of them did it only to collect the government’s bond.

Regarding the use of public funds for the purchase of bitcoins by the government, 41% of those interviewed disagreed. 20.1% responded that they strongly disagreed with this measure.

On the Flipside

• As the price of BTC has fallen back, criticism against the government is growing.
• These criticisms focus on the lack of transparency in the use of public funds for bitcoin purchases.
• There have also been reports of alleged identity theft in order to collect the $30 bonus.

The IUDOP survey was carried out between December 7 and 17 and the sample was collected from 1,298 people nationwide. The confidence level attributed to the instrument is 95%, with a margin of error of approximately 2.72%.

Another survey conducted in mid-August of last year by the same university showed that 7 out of 10 Salvadorans did not know what Bitcoin was and distrusted the cryptocurrency.

Why You Should Care

• The government of El Salvador has pinned all its hopes on BTC to prop up the economy of the country of just over 6.4 million people.
• Multilateral organizations such as the IMF have warned the government of President Bukele and other countries about the risks they are running with cryptocurrencies.

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