Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s experiment in making bitcoin an official national currency alongside the US dollar, which has been the currency since 2001, has not gone well. But when a con artist’s grift starts to fall apart, he knows to move onto the next one fast. The same goes for fast-talking presidents.
More than 91 percent of Salvadorans want dollars, not bitcoins. The official Chivo payment system was unreliable at launch in September—the kiss of death for a new system. Users joined for the $US30 sign-up bonus, spent it or cashed it out, then did not use Chivo again.
