El Salvador Relaunches Chivo Wallet With New Tech Provider
Crypto software firm AlphaPoint will support the frontend and backend infrastructure that powers the crypto wallet and integrate the entire ecosystem including the mobile application, mobile point-of-sale processing, merchant website portal, call-center support software, and administrative console.
The software company has heavily focused on wallet stability and uptime, scalability, and social impact, while also integrating user verification services leveraging machine-learning facial recognition and authentication tools. AlphaPoint also improved the Lightning integration for nearly instantaneous low-fee bitcoin transactions via QR and Lightning addresses.
A statement issued by the El Salvador government stated:
“The Government of President Nayib Bukele informs that the American company AlphaPoint is providing technology for Chivo Wallet, the first national digital wallet in the world. AlphaPoint, which provides financial technology to institutions globally, is adding its expertise to offer financial services and access to Bitcoin for millions of Salvadorans who are actively using the Chivo wallet.”
Adopting BTC as Legal Tender
In September, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. As part of the launch, the government deposited $30 in Bitcoin in every El Salvadorans’ Chivo wallet as seed money to propel Bitcoin transactions.
In pursuit of exploring greater use cases for BTC, the government of El Salvador is also exploring the possibility of BTC loans with lower interest rates.