The Salvadoran government is attempting to reboot its Chivo bitcoin (BTC) app and wallet – by teaming up with the USA-based crypto firm AlphaPoint.
In an official notice, the government wrote that the firm was now “providing technology for Chivo Wallet, the first national digital wallet in the world.”
The Chivo app has been blighted by reports of glitches and fraudulent account opening attempts by scammers using identity theft tactics to claim the USD 30 worth of BTC offered as a golden hello to citizens opening a Chivo wallet.
AlphaPoint’s co-founder and CEO Igor Telyatnikov was quoted as stating that “El Salvador and President [Nayib] Bukele are truly leading the world with the adoption of bitcoin on a national scale. No one else has attempted to execute a project of this nature. We at AlphaPoint are honored to be involved in the process.”
The firm says it will implement Lightning Network adoption on the Chivo app, and claims that the move would be the “first deployment of Lightning” at such a large scale. Lightning integration, the US-based company said, would provide “nearly instantaneous, low-fee bitcoin transactions” using QR codes and Lightning addresses.
In a press release shared with Cryptonews.com, the company said that it “supports the frontend and backend infrastructure that powers the wallet and integrates the entire ecosystem including the mobile application, mobile point-of-sale processing, merchant website portal, call-center support software and administrative console.”
The app’s build, it added, “focuses heavily on wallet stability and uptime, scalability and social impact.”
The move coincides with a drive that will see the Chivo operator roll out 1,500 bitcoin ATMs across El Salvador.
The latest move will
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