Citizens Urge President to Improve Service for Chivo Wallet Users
Residents of El Salvador have taken to social media to report that funds deposited into the state-issued Bitcoin wallet, Chivo, have gone missing, according to CoinDesk. Earlier this year, the Central American nation became the first country in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender.
In a Twitter thread started by a user known as “El Comisionado,” at least 50 people said money was missing from their Chivo wallets. The original tweet, posted on December 19, drew more than 300 comments.
Hilo con algunos afectados por la Chivo Gualet.
1- $16,000 pic.twitter.com/EC3hehXKDz
— El Comisionado (@_elcomisionado_) December 18, 2021
The thread’s reports indicate more than $96,000 has disappeared since the government launched the wallet. While some users reported losses as small as $61, others say they lost thousands of dollars.
The user who began the thread documenting missing funds wrote: “The government does not admit mistakes and remains silent. This is one of the issues people demand answers about. Some wait months to recover their money.”
Concerns about the Chivo wallet first surfaced in October, after reports that scammers used citizens’ personal information to install the app and steal the $30 Bitcoin bonus provided by the government.
Another user, Luis Guardado, directly appealed to President Nayib Bukele regarding missing funds: “There is a security breach in the wallet where money and transactions have disappeared. No technical support and only useless calls — where is my money?”
In October, the president said that more than 3 million of El Salvador’s 6.5 million citizens were using the Chivo wallet.
Since Bitcoin became legal tender in June, the government has pursued a range of measures to encourage adoption, from incentives to social media campaigns. The president has also promoted broader crypto adoption with initiatives such as the proposed “Bitcoin City.”