On the day El Salvador implemented the bitcoin tender law, the official government wallet called the Chivo wallet had some initial issues for five hours on Tuesday. Residents were unable to leverage the application and could not access the app via Google Play and Apple’s App Store. As Nayib Bukele, Salvadoran president, explained via Twitter that Chivo’s “maintenance was complete”, the situation appears to have been resolved.

Chivo Wallet Down Five Hours for ‘Maintenance,’ Bukele Says ‘Take It Slow,’ Google Play Servers Were ‘Saturated’

El Salvador now has the U.S. dollar and bitcoin (BTC) as the nation-state’s legal tender following the implementation of the Bitcoin law on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. In addition to creating the law, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele and his government have been buying BTC in mass quantities and have also developed crypto infrastructure for the nation’s citizens. For instance, the Salvadoran government launched the Chivo wallet which allows users to accept bitcoin (BTC) for goods and services.

However, many Salvadorans were having problems with the Chivo wallet on the day El Salvador introduced the bitcoin tender law. Users complained that the application could not be downloaded via Apple’s App store or Google Play. Bukele took to Twitter telling citizens to take it “slow” and that the Google Play store is “the most used store in El Salvador, so we have opened [the Chivo wallet launch] in parts and thus not saturating the servers.”

Chivo wallet problems also resulted from users who didn’t have the correct version of Samsung Galaxy brand smartphones. Bukele added:

Chivo wallet is now available in Google Play, but only for versions of the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Samsung Galaxy S21.

Number 1 App in Apple’s Finance Section in El Salvador, Complaints About Not Receiving the $30 Bitcoin Gift

Bukele also exclaimed that in El Salvador, the Chivo wallet was the “number 1 finance app in the [Apple App Store] in just 8 hours.” But immediately after Bukele tweeted that statement the complaints from Salvadorans having issues with the Chivo wallet rolled in.

“President, I already downloaded and installed it,” one individual wrote. “But now that I want to open it… only this appears for me and I have had this for a long time, and it does not resolve.”

Others have been complaining that the $30 worth of free bitcoin (BTC) that was promised was not showing up after they uploaded identification. “There are people who registered but could not take a photo of the DUI or the selfie because the system [shut down], and that $0 BTC appears within the app, what solution is there?” a Salvadoran citizen asked the president. Another person responded to the person who said funds were not being delivered to people’s wallets and said:

The same thing happened to an aunt, when she was going to take the selfie [but] the system closed and when she started again, $0 BTC came out. Please, any suggestions?

All of the above comments, and many others, stem from a tweet by Bukele explaining that maintenance had been completed after a five-hour delay. “We have finished today’s maintenance of the Chivo wallet,” he said. “Report any malfunction here in the comments,” he said.

Bitcoin.com News downloaded the Chivo app this morning without any issues and it was successfully installed. The free $30 is reserved for Salvadoran residents only and in order to obtain the funds, a Chivo wallet user must upload identification.

What do you think about the Chivo wallet’s hiccups on Tuesday? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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