Early stumble in El Salvador’s Bitcoin rollout

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR — El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday, but the rollout stumbled in its first hours and President Nayib Bukele informed that the digital wallet used for transactions was not functioning.

For part of the morning, El Salvador’s president became tech support for a nation stepping into the world of cryptocurrency. Bukele marshaled his Twitter account — with more than 2.8 million followers — to walk users through what was happening.

Bukele explained that the digital wallet Chivo had been disconnected while server capacity was increased.

The president said it was a relatively simple problem. “We prefer to correct it before we connect it again,” Bukele said. He encouraged followers to download the app and leave comments about how it was going.

Meanwhile, the value of Bitcoin plummeted early Tuesday, dropping from more than $52,000 per coin to $42,000, before recovering about half of that loss — an example of the volatility that worries many.

The government has promised to install 200 Chivo automatic tellers and 50 Bitcoin attention centers.

The Associated Press visited one of the automatic tellers in San Salvador’s historic center, where attendants waited to help citizens, who initially didn’t show much interest.

Asked if he had downloaded the Chivo app, Emanuel Ceballos, said he had not. “I don’t know if I’m going to do it, I still have doubts about using that currency.”