«The most sensible thing would be to turn off the Chivo Wallet due to the controversy it has generated since its inception. Numerous users have experienced account lockouts, while others have taken advantage of the Bitcoin wallet to carry out fraud. It is for this reason that I believe that the International Monetary Fund has asked El Salvador to distance itself from this tool. This is expressed by Arley Lozano, a prominent figure in the Bitcoin industry in Latin America, who in 2021 led the team of programmers in charge of developing the government application (app) intended to promote the adoption of the digital currency in this Central American country.
Following the announcement by the Salvadoran government that the Chivo Wallet will be privatized and that during the process the service will not be interrupted, Lozano is convinced that the decision is a mistake.
«It is a mistake because, at the end of the day, we all have access to technologies superior to the Chivo Wallet, especially when we are on the threshold of 2025. We are talking about tools that have already been tested and work efficiently. This movement only ends up benefiting the competition, that is, all those companies that offer bitcoin wallet services and that can now attract Salvadoran users.
Arley Lozano, part of the Chivo Wallet development team.
Lozano, also known in the Bitcoin community as Vakano, shared in an interview with CriptoNoticias the experience of developing the Chivo Wallet in a record time of only 45 dayswhile other companies asked the government for a period of at least 12 months. However, since the day of its launch, September 7, 2021, the first users who downloaded it They complained about multiple problems. both to register and to process payments. So what exactly went wrong?
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Lozano says the biggest learning he gained from his experience with the Chivo Wallet is that he must secure his payment first, since he did not get any from his job in El Salvador. Source: CriptoNoticias.
A project developed against the clock
The first thing to consider is that the Salvadoran government hired Athena, a small American company specializing in Bitcoin ATMs, to develop the Chivo Wallet. Nevertheless, Athena formed a network of developersamong which was Lozano’s team, to carry out the implementation of the government application.
“By December 2021, the government of El Salvador had already marginalized us from the scene, mainly because, at that time, the company Athena, with which I worked, proved to be unreliable.”
Arley Lozano, Cryptocurrency project entrepreneur.
He added that the economic situation was complicated because his team, composed mainly of Venezuelans and Colombians, was relatively expensive due to its high talent. The Salvadoran government wanted to keep the team in the country, but the associated costs were not acceptable to either the government or Athena. Finally, an American company (Alphapoint) offered to take on the project for a lower sum, which led the government to make the decision to opt for cost reduction.
Next, Lozano reflected on what would have happened if his team had stayed working with the Chivo Wallet in El Salvador. “I think many of the things that were working in December 2021 would have been a little different, because up to that point, we had stabilized the wallet after a launch full of challenges.”
However, the project structure was complex, and Lozano highlighted the challenge of keeping all teams integrated:
«We were many separate teams, let’s say. We were in charge of doing the operating part of the wallet. There was another team that was in charge of doing the KYC (Know Your Customer), which was an external team that we had no control over. And on top of that, there were more than 250 microservices that the Chivo Wallet depended on, so basically we were using our technology and integrating another«.
Arley Lozano, cryptocurrency project entrepreneur.
Looking back, he now believes that the best thing to do in December 2021 was to say: “Hey, let’s stop the Chivo Wallet and let’s remake it. “Let another team do it.”
Lozano assures that if the opportunity to develop a government bitcoin wallet were presented to him, he would do so without hesitation, now with more experience. Source: CriptoNoticias..
Goodbye to the Chivo Wallet: A step in evolution
Now, he is saddened by the number of people who are claiming to have funds blocked on the government platform when they try to transfer their funds to the uncertainty that has spread after the announcement that the app will be privatized.
In any case, he believes that the separation of the Chivo Wallet from the government is something beneficial for Salvadorans, who are now going to look for, among all the options available to them, the one that best suits them. In fact, he thinks that The disappearance of a service that was free ends up benefiting companies like Bitfinex and Binance that are popular in other countries and that can capture the attention of the inhabitants of El Salvador.
«I believe that companies that offer cryptocurrency wallet services are going to proliferate a little more in El Salvador, and many of them already have licenses. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that today there are thousands of cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap, which is not only bitcoin and that people can play with all those memecoins. So, for that reason, I think that the panorama opens up a lot to any type of currency for Salvadorans.
Arley Lozano, reference in the Bitcoin industry in Latin America.
However, Lozano also addressed the uncertainty over what the demise of the Chivo Wallet would mean for existing infrastructure in El Salvador. «Well, there is nothing clear why We do not know if with the disappearance of Chivo they will bitcoin ATMs disappearthe service points are going to disappear, the entire system is going to disappear, which I imagine so,” he mentioned, pointing to the significant investment that this infrastructure required.
In any case, he warns that bitcoin ATMs are already discontinued and today many bank ATMs also operate with cryptocurrencies, so that is the technology that is currently expanding throughout the world.
Finally, he offered his perspective on the future of El Salvador in the global context of bitcoin adoption: «I hope they do very well and that the country continues to make history, although I think that In 2025 we will have many large countries talking about Bitcoin And well, that overshadows, it does not overshadow El Salvador. El Salvador is a country that does not have much relevance; “It just became a boring country.” With these words, Lozano hints at a shift in the global focus toward other nations that could adopt more ambitious or successful policies in the Bitcoin space.
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