Hundreds of Salvadorians say Bitcoin has vanished from their government-issued centralized “Chivo” wallets
01/04/2022 / By Ethan Huff
It is being reported that hundreds of people in El Salvador are unable to access Bitcoin in their centralized, government-issued “Chivo” Wallets.
The unconfirmed reports are circulating on Twitter, where numerous users say that their non-private wallets have been tampered with by government officials.
“This is what happens when you let corrupt and greedy politicians have full control over your funds,” tweeted an account called “Mr. Whale,” suggesting that all cryptocurrency should be held in private wallets far away from government intrusion.
The same Mr. Whale account showed some of the complaints that have been received (most of them are in Spanish). There are many upset people who want to know what is going on.
“No comment from El Salvador’s government, but the president still has me blocked,” complained the Mr. Whale account. “Sad.”
Chivo’s official account hasn’t tweeted in two months
The Chivo Wallet was first introduced by the Salvadorian government in an effort to promote the adoption of Bitcoin throughout the country.
Public funds were used to create the wallet, however the last time its official Twitter account tweeted was back on November 3.
Since that time, many people have reported problems with their accounts only to receive no guidance or anything from the Salvadorian government.
“The last message that the Chivo account published on Twitter was on November 3 in which it announced the recent subsidy for fuel purchases through the wallet that President Nayib Bukele announced for those dates,” reads an English-translated excerpt from a report by ElSalvador.com.
“From that date until this December 28, the Chivo account, which was very active during the first days of its launch, has not published anything else and its work has been limited to responding in a generic way to some tweets that expose complaints about the operation of the application.”
In response to some of the tweets complaining about issues, the Chivo Wallet account did respond with a generic: “In order to help you, please contact us by private message to attend to your case, as soon as possible.” However, there is no indication that following these instructions leads to any solution.
Since the Chivo Wallet was officially launched on September 7, some users say their funds have gone missing “in large quantities.” According to one Twitter account, the amounts of losses range from between $60 to $16,000.
“I have spoken with Chivo support five times, they always tell me that they are going to call me, they never call me and they never solve the problem,” said one user by the name of Roberto Sánchez, who says he lost $1,000 for the month between mid-November and mid-December.
Economist Steve Hanke says that these problems were expected because the Chivo Wallet is run and controlled by the government. It is not a private wallet that can be safely used to store Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
“The Chivo wallet of the dictator @nayibbukele continues to be plagued with dysfunctions, including many reports of funds disappearing from user accounts,” Hanke tweeted.
“As I said from the beginning, Chivo’s wallets would make El Salvador the number one global target for hackers.”
Speaking of Bitcoin, one of the last things posted by Ghislaine Maxwell to social media before her arrest was something about Bitcoin, which she and the Jeffrey Epstein network may have used as part of their trafficking operations.
“Money laundering will be rampant with the adoption of Bitcoin, especially in El Salvador where there are no regulations, it will be like the old west,” Hanke further warned.
More related news about government intrusion into the crypto space can be found at Corruption.news.
Sources for this article include:
Tagged Under: bitcoin, centralized, Chivo, Chivo Wallet, cryptocurrency, cyber war, digital currency, disappear, El Salvador, finances, Glitch, government, risk, surveillance
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