El Salvador to introduce crypto in schools next year as Bitcoin law turns two

The government of El Salvador is set to introduce lessons about Bitcoin in its public education curriculum by 2024, as announced last week by non-profit organization Mi Primer Bitcoin (MPB) — Spanish for “My First Bitcoin.”

The plan was reportedly born out of a partnership between MPB and the country’s Education Ministry and comes to light on the two-year anniversary of El Salvador’s controversial Bitcoin Law, which made the Central American nation the first country to make the digital coin legal tender. 

Although the parties involved are showing enthusiasm, promising to train 150 teachers and to guide 75 public schools “towards financial empowerment,” the decision is taken as the culture of Bitcoin itself still fails to win over Salvadorans, regardless of government financial incentives. 

Furthermore, people remain reluctant to use this alternative despite pledges that Bitcoin would facilitate and reduce the costs of international remittances, a source that accounted for 23.7 percent of the country’s GDP in 2022. So far this year, only 1.3 percent of remittances were transferred via cryptocurrency. 

The whole bitcoin experiment, which is vehemently backed by the popular President Nayib Bukele, also raises concerns as the Chivo, the national cryptocurrency wallet of El Salvador, has suffered a 37-percent devaluation since its creation. The country’s Bitcoin project is also linked to companies that have been fined in the U.S. 

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