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“At the moment, I am not going to download the application, but one day I will have to. I am not interested in those$30 that they will give away, I prefer, and I have always done, with the sweat of my shirt to earn my money.”

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San Salvador, El Salvador (CNN Business) El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as a national currency on Tuesday, kicking off a radical monetary experiment that could pose risks to the fragile economy.

President Nayib Bukele announced late Monday that his government has purchased another 200 bitcoins ahead of El Salvador’s formal adoption of the currency. El Salvador now holds 400 bitcoins, which are worth nearly $21 million at current trading levels.

Bitcoin will be used as legal tender in El Salvador alongside the US dollar starting on Tuesday. Bukele tweeted that the country’s brokers “will buy much more as the deadline approaches.”

Bukele, a right-wing populist who rose to power in 2019, announced the plan to start using bitcoin in June. The law designating bitcoin as legal tender says that all “economic agents” shall accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment. It also says that tax payments can be made in bitcoin.

Salvadorans will be able to download the “Chivo Wallet,” an application created by the government which will deliver $30 worth of bitcoin to people to promote its use.

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