The text used in the state education program promoted by El Salvador contains a reference to the Chivo wallet: Rikki’s comment from the Bitcoin Italia Podcast to Atlas21.
Starting from February, the government of El Salvador has decided to introduce “Bitcoin Diploma,” the course initiated by the association Mi Primer Bitcoin, in all high schools in the country.
The course will last for 5 weeks, totaling 30 hours of learning.
The text “Diplomado en Bitcoin” used by the association to teach Bitcoin to students has been reviewed by Giacomo Zucco, is open source, and can be freely downloaded from GitHub.
The Salvadoran government has decided to draw inspiration from “Diplomado en Bitcoin” and create a similar version but “with some modifications,” as stated on X by the head of the National Bitcoin Office, Stacy Herbert.
In reality, the book is a sort of summary, consisting of just over ten pages, of the original text from Mi Primer Bitcoin.
The volume includes a series of external links to be scanned with QR codes for further insights such as videos, government documents, and the full open-source text from Mi Primer Bitcoin.
The government has reportedly decided not to train specialized teachers, contrary to what Mi Primer Bitcoin did, but to have regular teachers conduct the lessons.
Teachers have been sent a textbook divided into three modules:
- The first part is directly addressed to teachers and describes how the course should be structured and what its educational objectives are. It explains what Bitcoin is and how it works;
- The second part consists of a workbook dedicated to exercises for students;
- The third part includes suggestions and methods for developing students’ skills; it is a mini-guide that teaches the teacher how to use the text provided to students.
Since Chivo is a KYC wallet, therefore only usable by adults, the text proposes two choices: for adult users, Chivo is recommended, while for minors, the use of the Muun wallet is recommended. The choice of Muun is unusual since it is not a true Lightning wallet.
“The textbook modified by the Ministry of Education includes a reference to the Chivo Wallet despite Mi Primer Bitcoin working to dissuade the government from including its name.”
Speaking is Rikki, a disseminator, activist, and podcaster, the voice of the Bitcoin Italia Podcast alongside Guybrush, who has been to El Salvador twice to document the national adoption of Bitcoin.
“The work of Mi Primer Bitcoin has always been to educate people not to use Chivo. They told me they worked intensively to convince the government to completely exclude Chivo from education.”
It is understandable, however, that a government would include its own wallet in its textbook.
“It’s not surprising, of course. In fact, it would have seemed strange if it were otherwise. However, the focus should be on the fact that it is inappropriate and unworthy for a government adopting Bitcoin to steer its citizens towards a wallet with the characteristics of Chivo. The debate should shift to how to promote the use of non-custodial wallets, but this is not happening. The hope that millions of Salvadorans will become true Bitcoin users, using non-custodial wallets, is in vain as many continue to use Chivo for convenience. I know bitcoiners who use Chivo for convenience, because they can link it to their bank account, it’s cheaper, and a thousand other reasons. However, this debate within our community is not happening, and there is no pressure on the Salvadoran government to develop a wallet that is better than Chivo.”
