Re: President of El Salvador: The government will provide citizens with $30 in BTC

Hopefully, the fees won't skyrocket as people there try to spend their BTC because in that case, they might not be able to use their BTC due to transactions costing more than they got from the government. I really hope this won't go South, but it seems to me that a big conflict and disappointment in Bitcoin is very likely.

Since Jack Mallers' Strike is one of the main drivers of Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador, I guess we could safely guarantee that they will be using Lightning wallets. I've also seen a good number of videos on Twitter with people paying bitcoin to local merchants using lightning wallets.

If this is the case, then I am very happy. Just imagine what adoption will look like when they were introduced to Bitcoin using SegWit and they had to wait 1 to 2 hours for transactions to confirm. Roll Eyes

Jack said that the government of El Salvador will not force people to use the government wallet and that any other wallet can be used, which is great news. You do not want a government to be a custodial of millions of people's wealth ...so this will be a giant step in the right direction.

The fact that the wallet is government-issued does not mean users have to keep the coins in the wallet. Once they receive the $30, they can simply send them to any wallet of their choice.
I understand why the El Salvador government did this. It makes keeping records of those receiving airdrops much easier.