The Government of El Salvador has launched a Bitcoin and Lightning Network course supported by the Salvadoran University.
The programme will start in May 2023 and will be attended by a small group of students, and it is being funded by VC firm Fulgur and stablecoin issuer Tether. The CUBO+ programme is an advanced Bitcoin engineering program that will last for several months and will offer credit and potential placement for those qualifying for the inaugural Plan B fellowship.
Specifically, the training programme will be conducted online and will last two months, followed by an in-person boot camp for students that complete the course. After the boot camp, the following few months will focus on mentorship programmes with well-known personalities in Bitcoin.
El Salvador was the first country to officially accept Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021, followed by the Central African Republic a few months later.
According to thecoinrepublic.com, El Salvador purchased BTC 2,546 in an effort to make it easier for expatriates to transfer remittances to relatives, among other benefits. At the time, the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, claimed that USD 400 million will be saved in remittance commissions annually.
According to dailycoin.com, in October 2022, the José Simeón Cañas Central American University in El Salvador published a report of its survey on the adoption of Bitcoin in the country. The study assessed the perceptions of local El Salvador residents about Legislative Decree No. 57, which approved Bitcoin as a legal tender.
The survey revealed that 77.1% of respondents want the Salvadoran government to stop ‘spending public money on Bitcoin.’ According to the study, only 24.4% of respondents have used cryptocurrency as a payment tool since its legal adoption. Furthermore, 95% of the respondents in the survey affirmed that their quality of life has remained the same or has worsened since the government approved Bitcoin as a legal tender.
It's not all bad news, however, as a report from the El Salvador Reserve Bank found that Salvadorans living abroad sent more than USD 50 million in remittances from January to May 2022. In addition, a 400% increase in Lightning Network transactions was recorded, which can be attributed to the adoption of Bitcoin. It’s also worth noting that Bitcoin adoption has led to an increase in tourism and foreign investment in the country.
According to forbesindia.com, tourism has improved significantly in the country with 1.1 million tourists being registered in 2022.
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