The CoinGeek Pulse Episode 61: El Salvador BTC rollout setbacks, global regulatory wins, and George Gilder joins CG New York

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El Salvador continues to face setbacks after the historic official BTC adoption rollout.

On September 7, the Central American nation celebrated ‘Bitcoin Day’ as it officially adopted BTC as legal tender, a first in the world. However, the supposed festive day was marred by street protest and major technical issues. A drop in the value of BTC followed the launch, adding to the setbacks.

Just a week after the launch, President Nayib Bukele tweeted that the government’s rollout of Chivo, the state’s official digital currency wallet, continues to become a challenge. Chivo temporarily disabled new registrations and halted app downloads for new smartphone models. Bukele tweeted, “The technical errors of the Chivo wallet have been 95% fixed. In the next few days it will be working at 100%.” Despite that bold statement, he wrote that 200 BTC ATMs distributed around the country currently “work perfectly” including the 50 Chivo-supported ATM in the United States.

6. Los registros nuevos no están habilitados, tampoco la descarga de la app para nuevos modelos de teléfono.

Se habilitarán ambas cosas hasta que la aplicación no tenga errores (serán un par de días más 😢)

7. Actualmente contamos con más de medio millón de usuarios.

Sigue…

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 14, 2021

President Bukele admitted that they have made mistakes in rolling out BTC and are already correcting them for Salvadorans to enjoy its benefits.

While El Salvador started embracing BTC, the rest of the world is on the fence.

Many digital currency exchanges in South Korea may be forced to shut down in an apparent regulatory overhaul. In an effort to tighten industry regulations, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) set September 24, as the deadline for foreign and local exchanges to register as legal trading platforms.

According to industry insiders, most local exchanges are struggling to meet the conditions. Nearly 70%, or 40 out of the estimated 60 digital currency operators are expected to be wiped out with estimated losses of more than KRW 3 trillion or US$2.6 billion.

In the West, stablecoins are facing crackdowns as the U.S. Treasury Department and other agencies are discussing formally launching a review into stablecoins like Tether and whether these threaten financial stability.

Meanwhile in New York, the Office of the Attorney General won a default judgement in its case against crypto investment app Coinseed. The State’s Attorney General Office filed a complaint in February accusing Coinseed of trading digital currencies without fulfilling the required registration as a broker-dealer. Coinseed never formally responded to the complaint.

Speaking of another win, it’s a victory for the regulators in China. The People’s Bank of China’s “China Stability Report 2021” released earlier this month revealed that regulators were successful in eliminating illegal digital currency trading activities after completing regulatory work. The end of this industry regulatory crackdown means that companies can now operate without any worry of being shut down or of a legal action from government agencies.

In other news, CoinGeek Conference has announced its first set of speakers who will join the live and virtual event in New York this Fall. The 8th CoinGeek Conference will welcome this impressive list of speakers at the Sheraton Times Square from October 5 to 7, including best-selling author and economist George Gilder, The Food Institute Managing Partner Brian Choi, World Esports Consortium President Daniel Cossi, and Burkhan World Investments CFO Roman Livson, among other notable speakers.

To find out more and register for this blockchain event, go to coingeekconference.com

This week, be sure to check out Hashing It Out with Becky Liggero on the needs of iGaming companies for responsible gambling data management. Plus, watch Fueng Li of BSVdata.com talk blockchain explorers with Jon Southurst on The Bitcoin Bridge.

Subscribe and watch the full episodes on Coingeek.com YouTube channel.