El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment goes live – as president offers tech support

Nayib Bukele tweeted advice as the cryptocurrency became legal tender - not entirely smoothly - but critics call it a big distraction

On the day El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender, its president spent the morning providing technical support from his Twitter account after the digital wallet used for transactions was deactivated.

The country's Chivo wallet - which offers $30 worth of bitcoin free for local users - launched at midnight, but five hours later was disconnected due to a lack of server capacity. Seemingly unfazed, President Nayib Bukele asked for patience, announced that the government had purchased an additional 150 bitcoins, bringing the total holdings to 550 ($26m). Then he retweeted a US bitcoin journalist who had successfully paid for his McDonald's breakfast using the cryptocurrency.