Over half of El Salvador’s citizens are skeptical of the country’s move to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, survey shows

A local business in El Salvador that accepts bitcoin payments.

Alex Pena/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A small survey conducted by a university in El Salvador suggests that a majority of citizens don't understand cryptocurrency and are skeptical of President Nayib Bukele's move to make bitcoin legal tender.

Disruptivia, a science and technology publication affiliated with Francisco Gavidia University, polled 1,233 people across El Salvador from July 1-4 with a margin of error of 2.8%.

The survey showed that about 54% of respondents viewed the country's bitcoin adoption as "not at all correct" while another 24% said it is "only a little correct." Only 6.5% of respondents said the decision was "very correct."

Additionally, 48.7% of respondents said they viewed the country's decision to make bitcoin legal tender "with uncertainty." 19.8% viewed the decision with optimism, 29% viewed the decision with fear, while 2.6% didn't answer the question.

The survey also reveals the lack of cryptocurrency knowledge in the country, which could be partly to blame for why many citizens are skeptical of the move. 13.10% of respondents said they didn't know what bitcoin was when asked to describe it.

Meanwhile, when asked how much they know about bitcoin, 48.2% said they had some information, 46% said they knew nothing, while only 4.9% said they knew a lot. Only 18.2% of the survey respondents correctly identified bitcoin's price range around $30,000 at the time of the survey.

However, a majority of respondents were aware that once the bitcoin law goes into effect, businesses will be mandated to accept bitcoin.

Article 7 in the new bitcoin law mandates that every economic agent must accept bitcoin as payment if offered. To critics, the law strips El Salvadorians of their freedom and forces them to accept a new form of money.

The survey also shined a light on the lack of technology in the country. 23.5% of respondents said they didn't have a device to connect to the internet, a key tool for interacting and transacting with digital currency.

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