Bitcoin Core developer Jon Atack, who has been living in El Salvador since 2022, recounted on social network X on August 23, 2026, an incident at a restaurant in El Zonte—an area that authorities promoted as a showcase of the bitcoin economy under the name Bitcoin Beach. After Atack paid for his lunch with bitcoin, the staff told him: this was the first such payment at the establishment in an entire month. Nearly all customers now pay by card.
When Atack offered a tip in satoshis, an employee who had worked at the cafe for three years could not remember how to use the bitcoin payment application and declined, saying: "It's dead."
From Mandatory to Voluntary
This dynamic is directly linked to the change in state policy. The 2021 law, initiated by President Nayib Bukele and making El Salvador the first country with bitcoin as a legal tender, required all businesses to accept the cryptocurrency alongside the US dollar.
However, in order to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund, the government had to revise this principle. Under the Extended Fund Facility agreement for about $1.4 billion, approved by the IMF Executive Board on February 26, 2025, parliament revoked the mandatory acceptance of bitcoin by businesses, making it voluntary. Taxes are now paid only in dollars, and public sector participation in bitcoin activities is limited. Support for the state-run Chivo wallet, which never gained traction among the population due to technical glitches, was also wound down.
What This Says About Bitcoin's Convenience
While acceptance of bitcoin was mandatory, cafes and restaurants were forced to keep a working application and trained staff ready, even if there was almost no demand for such payments. As soon as this requirement was lifted, many establishments—and their employees—quickly returned to the payment method that requires fewer steps: the card. The story of the forgotten app in El Zonte shows not that bitcoin has technically stopped working, but that when given an equal choice, most people in everyday small payments prefer a more familiar and less labor-intensive option.
Atack emphasized in a follow-up post that the cafe still accepts bitcoin and that he himself regularly pays with cryptocurrency in the region—meaning the infrastructure has not disappeared. But its use directly depends on whether the law or habit demands it, not just on the availability of technical capability.
AI's Opinion
From the perspective of machine data analysis, the story from El Zonte illustrates a technological paradox: infrastructure outpaces habit. As early as 2022, the Salvadoran government updated the Chivo wallet, adding Lightning integration for near-instant payments with low fees. Technically, the possibility of fast and cheap tips in satoshis remained, but user skill proved to be the weak link—three years of work did not guarantee that the employee would remember the application's interface.
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