El Salvador’s much-celebrated Bitcoin law making the cryptocurrency legal tender goes into effect on Sept. 7. The government has a Bitcoin wallet app, and the government is offering every adult in El Salvador #30 in BTC if they download the app. The move will add to Bitcoin’s global user base, increasing it by 2.5 percent.

El Salvador's plan could attract bad actors. Victoria Nuland, the U.S. Department of State’s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, suggested suggested El Salvador be vigilant. She urged President Nayib Bukele to ensure Bitcoin is well regulated. Nuland mentioned recent ransomware attacks on US infrastructure, including the Colonial Pipeline attack.

Chivo, the new official Bitcoin wallet, will store BTC, dollars and other digital currencies. El Salvador is expecting widespread adoption as Chivo interoperability with other cryptocurrency wallet apps. Also, merchants and users pay no commission fees and no fees for converting USD to BTC and BTC to USD. There will also be 200 new physical Bitcoin ATM branches set up throughout the country. In a country where 70 percent of the population has no access to traditional banking services, this could be revolutionary.

The El Salvadoran government is responsible for ensuring digital assets in the wallets are safe. Chivo is available from the Google Play or Apple Store and users can access it anywhere in the country where they have an Internet connection. To create an account with Chivo, users must undergo a facial recognition process and go through a verification process via a call center.

El Salvador must be careful. as Nuland pointed out. Even major crypto exchanges, like Binance, had their hot wallets hacked. Hackers also used phishing attacks to scam Electrum, a popular Bitcoin wallet, users into downloading a fake version of the wallet. El Salvador can learn from previous hacks, which there have been many, to protect their citizens.