In a bid to revitalize El Salvador's dollarized, remittance-reliant economy, President Nayib Bukele in 2021 made bitcoin legal tender alongside the US dollar, though studies show uptake of the cryptocurrency has been slow
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has been on a mission to encourage Salvadorans to adopt Bitcoin in their daily financial transactions. AFP

KEY POINTS

  • Mi Primer Bitcoin taught students at the Instituto Nacional de Ciudad Delgado on Wednesday about ASIC miners
  • ASICs were especially developed for the Bitcoin and crypto mining sector
  • El Salvador recently proposed private investment banks that use Bitcoin
  • The country has also kept up with Bukele's promise of buying BTC daily

El Salvador, known for its advocacy of broader Bitcoin adoption under President Nayib Bukele, has been promoting BTC education for a few years now, and students in the country are now learning about ASICs – application specific integrated circuits – in BTC mining.

Mi Primer Bitcoin (My First Bitcoin), a non-governmental organization launched in 2021 that provides free BTC education to Salvadorans, revealed Wednesday that students are now learning about mining ASICs within the classroom. El Salvador is often dubbed "Bitcoin country" due to its leader's positioning of the nation as one where the world's top digital asset by market cap will flourish.

The program was at the Instituto Nacional de Ciudad Delgado on Wednesday. "@jesusnetohdz is reaching the Chapter 9 and showing a #bitcoin miner to the students, which was generously donated to us by @antminerhk. Yes, indeed! Schools in El Salvador are getting familiar with ASICs," the program posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Learning about the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency is already a complicated thing for many people around the world, but reaching the ASIC-learning stage is a significant stage in El Salvador's Bitcoin education drive, as ASICs involve not just the digital currency but how to mine it.

ASIC miners – computerized devices that were specially designed to mine BTC and other cryptocurrencies – are crucial in the overall process of mining.

John Dennehy, the organization's founder, reiterated in a Wednesday post that Mi Primer Bitcoin has zero government funding. Instead, the program runs primarily on "grassroots funding," or support from civilians who believe in a certain cause. Around 22% of the program's funds are from corporate entities, while 13% are from grants.

"To actually remain independent & impartial means we have to reject any money that tries to influence us, however subtle," he wrote.

Mi Primer Bitcoin isn't the only educational program in the country, although it was not established by the government, unlike the Cubo+ program. Among the Cubo+ program's teachers are Bitcoin Core developer and dubbed as a "legend" in the space, Luke Dashjr.

The latest development in El Salvadoran Bitcoin education comes about a week after the Bukele administration proposed the establishment of private investment banks that operate on "any legal tender." El Salvador became the first country to approve Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, and the proposed reform could further encourage BTC adoption in the nation's traditional financial system.

Meanwhile, El Salvador has been on a daily Bitcoin purchasing spree since late 2022. As of Wednesday night, the country's BTC treasury held over 5,793 Bitcoins, according to data from the government's Bitcoin Office. Bukele declared late in 2022 that the country will purchase one BTC daily.

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