Adam Ficsor, the lead developer of Wasabi Wallet, a privacy-centric Bitcoin wallet, has revealed his position regarding the slow adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador. In a recent interview, Ficsor stated that Bitcoin developers have failed El Salvador, having been unable to improve the situation of Bitcoin as a means of exchange, even with the use of lightning network.
Wasabi Wallet Lead Dev States Bitcoin Developers Failed El Salvador, Acknowledges Medium of Exchange Problems
Adam Ficsor, the lead developer of Wasabi Wallet, has acknowledged the problems Bitcoin presents when being used as a medium of exchange. In a recent interview with a Salvadoran dentist who assessed Bitcoin adoption was going slow in the nation, Ficsor recognized that bitcoin has still a long way to go in the medium of exchange field. He stated:
It’s not that El Salvador isn’t ready for Bitcoin. It’s Bitcoin isn’t ready for El Salvador. It’s us Bitcoin developers who are failing you guys.
Ficsor explained that, unlike in the store of value field, where bitcoin excels, developers have failed to streamline bitcoin’s payment user experience. He mentioned that even using Lightning Network, this experience was not as smooth as it should be.
Ficsor related that through his work in Wasabi Wallet, he managed to anonymize bitcoin payments. However, he stressed that his journey to make these anonymous transactions cheaper and easier turned into a “dangerous adventure.”
Furthermore, Ficsor stated that he feared for his and his family’s future because of his involvement with Wasabi Wallet, as privacy developers “were being thrown in jail”. “There was a point where I was really thinking that maybe I should pack all my things and my family and move to El Salvador,” he stressed.
Wasabi Wallet dropped its privacy functions in May, announcing it would cease offering coinjoin coordination services on June 1. Before, in April, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, founders of a similar privacy wallet Samourai, with money laundering charges, spurring a voluntary withdrawal of several privacy services from the U.S. market.
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