El Salvador shook the world in 2021 when President Nayib Bukele made bitcoin (BTC) legal tender, giving the cryptocurrency the same status as the US dollar, the Central American nation’s official currency.
Since then, El Salvador has built up a bitcoin reserve worth approximately $630 million, established one of the most advanced crypto regulatory frameworks in the world, promised to issue $1 billion in bitcoin-backed government bonds, and even convinced stablecoin giant Tether to move its headquarters to the country.
But one of the country’s most gratifying successes has been its extensive educational program focused on Bitcoin, according to Stacy Herbert, director of the El Salvador Bitcoin Office.
“Bitcoin country needs Bitcoin engineers, right? We are producing them and it is a long manufacturing process, but it is creating a wonderful positive feedback loop,” Herbert told CoinDesk in an interview. “They graduate, they get jobs and they all become friends. … You can feel a technological vibe emerging in San Salvador.”
The idea, Herbert said, is that when massive companies like Tether or Bitfinex decide to relocate their headquarters or open offices in El Salvador, they will have no problem finding the highly educated workforce needed to run their operations.
“Many students find ample opportunities to work in these companies because there is a high demand. [for them]”Herbert said. The quality of Bitcoin education of Salvadorans encourages even more companies to consider El Salvador as a jurisdiction to establish themselves in and that, he continued, motivates more students to study Bitcoin.
President Bukele has a “vision of rebirth. Singapore 2.0. Florence 2.0. How do you get there? You need to strategize,” Herbert said. “You need the talent pool. You need smart, optimistic, bright people. And that is what we have here in El Salvador.”
Bitcoin Education
Herbert is a long-time bitcoiner: she was one of the first people to talk about the cryptocurrency on international television in 2010. She arrived in El Salvador in 2021 with her husband Max Keizer shortly after bitcoin became legal tender. and almost immediately created an educational program, CUBO+, to train Bitcoin developers in the country. Bukele subsequently selected her to head the Bitcoin Office, which was formally established in November 2022.
The Bitcoin Office advises on policy and legislation and conducts marketing for El Salvador’s bitcoin initiatives. But the first thing Herbert did after his appointment was work to bring Bitcoin education to high schools. Initially, the program was aimed at only five institutions, but has now been implemented nationwide.
Students are shown how to set up Bitcoin and Lightning Network nodes, and the technical details behind ASICs, specialized computers used exclusively to produce bitcoins. Lessons from ASIC in particular have been received with enthusiasm, Herbert said. “They were able to hold something and that really helped them understand it in a deep way.”
But Bitcoin lessons are not just limited to high school students. CUBO+ teaches a course that Herbert described as a “very intense boot camp” that lays out the theory, history and philosophy of Bitcoin. Open to approximately 100 to 125 applicants, who earn college credit for attending, the program ultimately selects 21 students with the best technical skills and advances their education even further. Some of the students flew to Tuscany and Lugano to participate in Bitcoin workshops.
“100% of the students [in the inaugural year] I found a job,” Herbert said. “Some of them earn close to $4,000 a month. You know, the average starting salary for a computer science graduate in El Salvador in 2023 was $600 a month.”
Nearly 80,000 officials have also taken three-day Bitcoin certification courses. And another program will be implemented in schools, from first to ninth grade, on topics of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. “We are laying the foundation on which we can build a great economy,” Herbert said. “It’s not just about the technical details of Bitcoin. “It is a change of mentality, understanding what sovereignty and independence mean.”
CUBO+ has already paid off for Herbert on a personal level. Three employees work under him in the Bitcoin Office, all of whom graduated from the program before coming to work for the government.
Let the good times roll
The Salvadoran government recently agreed to close its bitcoin wallet and make acceptance of bitcoin payments voluntary (rather than mandatory) in the private sector as part of a new $3.5 billion agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Herbert said that the Bitcoin Office had not been part of the negotiations but that, in his opinion, the concessions made by El Salvador did not change anything at all. “The priority is always the people, that’s why [let’s do] “Whatever helps people the most, while maintaining our sovereignty and our strategy to execute our vision.”
Even so, since the agreement with the IMF was announced, El Salvador has slightly changed its bitcoin acquisition strategy. In addition to purchasing one bitcoin per day, the government has purchased, on three different days, an additional 10 bitcoins. When asked if the change in pattern was a reaction to the IMF deal, Herbert said: “You would have to ask the president directly. … [But] is ready to accelerate. Donald Trump will take office in a few days and the race is on. Globally, there is a race to follow us.”
For Herbert, El Salvador earned its place in the history books from the moment it created the first national strategic reserve of bitcoins, and the United States, if it ends up establishing its own reserve, will simply be following in the footsteps of the Latin American country. It’s a competition, then, and El Salvador is not necessarily a loser; According to Herbert, other countries will have to work hard to keep up with Salvadoran initiatives, which are beginning to bear fruit.
The Central American nation has never experienced peace and prosperity, at least not for as long as we can remember, a Salvadoran lawyer recently told Herbert. In the 1970s, while the United States was enjoying disco music and the golden age of Hollywood, El Salvador was experiencing social unrest that would eventually spark the Salvadoran Civil War, which left the state too weak to cope with the growth of gangs. violent in the 1990s.
But Bukele’s leadership, combined with Bitcoin initiatives, are completely changing the mood of the population, Herbert said. Suddenly, the future looks exciting.
“I think El Salvador deserves the good times that are coming, that are here,” Herbert said. “We are just beginning these good times.”
