Dakai

Case Study

El Salvador

About El Salvador Bitcoin

El Salvador is the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. However, their launch was marred by technical difficulties. Their attempt to launch chivo, a Bitcoin wallet, using $30 of Bitcoin as an incentive to signup, was initially an expensive failure that required Dakai to come in and pick up where the previous developers left off.

The Situation

Already in dire straits with a failed initial launch, El Salvador approached Dakai to turn around a flawless application from scratch in the span of 3 weeks. It was a high stakes project that needed to handle the life savings of 6 million El Salvadorans without any hiccups.

The existing application had screens that led nowhere, unsalvageable code, and broke constantly. Dakai had to take over and start over from scratch.

The Results

Dakai rewrote the national payment application of El Salvador in 3 weeks and successfully scaled it to 6 million registered and 800 thousand daily users.

Moving fast meant making smart assumptions about how to proceed while balancing the needs and opinions of 6 decision makers. Dakai struck the right balance between speed and approvals to get the project out the door. Dakai quickly ramped up and implemented APIs and partner code it hadn’t worked with before.

The UX was then streamlined and improved so that even citizens that couldn’t read or write were able to successfully use the app.

The government of El Salvador no longer lost money due to bugs, and the residents started to trust the application with 800 thousand daily users and more than 90% of the population registered.

The Technical Details

Diagnosis

Evaluated the scale of the problem using integration and load tests

Better Technology

Rewrote the application using React Native

Improved Performance

Optimized the application for low-end devices with unreliable internet connections

Used Tech Stack

React Native, Python, Locust, Appium

Testimonial

“With only weeks to go, I took the matter into my own hands and flew an elite team into El Salvador.”

Laszlo L. Mari, Founder of Dakai

Testimonial

“With only weeks to go, I took the matter into my own hands and flew an elite team into El Salvador.”

Laszlo L. Mari, Founder of Dakai

Testimonial

“With only weeks to go, I took the matter into my own hands and flew an elite team into El Salvador.”

Laszlo L. Mari, Founder of Dakai

Looking Ahead

Dakai ensured a seamless handoff by helping El Salvador hire a team of engineers to maintain the code. They did multiple rounds of interviews to build out the right team for the project.

With millions of users and a smooth user experience, Dakai helped repair trust with the population and drive Bitcoin adoption.