Bitcoin Core contributor Jon Atack has raised concerns about declining bitcoin payment use in El Salvador, including in El Zonte, a region known for adoption. Atack, who has contributed to Bitcoin Core since 2019, has lived in El Salvador since 2022 and was temporarily arrested last year. He said a restaurant worker told him his bitcoin payment was the first there that month, that most customers paid by card and that she no longer remembered how to use her bitcoin app. Atack stressed that the observation was anecdotal. Bitcoin reporter Juan Galt said the episode reflected an economic problem: spending bitcoin can be counter-economic when users expect its price to rise. Another user said bitcoin payments remained possible in the region. Atack nevertheless described El Salvador as a pioneering frontier in adoption and forward-thinking legislation after the country passed its bitcoin law in 2021.