Bitcoin Forum

Could Argentine beat China and explode the Bitcoin price?

It seems Argentina have a real need for Bitcoin due to the blue dollar and Peso inflation.

http://www.coinspectator.com/argentina-could-drive-the-next-bitcoin-price-explosion/ (http://www.coinspectator.com/argentina-could-drive-the-next-bitcoin-price-explosion/)

Nice positive news, thanks. What is the biggest Argentina bitcoin exchange?

this is exciting news.

I don't think their is one, it's still super early.

https://localbitcoins.com/country/AR‎ is leading the way, as it always does first.

as argentinian already used dollars in any possible way to fight iperinflation, bitcoin won't be overlooked.
but don't underestimate kirchner, unless satoshi is argentinian she will turn bitcoin down in every possible way

How about Venezuela? Now that's a country that needs Bitcoin.

Argentina will be the real savior that everyone wanted China to be. They should love Bitcoin and desperately need it. Argentina is suffering from capital flight and is having a difficult time seducing business to stay in the country. Capital controls are keeping its citizens from sending money out of the country where it will have greater buying power. Bitcoin is designed to fix that situation and will allow citizens to bypass the law. Just under 30% of its citizens live below the poverty line and don't have access to a bank account. 3-4% of the people live on less than US $2 per person per day. Argentina needs Bitcoin as much as Bitcoin needs Argentina. They're made for each other.

Just don't get too excited. The higher the climb the harder the fall.

I don't think so. If the argentine people ever sink their teeth into Bitcoin it will become so entrenched that a nuclear bomb couldn't remove it. I recently visited Buenos Aires and Córdoba. If you can get them to talk about it, the people will tell you that they don't care much about what the government tells them to do.  ;)

Anything to indicate progress in adoption from when we were talking about this 6 months - a year ago?

Argentina is the perfect laboratory to test Bitcoin.

There's a great need for it from the people and if there's one government that would come down harder than China, it's Argentina.

There's nowhere near the amount of money flowing around that there is in China, but what money there is would be an awful lot keener to get away from the government's grip.

There is a possibility that if full on Bitcoin explosion happened there and the government was effectively and visibly cut out of the loop, that's going to spook a lot of legislators around the world. It may be an alarming wake up call to authorities who are still on the fence. That might be pretty wretched for regular acceptance elsewhere.

People of the revolution :) Good to know there are still people who hate being governed. I'm not afraid of them being forced out of BTC but rather of the rest of the world pumping the price in hope and facing a mediocre interest in Argentina, that would eventually bring the price back down.

Whats exciting news is Hashfast screwed their customers and your to blame for pumping them.
Thanks from the bitcoin community!

Why on earth would a company get some trader to talk up their product? And second, who the fuck would let that influence them? This is like people getting mad at Goat for the PPT.

This reminded me perfect shock, please don't!


Argentians already have a dollar black market, it could change to bitcoin now that it's not so easy
http://www.businessinsider.com/argentina-us-dollar-black-market-scheme-2013-11

I hear you. I don't think there's enough money in the hands of the people in Argentina that would need Bitcoin to move the market much in either direction. World perception might hipe it some but really the wealthy are not going to bypass capital controls for fear of reprisals and losing their wealth. What's good for us would be a loyal user base supporting the network that would be difficult to remove.

Actually yes. I have seen some very good reports from the recent Argentine Bitcoin conference. The consensus is they are desperate for this technology and will literally sacrifice their lives for it.

I don't think so, Bitcoin is different from any other "real world" currency (where countries/banks have forex reserves)... if people buy btcs with Pesos in Localbitcoin, for example, no "real world" money is going outside of the country so that doesn't affect at all the value/price of the Peso.

Anyway, even if more people start buying Bitcoins in Argentina, don't expect anything like China! Argentina has a really small population, and a huge portion of it is poor..



False, in Argentina buying dollars in the black market is as easy as buying bitcoins with localbitcoin.

It would probably do more good for Argentina than it would for bitcoin.

Argatinians are aware of bitcoin and they buy it when they can, nothing new imo.

That sounds a bit drastic. :D

Some numbers:

• minimum salary: 3600$ pesos
• black market price for usd/peso: 1/10.77
• population: 41 millions
• poverty: ~25%
• internet users: ~50% but just 25% @ home (cybercafes are really popular)

Google trends for Argentina & Bitcoin today: 17, global bitcoin: 31 (from 100 on the 28th November 2013).

That's actually not bad, better than Ukraine or Bulgaria, comparable to Slovakia or Poland.

Argentina   3,300 Argentine pesos = ($542) per month for up to 200 hours; paid thirteen times a year.[13][15][16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country

Minimum wage???
Twice as the Czech republic , but lower than Greece?
This world is fucked up

This issue with inflation in Argentina has been going on for quite some time now, IMO there is nothing new and sudden that will spark an Argentinian bitcoin revolution and subsequent price spike.

Wishful thinking. I certainly wish those idiots would get their heads around the fact that the American Dollar is no better than their Peso and will befall the same fate - bitcoin and precious metals and hard goods/land/etc are the only ways out. Yet for some reason they are flocking to the dollar which has 9% inflation* instead of 35% inflation... what a bunch of n00bs

*Carter-era calculations 4tw, none of this "change the formula around and fuck with the data to make inflation appear <2%" bullshit
EDIT: Come on, you wouldn't expect me to use the official Argentinian government figures for peso inflation, so why would I use the official American government figures for dollar inflation? We're talking 10% vs 35% in Arg. and 1.whatever% vs. 8-9% in USSA.

This is the key difference between China and Argentina/ Latin America. Their currency black market is a healthy, decades old industry and their governments lack the surveillance apparatus of China. 

Well, Andreas Antonopoulos can be a bit passionate. But I take him seriously. He is about as sincere as they come, whether you agree with his opinions or not.

more like $306...

there are many different rates: dolar oficial, dolar blue, dolar turista, dolar tarjeta, dolar soja..... :P

I think that Argentina will be second to ban bitcoin, after Taiwan

I am from Argentina. After the controversial commerce secretary Guillermo Moreno was fired (the father of the interventionist measures from last years), the government has stated it will loose the strict control of the foreign currencies market a bit this year. So the time with most potential for a "black market Bitcoin boom" in Argentina is probably over, but also the risks of a strict government intervention are lower now.

Argentine lawyers have made analysis of Bitcoin and agree that BTC in the view of Argentine laws cannot be viewed as a "moneda" (legal currency) but as a commodity or "private money". But there is no official government or central bank statement until now.

http://elbitcoin.org/situacion-legal-de-bitcoin-en-argentina/

The Buenos Aires Bitcoin conference was attended by a representant of the Argentine Central Bank who was talking with the organisators and has stated that the Central Bank is about to evaluate how to integrate BTC in the economy of Argentina. That does sound like a regulation is soon to come.

http://rare.us/story/central-bank-of-argentina-seriously-considering-bitcoin/

There is no real-time exchange in Argentina right now, only a escrow marketplace (ConectaBitcoin), and, obviously, LocalBitcoins. Argentine MtGox customers can buy BTC with a local payment service (DineroMail), but for a high fee.

Bitcoin launch coming, Afghanistan is ready for Bitcoin.   ;D

@d5000: Thanks for the perspective. Are there videos or presentations of the conference in Argentina on the web? Or a good summary? Have not seen anything on Coindesk, ...
@BitcoinAshley: Agree. There has been speculation on Argentina for a long time. Some people like Tuur have shown some active interest. However so far nothing has really happened. Still, I am hoping for the best. I wished I could have made it to the B.A. conference.

maybe the need is there but the purchasing power in argentina is lacking, compared to China. Ppl have been calling for ARgentina to save bitcoin since a while now but nothing happened.

I would not be surprised if the government in Argentina would come down hard on Bitcoin, just as is the case with USD, since it is for all practical purposes a "harder" currency than USD. The more interesting question from a price perspective is the "parallel", "grey",  "blue" or "black" markets for BTC and how they will interact with the corresponding  "parallel", "grey",  "blue" or "black" markets for USD.

Edit: They could simply follow the proposal in Switzerland and treat BTC the same as USD.

i think Argentina, along with alot of other neighbouring latin american countries can benefit and, help bitcoin. Most of people do not trust the government or banks, they keep raising taxes, alot of poverty.  Remittances and alot of relatives in the usa, could also help move coins as well, imo  :o

Doesn't sound to promising considering the population...

I don't think Argentina has same deep pockets as the chinese investors have. The chinese pumped a ridiculous amount of money into the bitcoin market. This is a feat that is going to be very hard to match. The only good thing is that since The chinese gov. came down hard on bitcoin exchanges the price hasn't dropped to the original low levels. Nothing like the $30 to $2 drop from a couple of years back.

You never know ... at the moment the Chinese bitcoin exchanges are circumventing the regulation (no payment-provider or bank shall allow to put money into a BTC exchange) by using a voucher system. Seriously, do you think the Chinese government will allow this trick to happen in infinity? Afaik bitcoin is supposed to stop in China before Chinese New Year.
I can imagine another clamp-down and another panic before that date.
Opinions?

Not anymore. I think because of widespread adoption of smarthphones, cybercafes are no longer popular as they used to be 4 years ago.

The main problem for adoption in Argentina I think is the lack of exchange service other than localbitcoin. People need somewhere to throw their pesos at and get btc easily. Huge business oportunity that nobody took yet, I can't understand why.

My opinion/thought: Everyone in china is hodling regardless of what happens, just like us. Volume on Chinese exchanges dropped drasticly since vouchers, they're not selling out.

I have read about a bitcoin ATM in Uruguay. I wonder what the border crossing rules are between those two countries. Seems like it would be pretty easy for someone to go across from Buenos Aires to Montevideo and back to get bitcoin.

Not everyone. The smart ones are.

That's the only reason I can think of as to why the chinese investors didn't all panic sell. They are being smart and are going to wait out the storm rather than settle for less money than what they started with. But for how long?