Bitcoin Forum

The middle eastern nation of Lebanon has been suffering its worst civil and economic crisis since its civil war in the mid-1970s. With no end in sight, the desperate yet resourceful population may start to explore Bitcoin as a weapon against the corrupt political and banking system.

BeInCrypto first reported on the civil unrest in Lebanon in October. Demonstrators took to the streets to voice their objections to a planned tax hike on tobacco, fuel, and telecom tariffs. As is often the case, this quickly morphed into a general movement against political and financial corruption.

Source link here (https://beincrypto.com/worsening-lebanese-crisis-may-spark-bitcoin-adoption/?utm_campaign=amba&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bitcointalk&utm_content=jc)

Just like Venezuela, it looks like Lebanon might be the next to start adopting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Despite that Venezuela is on a crisis, they already made their move in using Bitcoin for various cases. Now that Lebanon is facing crisis and may worse in months to come, it’s time for them to accept and embrace Bitcoin with open arms.

What do you think about this latest situation in Lebanon? Do you honestly think that Bitcoin would really save them from their ongoing crisis?

this must be supported when many countries experience crises like this so they get a way to solve this problem with crypto or bitcoin, I expect a lot of adoption in many countries it's just that we need to wait for many countries to go bankrupt and the crisis to get more adoptions for using crypto or bitcoin, this may seem evil but may actually be good for everyone

The situation between Venezuela and Lebanon are different. Venezuela crisis is originated from outside in the matter of trade and currency. By using crypto, they are avoiding IMF. While for Lebanon, it are stupid people who want change but no one wants to take the lead. Nothing can save them if they don't get a good leader within themselves.

Bitcoin should not be treated as a last resort to come out of economic crisis.

Like Venezuela I do not think such situation will change anything for those who are suffering, only the rich will be able to utilise the benefits of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.

@cheezcarls I don't think its that easy TBH.


Given that's the ground situation. A cryptocurrency will be the last thing on their minds. Lebanon also lacks the basic infrastructure to support this "Crypto Revolution" that you are suggesting. Given that you require a passport^[1] (https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Lebanon) just for getting a "SIM card".


Not All People have passports, there is a special fee^[2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_passport) these people have to pay to get a passport. The Data Rates are also on the higher side and given that the Country is facing an economic crisis, the last thing people will be spending their money on will be buying "Data" to use a Cryptocurrency which they may not even understand the basics of. So yeah I don't think this "economic-crisis" will trigger a "Bitcoin adoption" revolution of any sort.

---

Source:
[1] https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Lebanon
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_passport

If Bitcoin has become so popular in Venezuela I don't see why wouldn't be a viable solution for Lebanon as well. Eventually the whole world will realise that fiat currencies damage the economies by their design. Developing and growing economies on enormous debt like the US does is not a healthy nor a sustainable way.

I do think that countries should have their own currency as well until we don't become an utopia, but there is a need for a worldwide reference, mainstream decentralized currency like BTC.

I dont know whether to be happy about the countries which get into these type of situations or be sad to see the common man's suffering. Venezuela is a different case as they claim they have the oil to back the cryptocurrency. Lebanese groups may try and bring money into the country and try to work something out.

One more shitposting/promoting article from cheezcarls which merely repeats the already told story conveyed by all the portals related to crypto, the question is just who came first and who just recycled the story.


Same I think 2 months ago, Bitcoin is not the magic savior of no country or economy. Especially not a country where it's almost impossible to legally buy BTC since most exchanges put Lebanon on the blacklist due to possible Hezbollah involvement in financing with crypto. Therefore, articles like this do nothing but fill in the blanks and engage people with things that have no relevance to Bitcoin as a whole.

What about the situation in Irak, Iran, Chile, Hong-Kong, Haiti, Bolivia (Primavera Latinoamericana), will Bitcoin save all of them?

Definitely not but bitcoin will save people that are into it for it was implemented as an alternative to make people financial freedom. With that been said, Hezbollah accusation involvement of Lebanon was not the only reason they are blacklist from most exchange site because they also have the issues of OECD (https://www.pressreader.com/lebanon/the-daily-star-lebanon/20160920/281522225557928) which was predicted could lead to then been blacklist either.

Yep. Just like Cyprus, Greece, Argentina and Venezuela.

Just like those places I'd say at least 50-55 people in Lebanon will buy some BTC.

Hang on to your motherfukkin hats.

Not that we are celebrating, we were just discussing how they may be able to get around. The banks in the country are limiting access to USD, what choices do they ave right now. People in the country will find ways and that's something to work out, if BTC works in Venezuela I don't see it not working anywhere else like Lebanon.  Raising taxes and political crisis are just ingredients of economic crisis it affects daily lives of the people.

I am not sure whether bitcoin can really save Lebanon to its current situation but what I'm sure is there is a chance if they will start to adopt bitcoin and other currencies right now.

All will depend to their resources also whether there is an exchange that is willing to be a bridge to their adoption in crypto currencies so they can easily start as cashing in and cashing out is their main hurdle if no local exchange will be launch in Lebanon.

You forgot to add Hong Kong as well or even Zimbabwe.

The media hype the story and says that they're all moving to BTC, but we haven't seen any concrete evidence that they are hedging their funds into crypto, just all speculations so I guess we can't really say for certain that adoption will be coming from Lebanese, lol.

as far as we have seen, of course bitcoin or other cryptocurrency will be a solution for countries experiencing economic crisis because they can make cryptocurrency as an alternative currency, and it is very possible if the Lebanese state adopts cryptocurrency it really helps them to fight the political system or corruption due to cryptocurrency cannot be controlled by the government or by a central organization.

first, understand the problem then propose the solution. Not every crisis has bitcoin as a solution.

I heard this too that they are suffering from transferring money and the rate of dollar to their money is very expensive, so it is possible that they could also adopt cryptocurrency in their system for them to be able to transfer money with their loved ones just like what Venezuela did as an alternative way for their crisis.

Bitcoin is good alternative for countries that having economic crisis as it can help them at times like this, let's just hope that they will not banned crypto and allows bitcoin to be used in their country so they have option while their figuring it out the solution to their problem. Many countries already using it due to superinflation that they wanted to keep off.

It's no surprise that capital are at risk on protest and political change. Bitcoin has become a safe and private way to store your fund without letting others know about it and hold your funds with you every time. Safety of funds were the reason why swiss banks flourished. Bitcoin is a swiss vault in your own pocket.

or maybe they are buy "gold"
in indonesia, we have new issue and people interesting to buy "real gold " than convert it to other currency .
of course the bitcoin comunity already growing, but the legal issue for bitcoin  and some ponzi bitcoin system scam making people not interesting to buy and invest in bitcoin

Demand for protestors are


I wonder where is bitcoin in the list

every financial crisis or instance of civil unrest, bitcoiners get all excited that they will facilitate bitcoin adoption. i'm always skeptical of these narratives. the hong kong protests were supposed to be a similar opportunity for adoption but protestors revealed otherwise: (https://www.coindesk.com/global-protests-reveal-bitcoins-limitations)


so it seems that bitcoin usage is extremely hampered in conflict areas. the same goes for the middle east:

The Lebanon issue is a very complicated and deep rooted one. I do not think the people are too aware of Bitcoin, like for example the Turks are, who as soon as we had a few months ago the Turkish Lira nose dive, you saw hoards of Turks going into Bitcoin and the digital currency markets at large. I think there is a minority of people there exploring Bitcoin, but we would need more people to get educated and open to it. Still they need to sort our their internal strife out and weed out corruption. Of course Blockchain technology adoption could help in weeding out corruption at the core, which is always a big issue in countries that have chronic problems.

Where's the evidence for that?

Turkish Localbitcoins volume has been tiny since forever and what spikes there are have followed everyone else's attention. This week it's been a deeply impressive $31,000.

As for that survey that told us 20% of the Turkish population owns BTC, gimme a bleedin' break.

the turkey hype was a load of crap.

however, it seems like there is actually some substance behind the claims of growing adoption in venezuela amidst the turmoil there. they are now 4th in the world in localbitcoins volume:

https://www.mediashower.com/img/64C75E68-AC39-11E9-B66D-8403F3A890FD/Localbitcoins_600x.jpg

localbitcoins data obviously doesn't tell the whole story, but the fact that they are doing half the volume of the USA really says something.

Bitcoin is 11 years old, it witnessed so many crisis' in this decade, and there never was strong correlation between them and Bitcoin's price. If they have any impact, it's so small that it's effectively unnoticeable in Bitcoin's volatility.  Just stop spreading this myth already, it creates false expectation in newbies, and frankly it's just inhumane to be enthusiastic about someone's suffering because it might cause the price of your investment to go up.

I don't think this will have great effect on the price of bitcoin as you are saying. Well some folks might decide to switch to the use bitcoins to avoid tax but ask yourself the population size which will cause accumulation in order to increase the price. Lebanon is not as huge as China, Russia, USA etc.

Price for now does not matter, I believe it is a great thing if Lebanon fully adopt Bitcoin and starts to flourish if they do so.  If that happen, this would be a great example for other nation that is hesitant of Bitcoin.  Small steps but steady progress is what Bitcoin needed and  Lebanon adoption is one of it.

I think that because bitcoin and cryptocurrency are stable and don't lose value like Fiat in their country, so they can use bitcoin cryptocurrency to prevent inflation if it happens. I also see many countries supporting cryptocurrency but most of them are in terrorism and inflation

Though Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general isn't a quick patch fix to an ailing economy, it could help in some ways. For one, faster transactions, domestic and abroad, could potentially make economic growth faster than traditional banking ways. Though it could impose some risk for the government since implementing tax could be a challenge in adopting cryptocurrencies.

Countries who are facing crisis right now are trying to move to cryptocurrency. They are finding alternatives and ways to survive without the use of things related to the government. When a country's economy fall, it's mostly because of their government and I think why crypto becomes the people's option is because they already don't trust their government. I've been hearing some news about struggling countries that are adopting crypto and during this phase they'll be able to understand how useful crypto could be.

Lebanese crisis is not a financial crisis it a political one between two religious groups. I don’t see bitcoin is solution for this crisis. Even if that’s a financial crisis how a volatile currency can solve that problem. I guess bitcoin can further worsen the financial crisis.