175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals 0.02164502 BTC

[Gleb Gamow]

175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals $5

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans will start exchanging quadrillions of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

[NUFCrichard]

175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals $5

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans will start exchanging quadrillions of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

Adopting the USD is also a bad idea for Zimbabwe though.  They will need to borrow in a currency that they don't control and isn't effected by their own economy.
They should have gold backed, or partially gold backed a new currency, or gone all in and adopted a cryptocurrency. 

I don't think bitcoin would be right for them, for the same reasons as the USD is a bad idea, but an internal Zimcoin could have worked, or been tried at least.

[Slark]

175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals $5

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans will start exchanging quadrillions of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

Adopting the USD is also a bad idea for Zimbabwe though.  They will need to borrow in a currency that they don't control and isn't effected by their own economy.
They should have gold backed, or partially gold backed a new currency, or gone all in and adopted a cryptocurrency.  

I don't think bitcoin would be right for them, for the same reasons as the USD is a bad idea, but an internal Zimcoin could have worked, or been tried at least.

No. They need to adapt USD or some other major foreign currency. It is the only way because Zimbabwe lost its credibility. Imagine they try to make some changes like denomination or introduce new currency.
How long it will take until it new currency will be again crazy dirt cheap?

[bryant.coleman]

Zimbabwe might not be able to limit inflation, by adopting fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar and the South African Rand. These currencies are also not protected from inflation. If the Zimbabwean government really want to curb the price inflation in that country, it should legalize some currency which is immune to inflation, such as the Bitcoin.

[randy8777]

Zimbabwe might not be able to limit inflation, by adopting fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar and the South African Rand. These currencies are also not protected from inflation. If the Zimbabwean government really want to curb the price inflation in that country, it should legalize some currency which is immune to inflation, such as the Bitcoin.

by just reading the first few lines of your post i knew you would bring up bitcoin. you do realize that most of the people there don't have access to internet right? let alone a smartphone.

[Kakmakr]

Zimbabwe should first get rid of their biggest problem >> Robert Mugabe <<
When that is done, they should replace the whole government that was placed their by him.
Then they can start to rebuild their country and their currency. I have visited them on two occasions and they have huge potential for tourism and economic growth. As long as Mugabe and his friends are ruling there, things will be bad for that country. Bitcoin will make very little difference, the people already use M-pesa.

[Lorenzo]

Zimbabwe might not be able to limit inflation, by adopting fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar and the South African Rand. These currencies are also not protected from inflation. If the Zimbabwean government really want to curb the price inflation in that country, it should legalize some currency which is immune to inflation, such as the Bitcoin.

The US dollar has been the world's primary reserve currency for most of the past century. It also has a perception of being a safe-haven currency and constitutes the majority of foreign exchange reserves. Compared to many other currencies in the past, the inflation of the US dollar has typically kept to low levels and thus it's seen as being a safe and reliable store of value. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being extremely volatile while the US dollar is usually seen as being the complete opposite. Bitcoin might be deflationary in the long run but it's probably far too early for this to have any meaningful effect.

Anyway, I doubt their government will adopt Bitcoin as their main currency. Governments like to have control over their countries' currencies and adjust/manipulate their supplies to suit their needs. If Bitcoin ever becomes the main currency in any country, then it will probably be the result of an organic movement from the bottom-up rather than from the top-down.

Zimbabwe might not be able to limit inflation, by adopting fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar and the South African Rand. These currencies are also not protected from inflation. If the Zimbabwean government really want to curb the price inflation in that country, it should legalize some currency which is immune to inflation, such as the Bitcoin.

by just reading the first few lines of your post i knew you would bring up bitcoin. you do realize that most of the people there don't have access to internet right? let alone a smartphone.

There aren't many Zimbabweans with personal PCs, but most do have mobile phones (75%). Internet penetration currently stands at roughly 20% while only 10% have personal PCs. Smartphones are still not as prevalent as many neighboring countries but their share is certainly increasing.

Zimbabwe should first get rid of their biggest problem >> Robert Mugabe <<

He's 91. I'm amazed to see how he's still so active despite being so old. I doubt he has many more years left though.

[ragi]

I would really want to get my hands on one of those notes.

[gadman2]

I got scammed then. I bought a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar note for 5$ on eBay in hopes they would discover alien spacecraft or strike oil lol.

[Lorenzo]

175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals $5

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans will start exchanging quadrillions of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

Adopting the USD is also a bad idea for Zimbabwe though.  They will need to borrow in a currency that they don't control and isn't effected by their own economy.
They should have gold backed, or partially gold backed a new currency, or gone all in and adopted a cryptocurrency. 

I don't think bitcoin would be right for them, for the same reasons as the USD is a bad idea, but an internal Zimcoin could have worked, or been tried at least.

No. They need to adapt USD or some other major foreign currency. It is the only way because Zimbabwe lost its credibility. Imagine they try to make some changes like denomination or introduce new currency.
How long it will take until it new currency will be again crazy dirt cheap?

A few countries have successfully introduced a new currency after their old one got destroyed by hyperinflation. For example, Hungary was able to switch over to the forint in 1946 after the collapse of their infamous pengo. The value of the forint remained relatively stable until the 1980's.

I would really want to get my hands on one of those notes.

You can easily buy them from online auction sites such as eBay. Individual notes are usually sold for a few dollars each. The highest denomination notes are the 100 trillion dollar notes which tend to go for a little bit more:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Zimbabwe-/162228/i.html

[DarkHyudrA]

Zimbabwe might not be able to limit inflation, by adopting fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar and the South African Rand. These currencies are also not protected from inflation. If the Zimbabwean government really want to curb the price inflation in that country, it should legalize some currency which is immune to inflation, such as the Bitcoin.

Inflation is ok, but a hyper inflation?
The country has become shit in economy terms. So USD can help a bit yes, since it's not hyper inflated.

[dollarneed]

175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals $5

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans will start exchanging quadrillions of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

Adopting the USD is also a bad idea for Zimbabwe though.  They will need to borrow in a currency that they don't control and isn't effected by their own economy.
They should have gold backed, or partially gold backed a new currency, or gone all in and adopted a cryptocurrency. 

I don't think bitcoin would be right for them, for the same reasons as the USD is a bad idea, but an internal Zimcoin could have worked, or been tried at least.

No. They need to adapt USD or some other major foreign currency. It is the only way because Zimbabwe lost its credibility. Imagine they try to make some changes like denomination or introduce new currency.
How long it will take until it new currency will be again crazy dirt cheap?

A few countries have successfully introduced a new currency after their old one got destroyed by hyperinflation. For example, Hungary was able to switch over to the forint in 1946 after the collapse of their infamous pengo. The value of the forint remained relatively stable until the 1980's.

I would really want to get my hands on one of those notes.

You can easily buy them from online auction sites such as eBay. Individual notes are usually sold for a few dollars each. The highest denomination notes are the 100 trillion dollar notes which tend to go for a little bit more:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Zimbabwe-/162228/i.html

Thanks for the info by the way where would i collect that money as online?

[Lorenzo]

175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals $5

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans will start exchanging quadrillions of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

Adopting the USD is also a bad idea for Zimbabwe though.  They will need to borrow in a currency that they don't control and isn't effected by their own economy.
They should have gold backed, or partially gold backed a new currency, or gone all in and adopted a cryptocurrency. 

I don't think bitcoin would be right for them, for the same reasons as the USD is a bad idea, but an internal Zimcoin could have worked, or been tried at least.

No. They need to adapt USD or some other major foreign currency. It is the only way because Zimbabwe lost its credibility. Imagine they try to make some changes like denomination or introduce new currency.
How long it will take until it new currency will be again crazy dirt cheap?

A few countries have successfully introduced a new currency after their old one got destroyed by hyperinflation. For example, Hungary was able to switch over to the forint in 1946 after the collapse of their infamous pengo. The value of the forint remained relatively stable until the 1980's.

I would really want to get my hands on one of those notes.

You can easily buy them from online auction sites such as eBay. Individual notes are usually sold for a few dollars each. The highest denomination notes are the 100 trillion dollar notes which tend to go for a little bit more:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Zimbabwe-/162228/i.html

Thanks for the info by the way where would i collect that money as online?

It's a physical note that has the letters "100 trillion dollars" printed on it. You pay the seller (usually via PayPal) and they'll ship it to your address.

[gadman2]

Wow the 100 trill note has went up a lot! I seriously bought mine back in 2010 or so for just under 5$ lol.

[bryant.coleman]

Wow the 100 trill note has went up a lot! I seriously bought mine back in 2010 or so for just under 5$ lol.

With the current state of affairs in Zimbabwe, I won't be surprised if selling those trillion dollar and billion dollar banknotes has become the primary forex earner for Zimbabwe. Even by the African standards, Zimbabwe is a shit hole, with 30% of the population living outside as refugees (mostly in Botswana and South Africa), and 25% of all the adults being HIV positive.

[Q7]

I wonder why up to this point, people still failed to see the simple fact that fiat currency is totally unreliable and opened to manipulation. Well that is just one example, and what you don't see are those that did something in the background that goes totally unnoticed. The difference here is generally how bad or how worse it gets.

[cupscrypto]

175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean Dollars Now Equals $5

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans will start exchanging quadrillions of local dollars for a few U.S. dollars next week, as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

Adopting the USD is also a bad idea for Zimbabwe though.  They will need to borrow in a currency that they don't control and isn't effected by their own economy.
They should have gold backed, or partially gold backed a new currency, or gone all in and adopted a cryptocurrency. 

I don't think bitcoin would be right for them, for the same reasons as the USD is a bad idea, but an internal Zimcoin could have worked, or been tried at least.

I am a Zimbabwean and i use Bitcoin, NO bitcoin would not be right for us. Crypto currency is just not suitable for our economy in it's current state.

Quick pointer, we don't just use the USD.

YEN, YUAN, CND, USD, GBP, ZAR, EUR, PULA are all accepted in financial transactions. USD is just more popular among individuals and small businesses.

Let we explain,

We have a major problem of corruption and misappropriation of funds, under our local currency regime, the government could print money willy-nilly and "pay" for everything, but now with the use of foreign currency with which accountability is much higher (no printing to cover the mess you made), we have managed to stabilize our economy which lies on the brink of death. Thus far i can say that our economy has been running in "stand-by mode" since early 2009. "

We have a geo-political problem that emanated from the Land Reform program, the US and allies slammed our economy with sanctions (don't believe the shit about "targeted sanctions") which crippled our economy because as a developing country we were highly dependent on aid from our developed friends. I won't go into the politics of the it, but the sanctions are real and affect us all, even i had a transaction to my bank cancelled yesterday (i'm 21 years old never worked for government nor do any of my close relatives ). A Lithuanian bank went as far as telling me that they did not trust my visa transactions because Zimbabwe is too "remote" to be trusted. if you find it hard to part with the western narrative ..... just think Iran, think Russia, look what the sanctions imposed on them, oil producing countries have done, then consider  that we are mostly an agrarian society.  

We have internal political problems as well and all of these put together result in our being unable to sustain a local currency, and not trusting our government to even try. We prefer the foreign currencies because even though our economy is practically hand to mouth, it is a stable (for now) hand to mouth.

[cupscrypto]

Zimbabwe should first get rid of their biggest problem >> Robert Mugabe <<
When that is done, they should replace the whole government that was placed their by him.
Then they can start to rebuild their country and their currency. I have visited them on two occasions and they have huge potential for tourism and economic growth. As long as Mugabe and his friends are ruling there, things will be bad for that country. Bitcoin will make very little difference, the people already use M-pesa.

I resent this notion...ask yourself, if he is such a bad leader, how did he 1) get re-elected 2) get elected to the SADC chairmanship and 3) Get the African Union chairmanship?

I agree some people in government must go, but do not attempt to place all blame on him. We have a very delicate problem with regards to our interaction with the western world and an even worse internal issue about succession, his sudden removal would leave a vacuum, which unfortunately the runner ups aren't at all ideal. You see hi as a dictator, we see him as a father, we beyond his year still trying his best for his children and teaching us to his last breath.

Trust me , i know his flaws all too well, we all know them , but we trust hi and we trust his judgement. there have been issues of political violence, i'm sure you all know about that part, but i really hate that noone ever talks about how a lot of the perpetrators were hunted down and brought to justice. We are not perfect, but maybe you should try getting both narratives and extracting some truth. 

[spazzdla]

They should just use gold and silver... you can flash very small amounts onto bills........ 

Why you would use the USD ... morons.  Well I guess it makes sense as their leaders are morons.

[cupscrypto]

Zimbabwe might not be able to limit inflation, by adopting fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar and the South African Rand. These currencies are also not protected from inflation. If the Zimbabwean government really want to curb the price inflation in that country, it should legalize some currency which is immune to inflation, such as the Bitcoin.

The US dollar has been the world's primary reserve currency for most of the past century. It also has a perception of being a safe-haven currency and constitutes the majority of foreign exchange reserves. Compared to many other currencies in the past, the inflation of the US dollar has typically kept to low levels and thus it's seen as being a safe and reliable store of value. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being extremely volatile while the US dollar is usually seen as being the complete opposite. Bitcoin might be deflationary in the long run but it's probably far too early for this to have any meaningful effect.

Anyway, I doubt their government will adopt Bitcoin as their main currency. Governments like to have control over their countries' currencies and adjust/manipulate their supplies to suit their needs. If Bitcoin ever becomes the main currency in any country, then it will probably be the result of an organic movement from the bottom-up rather than from the top-down.

Zimbabwe might not be able to limit inflation, by adopting fiat currencies such as the United States Dollar and the South African Rand. These currencies are also not protected from inflation. If the Zimbabwean government really want to curb the price inflation in that country, it should legalize some currency which is immune to inflation, such as the Bitcoin.

by just reading the first few lines of your post i knew you would bring up bitcoin. you do realize that most of the people there don't have access to internet right? let alone a smartphone.

There aren't many Zimbabweans with personal PCs, but most do have mobile phones (75%). Internet penetration currently stands at roughly 20% while only 10% have personal PCs. Smartphones are still not as prevalent as many neighboring countries but their share is certainly increasing.

Zimbabwe should first get rid of their biggest problem >> Robert Mugabe <<

He's 91. I'm amazed to see how he's still so active despite being so old. I doubt he has many more years left though.

Your numbers are off and misleading, 85% have an econet line which means 85% have access to the internet. of those 85%, maybe 50% now possess a phone that can be considered "smart". Personal PC ownership is indeed low, but most have access to local internet cafes. There is a local variant of M-pesa offered by the largest network provider, it's called Eco-cash  and it enjoys widespread use, just having a mobile subscription with them and a registration is enough to send and receive money. As a BTC user and a Zimbabwean, Eco-cash is simpler to use that BTc and far more convenient.

Yeah, the old man is tiring, but the situation demands he make some last ditch efforts to at least leave us on the right track. He knows the mistakes he made and from a local perspective we can see he is  trying to fix what he can. Unfortunately there is a power struggle inside that makes things harder, then there is the West vs China issue. The west crippled our economy, China gave a helping (not by much) hand, and that has resulted in our people having a better sentiment towards the Chinese.

Nothing in politics is ever as it seems, i don't know that whole picture, noone except the guys at the top does.