Why are Venezuelan not switching to Bitcoin?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Jesus Christ I need to get down there and buy some property while the getting is good.

Bitcoin is great for exactly this kind of thing but I'm sure the US dollar works just as well, and so would any other stable currency.

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[Herbert2020]

Jesus Christ I need to get down there and buy some property while the getting is good.

Bitcoin is great for exactly this kind of thing but I'm sure the US dollar works just as well, and so would any other stable currency.

you do realize that inflation works on everything, right?
it means when the price of property goes up, everything else is also going up which makes it hard to make profit by selling it higher in the future.
and also don't forget that converting your USD to Venezuelan money and converting it back after a period will cause you lose money because the value of their money will go down against USD.

[Amph]

Jesus Christ I need to get down there and buy some property while the getting is good.

Bitcoin is great for exactly this kind of thing but I'm sure the US dollar works just as well, and so would any other stable currency.

there is too much criminal activity there i would avoid going there even for a holiday let alone buying an house

[ChuckSRQ]

the same reasons why everybody else is not switching to bitcoin. the government is one of the biggest reasons, they are never going to let people switch to something they can't control. besides bitcoin is not the stable money you would like to use as your daily cash.

As far as I know, the Venezuelan govt is not restricting BTC. And believe me, BTC is much more stronger and more stable than VEF.

The problem is most people don't have any extra to try and invest in BTC and there just aren't merchants over there like here. For the well to do in Venezuela, BTC is great and I've been telling my family about it. Some are still doing okay over there and can afford to save in BTC.

It's just U.S dollars is easier. People like holding cash. Everyone knows the black market rate in dollars and wants them. Bitcoin is just too new and grew too late to help Venezuela. Especially cause the power goes out constantly.

[RobinHoodster]

Some countries do not allow Bitcoin to be a currency in their country and I am sure that most people there do not even know what Bitcoin is. The people there do not make use of internet in that way.

[Pab]

Chavez like dollars,dictators dont wants his people own his money,money is weapon,any kind of dictator know that

[expert4knowledge]

Bitcoin is not a stable coin, suppose they change to bitcoin and in one day bitcoin price collapse. Then the economy collapses badly.

[ChuckSRQ]

Bitcoin is not a stable coin, suppose they change to bitcoin and in one day bitcoin price collapse. Then the economy collapses badly.

You do not seem to realize they are currently experiencing hyperinflation. Even if BTC goes down in dollar terms it is still probably gaining strength in Venezuela's currency. BTC would be much more stable and save wealth than VEF at this point, without a doubt.

[expert4knowledge]

Bitcoin is not a stable coin, suppose they change to bitcoin and in one day bitcoin price collapse. Then the economy collapses badly.

You do not seem to realize they are currently experiencing hyperinflation. Even if BTC goes down in dollar terms it is still probably gaining strength in Venezuela's currency. BTC would be much more stable and save wealth than VEF at this point, without a doubt.

I know but even in that case BTC is not trustable, another problem for BTC is that it is an electronic currency and they needs lots of infrastructures for using it and also the price change in seconds so in different hours of a day for buying a kilo of potato people must pay different amounts of bitcoin.

[ChuckSRQ]

Bitcoin is not a stable coin, suppose they change to bitcoin and in one day bitcoin price collapse. Then the economy collapses badly.

You do not seem to realize they are currently experiencing hyperinflation. Even if BTC goes down in dollar terms it is still probably gaining strength in Venezuela's currency. BTC would be much more stable and save wealth than VEF at this point, without a doubt.

I know but even in that case BTC is not trustable, another problem for BTC is that it is an electronic currency and they needs lots of infrastructures for using it and also the price change in seconds so in different hours of a day for buying a kilo of potato people must pay different amounts of bitcoin.

The price is already changing on a daily basis. It increases.Aleays  At least with BTC it would depreciate in price. That is not a price variation they would mind. The problem is as you say infrastructure not price stability. Price stability has nothing to do with why it has not been adopted. BTC would be far superior to VEF.

[knowhow]

The government controls all activities into Venezuela if they see a huge ammount being spent outside the country they will just ask where is going the money,besides that there is an insane prices changes all periods,i dont know how they are able to survive,i believe their salary changes accordingly the changes in price.

For the people who live there bitcoin should be the solution even if it drops a bit ,something that looks like wont happen not soo short ,they could avoid hyperinflation happening a long time already.

[botany]

Bitcoin is not a stable coin, suppose they change to bitcoin and in one day bitcoin price collapse. Then the economy collapses badly.

If people change to bitcoin, the government will definitely collapse. Where will it get the money to run the country? Currently it manages because it can just print money when required.

[pitham1]

The government controls all activities into Venezuela if they see a huge ammount being spent outside the country they will just ask where is going the money,besides that there is an insane prices changes all periods,i dont know how they are able to survive,i believe their salary changes accordingly the changes in price.

All governments have a level of control over the activity in their country.
The more desperate a country is, the higher will be the level of control the government will have. These kind of governments hate Bitcoin. 

[OrangeII]

I guess they're maintaining their economy, and I think they need the money is real and not be dependent on the internet

[Divitiae miserae]

Because you can't buy your groceries and gas with buttcoin

Technically you can, but this is assuming you aren't aware of the bitcoin debit cards thats provided.

Its been out for that last 5 months now or close to being a year almost. But what youre saying is right in some sense, if they just heard about bitcoin it`ll take them a couple reading around to find the debit card option.

The problem is that any transaction with current debit cards is that they are denominated in USD or EUR. There is the govt exchange rate and the black market exchange rate and they are hugely different.  

Govt Exchange Rate: 1 USD = 6.30 VEF
Black Market Rate: 1 USD = 1,050 VEF

VISA/Mastercard would convert the bitcoin at the govt rate and now everything is hugely expensive.

I'll have to fix some info.

Currently there are two legal exchange rate systems:

• Sistema de Divisas Protegido - Dipro (Protected Foreign Currencies [Allocating] System). This rate is set by the Government and it is used to import basic goods (food, medicines, etc.) and to pay pensioners who live abroad.
  Current rate: 9.9750 VEF/USD (bid) 10.0000 VEF/USD (ask)

• Sistema de Divisas Complementario - Dico (Supplementary Foreign Currencies [Allocating] System). This rate is theoretically set by the market, however, according to the economist Luis Oliveros there is no evidence of such, hence it is likely to be managed as well. It replaced the Simadi in April and expectations since its announcement have curbed the black market value of the dollar.
  Current rate: 415.5879 VEF/USD (bid) 416.6295 VEF/USD (ask)
  

According to the Venezuelan Central Bank latest data the first one assigns 92.17% of the foreign currency and the second one the remainder.

As you can see there is already a terrible distortion in the licit market which is unsustainable since people who can get dollars at the most overvalued rate (mostly the enchufados, those with ties to officials) are able to sell them for a greater quantity of bolivars which will then be used to get more dollars and thus perpetuate a vicious cycle. Anyway, there is no hard currency left, not even to pay key contractors of PDVSA, to import food or medicines or to print money (Venezuela doesn't produce anything). The last bastion of the private sector, the brewing and food company Empresas Polar had to halt most of its production due to lack of dollars needed to pay for the inputs. The Government blames the "bourgeoisie" for the economic paralysis and it announced production plants will be seized.

With regard to credit/debit cards, there is no such thing as VISA or Mastercard in Venezuela as the national services are disconnected from the rest of the world and sums in foreign currency (cupos, quotas) destined to credit/debit cards are to be approved as well. If and when people miraculously manage to be granted foreign currency to be used abroad their credit/debit cards won't work overseas because of the debts accumulated by the Venezuelan banks with the electronic payment service providers.

My view about the use of Bitcoin in Venezuela based on SurBitcoin is that it is used mainly for remittances, in other words by Venezuelans living abroad who send money to their families also considering that 3/4 of the population are materially deprived and that the rich can always find their ways to expatriate their wealth directly in dollars. If affluent Venezuelans were interested in Bitcoin its local market wouldn't be so minuscule and skewed to the sell side.

As a final thought Bitcoin to function needs users who can satisfy their primary needs, electricity, computers, the Internet, knowledge. It can't be used in situations of distress due to the impossibility of fulfilling the minimum operational requirements.

[tzman]

Because you can't buy your groceries and gas with buttcoin

Technically you can, but this is assuming you aren't aware of the bitcoin debit cards thats provided.

Its been out for that last 5 months now or close to being a year almost. But what youre saying is right in some sense, if they just heard about bitcoin it`ll take them a couple reading around to find the debit card option.

The problem is that any transaction with current debit cards is that they are denominated in USD or EUR. There is the govt exchange rate and the black market exchange rate and they are hugely different.  

Govt Exchange Rate: 1 USD = 6.30 VEF
Black Market Rate: 1 USD = 1,050 VEF

VISA/Mastercard would convert the bitcoin at the govt rate and now everything is hugely expensive.

I'll have to fix some info.

Currently there are two legal exchange rate systems:

• Sistema de Divisas Protegido - Dipro (Protected Foreign Currencies [Allocating] System). This rate is set by the Government and it is used to import basic goods (food, medicines, etc.) and to pay pensioners who live abroad.
  Current rate: 9.9750 VEF/USD (bid) 10.0000 VEF/USD (ask)

• Sistema de Divisas Complementario - Dico (Supplementary Foreign Currencies [Allocating] System). This rate is theoretically set by the market, however, according to the economist Luis Oliveros there is no evidence of such, hence it is likely to be managed as well. It replaced the Simadi in April and expectations since its announcement have curbed the black market value of the dollar.
  Current rate: 415.5879 VEF/USD (bid) 416.6295 VEF/USD (ask)
  

According to the Venezuelan Central Bank latest data the first one assigns 92.17% of the foreign currency and the second one the remainder.

As you can see there is already a terrible distortion in the licit market which is unsustainable since people who can get dollars at the most overvalued rate (mostly the enchufados, those with ties to officials) are able to sell them for a greater quantity of bolivars which will then be used to get more dollars and thus perpetuate a vicious cycle. Anyway, there is no hard currency left, not even to pay key contractors of PDVSA, to import food or medicines or to print money (Venezuela doesn't produce anything). The last bastion of the private sector, the brewing and food company Empresas Polar had to halt most of its production due to lack of dollars needed to pay for the inputs. The Government blames the "bourgeoisie" for the economic paralysis and it announced production plants will be seized.

With regard to credit/debit cards, there is no such thing as VISA or Mastercard in Venezuela as the national services are disconnected from the rest of the world and sums in foreign currency (cupos, quotas) destined to credit/debit cards are to be approved as well. If and when people miraculously manage to be granted foreign currency to be used abroad their credit/debit cards won't work overseas because of the debts accumulated by the Venezuelan banks with the electronic payment service providers.

My view about the use of Bitcoin in Venezuela based on SurBitcoin is that it is used mainly for remittances, in other words by Venezuelans living abroad who send money to their families also considering that 3/4 of the population are materially deprived and that the rich can always find their ways to expatriate their wealth directly in dollars. If affluent Venezuelans were interested in Bitcoin its local market wouldn't be so minuscule and skewed to the sell side.

As a final thought Bitcoin to function needs users who can satisfy their primary needs, electricity, computers, the Internet, knowledge. It can't be used in situations of distress due to the impossibility of fulfilling the minimum operational requirements.

Venezuela is like Argentina their currencies are very weak against dollar,the country rules the market exchange to be x ammount and the black market offer them dollars for 3times or more the real cost because they had limited people savings to an ammount daily or monhtly.There is no way out for those who live their to try to follow the rules or pay more for the same they could adquire by regular market.Its a nightmare to live there with such government control at the prices .

[thejaytiesto]

Most people are clueless about bitcoin, so dont expect the Venezuelan people going to use bitcoin out of nowhere. Bitcoin cannot save a country if the people aren't aware and educated to use it, so im afraid a lot of people in Venezuela will go down with the failing regime because they will not know any other way out, only the smart people using bitcoin to move whatever funds they have out of the inflation hell will make it.

[jt byte]

Their new president should adopt bitcoin as he is having problems keeping his popularity now(being caught in the Panama papers scandal) and might be impeached such as has happened to the current Brazilian president.

[techgeek]

Jesus Christ I need to get down there and buy some property while the getting is good.

Bitcoin is great for exactly this kind of thing but I'm sure the US dollar works just as well, and so would any other stable currency.

I dont think its worth investing if the country itself is too chaotic.

Youre placing bets hoping the country gets back on its feet, and assume other support economic structure would be in play.

You are better off just buying more bitcoin then some house at some remote country lol.

[Yakamoto]

Venezuelans are probably not switching to Bitcoin because, to be completely honest, they're either being limited by the government and being prevented from accessing any Bitcoin exchanges, or, they simply aren't able to afford it due to the really, really weak value of the Venezuelan dollar. Most Venezuelans probably have no idea what Bitcoin is either, so that likely has an effect as well.