Very very cool. I'd like to see how this plays out. Many have said it will be in the 2nd and 3rd world nations where BTC gets traction first.
In my opinion this kind of news is extremely interesting, and while it's neglected by many, its potentially more bullish than any ETF. Underdeveloped counties can play a fundamental role in future currencies and stores of value.
In a sense we need a killer app of some type. This could be the start at least in another country. We only need things to start taking off in one location and then the organic nature of BTC (, developers and the VC's) can take over.
My concern though, with something like this is the volatility of BTC. That is not a problem if you are using Bitpay or the like, but for BTC to work in these countries I would think there needs to
be some form of stability, UNLESS the inflation rate there is more risky than BTC (e.g. - Argentina).
Can you imagine if this "app" takes off AFTER we correct and people in poor nations are locked into something deflationary and rising quite steadily in price?
IAS
Argentine here.
I'm gonna be painfully honest, but I've seen the "btc saviour of the 3rd world" used a lot and though I'd love nothing more than to agree with it, I've sadly come to the realization it is completely false.
Yes, at first BTC sounds ideal to countries like ours with devaluating currencies and hyperinflating economies, but the awful truth is there is no easy way for us to get BTC and no way to get it at market price. But even before that, we cannot get USD. We even got a black market for that, USD is expensive. If you get your USD as an Argentinian, you'll soon find out there is no way for you to inject it into one of the exchanges, they all require you to link a US or EU/Sepa bank, or a us payment system (dwolla,etc) or maybe use some retail moneypacks (which you guessed.. don't exist here). International bank wire from Arg have prohibitive costs.
Another sad truth is the fact we Argentinian's (and lots of other 3rd world countries) rely
heavily solely on Paypal and CC's to buy internationally. We all know that's not happening for BTC, at least not on a regular basis, but truth be told, the BTC I was able to acquire at market price or closest to it I got them through Paypal, thanks to people who trusted me.
If we go through all this, and our btc investments do well, good luck getting those dollars back on the Argentine system. If you're a long bull like myself, that shouldn't matter for now at least..
Even if you disregard everything cost and acquisition related, another harsh truth is there's nothing I can do here in Argentina with my BTC other than use it as a (volatile) store of value. Again, sadly, over the last year I've also realized that bitcoin has placed all it's energies in building rich financial systems and infrastructure (very much like the ones we try to replace and prone to the same heavy abuse), all the while ignoring the development of a real economy and everyday commerce tools.
It's easy for big fish in the US or EU to buy huge loads of btc, and manipulate the market.
It's hard for small 3rd world guys to do 800 pesos = 90 usd = 1 btc, with fees all along and market markup.
The M-Pesa news sounds like a great step in the right direction, I'll take that.
At the moment though, and it hurts to say, btc is still almost exclusively a financial platform, a very speculative one at that. Not nearly ready to go helping the 3rd world.
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