Why Is Argentina's Bitcoin Community so Active?

[FinShaggy]

They have the biggest Facebook group about Bitcoin, but it is in Spanish... And I was trying to find out how much Bitcoins were in MXN Pesos, but I just put "peso" and the first thing that comes up on Google is a bunch of stuff for Argentina.

I think they were the ones that were going to have the Bitcoin town (or was it Nicaragua? ) but, is that the reason? Or is it just really flourishing there?

And is there a reason? Or is it just random?

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[Operatr]

Mostly this I suspect -

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/05/15/argentinas-inflation-dilemma/

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-14/dare-question-argentinas-inflation-data-prepare-go-jail

But this is not a unique case, this is happening all over the world as the last drop of wealth flow upward to our uber-rich oligarchs and the money supply is ever diluted with more money created from debt in what is now an economic death spiral they are trying to cover up.

People are losing faith in their money and are starting to look for an alternative. If the money in my pocket was in orders of magnitude more worthless every day I wouldn't want to be holding them either.

[FinShaggy]

Mostly this I suspect -

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/05/15/argentinas-inflation-dilemma/

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-14/dare-question-argentinas-inflation-data-prepare-go-jail

But this is not a unique case, this is happening all over the world as the last drop of wealth flow upward to our uber-rich oligarchs and the money supply is ever diluted with more money created from debt in what is now an economic death spiral they are trying to cover up.

People are losing faith in their money and are starting to look for an alternative. If the money in my pocket was in orders of magnitude more worthless every day I wouldn't want to be holding them either.

Wow. I didn't think Bitcoin would prove to be too useful outside of the whiter cultures (for a while at least), I'm glad other people picked it up as a means of fighting poverty.

[EuSouBitcoin]

Where is the the most volume in BTC/ARS traded? Are there any online exchanges that trade this pair?

[ronimacarroni]

Because they can't get their money out of the country.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=296016.0

[FinShaggy]

Because they can't get their money out of the country.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=296016.0

Oh, damn.

[MAbtc]

Not easy to acquire coins, as far as I've heard, either.

[FinShaggy]

Not easy to acquire coins, as far as I've heard, either.

That's true anywhere. Turning cash into coins is a problem, unless you know someone who will sell the coins to you personally.

[MAbtc]

Not easy to acquire coins, as far as I've heard, either.

That's true anywhere. Turning cash into coins is a problem, unless you know someone who will sell the coins to you personally.

Moreso a problem, though, when you look at peso/btc market vs. usd/btc market. Then figure what it means for Argentinians to have to get peso to usd to btc.....

[Pumpkin]

The local currency in Argentina is losing value quickly. People only trust the USD. That makes it much easier to talk with people about bitcoin, because they already distrust their currency.

[Spendulus]

The local currency in Argentina is losing value quickly. People only trust the USD. That makes it much easier to talk with people about bitcoin, because they already distrust their currency.

The history of economic problems in Argentina goes back a solid two generations now.  It is pretty bad.  Thus black markets thrive of necessity.  Bitcoin could be a part of what solves their problems, in that the people could take affairs of finance into their own hands, rendering the government's actions ineffective.

It is control over money and finance that is at the root of the power of a government.  Bitcoin is not a threat to those in power in the sense that if it makes inroads, some opponent will topple those in power.

Rather it is a step in making the nation state totally irrelevant.

[FinShaggy]

Not easy to acquire coins, as far as I've heard, either.

That's true anywhere. Turning cash into coins is a problem, unless you know someone who will sell the coins to you personally.

Moreso a problem, though, when you look at peso/btc market vs. usd/btc market. Then figure what it means for Argentinians to have to get peso to usd to btc.....

Oh damn. Not cool.

[FinShaggy]

The local currency in Argentina is losing value quickly. People only trust the USD. That makes it much easier to talk with people about bitcoin, because they already distrust their currency.

Lol, that totally makes sense though.

[fran2k]

Where is the the most volume in BTC/ARS traded? Are there any online exchanges that trade this pair?

There is easy to trade bitcoins, lot of people buying/selling in small volume (1-10 BTC), for bigger transactions may not be so easy. There is no exchange yet, there are at least two companies as I know trying to create one but they are waiting for some official response to register.

Because they can't get their money out of the country.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=296016.0

And bringing money into the country is also a problem. If you want to buy dollars/euro/etc, the easy way is going to the black market and there's a huge different in prices between the oficial dollar (dólar oficial) and the other one (dólar blue), about 50% more.

So, if you receive and international wire transfer in dollars the banks will turn it into ARS at the official rate, no way you can get the dollars into hand. And there is very hard to get permit to buy some bucks at official rate.

In posted some links in this topic.

[inge]

It is written in March 2013, but it still applies:Tango argentino...with Bitcoins

[countryfree]

There's a logic here. BTC will grow faster in countries where people distrust the official currency, and are looking for something else. BTC has been very stable so far compared to what Argentinians are used to. It will be all black market, but it's about the only thing that works in Argentina. Then exchanges should not as much as a problem as in other countries, because people will prefer BTC to fiat.

[Rassah]

So, is the lesson here that Argentina should be a place we go for vacation, and we should being as many bitcoins as we can, and buy as much as we can with bitcoins while there, even if it means selling coins to locals for pesos, and uses those to buy food and lodging?