[2018-08-23] Inside Venezuela: No Trust in Gov, Rejecting Petro, Feeding 2,000

[buwaytress]

In a Bitcoin News exclusive, Bitcoin Venezuela founder Randy Brito reveals a wealth of ideas about how cryptocurrency can be used to combat the effects of extreme hyperinflation in Venezuela right now. He takes us on an insightful journey on the ground in the South American nation, uncovering deep skepticism from Venezuelans of both the Petro crypto token and an uncorrupted future for local cryptocurrency exchanges.



What is really happening in Venezuela?
Hyperinflation is hitting Venezuela hard, with consumer prices increasing 82,766% last month compared to July last year. What does this mean for the people of the country?

Randy described the scene in the streets as near chaos; workers desperately try to spend their wages as soon as they are paid on whatever they can find in the streets to store value, later trading their goods with others who have the products they need. People need to bring five bags of cash with them just to buy their weekly groceries. Yesterday, he said, with the new rates only one bank made their new ATM limits public at one million bolivars – nearly enough to buy one-third of a cup of coffee.

Enter Bitcoin
As Randy sees it, cryptocurrency could provide a solution to at least some of these problems: ”Bitcoin could be a common currency denomination… it already has an international market traded against currencies. Bitcoin could create frictionless trades.”

It is also a way of getting around bank transfer limits. As of yet, however, it is difficult to find vendors or service providers willing to accept cryptocurrency payments. This is predominantly because people do not understand how the payment methods work but many more issues surround adoption.

Too early for airdrops
The Bitcoin Venezuela humanitarian aid project began around two years ago, initially raising funds of around USD 200 per month in cryptocurrency. Randy is trying to increase this substantially now, as they are currently feeding over 2,000 Venezuelans a day in their soup kitchens. While he would like to send cryptocurrency directly on the ground to citizens, the current climate does not allow for that.

”People have old cheap phones because of the crime. That’s what is safe to take out on the streets,” he said, referencing the lack of proper tools people have to access cryptocurrency.

To read the full feature: https://bitcoinnews.com/inside-venezuela-no-trust-in-government-rejecting-petro-and-feeding-2000-daily/

[cr1776]

From that article it seems like the people of Venezuela are smart enough to know that the "petro" is just another method that the socialist authoritarians in the Venezuelan government are trying to use to steal more value from the people of Venezuela.

The end for socialism, communism, fascism and other collectivist authoritarianism is the same:  eventually you run out of other people's money to redistribute.  Hence the value of bitcoin.  It can't be stolen without actually finding the private keys like the evil people who want socialism,communism, fascism or any of the other forms try to do.

[cryptofonia]

In a Bitcoin News exclusive, Bitcoin Venezuela founder Randy Brito reveals a wealth of ideas about how cryptocurrency can be used to combat the effects of extreme hyperinflation in Venezuela right now. He takes us on an insightful journey on the ground in the South American nation, uncovering deep skepticism from Venezuelans of both the Petro crypto token and an uncorrupted future for local cryptocurrency exchanges.



What is really happening in Venezuela?
Hyperinflation is hitting Venezuela hard, with consumer prices increasing 82,766% last month compared to July last year. What does this mean for the people of the country?

Randy described the scene in the streets as near chaos; workers desperately try to spend their wages as soon as they are paid on whatever they can find in the streets to store value, later trading their goods with others who have the products they need. People need to bring five bags of cash with them just to buy their weekly groceries. Yesterday, he said, with the new rates only one bank made their new ATM limits public at one million bolivars – nearly enough to buy one-third of a cup of coffee.

Enter Bitcoin
As Randy sees it, cryptocurrency could provide a solution to at least some of these problems: ”Bitcoin could be a common currency denomination… it already has an international market traded against currencies. Bitcoin could create frictionless trades.”

It is also a way of getting around bank transfer limits. As of yet, however, it is difficult to find vendors or service providers willing to accept cryptocurrency payments. This is predominantly because people do not understand how the payment methods work but many more issues surround adoption.

Too early for airdrops
The Bitcoin Venezuela humanitarian aid project began around two years ago, initially raising funds of around USD 200 per month in cryptocurrency. Randy is trying to increase this substantially now, as they are currently feeding over 2,000 Venezuelans a day in their soup kitchens. While he would like to send cryptocurrency directly on the ground to citizens, the current climate does not allow for that.

”People have old cheap phones because of the crime. That’s what is safe to take out on the streets,” he said, referencing the lack of proper tools people have to access cryptocurrency.

To read the full feature: https://bitcoinnews.com/inside-venezuela-no-trust-in-government-rejecting-petro-and-feeding-2000-daily/

Why do we must believe that this "reality" is 100% real reality?

[hatshepsut93]

I hope more noobs will read this, because there are way to many comments praising Petro and Venezuelan government here. It's almost like if people don't even try to use their brain and automatically assume that everything "cryptocurrency" and "blockchain" is good and makes the world better. No wonder that some nocoiners compare crypto community to cults or call crypto investors stupid. People need to learn that cryptocurrency technology is hard, not all of the coins are decentralized and trustless, not all of them are gonna be useful.

[figmentofmyass]

I hope more noobs will read this, because there are way to many comments praising Petro and Venezuelan government here. It's almost like if people don't even try to use their brain and automatically assume that everything "cryptocurrency" and "blockchain" is good and makes the world better.

i get the sense that most of those noobs are bagholding hard, massacred by the recent shitcoin apocalypse. they're desperate for any hype to save their investment, so i'm not surprised to see them praising the venezuelan government here.

it's sort of sad---reminds me of the desperation i used to see on penny stock forums back in the day.

[bbc.reporter]

@hatshepsut93. What? Way too many? But I have not noticed any newbies praising the petrodollar or the Venezuelan government for creating it. I reckon the newbies are too busy searching for the next 1000x Ethereum token to be bothered in a NEM token hehehe.

[nutildah]

@hatshepsut93. What? Way too many? But I have not noticed any newbies praising the petrodollar or the Venezuelan government for creating it. I reckon the newbies are too busy searching for the next 1000x Ethereum token to be bothered in a NEM token hehehe.

One problem: the PTR NEM token has never been distributed. you can see all of them sitting in this address:

http://explorer.nemchina.com/?#/s_account?account=NC2LEUTTZVOZLP6TBZSZFWTFR3MQ7O3LXZYXRRM4

Pretty much everything coming from the government has been a lie meant to get peoples' hopes up.

[buwaytress]

Why do we must believe that this "reality" is 100% real reality?

No one asks you to believe in any reality, and no one is claiming that anything is "100% real reality". The purpose of the story was to present a viewpoint from people on the ground. People actually living their realities in Venezuela, regular Venezuelans, regular Bitcoiners, regular people like you and me. You don't have to like what you read, nor are you forced to believe in anything you read. No one's pointing a gun at your head.

@hatshepsut93. What? Way too many? But I have not noticed any newbies praising the petrodollar or the Venezuelan government for creating it. I reckon the newbies are too busy searching for the next 1000x Ethereum token to be bothered in a NEM token hehehe.

Check out the pass Press sections on Petro/Maduro etc. I've also seen a lot of people say wow this is a good thing and that Maduro is a hero. Just blindly accepting that anything crypto or blockchain is the way to go. I'm not one to take sides in any opinion when I don't have all the facts, but you only need to look at the post above me to see just how far Petro has gone (or rather, how far it hasn't).

[stompix]

@hatshepsut93. What? Way too many? But I have not noticed any newbies praising the petrodollar or the Venezuelan government for creating it. I reckon the newbies are too busy searching for the next 1000x Ethereum token to be bothered in a NEM token hehehe.

The level of shitposting here has reached a level where you can't make head or tail of anything, who is b00b, who is a bot, who is a copypaster or text spinner, who is just dumb or has a really bad translation program

I dare you to open a thread with the title:

"How the Petro is helping to turn Venezuela in a Utopia" in bitcoin discussion, fill the post with crap that 99% of forum users won't bother to read and if the topic is not trashed watch the avalanche of noobs praising Venezuela and Maduro.

No wonder that some nocoiners compare crypto community to cults or call crypto investors stupid.

Sorry, but the crypto community is a cult.
As in the example above, if in a discussion you mention the government the pitchforks are drawn, the torches are lit, and almost everybody gets a pair of blinkers.

[hatshepsut93]

Sorry, but the crypto community is a cult.
As in the example above, if in a discussion you mention the government the pitchforks are drawn, the torches are lit, and almost everybody gets a pair of blinkers.

It's not the best example of Bitcoin being a cult, because I see a growing number of people being pro-government and pro-regulation, and also there are many valid reasons to not trust your government. But overall the behavior of crypto community can indeed be decribed as cult-like, because so many people don't understand the basics of cryptocurrencies and just blindly believe everything they hear. Especially it happens with smaller altcoin communities that ignore any criticism and brand it as a FUD.

But I hope it will change in the future when we'll go past the speculative phase and most members will be users and not speculators.

[magneto]

Many of the problems in this country could easily combated by introducing bitcoin as a payment method on an individual level.

Unfortunately, the government has kept on pushing its regime's fiat currency, and even have gone to the lengths of creating an entirely new centralised coin which no one has any interest in, instead of trying to solve the hyperinflation problem altogether in a sensible manner.

And ultimately, this is the reason why bitcoin is so useful, and promising. There are no worries about a fiat currency collapse, bank runs, bank limits, etc. And it's practical - Venezuelans can use it on anything that has access to internet. Once they gain access, they have a place to store their wealth safely without worries, and also transact internationally without limits - huge improvements and benefits.

[nutildah]

And ultimately, this is the reason why bitcoin is so useful, and promising. There are no worries about a fiat currency collapse, bank runs, bank limits, etc. And it's practical - Venezuelans can use it on anything that has access to internet. Once they gain access, they have a place to store their wealth safely without worries, and also transact internationally without limits - huge improvements and benefits.

One problem: unlike bitcoin, there will be a central authority directly dictating the price of the petro. Much like the bolivar, its price will be set by the government at government-controlled crypto exchanges.

At least the petro can't be printed into worthlessness.

However, seeing as how zero Venezuelans actually own a single petro (it still hasn't been distributed), chances are the entire thing is just a ruse to pretend that the current administration can actually do anything about the country's severe economic problems. Government graft, greed and corruption won't subside because of the petro.

[cr1776]

And ultimately, this is the reason why bitcoin is so useful, and promising. There are no worries about a fiat currency collapse, bank runs, bank limits, etc. And it's practical - Venezuelans can use it on anything that has access to internet. Once they gain access, they have a place to store their wealth safely without worries, and also transact internationally without limits - huge improvements and benefits.

...
At least the petro can't be printed into worthlessness.

...

True.  They'll just change the peg to completely devalue it.  When it is pegged to a billionth of an ounce vs a barrel (or whatever) the number issued won't matter.  :-)