Can bitcoin help rebuild Venezuela? - Darb Finance

[Darbfinance]

Nowadays, Venezuela is the most striking example of the negative effect of irresponsible political decisions on economy. Back in the 1980s, the country was an oasis of peace and a role model for the region. Its citizens boasted the highest level of earnings on the continent, and high oil prices gave hope for a bright future. Unfortunately, the extreme left came to power soon after. Hugo Chaves put in motion a spiral of social spending, which combined with the decreasing scope of foreign investment and falling oil prices, led to the financial collapse of the country.

The economy has been devastated by raging hyperinflation, estimated to reach the level of millions of percent. Money has completely lost its value – to the point that it is no longer worth to print it. Ad hoc regulations, such as deleting five zeros from banknotes, have failed. The new sovereign bolivar turned out to be as weak as its previous version. Black market traders selling dollars banned under the Maduro regime have been the only ones who benefited from the introduction of the new currency.

Desperate Venezuelans began to look for help for their shrinking savings. They found it in bitcoin – an on-line currency that has proven immune to the dictator's populist declarations. Venezuelans have bought 16 thousand bitcoins in the first quarter of 2019 alone. At the beginning of 2018, the local market leader, i.e. the Finnish trading platform, LocalBitcoins, sold 170 bitcoins a day to customers paying in bolivars. A year later, the number is 10 times higher.
Payments in bitcoin began to be accepted by Mercado Libre, a popular on-line auction site, and Traki, a chain of department stores. The number of places accepting payments in cryptocurrencies kept growing every day. This did not escape the regime's attention. Maduro began to monitor digital currency trading and even recommended the creation of a national cryptocurrency. "Petro" was supposed to be a stable coin, i.e. a currency supported by a raw material. In the case of Venezuela, the raw material in question would be the one which the country has in abundance – crude oil. Each “petro” was supposed to have a value of one barrel of oil, but the plans have never come into fruition. Today, opposition leaders refer to “petro” as a form of “illegal cheating”, and Trump prohibits Americans from trading this cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin invariably remains of interest to Venezuelans, although the anarchy into which their country has plunged is not conducive to the spread of cryptocurrencies. Coinmap – a map showing places that accept bitcoin – indicates that one could pay with bitcoins in just under 200 stores in Caracas. It is not an impressive number for a capital inhabited by 2 million people. However, it can be assumed that many entities prefer to settle in cryptocurrencies without announcing it officially, so as not to attract the attention of public officials.
Venezuela is often presented in the media as a patient zero for implementation of bitcoins on a national scale, but this is somewhat exaggerated. The country experiences frequent electricity shortages, so local mines sometimes do not operate for days. Crypto-entrepreneurs are one thing, but ordinary people often cannot afford a smartphone for account servicing, and the network itself can fail even in city centres. Venezuelan Internet is one of the slowest in the world with an average speed of 1.61 megabits per second.

What is more, Venezuelans often lack financial education which could highlight the advantages of cryptocurrencies as compared to easy-to-manipulate fiat currency. This is where such platforms as Darb Finance can find their niche by offering not only the exchange platform and portfolio, but also educational materials and tutorials which would be useful for independent exploration of the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies. The platform itself is so simple and intuitive that even people less familiar with new technologies can get their heads around it. The stock exchange can operate in two modes: simplified, for beginners and advanced, as a full trading application. Because of that, users can start their adventure with bitcoin practically from scratch and systematically deepen their knowledge through experience. It will certainly take a lot less time than waiting for Venezuela to come out of the crisis.

https://base.darbfinance.com/news/can-bitcoin-help-rebuild-venezuela

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[rez303]

Nowadays, Venezuela is the most striking example of the negative effect of irresponsible political decisions on economy. Back in the 1980s, the country was an oasis of peace and a role model for the region. Its citizens boasted the highest level of earnings on the continent, and high oil prices gave hope for a bright future. Unfortunately, the extreme left came to power soon after. Hugo Chaves put in motion a spiral of social spending, which combined with the decreasing scope of foreign investment and falling oil prices, led to the financial collapse of the country.

The economy has been devastated by raging hyperinflation, estimated to reach the level of millions of percent. Money has completely lost its value – to the point that it is no longer worth to print it. Ad hoc regulations, such as deleting five zeros from banknotes, have failed. The new sovereign bolivar turned out to be as weak as its previous version. Black market traders selling dollars banned under the Maduro regime have been the only ones who benefited from the introduction of the new currency.

Desperate Venezuelans began to look for help for their shrinking savings. They found it in bitcoin – an on-line currency that has proven immune to the dictator's populist declarations. Venezuelans have bought 16 thousand bitcoins in the first quarter of 2019 alone. At the beginning of 2018, the local market leader, i.e. the Finnish trading platform, LocalBitcoins, sold 170 bitcoins a day to customers paying in bolivars. A year later, the number is 10 times higher.
Payments in bitcoin began to be accepted by Mercado Libre, a popular on-line auction site, and Traki, a chain of department stores. The number of places accepting payments in cryptocurrencies kept growing every day. This did not escape the regime's attention. Maduro began to monitor digital currency trading and even recommended the creation of a national cryptocurrency. "Petro" was supposed to be a stable coin, i.e. a currency supported by a raw material. In the case of Venezuela, the raw material in question would be the one which the country has in abundance – crude oil. Each “petro” was supposed to have a value of one barrel of oil, but the plans have never come into fruition. Today, opposition leaders refer to “petro” as a form of “illegal cheating”, and Trump prohibits Americans from trading this cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin invariably remains of interest to Venezuelans, although the anarchy into which their country has plunged is not conducive to the spread of cryptocurrencies. Coinmap – a map showing places that accept bitcoin – indicates that one could pay with bitcoins in just under 200 stores in Caracas. It is not an impressive number for a capital inhabited by 2 million people. However, it can be assumed that many entities prefer to settle in cryptocurrencies without announcing it officially, so as not to attract the attention of public officials.
Venezuela is often presented in the media as a patient zero for implementation of bitcoins on a national scale, but this is somewhat exaggerated. The country experiences frequent electricity shortages, so local mines sometimes do not operate for days. Crypto-entrepreneurs are one thing, but ordinary people often cannot afford a smartphone for account servicing, and the network itself can fail even in city centres. Venezuelan Internet is one of the slowest in the world with an average speed of 1.61 megabits per second.

What is more, Venezuelans often lack financial education which could highlight the advantages of cryptocurrencies as compared to easy-to-manipulate fiat currency. This is where such platforms as Darb Finance can find their niche by offering not only the exchange platform and portfolio, but also educational materials and tutorials which would be useful for independent exploration of the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies. The platform itself is so simple and intuitive that even people less familiar with new technologies can get their heads around it. The stock exchange can operate in two modes: simplified, for beginners and advanced, as a full trading application. Because of that, users can start their adventure with bitcoin practically from scratch and systematically deepen their knowledge through experience. It will certainly take a lot less time than waiting for Venezuela to come out of the crisis.

https://base.darbfinance.com/news/can-bitcoin-help-rebuild-venezuela

I think Bitcoin is only partly helping and it really cannot help Venezuela's economy to be restored. You know, the value of BTC is still being manipulated very strongly and the whales are still the biggest organizers, they still have the right to decide the direction of the market.
so if venezuela people buy many BTC at high prices, the results will still be much worse.
Venezuela should really have a different solution for its currency instead of relying on Bitcoin.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Um...I'm not sure I trust that source.  Tried loading it, and it's doing something with some application, so I stopped.

I'd been following the blackouts and such in Venezuela for a while, but I kind of lost track of what's going on there.  I did read some articles about how at least some Venezuelans were adopting Dash as a currency, but I read those articles with skepticism to say the least.  I have a strong suspicion that the citizenry is/was using US Dollars as their reserve currency, and I'm fairly certain they have a large supply of those stupid gold dollar coins that the US Mint keeps making and which US citizens rarely use.  But that's smart for them to do, because the USD is still strong.

I never really read anything about the extent to which Venezuelans were using crypto for their daily needs.  I suspect many reports are generated by pro-crypto journalists/writers and that there hasn't been great adoption of any crypto.  But man, I hope I'm wrong.  That would be an excellent thing for both the Venezuelans and bitcoin/crypto in general.

As far as "rebuilding" Venezuela, that's a political thing.  I don't think the history which will be written will attribute much to bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.  We'll see, though.

[Duzter]

From what I read the cause for the prevailing situation of Venezuela is the poor governance. Cryptocurrency will serve as a supportive tool to the growth of the economy. With the present situation to rebuild the nation a good governance along with support from the world countries is the only possibility. Same time in an article read about cryptocurrency experts giving suggestion to Zimbabwe when it was under hyperinflation to adopt bitcoin which could help them recover the economy. There might be possibilities, but how this gonna get executed is really an unknown fact.

[Kemarit]

For those who haven't had the chance to follow the news in Venezuela, Venezuela accuses U.S., Israel, in alleged coup plot with assassinations and kidnappings. So it looks like there is a failed coup attempt inside Venezuela to overthrow Maduro.

But as far as rebuilding Venezuela, (in case Maduro is ousted), I don't think that crypto will be their go to as other countries hasn't recognized it, but in order to survived the economic turmoil inside Venezuela, whether it's Bitcoin or Dash or any other currency, I think it's a big help to them locally. Rebuilding takes years, and mostly, countries will take out billions of dollars of loan, most probably to World Bank. And I don't think that they wanted to be paid in crypto.

[Febo]

Can bitcoin help rebuild Venezuela?

What Venezuela need is an economy. Not a currency. Well stable currency of course helps but Bitcoin is not really that stable right now. Venezuela problem was that they were to rich for many many decades that they forget how to produce stuff. They were just importing and buying everything. Then suddenly oil is not what it used to be and you add here some economic embargo from rich countries and you get chaos.

[creeps]

Can bitcoin help rebuild Venezuela?

What Venezuela need is an economy. Not a currency. Well stable currency of course helps but Bitcoin is not really that stable right now. Venezuela problem was that they were to rich for many many decades that they forget how to produce stuff. They were just importing and buying everything. Then suddenly oil is not what it used to be and you add here some economic embargo from rich countries and you get chaos.

Exactly, one currency can’t help the economy to fully recover they need a new system and they need to rebuild their own nation. Maybe if the government are too serious and working hard to make their country a better place again maybe in five years time, the inflation will start to go down. Bitcoin is a good currency, but its hard to own bitcoin there if there is so much corruption, and people might get too greedy as well as they want to survive on that chaos.

[1Referee]

I think the aim shouldn't be to wait for the government to do something to improve the situation over there. You can't expect a rotten government that has scammed every citizen of that country and made the far majority of the population become so poor that it's hard to make ends meet. Fuck that government.

People's should aim at building up local economies themselves, and this to some degree is happening already. There have been local initiatives to issue their own paper currency, but this is obviously prone to fraud and not a viable course of action long term speaking. I wish that Bitcoin was further in adoption and fundamental development to onboard these people, but we're still far away unfortunately.

Bitcoin is a fantastic hedge but not a great local currency for daily use. It's too expensive and too volatile even though their own native fiat currency has seen more severe volatility swings, and nearly all to the downside.

[thehun]

Not really. As someone already pointed out, what the country needs is to have an economy again, and in order for this to happen there needs to be a huge paradigm shift. that unfortunately I don't see happening.

Almost every productive citizen had to leave the country after seeing their properties confiscate, their businesses made bankrupt by the corrupt government or the lives of their family in danger. Chavez used oil money to buy votes of poor people for many years and formed a parallel army that has no problem to do all kind of dirty work against protesters. After oil prices went down, these brilliant chaps thought they could just print more money to keep up the pace and something unexpected happened: meteoric inflation, no supplies in the supermarkets, etc. All this while the elites close to Chavez and Maduro are taking out billions of USD to banks in US and diverse tax havens.

Can Bitcoin help people in their everyday lives replacing a currency that has no other use than toilet paper? Yes, definitely. Can it rebuild an economy devastated by a team of crooks who control the army and refuse to make any changes? No, I don't see that happening.

[Slow death]

no offense, bitcoin is something good as an investment, but in the case of the Venezuelans they need 90% of their people to be against tMaduro and oblige him to leave the presidency of the country. while exist fanatics who support mature, he will continue as president and nothing will change in venezuela

People's should aim at building up local economies themselves...

it is very difficult to do business in a country like venezuela, the problem is political persecution and extreme poverty

[timerland]

Will bitcoin single handedly save the Venezuelan economy?

Absolutely not, and I don't know why anyone would expect that given that BTC does not solve their underlying economic issues - an economy overdependent on the price of oil, and an unstable political atmosphere.

But what BTC can do, if more people in Venezuela do choose to adopt it is offer a means for them to transact with foreign entities cheaply, access to the international labor markets, as well as a long term store of value. That way, they are able to outsource their skills without needing to pay a hefty cut to the payment processors in the form of transaction fees and exchange rate spreads, nor do they need access to a bank account to start reaping the benefits of BTC.

[Indrawan77]

I don't think it's possible to save a country using a decentralised currency, in short-term maybe it will seems like a good option, but for long-term it will destroy the economic system, the inflation could swing wildly and it got a chances the country could be manipulated by the whales, for country it need a stable and centralised currency

[nakamura12]

Bitcoin may rebuild venezuela or not at all. First, bitcoin is a decentralized currency which not all people use it as main currency. Second, venezuela had their own centralized currency used so bitcoin can't help rebuild venezuela because of the centralized currency I mentioned but BTC can help fund whatever needed for the economy to grow.

[mamahdedeh]

for now if the price of bitcoin soars, then the country's economy will soon recover, because the people prosper. but without fiat currency, I think it will cause other problems, because the decentralization system cannot be controlled by the government

[stompix]

Again with this?
Bitcoin will save Venezuela, will cure cancer, stop an alien invasion, rewrite the last season of GoT, and get me another coffee cup.....

Bitcoin invariably remains of interest to Venezuelans, although the anarchy into which their country has plunged is not conducive to the spread of cryptocurrencies. Coinmap – a map showing places that accept bitcoin – indicates that one could pay with bitcoins in just under 200 stores in Caraca

Ok, this is a shot of the mempool



No tx under 12sat/byte passed through. You're going to tell me they are spending 0.35$ for each transaction, when the minimum wage :

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday raised the minimum wage by 300 percent to 18,000 bolivars per month, around $6.70

They don't even have money for a daily tx fee, not to actually buy something!!!!

The first things they must do
- throw in the sea every incompetent that is appointed right now
- peg their currency to a more stable or a basket of stable currencies (like Bulgaria with the euro)
- stop throwing money around and cut subsidies for gas and electricity as the first is getting smuggled in enormous quantities abroad and the second is not even enough for the country itself.
- stop with the government control fo companies, privatization is the key here
- call in firms from abroad to set up factories, give them tax exempt,  you need to produce something to keep inflation at bay, there are thousands of unemployed, they right now do not produce anything, don't be greedy about some shitty taxes and think of the money they will pay your workers and the produces goods once exported can sustain your trade balance and your currency.

All of this can be done without some crypto, it can be done with fiat, it has proven it works, there is no reason for it not to work in Venezuela.

What it doesn't work is praying to some magic bits that will do the whole thing for you.

[MadeinCoin]

I don't think it's possible to save a country using a decentralised currency, in short-term maybe it will seems like a good option, but for long-term it will destroy the economic system, the inflation could swing wildly and it got a chances the country could be manipulated by the whales, for country it need a stable and centralised currency

But it's useless if the government has no efforts to restore Caracas to normal again. All the people's money will continue to shrink and eventually will cause poverty.
I think it's true that bitcoin can help this country for a while, while waiting for the financial crisis in their country to improve.

[hatshepsut93]

- call in firms from abroad to set up factories, give them tax exempt,  you need to produce something to keep inflation at bay, there are thousands of unemployed, they right now do not produce anything, don't be greedy about some shitty taxes and think of the money they will pay your workers and the produces goods once exported can sustain your trade balance and your currency.

This is why Venezuela became a shithole in the first place, they started nationalizing private business and generally screwing with foreign companies, so they pulled out, which significantly screwed their economy. And now they will have a very hard time getting any foreign investments, unless there will be an actual revolution that will remove socialists from power for good.

Bitcoin invariably remains of interest to Venezuelans, although the anarchy into which their country has plunged is not conducive to the spread of cryptocurrencies.

Venezuela is the opposite of anrchy, all their problems were caused by the state, and the state is still strong there - they have successfully dispersed multiple protests and rebellion attempts in the last few years.

[davis196]

I can't say how bitcoin will help Venezuela,but this country desperately needs a stable currency.
Bitcoin isn't stable,but at least it's way better than the bolivar.
First,the people of Venezuela have to get rid of Maduro and then think about their economic recovery.

[Nellayar]

President Chavez did something wrong in government spending. He thought that releasing fiat currency to all people and printing of it will cause for economic stability. He does not know that it may result a great depression made by inflation.
Right now, I don't know if Venezuela can help using bitcoin. It needs a foreign investment and loan. Something good if they will recover in future. I hope Venezuela's citizen are in good hands right now.

[mu_enrico]

Ok, this is a shot of the mempool

Yep, at the current state of BTC, it would not be that helpful. My tx is still stuck for 6 hours, and only God knows when it will be confirmed.

Honestly, I want them to try Libra and see if it would solve their problem.