[2019-09-02] Argentina capital controls, a strong case for bitcoin

[1Referee]

To trade gold without the attention of the authorities, he must be storing the gold himself in his house and trading one-on-one with another person? That's incredibly risky. Or is it being stored by a bank or other institution? That's even riskier since the government can confiscate it whenever they want, and any trades done via said institution will be visible by the authorities.

I'm not sure if you own Gold coins or Gold bars, but they are quite small and do allow you to store a lot of value in them. In that regard, it's not a problem at all for someone to store $10,000 worth of Gold at home. For most people in Argentina that's quite easy and convenient, especially with how they don't trust banks anymore.

You can walk into a jewerly store and have it converted to fiat, while with Bitcoin you don't have that level of acceptance there. Gold jewelry is commonly accepted as a valuable good that can be exchanged to fiat at any time, which makes it even easier for people to liquidate pure Gold coins/bars. It's really not that difficult or risky as you make it appear to be.

[o_e_l_e_o]

In that regard, it's not a problem at all for someone to store $10,000 worth of Gold at home.

Doable? Yes. Safe? Not at all.

Corruption is widespread in Argentina. The police regularly take bribes from criminals, let them operate in safe zones that they don't police, or even work with criminal rings. The government is hardly any better. If someone discovers you are storing $10,000 worth of gold in your house, that becomes a big problem.

You can walk into a jewerly store and have it converted to fiat, while with Bitcoin you don't have that level of acceptance there. Gold jewelry is commonly accepted as a valuable good that can be exchanged to fiat at any time, which makes it even easier for people to liquidate pure Gold coins/bars.

Sure, but he was talking about trading large amounts without drawing attention himself. Trading a necklace or a ring is one thing. Walking in to a pawn shop with 10 ounces in pure gold is going to attract more attention than sending one bitcoin from your wallet to another.

[bryant.coleman]

You can walk into a jewerly store and have it converted to fiat, while with Bitcoin you don't have that level of acceptance there. Gold jewelry is commonly accepted as a valuable good that can be exchanged to fiat at any time, which makes it even easier for people to liquidate pure Gold coins/bars.

Sure, but he was talking about trading large amounts without drawing attention himself. Trading a necklace or a ring is one thing. Walking in to a pawn shop with 10 ounces in pure gold is going to attract more attention than sending one bitcoin from your wallet to another.

OK... In case $15,000 is needed for the emergency expenses, then the user needs to sell 10 oz. of gold (as per the current prices). But there is no requirement of doing this conversion in one go. He can go to 10 different pawn shops, and sell 1 oz each. In Latin American countries, there is no scarcity of pawn shops and you can find them in any nook and corner.

If you use Bitcoin instead, then it won't attract any attention from the authorities. You can do peer-to-peer transaction and receive the amount in physical cash (banknotes). But in case the user lives in some second tier city with very few Bitcoin users, do you think that it will be easy for him to find a buyer who is willing to purchase such large amounts of coins?

[btc_newspaper]

Hello guys,

I am from Argentina. I would like to tell you that Bitcoin is quite popular in my country and I think the fundamental reason is that Argentines do not trust our currency and our governments. Of course, the main choice will always be the US dollar but many people, especially young people, are choosing cryptocurrencies to try to diversify their portfolio.
Our history has taught us not to rely too much on the rules imposed by the governments. Therefore, I would say that there is no country where you can take advantage of the benefits of cryptocurrencies better than Argentina.

I want to take the opportunity to share the link to my website where I will upload the 10 most important news of the day regarding the world of cryptocurrencies. I hope you find it useful, please keep in mind that it is still a draft version.

https://mervalnews.wixsite.com/crypto

Thanks and regards!
Alberto

[Vishnu.Reang]

In case another recession occurs at some point of time in the future, then I believe that Bitcoin will gain a lot of popularity and acceptability. Many of the countries are collapsing from the public debt, as the debt vs GDP ratio has gone much above the permissible levels. Complete meltdowns have occurred in countries such as Greece and Cyprus, and many more countries are likely to follow. Some of the fiat currencies are going to become worthless.