BTC is helping out Cubans and Venezuelans

[dkbit98]

They are using Bitcoin and P2P trading websites and all trading is going up in those regions and sometimes that is only solution they have to survive hyperinflation and rising of food prices.
I heard that some people are even accepting direct payments in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but governments probably made that illegal so there is always a risk of trading with some gov agent.
One thing you need for this to work is internet connection, and a wallet, so they may try to restrict that with electricity, like we saw recently in Cuba.
That is the reason Bitcoin was invented in the first place, and not only to may people rich with crazy gains.

[bittraffic]

They couldn't use Bitcoin when their internet is shutdown. It's shut down in their country which is going to be more devastating because it's shutting up the sides of these people. Businesses that rely on the Internet, of course, are also shut down like banks.

They are blaming social media for this rage. What they are saying was that they need to be freed from their President, whoever thought it could help them when that happens.

[ven7net]

...

For OPSEC reasons I don't (personally) want to go in to this topic too heavily myself, but this is already happening.

I have known about Venezuelans for years using BTC (and Dash) as a partial substitute for their worthless currency and hard-to-get US dollar fiat.  Apparently these efforts have been quite helpful to those in Venezuela in a position to use cryptos to make their lives better.

Now Cuban-Americans are sending BTC to embattled Cuba.  I do not know the amounts though.

These really ARE excellent use-cases in which BTC is helping to add value to the lives of those under oppression.  This is clearly a good thing.

I am very glad if BTC helps people in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, because they themselves did not become hostages of this situation. We can say that the emergence of crypto contributes to the solution of a number of financial problems and is already helping many to earn money in our difficult time. I could feel these improvements myself, as I also use crypto to improve my well-being. I hope that such positive trends will continue and the introduction of BTC and other cryptocurrencies will also take place in other countries in need.

[Lucius]

Now Cuban-Americans are sending BTC to embattled Cuba.  I do not know the amounts though.

I remember one user from Cuba who maybe 2 years ago (I can't remember exactly), was looking for some way to earn something in crypto, so he mentioned that the price of the internet is quite expensive in Cuba. I don't know how much prices have changed in the last 3 years, but $30 for only 4 GB of data is drastically expensive (mobile data).

On July 29, 2019, Cuba legalized private wifi in homes and businesses, although one must obtain a permit to have access.

As of December 6, 2018, Cubans can have full mobile Internet access provided by Cuba's telecommunications company, ETECSA, at 3G speeds. The roll out of the internet service took place from Thursday, December 6, to Sunday, December 9 to avoid congestion. ETECSA also announced different internet packages and their prices, ranging from 600 MB for 7 Cuban convertible pesos ($7) to 4 GB for 30 Cuban convertible pesos ($30). The cost is still high in a country where state salaries average $30 a month.

However, some things are changing for the better, so the legalization of private wi-fi, which allows more and more Cubans to share the Internet and costs. The more freedom and affordable internet available to them, the more they will use BTC - and the good news is that BTC has helped them improve their standard of living at least a little.

[horrifiedx1]

...

For OPSEC reasons I don't (personally) want to go in to this topic too heavily myself, but this is already happening.

I have known about Venezuelans for years using BTC (and Dash) as a partial substitute for their worthless currency and hard-to-get US dollar fiat.  Apparently these efforts have been quite helpful to those in Venezuela in a position to use cryptos to make their lives better.

Now Cuban-Americans are sending BTC to embattled Cuba.  I do not know the amounts though.

These really ARE excellent use-cases in which BTC is helping to add value to the lives of those under oppression.  This is clearly a good thing.

I am very glad if BTC helps people in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, because they themselves did not become hostages of this situation. We can say that the emergence of crypto contributes to the solution of a number of financial problems and is already helping many to earn money in our difficult time. I could feel these improvements myself, as I also use crypto to improve my well-being. I hope that such positive trends will continue and the introduction of BTC and other cryptocurrencies will also take place in other countries in need.

I highlighted the Venezuelan country where when there was a crisis in that country, until their currency became worthless, then they used bitcoin for the currency in that country, and at the beginning of the year bitcoin experienced a bullrun, hopefully the welfare of the country increases as its citizens have bitcoin. but currently bitcoin is in a bearish condition, hopefully there will be a reversal movement soon

[oHnK]

That is an example of the advantages of BTC, when fiat has been contaminated by hyperinflation then the solution is only a currency that is free from inflation.  If the government is keen to see this opportunity on the basis of improving the economy in a country that has been reported to be bankrupt then there should be no ban on BTC in every country.  I feel very enthusiastic about this advantage and with this evidence it strengthens my belief that BTC is an incredibly up to date asset.

[perryxi2]

BTC is a currency with a vision of the future and the founder of BTC Mr shatoshi had that vision a long time ago and is ahead of us, BTC is a solvable currency and it also can be traded to increase profits, in recent years Venezuelans have joined. in the field of crypto power quite a few projects and I have seen their life better thanks to BTC and other coins for example nano when it is called Mrai or, they participated in typing captcha on Raiblock and earn a lot of money.

[Silberman]

...

For OPSEC reasons I don't (personally) want to go in to this topic too heavily myself, but this is already happening.

I have known about Venezuelans for years using BTC (and Dash) as a partial substitute for their worthless currency and hard-to-get US dollar fiat.  Apparently these efforts have been quite helpful to those in Venezuela in a position to use cryptos to make their lives better.

Now Cuban-Americans are sending BTC to embattled Cuba.  I do not know the amounts though.

These really ARE excellent use-cases in which BTC is helping to add value to the lives of those under oppression.  This is clearly a good thing.

I have known this has been happening in Venezuela for a very long time but right now with the difficult and critical times that those living in Cuba are going through this is even more critical there, this is one of the great use cases of bitcoin, if a person sends money to Cuba to a family member and especially if they are sending dollars not only they lose a percentage to the government they do not even receive the dollars and receive the local and worthless currency, with bitcoin you can send the coins directly to the one you want, however the government of Cuba is also blocking the Internet so access to those coins will be intermittent.

[tippytoes]

I have known this has been happening in Venezuela for a very long time but right now with the difficult and critical times that those living in Cuba are going through this is even more critical there, this is one of the great use cases of bitcoin, if a person sends money to Cuba to a family member and especially if they are sending dollars not only they lose a percentage to the government they do not even receive the dollars and receive the local and worthless currency, with bitcoin you can send the coins directly to the one you want, however the government of Cuba is also blocking the Internet so access to those coins will be intermittent.

I believe this latest news from Cuba is good news for some crypto users in that country.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/censorship-circumvention-tool-helps-14-million-cubans-get-internet-access-2021-07-16/

Psiphon network is offering their service to "maximize your chances of bypassing censorship". So maybe, for those who want to send crypto to their family in Cuba, they can use the app to bypass their government's tight security protocol.

[Vaskiy]

We can see a big list of countries having people using bitcoin on real-time need. Long back itself Indonesian plantation workers used bitcoin to send the wages to their hometown. Here payment was received in terms of bitcoin and was traded and deposited directly on to the bank account, which eliminates the intermediate who support in money transfer for a charge.

Then Nigerian and other African people for buying and selling of goods from UAE used to bring in terms of bitcoin as it is hard to carry large amount of currency and exchange on needs.

[Sithara007]

We can see a big list of countries having people using bitcoin on real-time need. Long back itself Indonesian plantation workers used bitcoin to send the wages to their hometown. Here payment was received in terms of bitcoin and was traded and deposited directly on to the bank account, which eliminates the intermediate who support in money transfer for a charge.

Then Nigerian and other African people for buying and selling of goods from UAE used to bring in terms of bitcoin as it is hard to carry large amount of currency and exchange on needs.

Bitcoin has a large role to play in the remittance sector. Many of the poor expat workers spend as much as 10% of the total amount as fee to service providers such as MoneyGram and Western Union, to send the remittance payments to their families. Bitcoin can process these payments for a maximum 1% fee (including the costs to convert BTC back to fiat). Also, the other providers take some time to process the payments (at least a few days), while with Bitcoin it can be done almost instantly (within 30 minutes).

[HashingTower]

I'm from Africa and BTC have changed my life for good, i started around 2017 and for three years I had nothing until 2020 and I was able to build a portfolio for myself which changes everything, now I have enough money to build a mining rigs which I already did and I also have money left in my account for buying dips, thanks to BTC and cryptocurrency

[bryant.coleman]

I'm from Africa and BTC have changed my life for good, i started around 2017 and for three years I had nothing until 2020 and I was able to build a portfolio for myself which changes everything, now I have enough money to build a mining rigs which I already did and I also have money left in my account for buying dips, thanks to BTC and cryptocurrency

You will find similar stories from all around the world. I am from Southeast Asia, and Bitcoin had such a drastic impact on my life ever since I first invested in it (2012). Right now, around 70% of my net wealth is in the form of cryptocurrency. Even the remaining 30%, most of it came from the profit that I got from Bitcoin. We are lucky to invest in Bitcoin at an early date. There are billions out there, who are yet to do that. The choice is very simple. Invest right now, when the prices are still now, or wait until the prices reach a position where it is impossible to buy.

[Reid]

I am Venezuelan, my life changed since I used cryptocurrencies for almost three years. But we are not the majority, we are still few. I think that if we increased we could get a little out of poverty. We need the interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from the main engines of our economy to be able to boost all economic sectors. There has been interest in private companies but progress has been little. Perhaps due to the pandemic but I have not yet seen a noticeable progress that is sustainable.
When the economic indicators show growth thanks to these investments, we can affirm that Venezuela also achieved it. That is why I can tell you that we are still a minority in Venezuela who see their future with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Wow. I don't really know what to say here but just wishing it could spread more to help other people.
Sure it's actually the government that must make the first move but if that doesn't work then I guess it should be the people that decide for their own benefit.
The truth is I have no idea what is happening there or how bad the economy is but perhaps there are groups who are doing something to help out. I wish all the best for our Venezuelan friends.

[stompix]

Bitcoin is Used to Aid Belarus Protestors
Bitcoin is helping out protesters in Hong Kong.
Bitcoin is used to fight against oppression in Myanmar

How did those end?
BTC is helping Venezuelans, yeah, it's helping them for 6 years already and I start to wonder how much help it needs, like one hundred years?

Money!!!! is what's helping those people, money sent by other people, it's not BTC miraculously appearing in the wallets, it's somebody exchanging fiat for BTC and from his own pocket helping those. Without those people spending money, without the people buying farm items in online games and paying for them with BTC there will be no so-called help. You need a functioning economy to generate the wealth that allows you to invest and you need to build something on top of bitcoin, a real economy. Thinking that a country will solve all the problems it has by just buying coins is simply silly, buying coins and taking profit will simply end up with everyone selling their coins and you're back to square one.

I am Venezuelan, my life changed since I used cryptocurrencies for almost three years. But we are not the majority, we are still few. I think that if we increased we could get a little out of poverty. We need the interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from the main engines of our economy to be able to boost all economic sectors.

Oh, so just stashing bitcoins in your wallet alone is not helping completely if there isn't somebody to invest more so you can take out a profit and escape poverty.
What if the money doesn't come? Just what I said, without people putting money into this, without people asking for services and paying in BTC there is no help, that bunch of code lines is standing silent and not caring about anything.

[BrewMaster]

it is not just countries with declining currencies. it is a lot of countries that are usually underdeveloped. i think it has to do with the freedom that people have in most of those countries. for example you will face a lot more obstacles when you want to buy bitcoin in America than you wold face in most of these countries and your bank account is not going to get closed just because you dumped your fiat for bitcoin.
there is also far less FUD from the corrupt government and banks in those countries. for example you don't hear their bank CEO call bitcoin "fraud" while US banks do that every now and then!

Freedom plays a big role in the motivation for people to go into crypto currencies. If there is social unrest like in Cuba and Venezuela the demand for freedom will be much stronger. Another issue for the countries is the high inflation. People and foreign investors lost compete faith in the the value of the currency. It is very hard to escape the hyper inflation spiral without foreign help. Here comes in crypto currencies which can create some stability again.

it is true about some of these countries that they had high inflation rates like Venezuela but not all of them. for example the inflation rate of El Salvador wa 0.21% in 2020 and 0.07% in 2019. in comparison the inflation rate of US was 1.25% and 1.81%.
there are a lot of other countries that have widely adopted bitcoin and don't have high inflation rate or social unrest.

[Vishnu.Reang]

No one is mentioning about the ongoing protests in Cuba? It looks as if the Cubans had enough and they are protesting in the streets for the last few days, demanding an end to the socialist rule. The same has been happening in Venezuela for the last few years. Let's imagine a scenario where the socialist regimes in these two countries are taken down. It is very likely that the new government will take a more favorable view towards cryptocurrency, because in these two countries crypto is now regarded as one of the weapons of resistance against the regime.

[Clavulanic]

...

For OPSEC reasons I don't (personally) want to go in to this topic too heavily myself, but this is already happening.

I have known about Venezuelans for years using BTC (and Dash) as a partial substitute for their worthless currency and hard-to-get US dollar fiat.  Apparently these efforts have been quite helpful to those in Venezuela in a position to use cryptos to make their lives better.

Now Cuban-Americans are sending BTC to embattled Cuba.  I do not know the amounts though.

These really ARE excellent use-cases in which BTC is helping to add value to the lives of those under oppression.  This is clearly a good thing.

Praises and appreciation for the Cuban-American people, because this is the best works of kindness provided to the county in need of help. This is a great actions that might influence and interest to the other neighboring countries who still hasitant to accept cryptocurrency. With the promise that it improves the lives of the people, I am confident that this will soon reach and become trending story in the whole world.

[just_Alice]

Indeed, with their inflation rate Bitcoin is a real life saver. It's good to know that Bitcoin is popular among people in Venezuela, which makes it, if I'm not mistaken, in top-3 countries by Bitcoin usage.

What's worth noticing is that venezuelans sticked with Bitcoin. I remember there were times when the government tried to trick people and created their own cryptocurrency Petro, which was centralized, but people saw right through that plan and didn't switch to the latter.
Too bad that people in China can't see what's going to happen there soon.

[Sithara007]

Indeed, with their inflation rate Bitcoin is a real life saver. It's good to know that Bitcoin is popular among people in Venezuela, which makes it, if I'm not mistaken, in top-3 countries by Bitcoin usage.

LOL.. Venezuela in top-3? Do you have any proof to support this absurd claim? As far as I know, the top 3 countries in terms of Bitcoin volume are - United States, Japan and China. I don't think that Venezuela ranks even among the top-10. Bitcoin is getting popular in Venezuela, but the average holding per capita and the overall trade volumes are quite low. On top of that, it is not 100% legal there. The government hasn't created any regulation, to legalize cryptocurrency in that country. In Venezuela, Bitcoin remains in the grey zone.