Strike has launched in Argentina

[nullama]

Strike is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to buy Bitcoin and pay using lightning.

Argentina has one of the largest inflation problems in the world. In about a decade, one Argentinean peso went from roughly $1 to roughly one cent.

Here's the announcement:

https://twitter.com/jackmallers/status/1480964517169410055?s=21

I can see this as the beginning of a new era for Bitcoiners in Argentina. The ability to exchange their fiat for Bitcoin in an easy and cheap way will help many in there.

This might even position Argentina as a candidate for becoming the next country that makes Bitcoin legal tender.

[Poker Player]

This might even position Argentina as a candidate for becoming the next country that makes Bitcoin legal tender.

When the president of El Salvador, Bukele, said that by 2022 there would be two countries that would follow in his footsteps, I thought of Argentina. Let's hope it is true and that other countries will join them. Let's see if the big guys learn and realize that the best way to fight inflation is the Bitcoin standard, but that's a long way off, I'm afraid.

[nullama]

When the president of El Salvador, Bukele, said that by 2022 there would be two countries that would follow in his footsteps, I thought of Argentina. Let's hope it is true and that other countries will join them. Let's see if the big guys learn and realize that the best way to fight inflation is the Bitcoin standard, but that's a long way off, I'm afraid.

At least the president of Argentina said last year that "there's no reason to say no":

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/president-of-argentina-open-to-adopting-bitcoin-as-legal-tender

With Strike opening up there, and having more people in government there understanding more about Bitcoin, it looks like a great candidate for the next country to make Bitcoin legal tender.

They also have already sent last year a bill to congress that would allow some workers, like exporters, to be paid in Bitcoin instead of having to exchange their salaries into Argentinean Peso:

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/argentina-national-congress-bill

Looks like Argentina is positioning itself quite nicely to become the next one.

[aoluain]

Whether they will or wont adopt the Bitcoin standard is anyones guess but they will have
to do something in this current climate of rising inflation.

They have very little choices, their Peso is worthless and the US$ is not an option either so
Bitcoin is a real option especially as El Salvador is pioneering that use case ahead of
every other country.

[kryptqnick]

I think it's great that there's a way to benefit from lightning without technical knowledge and to use Bitcoin easily for payments. I looked at their website, and they have both an app and Visa cards. What caught my attention is that they claim not to have "added fees", and that if you buy $100 worth of Bitcoin, that's exactly what you get. So how do they make profit, then? Surely it's not just out of advertising? A monthly fee, perhaps?
Also, it is, of course, a custodial solution, and while I think it will be acceptable for most of those trying to escape inflation, some won't like it because 'not your keys, not your coins'.

[_act_]

Also, it is, of course, a custodial solution, and while I think it will be acceptable for most of those trying to escape inflation, some won't like it because 'not your keys, not your coins'.

If someone wants to stay on its lane, the best is to use decentralized exchange but I do not know why only few people are the ones that prefer decentralized exchanges, it is better because anything about bitcoin supposed not to be centralized.

But most people like the opposite, they like convenience than privacy, privacy is the best but people like what is trendy and easy in a way there can be almost free transactions, that is why centralized ways has been around successfully, but the privacy people will not go for it.

[mk4]

I think it's great that there's a way to benefit from lightning without technical knowledge and to use Bitcoin easily for payments. I looked at their website, and they have both an app and Visa cards. What caught my attention is that they claim not to have "added fees", and that if you buy $100 worth of Bitcoin, that's exactly what you get. So how do they make profit, then? Surely it's not just out of advertising? A monthly fee, perhaps?

I'm wondering as well. But I'm guessing this is something like how a lot of apps started; basically zero fees at the beginning and when they gain a huge amount of adoption, then they'll add a small fee. That, or they'll create supplementary products that they could actually profit off; something like Cash App.

[Lucius]

On the one hand, it is positive that people in Argentina will get an additional option to invest in Bitcoin, but does that mean that the average resident of that country will now start investing more in Bitcoin than before? It seems to me that it will not, because the availability of such an application will not increase investment in Bitcoin because the poor man does not invest in anything other than in the basic things he needs for life. In addition, Bitcoin sometimes loses in value much more than paper money, and it's not at all pleasant to wake up in the morning and see that you've lost 20% - this may mean that you may not be able to pay for electricity or gas that month.

I am surprised that foreign remittances are not mentioned, because this is something on which Strike based his business in El Salvador, and this is also the case in negotiations with the Tonga authorities.

[fiulpro]

I did not know about Strike but after reading about it I did find it really cool! Since most wallet, like the one am using does have lightning network but they don't really allow buying and selling and then you have to send it to a normal one and it's apparently very costly moving them around. I wonder how positively would it be taken overall, this would be so much better than normal wallets since :
The fee would be so low
It would be instant
But on the other hand I wonder if it would be safe enough to be used for bigger transactions as well. Right now the market is also down which does mean that it would be a great time to invest. Plus I do think it would also make the whole lightning network have some positive advancements. Also their expansion is underway which does mean that we will be seeing a much bigger and better system connecting more economies and countries as well.

[hd49728]

On the one hand, it is positive that people in Argentina will get an additional option to invest in Bitcoin, but does that mean that the average resident of that country will now start investing more in Bitcoin than before?

Latin American nations are very adaptive with crypto market. Politics, economy in those nations are unsustainable so locals have to find more safe havens. They see opportunities in Bitcoin and crypto and maybe they see less risk compare to fiats.

It seems to me that it will not, because the availability of such an application will not increase investment in Bitcoin because the poor man does not invest in anything other than in the basic things he needs for life.

Above them and have better finance, they will find alternatives for corrupted, inflated fiats. It's time they find Bitcoin and invest in Bitcoin. It happened in Venezuela and Latin America nations have similar conditions from politics to economy.

In addition, Bitcoin sometimes loses in value much more than paper money, and it's not at all pleasant to wake up in the morning and see that you've lost 20% - this may mean that you may not be able to pay for electricity or gas that month.

People who don't invest in Bitcoin will only see it like this. They observe, read news, etc. and always see Bitcoin is a very volatile and risky asset. But they don't know that in long run, Bitcoin grows a lot and fiats lose a lot in value because of inflation.

[bittraffic]

Strike wallet was also introduced to the users in El Salvador before the president passed the bill for BTC and then introduced another wallet.

Sad story for the economy in Argentina. Just today I saw a video on youtube of the Argentina currency bills are just scattered on the streets literally just thrown, it just has no value anymore. Just like El Salvador that has no own currency from the beginning, Argentina should follow turning to BTC as well.

[famososMuertos]

No no no...

Let's not confuse things or put them in non-real contexts, this is news that for now only has the relevance as mentioned "Strike opens operations in Argentina".

Argentina has quite a bit of history with bitcoin and has been managing exchange for quite some time, in fact, as a competition (Strike), they are late although that does not indicate that they come to compete, they know that there is a market of users who have already breathed bitcoin for a long time .

The above has nothing to do with currency legalizations or positioning Argentina as a candidate, nor is it the beginning of a new era of  bitcoiners.

[buwaytress]

There was already an easy way (and better rates, so let's say cheaper) in p2p trading. The Lightning is cheap argument also hardly makes sense now with already lowest possible fees on mainnet.

But of course, good news, was the most downloaded app (just parroting the news from El Salvador) and can't possibly be worse than the Chivo scandal...

[noormcs5]

This might even position Argentina as a candidate for becoming the next country that makes Bitcoin legal tender.

When the president of El Salvador, Bukele, said that by 2022 there would be two countries that would follow in his footsteps, I thought of Argentina. Let's hope it is true and that other countries will join them. Let's see if the big guys learn and realize that the best way to fight inflation is the Bitcoin standard, but that's a long way off, I'm afraid.

El Salvador present took a bold step in accepting bitcoin and making it a legal tender in his country. It is not very easy to implement this by other presidents in their country because many countries have to abide by the international monetary policies and they are not independent to take such decisions. Also, there is always a risk of other countries banning them or imposing legal constraint if any small country tries to adopt bitcoin.

[wxa7115]

This might even position Argentina as a candidate for becoming the next country that makes Bitcoin legal tender.

When the president of El Salvador, Bukele, said that by 2022 there would be two countries that would follow in his footsteps, I thought of Argentina. Let's hope it is true and that other countries will join them. Let's see if the big guys learn and realize that the best way to fight inflation is the Bitcoin standard, but that's a long way off, I'm afraid.

It would be a completely different experiment in terms of scale if Argentina actually adopted bitcoin as a legal tender, after all El Salvador has roughly 7 million citizens while Argentina has 44 million citizens, that is more than 6 times the population of El Salvador.

Obviously not all of them use bitcoin but there is a strong community in Argentina due to the constant state of economic crisis in which they live, so it would be interesting to see how bitcoin behaves in a country of such scale.

[hyudien]

This might even position Argentina as a candidate for becoming the next country that makes Bitcoin legal tender.

When the president of El Salvador, Bukele, said that by 2022 there would be two countries that would follow in his footsteps, I thought of Argentina. Let's hope it is true and that other countries will join them. Let's see if the big guys learn and realize that the best way to fight inflation is the Bitcoin standard, but that's a long way off, I'm afraid.

Of course, that will be encouraging news not only for Argentineans, but we will also be very supportive here if the policy on legal tender in Argentina is actually realized. The year 2022 is what Bukele says is referring to Argentina. But which country is 1 more left? we will continue to wait for the development of a country that is suitable and can actually realize what you want to make Bitcoin a legal tender. "I don't want to go too far out on a limb [...] but there is no reason to say no." There has been a green light from the Argentine president, maybe just waiting for the right time. It is certain that the price of Bitcoin will increase if that happens.

[jaberwock]

I remember they also offer service to automatically convert portion of your wage to Bitcoin. If such service also available on Argentina, i expect fair amount of people will consider using Strike.

Surprisingly enough I’ve never heard of this one before. This is the first time that I’m getting to know about Strike , and when I checked on Google, I came across their website and from their website I can tell that they are only functioning in just a few countries; and these countries are the United States of America, El Salvador, and Argentina (which is the country that they have now launched as of recent).

The company has limited its services to just these three countries, and that is why they are not popular around the world. Cause if they were open to other countries as well, then I believe that I would have known about them by now.

[stompix]

Latin American nations are very adaptive with crypto market. Politics, economy in those nations are unsustainable so locals have to find more safe havens. They see opportunities in Bitcoin and crypto and maybe they see less risk compare to fiats.

I've been hearing this for 5 years and to date other than surveys claiming millions of owners there is zero proof of poeple there actually making a massive move towards crypto, let's not even star the whole nodes/atms/business debate, there is nothing there other than claims.
Rember how dash was saying people are using dash more than anything in Venezuela? That was 2017, where is dash now? Where are the hundreds of thousands of active users?

It would be a completely different experiment in terms of scale if Argentina actually adopted bitcoin as a legal tender, after all El Salvador has roughly 7 million citizens while Argentina has 44 million citizens, that is more than 6 times the population of El Salvador.

It's not just that is' bigger it also has double the GDP per capita and unlike Salvador, it doesn't get 20% of it from remittance, so in terms of an economy is close to 20 times bigger than Salvador.

But things are way more complicated in Argentina, with Salvador it was easy, they didn't have their own currency, they used the USD, it was simple to add a legal tender next to a somewhat stable currency, what are you going to do in their case? Besides, there is another problem, those bitcoins poeple are purchasing must come from the outside, and poeple will not want pesos but USD, so every exchange they will make will put more pressure on their currency. It's like importing goods when somebody wants USD, not your currency, and we all know what this triggered both in the 90s in Europe or exactly in South America at the end of the 70s.

[GreatArkansas]

Whether they will or wont adopt the Bitcoin standard is anyones guess but they will have
to do something in this current climate of rising inflation.

They have very little choices, their Peso is worthless and the US$ is not an option either so
Bitcoin is a real option especially as El Salvador is pioneering that use case ahead of
every other country.

I am afraid that they will become the next Zimbabwe or Venezuela (I forgot which one) I think that amidst rising inflation, their government intended to ban Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. When I saw that news before, it is really worst, when the solution is already there, they start to prevent it, but yeah they have also some reasons like the increase in scams/frauds.

[yazher]

This might even position Argentina as a candidate for becoming the next country that makes Bitcoin legal tender.

When the president of El Salvador, Bukele, said that by 2022 there would be two countries that would follow in his footsteps, I thought of Argentina. Let's hope it is true and that other countries will join them. Let's see if the big guys learn and realize that the best way to fight inflation is the Bitcoin standard, but that's a long way off, I'm afraid.

South American countries are looking at bitcoins in a positive view unlike the other countries in Asia where they choose to remain hostile about it. I think, there is no reason for them to back out of their decision since they saw the positive results from El Salvador which is their neighboring country. If the fact has been there all the time, then they need to accept it because if they don't make a move right now, they will only delaying their chance to take advantage and use bitcoin as one of their economic attractions.