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Argentina has always been a place that fleeces foreigners, and for the past 100 years it has fleeced it own citizens. 100 years ago Argentina was about as rich (GDP / capita) as the USA or France...
An above poster is right about tough exchange controls. A dollar brings (numbers approximate) some 13 pesos vs. the official rate of about eight. Think about that, Americans. Bring enough US dollars with you, change them right (quietly), and you pay for your trip. Cheap great steaks and wine too.
A BTC guy I know goes Argentina somewhat regularly, including to meet-ups there. He told me that among the technology-aware that BTC is growing strongly and
fetches a HUGE premium vs. here. Bring that flash drive, your laptop or your mobile phone w/
BTC...! And Happy Trails!
I've also read about the premium on Bitcoins in Argentina on the forum but had no idea someone could make such profit. That is a really interesting idea to travel and use coins to pay for your trip, thanks for the tip! How ironic that Argentina used to fleece foreigners and now finds itself in the same position. I hope this is good for bitcoin and Argentinians of lesser means can acquire btc without being fleeced because they will be under the most pressure.
The premium is based on the peso price of bitcoins when converting pesos at the government controlled exchange rate. It is not usually feasible to convert pesos to dollars at this exchange rate due to currency controls, especially with any large amounts of money.
If you were to use the "blackmarket" exchange rate for peso/dollar then the preium is really not there anymore. I think this is simply people selling their pesos for bitcoin so they would not need to experience additional massive inflation with the money they have saved.