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Venezuelans Flock To Cryptocoins Amid Spiralling Inflation (bloomberg.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the real-world-problems dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Bloomberg: Demand for digital coins is soaring in Venezuela amid an escalating political crisis that has protesters demanding that President Nicolas Maduro step down. Inflation has spiraled to the triple digits, debasing the bolivar and depleting savings, while citizens struggle to find everything from food to medicine on store shelves. "If you're going to be in something volatile, you might as well be in something that's volatile and rising than volatile and falling," says Ryan Taylor, chief executive officer of crypto currency Dash Core, the third-largest digital coin by number of transactions... Bitcoin trading volume in Venezuela jumped to $1.3 million this week, about double the amount that changed hands two months ago, according to LocalBitcoins.com...

Venezuela's currency has become nearly worthless in the black market, where it takes more than 6,000 bolivars to buy $1, while bitcoin surged 53 percent in the past month alone. But it's not just about shielding against the falling bolivar, as some Venezuelans are using crypto currencies to buy and sell everyday goods and services, according to Jorge Farias, the CEO of Cryptobuyer.

3 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Venezuela is Heading for Civil War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's only a matter of time now. Maduro has armed tens of thousands of militia gang members. The criminals are also armed and looting and killing at will. People are starving to death and will eventually face a choice between a slow lingering death or going down fighting. It will happen quick once it gets started. Mobs will break into the arsenals and loot the weapons. Military units will face a choice of whose side to join, as they did in Syria. Maduro has made many enemies who will take the opportunity to settle scores and lots of hungry young men with nothing to do and no prospects will relish the chance to bleed the elites. All that's needed now is a spark and Maduro is sure to bungle into one sooner or later.

    1. Re:Venezuela is Heading for Civil War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > It's only a matter of time now.

      I'm not sure you're giving a warning or just implying this will bring some kind of closure.

      If it's the latter, it won't work. War never works.

      Maduro is getting cornered and can't see a way out; the bloodbath solution will bring a heavy toll, don't doubt that for a second. Right now, IMHO, the best solution is for Maduro and his gang to seek some kind of asylum to live safely in a neutral place -- and leave Venezuela to be reconstructed, because it's already half destroyed. In this day and age, it is unacceptable to profit the occasion to conquer a feeble country -- at least for self-respecting nations -- but we must be cautious about opportunists.

      Venezuela is like a sick person on a bed: we'd better take care of her/him; if nothing else, for fear of whatever diseases may spread from that place. I mean it literally (i.e., plagues) and figuratively (new political guerilla) .

      That left vs right, communism vs capitalism BS is over. Stop that, please! Lives are being lost by the minute.

      The world is different now, communists want free market and capitalists want closed walls. We don't help Venezuela because we're nice folks, we should help it because it might turn into a nightmare overnight.

      I'm not advocating a violation of Venezuela sovereignty, but a strong diplomatic initiative might create a solution which is palatable to all stakeholders. I believe/hope that such thing is still possible.

  2. This is a good use of Cryptocurrency by locater16 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Right now a lot of people use Bitcoin as a gold substitute. It's valuable because it's (relatively) secure and rare, exactly why people used gold for so long. But like gold, it's not actually practical for using as an everyday means of exchange.

    Currency exchanges take too long to verify (half an hour or more), cost too much to do so (minor transactions can cost more to verify than exchanged hands), and the whole system sucks up a lot of power. While cryptocurrency as a valid backstop against incompetent governments is a great idea, a more technically proficient cryptocurrency, better designed for everyday transactions, would be a huge boon.