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It opens with a very strong claim. Bitcoin is a lifeline for citizens and residents of Venezuela. It actually does seem harmful to frame “pro-crypto” in those

It opens with a very strong claim. Bitcoin is a lifeline for citizens and residents of Venezuela. It actually does seem harmful to frame “pro-crypto” in those unlikely terms. Or in other words, how does inventing an abstraction layer on top of your original failed currency, obtained by burning fossile fuels, help the average Venezuelan trying to buy food and sundries? It seems more like slapping a bandaid on a sucking chest wound and claiming that you’ve helped the patient. I’m not interested in the “crypto space” and what it needs, especially in a discussion of an article purporting to describe what the people of Venezuela need. Unless those two things overlap to the degree that it’s a “lifeline” for those people, it reeks of the usual pumping of cryptocurrency that seems to pervade the “space” in question. Bmelton: Between the distortion of the original Economist article used in this article, and this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16783272 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16783272 I’d say that’s not what this is about. This currency is just a laundry for dollar bills.

bmelton 8y ago
I agree with (some of) your original post in that Venezuela is an ailing nation at best, but at the same time, it shouldn't take too much imagination to see that if you can convert cheap (in Bolivars) electricity into currency that is accepted at a much better exchange rate outside of the country that one can have supplies shipped in. Moreover, we know that in currency crises, black and gray markets spring up like wildfire, so it takes even less imagination to picture a proprietor starting to prefer crypto currencies in exchange for tangible goods vs. the already bad -- and more importantly, still declining local currency. Despite the volatility of crypto currencies, and the fact that they've been on a hard slide lately, it's still a better depreciation than hanging on to Bolivars.

bmelton 8y ago

I agree with (some of) your original post in that Venezuela is an ailing nation at best, but at the same time, it shouldn't take too much imagination to see that if you can convert cheap (in Bolivars) electricity into currency that is accepted at a much better exchange rate outside of the country that one can have supplies shipped in. Moreover, we know that in currency crises, black and gray markets spring up like wildfire, so it takes even less imagination to picture a proprietor starting to prefer crypto currencies in exchange for tangible goods vs. the already bad -- and more importantly, still declining local currency. Despite the volatility of crypto currencies, and the fact that they've been on a hard slide lately, it's still a better depreciation than hanging on to Bolivars.