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22% of their GDP is remittance based. The US treats them like shit since they have the USD as currency. God forbid a country wants more independence 70% of t

by dadoge 5y ago

22% of their GDP is remittance based. The US treats them like shit since they have the USD as currency. God forbid a country wants more independence 70% of the country has no bank, for Bitcoin all you need is the internet and a simple wallet app.

mc32 5y ago
All countries are free to have their own currency. People (rather than gov) default to dollars when the CB decides to turn on the printer indiscriminately or impose exchange restrictions. Back when I didn’t have money, opening a bank account was way cheaper than leasing a phone or buying one, so I don’t see how that makes sense other than you can do other things with the phone to amortize the cost.
bart_spoon 5y ago
So to be clear, a country where 70% of individuals are unable to get access to a bank account do have consistent access to the internet, a smart phone or specialized hardware for carrying a wallet app, and are fine with storing their wealth in a vehicle that consistently swings in value in the double digits within 24 hours? The delusion regarding crypto has reached parody levels. This reads like something out of an Onion article.
- dadoge 5y ago
  Read about the Bitcoin beach experiments there before jumping to conclusions like that https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lifestyle-technology-d30c52b39e16ef49e4b6342fdc885c92 https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lif...
  - Agamemnom 5y ago
    Not the OP, but I don't really get it. Maybe I'm missing something. They're basically creating cash accounts? Not quite a bank but... not far off it. I feel like a simpler solution is just mandating that banks are required to offer a basic cash account at a set maximum cost. It doesn't feel like the bitcoin part of the experiment is really doing anything special. It's all in a single app and all held by a holding org. They just track who has how much of the reserve. Not really the free and open bitcoin?
    - imtringued 5y ago
      Isn't it based on the lightning network? Does the wallet only connect to a single preapproved node?
emn13 5y ago
It's certainly an interesting social experiment. However, I'm curious how they want to prevent sales tax evasion. Or maybe they've just given up that fight? In any case, though I'm deeply skeptical that bitcoin has any value - a solid proof of concept in the small scale is certainly a good way to put it to the test.
imtringued 5y ago
I'd like to mention that remittances are great. For a poor country to catch up with a rich country there has to be a technology/skill/money transfer. Either the rich people are coming to the poor country (export oriented economy) or the poor people are coming to the rich country (remittance oriented economy). If your economy is suffering from high inflation then remittances are a balancing force that is fighting against high inflation because people abroad are exchanging their USD/EUR for the inflating currency and thereby support attempts to peg the inflating currency to USD/EUR which are currencies with low inflation.
- dadoge 5y ago
  A better solution for countries suffering high inflation is to not have high inflation. One option is Bitcoin El Salvador doesn’t have too much inflation since it uses USD. In their case, independence from USD is also a goal

by dadoge 5y ago

mc32 5y ago

All countries are free to have their own currency. People (rather than gov) default to dollars when the CB decides to turn on the printer indiscriminately or impose exchange restrictions. Back when I didn’t have money, opening a bank account was way cheaper than leasing a phone or buying one, so I don’t see how that makes sense other than you can do other things with the phone to amortize the cost.

bart_spoon 5y ago

So to be clear, a country where 70% of individuals are unable to get access to a bank account do have consistent access to the internet, a smart phone or specialized hardware for carrying a wallet app, and are fine with storing their wealth in a vehicle that consistently swings in value in the double digits within 24 hours? The delusion regarding crypto has reached parody levels. This reads like something out of an Onion article.

dadoge 5y ago
Read about the Bitcoin beach experiments there before jumping to conclusions like that https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lifestyle-technology-d30c52b39e16ef49e4b6342fdc885c92 https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-el-salvador-bitcoin-lif...
- Agamemnom 5y ago
  Not the OP, but I don't really get it. Maybe I'm missing something. They're basically creating cash accounts? Not quite a bank but... not far off it. I feel like a simpler solution is just mandating that banks are required to offer a basic cash account at a set maximum cost. It doesn't feel like the bitcoin part of the experiment is really doing anything special. It's all in a single app and all held by a holding org. They just track who has how much of the reserve. Not really the free and open bitcoin?
  - imtringued 5y ago
    Isn't it based on the lightning network? Does the wallet only connect to a single preapproved node?

emn13 5y ago

It's certainly an interesting social experiment. However, I'm curious how they want to prevent sales tax evasion. Or maybe they've just given up that fight? In any case, though I'm deeply skeptical that bitcoin has any value - a solid proof of concept in the small scale is certainly a good way to put it to the test.

imtringued 5y ago

I'd like to mention that remittances are great. For a poor country to catch up with a rich country there has to be a technology/skill/money transfer. Either the rich people are coming to the poor country (export oriented economy) or the poor people are coming to the rich country (remittance oriented economy). If your economy is suffering from high inflation then remittances are a balancing force that is fighting against high inflation because people abroad are exchanging their USD/EUR for the inflating currency and thereby support attempts to peg the inflating currency to USD/EUR which are currencies with low inflation.

dadoge 5y ago
A better solution for countries suffering high inflation is to not have high inflation. One option is Bitcoin El Salvador doesn’t have too much inflation since it uses USD. In their case, independence from USD is also a goal