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Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?

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Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?

#31

Post by X6S1x6Okd1st »

Finnucane wrote: post #15
joewaltman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that there are a number of challenges around actually utilizing crypto in places like this, you must also agree that some of crypto's unique characteristics are actually very compelling in these situations. For example, it is very expensive to get supplies or money into these 'camps'. The (relatively) immediate and peer-to-peer nature of cryptocurrency is perfect for this kind of help.

I do not have to agree that cryptotokens have any compelling characteristics.

I can lose citizenship, suffer from identity theft and lose all of my physical possessions and still recover what funds I have in cryptotokens as long as I can acquire an internet connected computer.

Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?

#32

Post by piano »

gfarah wrote: post #24

One group of people desperately in need is Venezuelans. You could circumvent the government restrictions and install a form of Exchange in neighboring towns of Colombia e.g Cúcuta. This would be more helpful than cash because 1. They can’t receive/withdraw money in Venezuela at this point reliably 2. They will know they have money saved for their journey out of Venezuela in Colombia and will take the decision to leav…

This is the n-th time I'm reading a suggestion to help Venezuela using Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies. I wonder whoever came up with this and whether there's any save reasoning behind it or if it's just a cryptonerd fantasy. Venezuela has a very low average internet connection speed, reportedly one of the lowest in the world. Sources I've found say it's no better than 2 Mbit/s. On that speed, downloading the current Bitcoin blockchain would take about 18 days.

With such an internet infrastracture, is the country even capable of maintaining an up-to-date connection to the bitcoin network?

Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?

#33

Post by andirk »

piano wrote: post #32
gfarah wrote: post #24

One group of people desperately in need is Venezuelans. You could circumvent the government restrictions and install a form of Exchange in neighboring towns of Colombia e.g Cúcuta. This would be more helpful than cash because 1. They can’t receive/withdraw money in Venezuela at this point reliably 2. They will know they have money saved for their journey out of Venezuela in Colombia and will take the decision to leav…

This is the n-th time I'm reading a suggestion to help Venezuela using Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies. I wonder whoever came up with this and whether there's any save reasoning behind it or if it's just a cryptonerd fantasy. Venezuela has a very low average internet connection speed, reportedly one of the lowest in the world. Sources I've found say it's no better than 2 Mbit/s. On that speed, downloading the current Bitcoi…

The full bitcoin blockchain from Satoshi's first transaction is huge, but that's for a "full node". A "lightweight node" needs much less https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Lightweight_node . The amount of internet connection needed is fairly minimal.

Ecuador moved to the US dollar in 2000 because their handling of their own currency wasn't working (and maybe because oil is often traded in USD?). Whether Venezuela uses BTC or some other currency sounds like a good idea at this point. The corrupt actors in their monetary system probably want people to keep using their bolivar though, because that's what the corrupt people stole, are holding, and printing.

Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?

#34

Post by Finnucane »

X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #31
Finnucane wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not have to agree that cryptotokens have any compelling characteristics.

I can lose citizenship, suffer from identity theft and lose all of my physical possessions and still recover what funds I have in cryptotokens as long as I can acquire an internet connected computer.

Having you tokens stolen is probably more likely than those other things.
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