Venezuela Breaks Bitcoin Trading Records with 500M Bolivars per Week

mrtksn wrote: post #3

That appears to be about 2000USD a week. A volume of two iPhones. edit: O.K. Apparently, that's not VEF but VES, so it should be about 8K iPhones or a volume of about 8 Million USD.

[deleted]

Re: Venezuela Breaks Bitcoin Trading Records with 500M Bolivars per Week

#5

Post by milesdyson_phd » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #3

That appears to be about 2000USD a week. A volume of two iPhones. edit: O.K. Apparently, that's not VEF but VES, so it should be about 8K iPhones or a volume of about 8 Million USD.

someone saw a big number and thought it would make a great headline..

Re: Venezuela Breaks Bitcoin Trading Records with 500M Bolivars per Week

#6

Post by wyldfire » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #3

That appears to be about 2000USD a week. A volume of two iPhones. edit: O.K. Apparently, that's not VEF but VES, so it should be about 8K iPhones or a volume of about 8 Million USD.

1143 BTC != 2000 USD

From [1]:

> They changed the color of the bank notes and increased their denomination. Then they said they would lop off three zeros. And when that didn’t seem enough, they announced they would cut off two more.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/world/americas/inflation-...

Re: Venezuela Breaks Bitcoin Trading Records with 500M Bolivars per Week

#7

Post by mrtksn » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 2:31 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #6

mrtksn wrote: post #3

That appears to be about 2000USD a week. A volume of two iPhones. edit: O.K. Apparently, that's not VEF but VES, so it should be about 8K iPhones or a volume of about 8 Million USD.

1143 BTC != 2000 USD From [1]: > They changed the color of the bank notes and increased their denomination. Then they said they would lop off three zeros. And when that didn’t seem enough, they announced they would cut off two more. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/world/americas/inflation-...

500,000,000 Bolivars == 2012USD

https://ibb.co/cDcbCp

Re: Venezuela Breaks Bitcoin Trading Records with 500M Bolivars per Week

#8

Post by lucozade » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 2:32 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #3

That appears to be about 2000USD a week. A volume of two iPhones. edit: O.K. Apparently, that's not VEF but VES, so it should be about 8K iPhones or a volume of about 8 Million USD.

I don't think so. The size in BTC is 1143 (according to the article) so this is probably in the new bolivars.

Still not sure whether a record in such an inflationary environment means very much but it's a non-trivial amount of BTC.

Re: Venezuela Breaks Bitcoin Trading Records with 500M Bolivars per Week

#9

Post by swaggyBoatswain » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 2:34 PM UTC

I was having a conversation yesterday with someone from Venezuela.

The new Soverign Bolivar is a weak desperate attempt at the Venezeulan government to combat runaway inflation with its normal currency, the Bolivar. Its inflation is just as bad as Zimbabawe, although devaluation isn't occuring due to moneyprinting, but rather low oil prices in 2015, which the Venezula economy mostly relied on. Its cheaper to use Bolivars as toilet paper than actual toiletpaper most likely.

Venezula is currently making an attempt at introducing a cryptocurrency of its own, but without the technical infrastructure or trust to back it.

I have been told that US dollars are treated as the formalized currency over there. But its illegal to trade US dollars to bollivards and can only be done in the black market, getting caught lands you in jail. Resorting to cryptocurrency/black markets makes more sense, as transactions are more secure and less volatile. IIRC mostly everyone still has access to smartphones/computers and potentially VPN's so trading makes more sense. Potentially as well local P2P wallet trading as well

I have known friend's families who have had lost everything due to government takeovers on their small businesses when Chavez originally took over. Maduro isn't doing the country any favors either

Re: Venezuela Breaks Bitcoin Trading Records with 500M Bolivars per Week

#10

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 2:34 PM UTC

lucozade wrote: post #8

mrtksn wrote: post #3

That appears to be about 2000USD a week. A volume of two iPhones. edit: O.K. Apparently, that's not VEF but VES, so it should be about 8K iPhones or a volume of about 8 Million USD.

I don't think so. The size in BTC is 1143 (according to the article) so this is probably in the new bolivars. Still not sure whether a record in such an inflationary environment means very much but it's a non-trivial amount of BTC.

[deleted]