Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
1–10 of 98 posts
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#2This is why I think a lot of VCs are investing in the Bitcoin space, and I why I think there is an extremely bright future for the currency. Many economists (i.e., Paul Krugman) can't get past the idea that a currency needs to be backed by a state to be a real currency. That's the most ridiculous claim ever...currencies existed long before nation-states ever did. Events like this are proving those economists wrong.
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#3This is why I think a lot of VCs are investing in the Bitcoin space, and I why I think there is an extremely bright future for the currency. Many economists (i.e., Paul Krugman) can't get past the idea that a currency needs to be backed by a state to be a real currency. That's the most ridiculous claim ever...currencies existed long before nation-states ever did. Events like this are proving those economists wrong.
> Paul Krugman [...] can't get past the idea that a currency needs to be backed by a state to be a real currency.
I've not read everything he's said on bitcoin, but I've never seen him explicitly make that argument. Do you have a link?
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#4This is why I think a lot of VCs are investing in the Bitcoin space, and I why I think there is an extremely bright future for the currency. Many economists (i.e., Paul Krugman) can't get past the idea that a currency needs to be backed by a state to be a real currency. That's the most ridiculous claim ever...currencies existed long before nation-states ever did. Events like this are proving those economists wrong.
Agreed. This is where bitcoin matters. It isn't that big a deal to those of us who live in a free country with a stable government, a stable currency and a readily available banking system. But to people who don't have those things, bitcoin offers freedom and prosperity.
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#5That's interesting, but I'm pretty sure a physical dollar bill is more useful. A physical dollar can be used to make purchase stuff locally without a computer, and is easily accepted for a sale. In the example given in the article, the only reason the first guy in the article uses bitcoins is to buy an Amazon gift certificate (denominated in dollars) to buy stuff mail order.
The only real lesson to be had from the Venezuela situation is that far-left governments suck at basic economics and math. There is no lesson to be had about bitcoins in this situation.
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#6This is why I think a lot of VCs are investing in the Bitcoin space, and I why I think there is an extremely bright future for the currency. Many economists (i.e., Paul Krugman) can't get past the idea that a currency needs to be backed by a state to be a real currency. That's the most ridiculous claim ever...currencies existed long before nation-states ever did. Events like this are proving those economists wrong.
A currency just has to be backed by something. Money laundering is something. Drug trafficking is something. The fact that Venezuelans are using it to launder money is not "proving those economists wrong", it's making those economists wrong.
And the more mainstream it gets, and the more tracked it gets, and the harder it gets to buy what you want with it without leaving some sort of record, the more it reverts to its natural value of zero.
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#7FWIW Venezuelans on reddit and other internet forums are very skeptic about this. They say it's just a more convoluted way to get USD.
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#8Not long ago, it was the Chinese who were apparently using Bitcoin to bypass currency controls, and that was to be the 'big thing' that would propel bitcoin on to greatness.
Now that effect seems to have petered out and the hype has switched countries... why will it be any different this time?
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#9This is why I think a lot of VCs are investing in the Bitcoin space, and I why I think there is an extremely bright future for the currency. Many economists (i.e., Paul Krugman) can't get past the idea that a currency needs to be backed by a state to be a real currency. That's the most ridiculous claim ever...currencies existed long before nation-states ever did. Events like this are proving those economists wrong.
I agree with you in that this is an excellent and demonstrably valuable use case for Bitcoin - we saw the same thing happen in Cyprus with the protests there.
I don't think I agree about this meaning there will be a bright future for it. Venezuela and Cyprus are unstable, extremely corrupt governments. Bitcoin thrives in that environment. A bet on Bitcoin seems to be a bet that those kinds of environments will endure and are inevitable, which is vaguely reminiscent of 2nd Amendmenters and the way they want their guns because it'll help them defend against the "corrupt, evil police state".
The problem is that America isn't actually a corrupt, evil police state and neither is it truly on the verge of imploding. I would bet against Bitcoin, at least in America, for this reason.
Re: Venezuelans turn to Bitcoins to bypass currency controls
#10Bitcoin isn't a bad way to save money if you can't set up an offshore bank account. Sure beats the local currency.