71–80 of 98 posts
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The dollar is around 99% down off its peak. So? Yo just chose some arbitrary timeline that bitcoin looks bad at. That's bad logic.
Not year-on-year it's not.
I am from Venezuela. In case you are wondering how terrible the Venezuelan economy is right now, think about this: Our biggest denomination bill (100 Bolivares) is not enough to buy $1 USD [1]; in january 2013 you could buy $14 USD for the same amount. Also think about the fact that Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world [2]. I'm not even going to try to explain the currency exchange and control m…
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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…
> America isn't actually a corrupt, evil police state I won't say evil, because I think most problems in government are attributable to incompetence, but I think it's a plenty corrupt police state.
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Are there no alternative currencies in Venezuela (like the Palma in Brazil)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Palmas
I don't know if they have an alternative currency but there are some community banks similar to that one operating there ( http://www.bankomunales.com/ (in Spanish)).
"Fundefir created a model of self-managed financing called Bankomunales con K, based on the exclusive use of funds from members of community groups, as a source of financing."
"Currently, there are around 150 groups, or Bankomunales, in 9 Venezuelan states."
I am from Venezuela. In case you are wondering how terrible the Venezuelan economy is right now, think about this: Our biggest denomination bill (100 Bolivares) is not enough to buy $1 USD [1]; in january 2013 you could buy $14 USD for the same amount. Also think about the fact that Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world [2]. I'm not even going to try to explain the currency exchange and control m…
How did Veneuzuela end up like this ?
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How did Veneuzuela end up like this ?
Communism.
The reason Venezuela is like it is now is an incredibly complex subject spanning several decades of bad governments, corruption, oil money dependency, social inequality, etc ... accelerated by a particularly disastrous current government.
That'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 Ve…
Is there lack of computers? Everyone has a smartphone these days. And bitcoin works over SMS, so you don't even need a smartphone.
In Venezuela? Are you sure?
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How did Veneuzuela end up like this ?
Communism.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/01/venezuela-national...
I am from Venezuela. In case you are wondering how terrible the Venezuelan economy is right now, think about this: Our biggest denomination bill (100 Bolivares) is not enough to buy $1 USD [1]; in january 2013 you could buy $14 USD for the same amount. Also think about the fact that Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world [2]. I'm not even going to try to explain the currency exchange and control m…
I am from Venezuela. In case you are wondering how terrible the Venezuelan economy is right now, think about this: Our biggest denomination bill (100 Bolivares) is not enough to buy $1 USD [1]; in january 2013 you could buy $14 USD for the same amount. Also think about the fact that Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world [2]. I'm not even going to try to explain the currency exchange and control m…
Price is everything.
Sure, people might not be willing to buy Bolivares in exchange for bitcoins according to the "official"/government set dollar price, but what about at 74,000 Bolivares per bitcoin, 74,000,000 Bolivares per bitcoin, 784 Bolivares per bitcoin? That's how a market forms.
Once upon a time (only a handful years ago), no one were willing to sell US Dollars for bitcoins either. Until there was, and now many people are willing to sell bitcoins for dollars.
The only thing that might prevent this from happening is regulation, which I imagine will be imposed in countries that already have USD controls, if people start using bitcoins to circumvent capital controls on a larger scale. But that's not really a problem of bitcoin, but rather the problem of an oppressive government.