Btc venezuela

The most recent came on Monday. Since September , the Bukele administration has purchased approximately 1, bitcoins, according to his tweets. Observers are left piecing together information from company press releases, government tweets and first-hand accounts. Instead of answering questions about its fuzzy math, the government attacks sceptics. There is no government watchdog agency to examine the purchase of bitcoin in the country, as the legislature dissolved the ethics and oversight units within its finance ministry under the direction of Bukele last year. From the start, hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions were lost, there were problems with the bitcoin app crashing and many other technical issues have persisted.

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Content:

• Venezuela Has Traded $250M BTC in 2019 (And Other Bitcoin Utility Data)
• The Secret, Dangerous World of Venezuelan Bitcoin Mining
• Bitcoin isn't a right-wing plot. It's inclusive by design despite what critics say.
• Venezuela’s “petro” undermines other cryptocurrencies – and international sanctions
• Top 3 Crypto Currencies to Hold Over BTC in 2022?
• Bitcoin (BTC) and Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte (VEF) Currency Exchange Rate Conversion Calculator
• What is the Petro? Venezuela's digital currency
• Binance P2P Adds Support for Venezuela Bolivar
• This country could soon make Bitcoin its official currency
• El Salvador bitcoin math does not add up: Analyst

WATCH RELATED VIDEO: Mitos y realidades sobre minar Bitcoin en Venezuela

Venezuela Has Traded $250M BTC in 2019 (And Other Bitcoin Utility Data)

You are now logged in. Forgot your password? Four years ago, Alberto's career prospects were bleak. The year-old Venezuelan had just graduated from college with a degree in computer science, but his nation's economy was already shredded by 13 years of socialism.

Alberto and Luis—whose names have been changed for their own safety—teamed up to start a clothing business, but the venture floundered. He read about it on an Argentinian gaming forum. An item posted to the site described a process of getting paid in a new internet-based currency denominated in strings of numbers and letters, in exchange for running computations on a home computer.

His parents said that the whole thing sounded like a Ponzi scheme. Alberto, however, sensed that his life was about to change. Four years later, his country is embroiled in a humanitarian crisis. The supermarket shelves are bare. Children are fainting from hunger in their classrooms. A mob recently broke into the Caracas zoo to eat a horse. He's part of Venezuela's rapidly growing digital currency mining community.

Faced with growing threats of violent crime and government extortion, its members interface through secret online groups and take extreme precautions to hide their activities. In a country where cash has lost much of its value, and food and other necessities are dangerously scarce, bitcoins are providing many Venezuelans with a lifeline.

The same socialist economics that caused the country's meltdown has made the energy-intensive process of bitcoin mining wildly profitable—but also dangerous. Created in by the pseudonymous computer programmer Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin is digital money that's tracked via a public ledger and controlled by no central bank, corporation, or individual. It's a peer-to-peer currency running on the internet, which severely limits the potential for government interference. Bitcoin mining is a process that provides the computational power and security required to run this decentralized currency network.

To start mining, anyone can purchase a special type of internet-connected computer that runs difficult computations at high speeds. Though it has almost nothing in common with mining for gold, the end result is the same: Participants are awarded with currency—in this case, newly minted bitcoins.

It's become a popular vocation in Venezuela in part because the country's economy is in such dire shape. Even computer scientists and skilled technical professionals can't reliably find work. Next year, the unemployment rate is expected to climb above 20 percent. But the main factor driving Venezuelans to take up bitcoin mining is a price control put in place by the socialist government: Electricity is virtually free. Bitcoin mining requires a lot of computer processing power, which in turn requires a lot of electricity.

In most of the world, utility bills eat into the cost of mining. In places where energy prices are high, it can even be a losing proposition. But in Venezuela, the government has turned bitcoin mining into something akin to owning a home mint.

Price controls, of course, invariably lead to shortages, and the country's frequent electricity outages create constant headaches for bitcoin miners. But they've also come up with workarounds, such as locating their operations in industrial zones, where electricity service is generally uninterrupted. Since bitcoin mining is a process, in effect, of converting the value of electricity into currency, Venezuelan miners are engaging in a form of arbitrage: They're buying an underpriced commodity and turning it into bitcoin to make a profit.

The miners have turned socialism against itself. In the process, they've gained access to a currency with far more purchasing power abroad than the government-issued bolivar , which trades for about one thirtieth of a penny on the black market.

As the local saying goes, Venezuelan money is "no good for buying toilet paper or even wiping your ass. Bitcoin's potential as an alternative to government-issued currency is still hotly debated outside of Venezuela.

But in a country lacking food and basic health care, there's nothing theoretical about it. Bitcoin is helping to keep pantry shelves full and medicine cabinets stocked, making life tolerable—if not always easy—in the midst of a socialist hell. This would be impossible with bolivars because almost no one outside of Venezuela accepts them as payment, and the growing scarcity of U.

Though the Seattle-based retail giant doesn't accept bitcoins itself, plenty of intermediary companies do. Alberto purchases Amazon gift cards through the cryptocurrency-friendly website eGifter , using software to mask the location of his computer, and then routes his orders through a Miami-based courier service. Alberto's mining partner Luis, 27, buys electronics, perfumes, soaps, and shampoo on Amazon. Recently he purchased a wallet, a jigsaw puzzle, and a Tommy Hilfiger shirt.

He spent three and a half months in a detention center, sharing a square-foot cell with 12 other men. Alberto and Luis are typical of the growing number of Venezuelans using bitcoin to put food on the table. Some are even using it to purchase goods from foreign suppliers to keep their businesses running.

In more than a dozen interviews, members of the community—some of whom are miners, and others who simply use the currency—described how this technology has alleviated daily hardships, making it possible for them to live reasonably comfortable lives despite the disintegrating society. Many bitcoin users live in constant fear of being discovered and agreed to speak with Reason only on the condition of anonymity. Every three weeks, he also loads up his card with bitcoins and crosses into Colombia to stock up on provisions.

He's the proprietor of a small cellphone and computer repair shop located in a mall. When his suppliers ran out of inventory because of trade restrictions, his store was on the verge of going under. Then a friend introduced him to bitcoin. His mother has chronic liver disease, and the medication she needs to stay alive is no longer sold in Venezuela. With bitcoins, he's able to purchase the drug from foreign suppliers. Bitcoin miners may have unique access to foreign goods, but they also live under constant threat.

SEBIN officers hunt for bitcoin miners and then extort them under the threat of arrest and criminal prosecution. He purchased four computers from China specially engineered for the purpose and invited three friends to do the same. That afternoon he was taken into custody.

Two days later, the state-controlled Venezuelan Television Corporation ran a story that referred to bitcoin as a tool of "cybercriminals" who, among other things, "evade policies on foreign exchange.

The charge of "electricity theft" does relate to an ongoing debate in the bitcoin community: Is mining a waste of power? Even if it's not, should it be happening in Venezuela, of all places? The country suffers from severe power shortages. Rather than raise prices to throttle demand, the government has resorted to cutting supply selectively. In April, four-hour daily blackouts were mandated in some regions of the country, and public employees were ordered to work two-day weeks to reduce power consumption in government office buildings.

One of the many advantages of bitcoin is that it's free from price controls. Hugo Chavez imposed a disastrous fixed-exchange system in , and today the black market rate is nearly 3, bolivars per dollar.

But bitcoin mining is arguably the best possible use of electricity in Venezuela because it's providing the country with what it needs most—a relatively stable currency that retains its value across borders. It's not just miners who benefit. By routinely selling some of their bitcoin winnings for bolivars to buy food on the black market, miners make it possible for non-miners to trade bolivars for bitcoins and also participate in this new economy.

As more Venezuelans have come to rely on bitcoin, the country's miners have built their own communities for trading, selling, and sharing information. After discovering bitcoin in , Alberto shared the news at tech meetups and even spoke at conferences. When the security situation grew worse, bitcoin miners, including Alberto, moved underground. Some of that underground activity now happens on a Facebook group called " Bitcoin Venezuela ," which was started in May by Randy Brito, a thenyear-old libertarian living in Spain.

Brito, whose parents fled Venezuela when he was 14, initially wanted the group to serve as an educational forum, but once "mining went viral," he says, it became all about commerce and helping users "get through their harsh lives. Most bitcoin users in Venezuela aren't libertarians, Brito says, but it doesn't matter because libertarian principles are built into the technology.

Bitcoin is highly resistant to government interference, since it's the first widely accepted digital currency that can be traded without clearing the transaction through a third-party intermediary, such as a credit card-company or a bank. It's like cash in this regard, but bitcoin has a significant advantage over paper currency: It can be exchanged through the internet, so it makes no difference if a buyer and seller live on opposite sides of the world.

The Facebook group serves as an online bazaar featuring ads for cars, bikes, boats, liquor, protein supplements, soap, smartphones, hiking boots, athletic gear, video games, and toilet paper.

Its 7,plus members can also buy pharmaceuticals from abroad. But the most common items listed are computer parts and mining equipment. Since bitcoin has no physical properties, it's also harder to steal. Venezuela still has a robust black market in U. New members require permission to join, and the moderators use a secondary Facebook group to filter possible candidates before inviting them in. Brito still encourages users to keep any identifiable information off their profiles, and some members of the group—including Alberto—access it through a secondary Facebook account registered under a fake name.

Current members can invite new people to join. I was added by a source. The moderators then examine the Facebook profiles of the invitees before allowing them in. Venezuela's bitcoin community isn't entirely underground, however. CriptoNoticias , a public online news source published out of Caracas, is devoted to covering the bitcoin and blockchain space. The site, which launched in April , is primarily focused on industry news outside the country, and it rarely covers Venezuela's growing mining community.

But there are occasional stories on local issues—including a pointed rebuttal to claims in the state-owned press that bitcoin is merely a tool for cybercriminals. One of the many advantages bitcoin has over the bolivar is that it's free from price controls. Hugo Chavez imposed a disastrous fixed-exchange system in , and today the state's most advantageous rate is set at bolivars per dollar, while the black market rate is nearly 3, bolivars per dollar.

This discrepancy has led to exponential growth at Venezuela's largest cryptocurrency exchange, SurBitcoin.

The site makes it easy to trade bolivars for bitcoins, which can then be sold for dollars. By using bitcoins as an intermediary currency, it's possible to beat the black market rate with less hassle and risk.

Many Venezuelan miners also rely on SurBitcoin to trade their revenues for bolivars, which they use to cover expenses like rent and food. The SurBitcoin exchange operates out of an office 2, miles from Caracas, in a converted shipping and manufacturing complex overlooking the Brooklyn waterfront.

The Secret, Dangerous World of Venezuelan Bitcoin Mining

Admin 4 days ago Technology Leave a comment 74 Views. The report indicates that, from January 10, to the same date in , bitcoin has risen by a ratio of 1 to , while goods and services went from 1 to This calculation, which is expressed in bolivars, reflects that inflation in Venezuela has been slightly higher than the increase in the price of bitcoin. It precisely indicates that bitcoin has suffered a purchase loss of

Bitcoin isn't a right-wing plot. It's inclusive by design despite what critics say.

This site uses cookies to deliver website functionality and analytics. If you would like to know more about the types of cookies we serve and how to change your cookie settings, please read our Cookie Notice. By clicking the "I accept" button, you consent to the use of these cookies. In order to deal with ever-growing issues with hyperinflation, the country of Venezuela may soon decide to adopt a new currency: Bitcoin. Osorio went on to explain that Venezuela is more than a week behind on a substantial bond interest payment. In August, Venezuela was listed as the top country with a failing currency ahead of Colombia and Argentina, with all ten countries listed expected to turn to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in the near future. If it does completely shift, however, it could be used as another selling point to get people to adopt the biggest crypto out there. Kyree Leary , Writer for Futurism,.

Venezuela’s “petro” undermines other cryptocurrencies – and international sanctions

The circular city — laid out like a coin — will be built at the base of the Conchagua volcano in the eastern region of La Union, where geothermal energy from the volcano is expected to power bitcoin mining. The city plans to have everything from an airport to housing to commercial real estate, and apart from a 10 percent sales tax, there will be no income, capital gains, property, payroll, or municipal taxes. According to Bukele, the idea is to create a city that would serve as a shining example of what is possible in the 21st century, having specifically referenced the need for nations and leaders to build modern-day versions of Alexandria. But why is it being called Bitcoin City? Developed by Blockstream on the Liquid Network, the bonds will be US dollar-denominated over 10 years.

Top 3 Crypto Currencies to Hold Over BTC in 2022?

Faced with hyperinflation and borders closed to humanitarian aid, Venezuelans are turning to cryptocurrency as a workaround of government control of money. Aid providers say digital currencies are becoming an important route to bypassing corruption or repressive regimes. Digital currencies have no shortage of critics, who point to their use in scams, theft and money laundering. Digital currencies like bitcoin and ethereum are being used to protect against Venezuelan inflation, which could reach 10 million percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Unlike other charities that accept cryptocurrency donations, but then convert them to fiat currencies, GiveCrypto holds most of its assets in digital currencies, which exposes it to the fluctuations of the market.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte (VEF) Currency Exchange Rate Conversion Calculator

Tucker Carlson , Ted Cruz and Newt Gingrich tout it as digital property, useful for electrical grids, and as a reserve asset. Bitcoin increasingly replaces gold in ads on conservative talk radio. One could be forgiven for thinking bitcoin is a creature by and for the political right. Yes, prominent Democrats still describe bitcoin as unregulated, environmentally costly , risky and better for terrorists and gamblers than ordinary citizens. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested it could displace the mighty dollar and destabilize democracies everywhere.

What is the Petro? Venezuela's digital currency

Venezuela is in the midst of one of the largest economic disasters in recent history. Rampant inflation over percent in the past year, food and medical shortages, and political turmoil have left the country in a perilous state. The appeal of cryptocurrency adoption over the past decade stems from its underlying technology.

Binance P2P Adds Support for Venezuela Bolivar

RELATED VIDEO: How Bitcoin Became El Salvador's Currency

You are now logged in. Forgot your password? Four years ago, Alberto's career prospects were bleak. The year-old Venezuelan had just graduated from college with a degree in computer science, but his nation's economy was already shredded by 13 years of socialism.

This country could soon make Bitcoin its official currency

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El Salvador bitcoin math does not add up: Analyst

Originally posted here. By: guido. El Salvador has become the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender. The International Monetary Fund is calling for the decision to […].