The Situation in & of Venezuela
(derStandart.at - German Source)Venezuela was once the richest Country of South America thanks to its huge oil occurrences. But due to the immense price decrease of oil during the last years, its economy more or less broke down and turned the country into a highly indebted one instead.
For the people living in Venezuela it´s a challenge to survive these days, as the supermarket shelves are mostly empty and the countries own Currency Bolivar lost quite a bit of it´s value. To be precise it´s value decreased by more than 99% since 2012 and the international Monetary fund predicts an incredible inflation of 1.100% for this year
The Role of Bitcoin in Venezuela
Due to the immense inflation and the anyways pretty low salaries of less than 50$ per month some people started to mine cryptocurrencies for a living. For them its definitely the best Possibility right now to earn some money, as in comparison to fiat, cryptocurrencies are not affected by local events and therefore more or less immune to inflation.
Despite the fact that this might sound quite awesome for all crypto enthusiasts there is a catch for the people in Venezuela as Cryptocurrencies are strictly illegal and their use is punishable by imprisonment. By illegalizing virtual assets the government basically wants to prevent anyone from undercutting its capital controls. Nonetheless there are still many people mining Bitcoin or Ether in order to make a living for themselves and their families...
A Currency for the People
In my opinion the Situation in Venezuela shows once again, that the banking industry and/or governments are not able or better said not meant to be in control of our monetary system. Decentralized Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or many others are for sure the better choice as they are immune to local events or single individuals believes on how the world should turn...
(A Proud German Ambassador from & for Teamaustralia!)