Topic: [2021-08-21] Inside Afghanistan's cryptocurrency underground as the country plu - page 2. (Read 297 times)

It can be a financial savior if people prepare in time. The people of Hong Kong could've converted some assets to bitcoin to save them from the communists. The people of Taiwan should be protecting themselves this way.  Just as the people of Afghanistan have had the chance to do so.

Anything that needs a cross border asset transfer that can't be confiscated easily if someone doesn't know you have it.

Lots of money, lots of bribes, and corruption - and I believe a good portion of that money ended up in the private accounts of Americans, Afghans, and everyone else who used that country 20 years for their war-political games. It would be interesting to follow the trail of money coming from the US to Afghanistan, and these days I have read an article about all the absurdities of various projects being done in that country, and they have served literally nothing. I have to correct you about the amount, because since 2001, American taxpayers have paid more than $2 trillion for Operation Afghanistan, and they must be very proud of all those clowns who approved it.

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Why do you think the Taliban would embrace a new technology when it comes to people who are quite traditional and don’t allow some fundamental things like foreign music, movies, and beauty salons? Although it is true that they currently have a problem with payment services, because Western Union has currently blocked its service for Afghanistan, and $800 million in foreign remittances came through it.

I don't really want the Taliban to start using Bitcoin, do we want to link to terrorism, even though the US suddenly says they are no longer terrorists - what's next, an apology to kill Bin Laden and put Al-Qaeda on the list of friendly organizations?

What is everyone’s comment if Jack Mallers went to Afghanistan and talked to the Taliban leadership to bring his Strike technology to hyperdollarize the country through a stablecoin with bitcoin used only as the medium to send value similar to the original plan for El Salvador?

Lived in a 3rd world country before. Bitcoin cannot pay the bills there.


Because most of them are just civilians with no arms or combat experience (similar to Palestine vs Israel). Instead of building a state army Ghani just ran away with all the government cash.


Not really, you basically nailed it in your last paragraph. Nobody liked the former, corrupt, government so what happens is they see the Taliban terrorists as better than them (sadly) because they're the only choice they have.

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Also I don't like how he's still keeping his money on Binance when they have an impending withdrawal limit clusterbomb about to explode, I hope someone warned him about that.

So, bottom line, Binance is his "savior" not bitcoin as he could simply hold $ there, it makes no difference if he withdraws bitcoins he has nowhere to spend if he withdraws $ he must deal with the banks. It's again one of those tales where BTC is saving everyone that turns out to be quite different in reality.




"some" of the oil fields. Most of them are run owned by anything but American companies, from China and Russia, so 20 years later, let's simply drop this myth about Americans invading countries for their resources as it's getting pretty old. I love that the fact that everyone is talking about the riches of Iraq and Afghanistan but none of the ones in Korea or Vietnam, maybe because it doesn't fit the narrative, right?

OK.. I got it. But still don't understand one point. If they had to leave Afghanistan like this, then what was the point in spending around $1 trillion from the US tax revenue there? They spent a larger amount in Iraq ($2 to $3 trillion), but in this case at least some of the American corporations got control of the oil fields. But the Afghan involvement was a loss making proposition for the United States. They spent $1 trillion, and didn't got anything in return. And obviously, this loss will be covered by printing a few trillion USD worth of banknotes by the federal reserve.

I think it depends on Taliban's policy regarding Bitcoin, which we can't know yet. There are no words in the Quran that condemn Bitcoin, so it can turn out to be pretty halal.

I absolutely agree regarding those leaving the country, though. Right now they are trying to buy BTC with all their possessions.

Let someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Afghanistan is one of the countries where Binance is not supported - and even if the person in the article uses a VPN, it's only a matter of time before they discover it and block his account. In addition, I get the impression that Binance serves as his main storage, so the whole story loses a bit of meaning. I think that there is no crypto underground in Afghanistan, but only isolated cases, considering that according to the data from the beginning of 2021, only 8.64 million had access to the Internet (total population 39.38 million).

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The defeat of the Afghan national army actually took place much earlier, and it all started with US negotiations with the Taliban in which everything was actually agreed. For some reason known only to them, they decided to withdraw from the country and leave it to those they had fought against for 20 years.

The Afghan national army numbered 350,000 as per official sources, but most of these soldiers existed only in paper. The real strength was in five digits. And even these guys had no apatite to pick up fight with Taliban. When the Jihadis came, they just signed deals with them, handed over their weapons, equipment and uniform, and returned to their hometown. That is how Taliban managed to conquer all of Afghanistan in a matter of few weeks, with just tens of thousands of fighters. And the national currency will become devalued and many of the Afghans will be forced to use foreign currencies (Pakistani Rupee, Iranian Rial.etc), or cryptocurrency.

To a certain extent, yes, but not yet as a whole ^{[for now]}.

In addition to what NeuroticFish mentioned, a large portion of their population has already lost a lot in the last decade or so, and with little to no access to weapons, they can't fight back ^{[even if they want to, it'll never be a fair fight]}.

Despite having a volatile nature, in this case, it'd help them to preserve/retain their wealth's worth/value.

Based on the interviews I've watched recently, I have to respectfully disagree.

In a mostly cash based economy, Bitcoin cannot help much. Maybe a little in the bigger cities, but now, since the legislation is on a change, anything unusual is suspect and can cause troubles.
While Bitcoin is great for those who have economies "stored" in BTC and now leaving the country, yes. But the others... may not be able to benefit for quite a while from now on.



From what I've read the army was basically bought to not fight. The Taliban leaders are super rich. I guess that there was an anti-American narrative going on for many years too. A big chunk of the population may see this defeat as a victory; since the democracy was fragile and the corruption high, many won't lose much or, better said, won't understand what they've lost. It's... complicated.

Ironic in all of this is knowing that the population of Afghanistan outnumbers the Taliban terrorists, but the population does not unite to fight the terrorists and expects other countries to do the dirty work. i like bitcoin but in case of afghan problems the solution is in the hands of the afghan people, if the afghan people just watch the terrorists do what they want then nothing will change for the better anytime soon

Inside Afghanistan's cryptocurrency underground as the country plunges into turmoil

Farhan Hotak isn't your typical 22 year-old Afghan.

In the last week, he helped his family of ten flee the province of Zabul in southern Afghanistan and travel 97 miles to a city on the Pakistani border. But unlike others choosing to leave the country, once his relatives were in safe hands, Hotak then turned around and came back so that he could protect his family home – and vlog to his thousands of Instagram followers about the evolving situation on the ground in Afghanistan. 

He has also been keeping a very close eye on his crypto portfolio on Binance, as the local currency touches record lows and nationwide bank closures make it next to impossible to withdraw cash.

"In Afghanistan, we don't have platforms like PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle, so I have to depend on other things," said Hotak.

Afghanistan still mostly operates as a cash economy, so money in Hotak's crypto wallet won't help him put dinner on his table tonight, but it does give him peace of mind that some of his wealth is safeguarded against economic instability at home.

It also offers bigger promises down the road: Access to the global economy from inside Afghanistan, certain protections against spiraling inflation, and crucially, the opportunity to make a bet on himself and a future he didn't think was possible before learning about bitcoin.

"I have very, very, very limited resources to do anything. I'm interested in the crypto world, because I have earned a lot, and I see a lot of potential in myself that I can go further," he said.
Run on the banks
For many Afghans, this week has laid bare the worst-case scenario for a country running on legacy financial rails: A nationwide cash shortage, closed borders, a plunging currency, and rapidly rising prices of basic goods.

Read more https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/21/bitcoin-afghanistan-cryptocurrency-taliban-capital-flight.html

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I guess this has become a trend for struggling economies to turn to bitcoin when things hit rock-bottom, we have seen this in Zimbabwe, Venezuela etc and now Afghanistan,  we can say bitcoin is a financial savior.