Topic: Bitcoin To Transform Argentina (Read 1873 times)

I don't think the chances of BTC going back up to $2k aren't that bad, actually. At least not in the long run. If a stable BTC economy and use cases develop BTCs will be pretty rare after the next block reward halving or two!

I've been there too. Parts of Argentina are breathtakingly beautiful and I wish you all felicity for your trip if anyone here goes.

If you plan on using dollar denominated credit cards you will also pay a fine or tax for using it. Argentina wants to see the world currency, the USD, knocked off its pedestal and be replaced with a basket of currencies which includes its own within their own trade agreements, but its unclear that they will succeed at this as we can se... China conducts trade using a basket of currencies which also includes gold and silver.

The remote possibility of Bitcoin going up by 1000% is insignificant here. People want to dump the Argentine Peso, as it is an unstable currency. They are hoarding foreign currencies such as USD, EUR and CHF exactly for the same reason. Now if you want to convince them to hoard BTC instead of USD, then you will have to prove that BTC is more stable than the USD.

The volatility of Bitcoin is better than the death spiral of the Argentine Peso. 

Argentina is a perfect spot with all the variables to benefit from BTC: A past of bank bailouts and shitty goverments, and a future that looks like its going to repeat itself.

The major part of the Bitcoin tradings are against the Chinese yuan, not the US dollar. This in an ilusion bringed by the price tickers. The price being related to a specific fiat currency doesn't protect you from depreciation of other currencies. Also, the US dollar price in the Argentine parallel market dropped against the peso in the last 6 months, so if you bought US dollar in the parallel market 6 months ago, you have less pesos now. And the inflation problem didn't stop, although it had a disacceleration.

The good of bitcoin is that its price is related to USD so you can save from depreciation,which is a big problem in argentina and some south america countries.
And they can even use it to buy and sell products and services!

You didn't get the point.

The Argentine foreign exchange market is very bizarre. There are a lot of restrictions about obtaining dollars and a lot of the different types of exchanges. You have the commercial dollar, the savings dollar, the dollar for tourism and cards, the soya dollar, the stock exchange dollar, and finally, the parallel dolar (also known as blue dollar).

If you need to import something or do anything which envolves sending money outside the country, you have to fill a lot of declarations, cross the fingers, and wait some months. For some reason, the Argentine central bank is currently holding about 5 billion US dollars which belongs to the suppliers of these importations. These politcs results in the scarcity of imported goods and creates a lot of trouble to Argentina's economy. If you're just looking to buy something over the internet with your credit card, the amount can't exceed the 50 USD.

Also, the exchange rate is very volatile. Just scroll down and play with this graphic: http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1782716-el-dolar-blue-subio-a-1245-y-la-brecha-vuelve-a-superar-el-40-por-ciento

BTW, you can see what happened with the Argentina's money supply in the last years...
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/argentina/money-supply-m0

So, there a lot of 100 pesos banknotes, when the lower bills are more scarce, which hurts the divisibility of the currency. The bank's ATM only have the highest denomination bills. Also, transportation of big amounts is a nightmare.

Bitcoin can be more volatile, but some properties of it as currency may be working better than the Argentine peso. And at some point the government will need to end this manipulation of the exchange market, which will lead to a new abrupt devaluation of the peso and serious impacts on prices. There's a breach of 40% between the commercial dollar and the parallel dollar. Argentina's Central Bank lost more than 20 biillion USD in reserves since the currency controls started, in late 2011. This is not sustainable.

But if Bitcoin volatility worries you, gold can be a good option.

Bitcoin could also go up 100%-1000% again. The risk you take investing in an asset like Bitcoin is always a high one, sure. But the advantage to be free of political and economical factors (to a certain degree) is a big one for many people!

OK... I'll tell them that the Argentine peso is collapsing, and therefore they should use BTC. In the past 15 months, the Peso has lost some 40% of its value, in comparison with USD. Now take a look at BTC. It has lost 75% of its value. Now how will I be able to convince an ordinary person?

Hope it can help them

Well tell that to people threatened by hyper-inflation and the fear that their economy or even country is collapsing. It's no wonder people flee into material assets in those times. Bitcoin can be an alternative or a solution here, we'll see!

How can Bitcoin gain traction, when its own exchange rates (versus the USD, EUR and CHF) are quite volatile? I'd say that Bitcoin is even more volatile than the Argentine Peso.

Bitcoin works wonders when you are trying to avoid two digit inflation like they hace in arg.

From what I know, Bitcoin is almost unregulated in Argentina. You can buy bitcoins internally without any major issue. There are also some exchanges too.


A proof of my theory?
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1782212-un-billete-de-500-pesos-no-todo-lo-contrario-suprimamos-el-de-100
https://translate.google.com.br/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=pt-BR&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lanacion.com.ar%2F1782212-un-billete-de-500-pesos-no-todo-lo-contrario-suprimamos-el-de-100&edit-text=

PS: the article was written by an oppositor of the current government

That is great news, I always like reading stories about the continued expansion of the bitcoin userbase. Bitcoin is going to be a continued global phenomenon. Dispite minor set backs, here and there.

That's impressive for Argentina, nice article, we need more counties to start making Btc more main stream instead of depending on a centralized power controlled currency that may collapse at any time.

In this case you can really see what happens when a society is in need of a stable currency. In need of something their FIAT currency can't provide. It's interesting to see if Bitcoin can gain traction over there.

i lived in Argentina for almost 1 year and know that BTC will be very helpful.
do you already have an exchange where you can buy/sell BTCs through (internal) wire transfer or the actual legislation forbids it?

It's great to hear this.
I know that economic and financial situation in Argentina is no so good so BTC surely can help in long term.
Their banks can collapse to, national currency also, so if their government can recognize real potential of BTC, they can become first country in the world to accept BTC as official currency.
This will make them financially independent from world financial institutions (World bank) and give new, fresh, start to the whole country.
We really need one country to start, and other countries will follow as well