It helps a small group of people as store of value, just like how it does so in other countries with stronger fiat currencies. What really helps them is the dollar because of its store of value characteristics and easy to spend nature.
One dollar notes are a commodity on their own in shaky countries. Aside from increased (very likely speculative) demand on LBC there is nothing really indicating that people there are interested in Bitcoin.
Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to see Bitcoin gain more actual adoption as store of value and currency, but people tend to read an increased demand on platforms such as LBC way too far. I need to see metrics based on actual use.
Hello from Shaky country. I have seen people paying using USD banknotes, they get accepted at whatever "street price" the shop feels like, plus your change is in the local garbage fiat. Very often there are too few USD banknotes for change, and coins are nonexistent.
OTC here is out of the question, and we happen to use LBC way too much (their fees are outrageous, especially wallet transfer fees that can't be adjusted), but such is life in shakyland.
To me it is much more convenient to just exchange whatever garbage fiat will be needed for the day. This has caused me some troubles, but there is no choice. If you change too much into garbage fiat, it loses its value too quickly so you want the most to remain in bitcoin for the longest time possible.
USD are very hard to find, and to trade, and because they are OTC trades, way too risky. think that people here earn about 5 USD a month for a full time job, how much of a target you become to criminals if you happen to have a 100 USD banknote.
The beauty of Bitcoin is you remain low profile as exchanging (online, screw OTC) 10 USD or 1000 USD is done the exact same way.
With the slight bitcoin downtrend our garbage coin is currently back to 1.5 per satoshi (when selling
BTC).