What I see is a marketing push by SecondMarket and Pantera to convince Argentinians that bitcoin is a hedge against inflation (!) and therefore they should invest in SMBIT and PBP. Which are not doing well in the US, meh?
It is Neo & Bee for Argentina, only with marketing and muscle upped an order of magnitude. And not managed by a small-time crook.
It is Neo & Bee for Argentina, only with marketing and muscle upped an order of magnitude. And not managed by a small-time crook.
You conflate the 'investment opportunity to shady types' aspect with the 'additionals options through technology' one. Ignore, if you will, all of that article except for the localbitcoins aspect.
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There’s no way for sure to measure the uptake of bitcoins in any country, but the evidence suggests Argentina is outpacing most. The number of traders listed on Local Bitcoins Buenos Aires is often three times that of Manhattan, for example, and the Fundacion Bitcoin Argentina is known to run the largest bitcoin meetup in the world.
You will then still (I suspect) argue that it's only a marketing ploy. I doubt that, though. If Argentinians are as cynical about promises as I got the impression they are*, no Pantera marketing push was the cause for this uptake in usage. It's more likely that the investment opportunity arose from the usage increase.
* source: Argentinian friend. Extremely skeptical of Bitcoin, though
