Corruption is a great descriptor of why this happened but at this point the word to best describe Venezuela is "insanity".
Their leadership is literally turning down aid from foreign governments. They refuse to acknowledge that the country is in a state of emergency, and to top it all off their leadership has taken full control of the media and police.
Using any other word other than "insanity" to associate with Venezuela's current situation would be disingenuous.
The charts are using volume of transactions in Bolivar. The bolivar is being devaluated at a crazy rate, for sure the bitcoin transaction volume value IN BOLIVAR would be skyrocketing as well. This should look at the equivalent in USD or just pure number of transactions.
If there are 100,000 transactions for 500,000,000 BOLIVAR ($1 USD on June 8th), and 100,000 transactions for 1,000,000,000 BOLIVAR ($1 USD on June 9th), then demand is unchanged, and the Bolivar is losing value.
NOTE: I used a random number for Bolivar exchange rate. That's not the real exchange rate.
Yeah, this seems pretty dodgy when they're showing just pure bolivar expenditure. I think cryptocurrency could probably be a good deal for Venezuelans right now, too. It avoids being subject to poor economic decisions by their government while still also avoiding being at the mercy of an economic hegemon. The more likely case though is that they're probably primarily using USD, along with other regional currencies, far more than cryptocurrency. They're a lot easier to use, too, than cryptocurrency.
The Venezuelan regime is still in power thanks to the help of Cuban intelligence, and armed militias and paramilitary groups that are financed by the regime and do their dirty work, like using violence to intimidate opposition.
Venezuela provided a economic lifeline for Cuba at some point, but now they can barely provide for themselves. I hope both regimes fall.
There's also a good article in the Atlantic on the causes of this crisis and why Maduro clings to power and has no way of comfortable exit like tinpot dictators of 1980s had.
The digital currency project I'm involved in also has a strong user base in Venezuela.
From what I understand, the biggest relative advancements can be made there if individuals or organizations are empowered to participate (e.g. in a decentralized system) rather than needing to satisfy requirements from large established organizations who don't see the value in participating in a small, unstable economy.
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[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 42.8 ms ] threadhttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/05/18/venezue...
Basically desperate people do desperate things to survive.
Their leadership is literally turning down aid from foreign governments. They refuse to acknowledge that the country is in a state of emergency, and to top it all off their leadership has taken full control of the media and police.
Using any other word other than "insanity" to associate with Venezuela's current situation would be disingenuous.
If there are 100,000 transactions for 500,000,000 BOLIVAR ($1 USD on June 8th), and 100,000 transactions for 1,000,000,000 BOLIVAR ($1 USD on June 9th), then demand is unchanged, and the Bolivar is losing value.
NOTE: I used a random number for Bolivar exchange rate. That's not the real exchange rate.
Venezuela provided a economic lifeline for Cuba at some point, but now they can barely provide for themselves. I hope both regimes fall.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/ma...
From what I understand, the biggest relative advancements can be made there if individuals or organizations are empowered to participate (e.g. in a decentralized system) rather than needing to satisfy requirements from large established organizations who don't see the value in participating in a small, unstable economy.