Venezuela just gave us another reminder why bitcoin matters.
If you have been following along with what has been taking place in Venezuela over the past couple years you would likely know about the currency issues they have been facing.
Something like millions of percentage points in inflation over the past several years alone.
Which has resulted in their fiat currency literally being worthless.
To the point where it takes wheelbarrows full of cash just to buy a loaf of bread.
Most people would say, this is why bitcoin matters...
However, this isn't the only reason why bitcoin matters...
In recent developments, the standing president Nicolas Maduro has been removed, or at least is in the process of being removed.
He has ruled Venezuela like a dictatorship and is at least partly responsible for the turmoil the country now finds itself in.
Currently, he is refusing to step down, which is made all the more complicated because he has the backing of the Venezuelan military.
More about what is going on can be found here:
This is where the real reason why bitcoin matter's comes in...
The Bank of England just denied him from withdrawing roughly $1.2 billion worth of gold reserves from their bank.
The bank has very good reasons for doing so, mainly that they think he will likely try to steal that money and keep it for himself now that he is being overthrown.
However, this is a great reminder why being your own custodian matters.
If you hold your wealth somewhere else, like a bank, that person or entity could in theory deny you access to your money.
If wealth is stored in bitcoin, there is no one to deny you access to your money, you are your own custodian, and that is one of the primary reasons why bitcoin matters.
The current chaos going in Venezuela is awful and very unfortunate but is also another great reminder of why bitcoin matters.
Stay informed my friends.
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Such a good article. I agreed 100% things in Venesuela are terrible. Their country currency becomes worthless, people are starving and all country's infrastracture is damaged for atleast 50 years in the row. Country and people suffering from Venesuela Leaders and hyperinflation, situation not change yet today its CRITICAL.
Bitcoin is Crypto save haven and in events like this the value keep increase exponentially. Bitcoin will and are better then gold just need some to time till mainstream realize this.
Again, thank you so much for this article!
Yes, but it is more than just storing value. It is controlling your own wealth. If someone else is holding it for you, you may not have the control you think you have...
at least we store our own private keys in hardware wallets. Good point!
I just remember the same situation with USA in monetary system-called Gold Standart, and thing was that average person was not aloud to stack,sell, buy or even hold physical precious metals. The Governments give people penalties and put them to prison if they brake the laws.
How stupid it sounds, but that is written in our history.
Yep, that is correct.
Sure, but people starving because of sanctions.
It is same game we see everywhere, where governments stopped selling their oil for dollars.
In none of those countries where the US brought "democracy" and "freedom" is anything better since. Neither in Afghanistan, nor Irak nor Libya.
I do not know a lot about Maduro. Have no Idea if he es a good President or not. But he was elected even after the US called for boycott, gave the Russians mining rights for gold, stopped selling oil for Dollars and disagreed to an unfair free-trade agreement with the US.
So guess who want to see this man dead.
I remember there also were some discrepancies when Bush was elected.
And Washington taught us by the way:
thou shalt not meddle with other countries elections
Yea I wouldn't blame what is going on in Venezuela on the US in the least...
Venezuela isn't a mess just because of foreign interventionism. It is one of the most fertile regions on the planet, it is rich in natural resources, and it is still crippled by a belief in the need for a strong central government with a command economy.
Great point.
Venezuela is the clear global leader in oil reserves
While the United States is the production leader, its reserves are only 10 percent of what Venezuela has.
The World’s Largest Oil Reserves By Country
(ten) United States - 39,230 million barrels
Read more: https://www.upi.com/Venezuela-is-the-clear-global-leader-in-oil-reserves/9251533031601/#ixzz5dqEp5Svf
Read more: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-largest-oil-reserves-by-country.html
Is the other guy (claimed himself President) really better? He is called to be "far right" and ready for privatisation. Maybe only a few will profit but the majority continue to suffer.
I really do not know. Will go to get some more popcorn for this ....
"Privatization" usually means not free markets, but corporate cronyism.
Nice blog 👍
Why a mere human being will want to be so wicked to his people, beats my imagination.
In one word... greed.
Unfortunate. 😎
@jrcornel, may I ask you something in Discord?
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Very good points.
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That is a feature that often gets forgotten...
i agree, but some day in near future things start to change we slowly but steadily entering in digital century with new monetary systems. My thoughts BTC and other crypto's will be there as a main thing.
Hopefully.
why not? we already comparing btc as a digital gold and it keeps rising in value over ten years right now. So if we have so long over 5000 years physical gold and about 70 years etf and future contracts (please correct me if I'm wrong) so if we think logically - btc is mineable and after 2020 when halving happens it will be 50% harder to produce new btc's. So the cost of electricity will be more higher and the value of bitcoin should rise as well right?
Will governments allow their control over money to just go away? Digital fiat may be more likely...
Digital gold seems possible for bitcoin. Replacing the current monetary system seems less likely.
with all respect, i agree that they won't let go so easy. That's why we have such a brilliant privacy projects and coins like dash,zcash, monero. they are secure and governments can't control them or either shut them. Other decentralized projects do the same.
But we have much bigger things: and today and tomorrow we have a situation that USA have a huge debt ( that thing growing daily) and other thing is this private organization called: FED and with help of Central banks they printing fiat-currency like crazy thin air (1trillion per year aprox). and that's why we have inflation and the thing is the dollar not only losing value every day(actually there is no value at all) but because of that, with those interest rates is worse thing is that they creating the global market recessions -and manipulate them. Believe me or not. But the sad true is -they can't stop printing because if for somehow they will decide stop printing - it will ruin all economy. So my conclusion: I'm truly believe in bitcoin and other decentralized crypto's as a save haven and when recession start and things start getting worse because of all bad economical factors occurs -bitcoin should rise. that is the point of btc. Remember when first time Satoshi white paper was released publicly in 2008 when stock market bubble burst and we been in a recession. @Jrcornel thank you for help me remind all the things that happening in the world right know.
I love how you intertwine the theme of this "nefarious government" with the positive aspects of BITCOIN. Good job!
Thanks. It is showing why it matters in several different ways.
Bitcoin is better than Maduro’s Petro, that's for sure.
Haha yes that is for sure.
Anyway, the "petro" is a cover for more embezzlement, abuse and corruption, here we all know that it never worked or will work. The majority of the population ignores the issue of cryptocurrencies, coupled with this the salary is so low that it is not worth it, or rather, it is not possible to invest in that currency. Another point is that Neither can be obtained through mining ... So ... These people (government) did all these efforts thinking about their own benefit. They are scourges, an incompetent scum (excuse my vocabulary, I lost my nerves). It is the sad reality that is now lived in my country ... we hope that everything goes well.
On the other hand, I thought it was quite interesting how you managed to relate the Bitcoin theme to the current situation in Venezuela. Fortunately Maduro so far seems not to have planned everything perfectly, Maybe he can not take that slice of the cake for not thinking about the BTC. :)
Thank you for being a spokesperson, in some way, of what is happening. We need help.
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The path to monetary sovereignty is through decentralization at the end of the day! No other option is a free and open, but many are afraid of its meaning just because they don’t understand it. Adoption will begin with experience and education.
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Hopefully. Will governments allow that power to be stripped away?
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I have followed what happens in Venezuela since they did shutdown RCTV... I used to study Spanish language and we did watch Spanish and Venezuelan telenovelas because the used vocabulary was easy enough. Venezuela is pretty much like North Korea of western hemisphere.
Will a new president change that?
I don't think changing just the president is enough... Roots of corruption lie deeper in the culture. It's the same in some European countries but in different scale.
agreed, such an important tool 👍
Thanks.